Arab Scientists: Past Inventions And The Masters Behind Them
Dina Sarayra 1/13/2022
Arab Culture
Alkaline, alcohol, chemistry, astrology… Did you know that there are many Arab scientists that contributed to so many fields of study? In fact, they were so many Arab scientists that were so ahead of their time and their European counterparts! The list of fields and contributions they made goes on and on but today we’ll discuss a few!
Who is Ibn Batuta?
Ibn Batuta was an Arab scientist and traveler that wrote many Arabic books. He wrote a very famous book call Al Rihlah. One of his other names was Shams Ad-Din. Thabit Ibn Qurra was an Arab mathematician, astronomer, and physician.
He was known as the founder of statics! Another famous Arab scientist is Jabir Ibn Haiyan. He was the father of chemistry! He had a lot of influential work on metallurgy and alchemy. In fact, Arab scientists have contributed a lot to chemistry in general, you might as well call it Arabic science! There are a lot of Arabic studies about this subject as well as many others.
Contributions?
They even contributed to games in Arabic culture. Did you know that the oldest chess manual was in Arabic? It was written in Arabic by Al Adli ArArumi and his book was called Kitab Ash Shatranj meaning “Book of Chess”. There are also many Arabic inventions made by Arab scientists, or Arabic mechanisms.
For example, Banu Musa developed a mechanism that is used for a multitude of reasons today. It is the conical valve. The two Banu Musa brothers are ones to have used conical valves as automatic controllers. However, it has been developed and used today for so many other applications. Banu Musa also invented the double seat valve. But I’m going to save you time and not try to explain to you how all these different valves work! But they sure are inventions and mechanisms that were way ahead of their time.
More on That
What is more, Abbas Ibn Firnas developed the process of creating glass from stones. He also contributed to many other fields as he was a multitude of things; an inventor, a polymath, an engineer, a poet in the Arabic language, an Andalusi musician, an astronomer, a physician and finally a chemist! (Wow! That was a long list… and I’m out here trying to get at least one degree in one field).
Anyways, the point is, he was amazing! He actually constructed a device that would tell you how the planet and stars will move within the Universe. He also made magnifying lenses for reading – otherwise known as reading stones. (Whew… I hope to be a quarter as smart and useful as him one day!).
Having done so much for the world and helped turn it into what we know it as today, Abbas Ibn Firnas has surely left a legacy behind him… and so many other Arab and Iraqi scientists! In fact, there is a crater on the moon named Ibn Firnas; a namesake for this amazing and talented individual. There is also a British airline named after him; Firnas Airways.
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