ISCI490/ASTU400M Science and Civilization in Islam

This is some fact I wanted to share with you guys. In the last Geneva 37th Inventor’s Fair, the top 11 inventors were Saudis’! They weren’t only males, there was a good number of females…interesting. So where is the level of science at in the Muslim World?

Most of you know how in the Islamic world the West is perceived as the lands of invention and civilization, but if one would take the time and do some good research, he/she can easily find a good number of muslim inventors all around the world. So not only we were the inventors of the past, but we are also the inventors of the present and the future (I hope). This article in the Saudi Gazette is a good example on how great is our potential. If 11 Saudis won the top prizes in the 37th Geneva Inventor’s Fair, think about how many prizes Muslims can bag if there were participants from all around the Muslim World. You could also think about Muslims around you in UBC. Almost all of them go into Engineering or Science. Although we know a lot of them were pressured by their families to do so (haha), they still graduate and become high quality Muslim labour. From a macroeconomic perspective, good education means increasing the standard of living over the long run. Are we in an “Islamic Renaissance”?

Mohamad

This guy clearly needs to take our class.

http://www.nature.com/news/specials/islamandscience/index.html

This gives you a good chance to read about how Islamic science is perceived in modern day. It also has a PodCast link to it. The article talks about how the taking over of an “Islamist” rule is going to affect the scientists of the Islamic World. He basically says it’s already bad so let’s just try and see what happens knowing that “previous experience with Islamic rule was not very flourishing”. WAIT! Did this guy just ignore all Muslim scientists of the past? Did he just ignore Bait AlHikma? This periodical clearly hates Muslims :s

P.S.: the guy is Muslim himself! :s :s

Hi again,

ok so this is cool,

in the 12th grade Saudi Chemistry book I found the method Jaber Bin Hayyan was following in all his experiments and they are as follows:

1- Decide the purpose of the experiment and strictly follow the rules of the procedures.

2- AVOID WHAT’S IMPOSSIBLE AND WITH NO DIRECT BENEFIT.

3- Choose the right time for the experiment. (I couldn’t figure what he meant by this :s)

4- Be patient, don’t get frustrated, keep trying and be secretive about what you are doing! (any ideas why?)

5- Don’t be fooled by appearance as you may be misguided.

@ #2 This is cool because I remember how we were talking about turning different metals into Gold and how it is absurd to even think about it. This guy wrote about “stuff” that are impossible to do.

Finally, he discovered the first glowing dye and used it to decorate his books instead of Gold. In addition, he discovered how to produce a certain type of paper that does NOT burn when put on flame! Consequently, Imam Ja’far Al-Sadiq asked him to write his book “Al-DDaym” on this paper. This guy basically did, what people would have though at his time, magic.

Mohamad

Hi all,

Good job on achieving our objective in finding the mysterious painting referring to Ibn Sina (Reem broke the Da Vinci code), but have we asked ourselves how many of these should have been credited to Ibn Sina? I’m not saying Mr. Leonardo didn’t do his job, but let’s just think about how he drew all these paintings in great detail. My Wiki assignment was about the European Renaissance and how it was greatly influenced by Muslim work. Do you think this is also applicable to Da Vinci’s work? Did any of you find anything about other Islamic influence to his work? I read about his life span in the museum and he lived right through the Renaissance…Any thoughts?

Mohamad

Hi Guys,

I just found this video on YouTube which basically summarizes the purpose and content of our entire class. It’s only 7ish minutes long so check it out. I think it is a really great guide when doing the introduction portions of our posters. It is very true to fact and emphasizes that Islamic scientific success was not due to influence from the Greeks but rather scientific observations of Muslim scientists. They also discuss the idea behind science and Islam is that scientific observation introduces man to the mysteries of creation, and ultimately, to God’s eternal knowledge, wisdom and power and ultimately, the Qur’an leads to scientific inquiry. I also noticed a pretty cool quote of Albert Einstein’s in the video description: “science without religion is lame” which ultimately says that religion guides science. I think this is something cool to think about for anyone who ever thought there was a clash between Islam and science.

Hope you guys find this informative. Just a quick watch so check  it out!
Hilary

This video really has no relavence to the class it’s just funny.

But I did find a video that has Iqbal(text author) in it. It is a debate between him, another lady and one of those scientists who sees no bonds between religion and science. From the begiinning I was impressed with Iqbal’s writing and I think he shows his intelligence in this piece as well. Its long but its worth watching.

What I started to wonder was in the “Golden Age” or whatever you wanna call it would these kinds of debates take place? In other words would there have been a movement by some scholars to really segregate science from religion? I’m sure the answer is no and I guess all of you would agree, so the scientists at the time had an easier time bringing religious ideas into their work, nobody was there to say “you’re” wrong.” Nowadays someone like Iqbal would have trouble establishing himself as a renowned scientist because of his beliefs…kinda sucks.

http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?fID=571&rID=3810

Hey guys i found this interesting article on BBC news. The article is titled “chemists’ opt-out over beliefs: your comments.” This article talks about how some pharmacists in the UK are no longer giving out or supplying drugs that are seen as prohibited in their personal. Obviously the big opt-outs are morning-after pill and contraception. Is that fair for those who don’t believe in the same faith? This also leads me to think and wonder if the Islamic scientists ever discovered a scientific fact or thing (whether it be an invention, drug…) that conflicted with Islam. And if they did what did they do with it ? what about the pharmacy code of ethics, which states “make the care of patients your first concern”. Should one’s own personal beliefs impact the your advice to a patient? This is very closely tied with ethics you can say the same about abortions, transplants, etc. Enjoy the article its very short! Its mostly comments and they’re quite interesting!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8586937.stm
Dalia Elramly

So I’m in the midst of putting together my presentation about Chemistry during Islamic Civilizations and I thought I would look up a timeline to better place the contributions of Islamic chemists in the context of the overall development of the science.

Apparently, there aren’t any.

Let’s just say I’m extremely disturbed. I don’t mean to use this blog as a place for ranting but honestly! This is a timeline, entitled “Chronology of Major events in Chemistry” I found posted by (I don’t think she actually wrote it, but not sure) someone who holds a PhD!! http://chemistry.about.com/cs/history/a/aa020204a.htm

A very similar one can be found here: http://www.chemistry.co.nz/chronology.htm

and here…  http://www.timelineindex.com/content/select/65/912,2,70,65?so=a

I’m sure there are many more, all of which group together over 1000 (ONE THOUSAND. Do people not realise there’s something odd about that?) years of extraordinary contributions to the field into a lump entry entitled “Islamic Alchemists” or just “Alchemists.” And then, all of a sudden, the field of “Chemistry” suddenly springs up in the 1700s? That makes sense.

Hi Guys, here is my wiki assignment on Islamic Bioethics. I created a new page so there is no before and after.

Hilary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Bioethics

I have constructed a new page about the Islamic Contributions to the European Renaissance. There was nothing before my addition so nothing has been changed it is simply a new addition. The pages that could have been a suitable place to insert this paper were locked by Wikipedia – i.e. editing wasn’t allowed for Copernicus and Renaissance so this is why I had to make a new page.

Note: After submitting my paper I got a message from Wikipedia saying my content would be deleted, is this normal? I just wanted to permalink it on here so it is known that I have completed my assignment. I will send Raheem/Aalia the completed paper as a word doc. by email if necessary.

Mohamad