List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world explained
The following is a list of inventions, discoveries and scientific advancements made in the medieval Islamic world, especially during the Islamic Golden Age,[1] [2] [3] [4] as well as in later states of the Age of the Islamic Gunpowders such as the Ottoman and Mughal empires.
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the eighth century to the fourteenth century, with several contemporary scholars dating the end of the era to the fifteenth or sixteenth century.[3] [4] [5] This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scholars from various parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds were mandated to gather and translate all of the world's classical knowledge into the Arabic language and subsequently development in various fields of sciences began. Science and technology in the Islamic world adopted and preserved knowledge and technologies from contemporary and earlier civilizations, including Persia, Egypt, India, China, and Greco-Roman antiquity, while making numerous improvements, innovations and inventions.
List of inventions
Early caliphates
- 7th century
A form of Islamic poetry that originated from the Arabian Peninsula in the late 7th century.[6]
- 8th century
The distinctive Arabesque style was developed by the 11th century, having begun in the 8th or 9th century in works like the Mshatta Facade.[7] [8]
Damascus blades were first manufactured in the Near East from ingots of Wootz steel that were imported from India.[12]
- Modern Oud: Although string instruments existed before Islam, the oud was developed in Islamic music and was the ancestor of the European lute.[13]
- Sulfur-mercury theory of metals
First attested in pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana's Sirr al-khalīqa ("The Secret of Creation", c. 750–850) and in the works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (written c. 850–950),[14] the sulfur-mercury theory of metals would remain the basis of all theories of metallic composition until the eighteenth century.[15]
The earliest tin-glazed pottery appears to have been made in Abbasid Iraq/Mesopotamia in the 8th-century. The oldest fragments found to-date were excavated from the palace of Samarra about 80km (50miles) north of Baghdad.[16]
The earliest recorded windmill design found was Persian in origin, and was invented around the 7th-9th centuries.[17] [18]
- 9th century
Al-Khwarizmi is considered the father of the algebra discipline. The word Algebra comes from the Arabic الجبر (al-jabr) in the title of his book Ilm al-jabr wa'l-muḳābala. He was the first to treat algebra as an independent discipline in its own right.[19]
- Algebraic reduction and balancing, cancellation, and like terms: Al-Khwarizmi introduced reduction and balancing in algebra. It refers to the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation, which the term al-jabr (algebra) originally referred to.[20]
- Automatic controls: "Although the Banu Musa took Greek models as their starting point, they went well beyond anything achieved by Hero or Philo. In particular, it is their preoccupation with automatic controls that distinguishes them not only from their Greek predecessors but from their Islamic successors."
- Chemical synthesis of a naturally occurring compound: The oldest known instructions for deriving an inorganic compound (sal ammoniac or ammonium chloride) from organic substances (such as plants, blood, and hair) by chemical means appear in the works attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (written c. 850–950).[21]
- Chess manual: The oldest known chess manual was in Arabic and dates to 840–850, written by Al-Adli ar-Rumi (800–870), a renowned Arab chess player, titled Kitab ash-shatranj (Book of Chess). During the Islamic Golden Age, many works on shatranj were written, recording for the first time the analysis of opening moves, game problems, the knight's tour, and many more subjects common in modern chess books.[22]
- Automatic crank
The non-manual crank appears in several of the hydraulic devices described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their Book of Ingenious Devices. These automatically operated cranks appear in several devices, two of which contain an action which approximates to that of a crankshaft, anticipating Al-Jazari's invention by several centuries and its first appearance in Europe by over five centuries. However, the automatic crank described by the Banu Musa would not have allowed a full rotation, but only a small modification was required to convert it to a crankshaft.
It was invented by the Banu Musa, and has a modern appearance in their Book of Ingenious Devices.[25]
Lustre glazes were applied to pottery in Mesopotamia in the 9th century; the technique soon became popular in Persia and Syria.[26] Earlier uses of lustre are known.
In 872, Ahmad ibn Tulun built a hospital in Cairo that provided care to the insane, which included music therapy.[28]
- Kerosene distillation: Although the Chinese made use of kerosene through extracting and purifying petroleum, the process of distilling crude oil/petroleum into kerosene, as well as other hydrocarbon compounds, was first written about in the 9th century by the Persian scholar Rāzi (or Rhazes). In his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets), the physician and chemist Razi described two methods for the production of kerosene, termed naft abyad ("white naphtha"), using an apparatus called an alembic.[29] [30]
- Kerosene lamp
The first description of a simple lamp using crude mineral oil was provided by Persian alchemist al-Razi (Rhazes) in 9th century Baghdad, who referred to it as the "naffatah" in his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets).[31]
The first known minarets appeared in the early 9th century under Abbasid rule.[32]
The kamal originated with Arab navigators of the late 9th century. The invention of the kamal allowed for the earliest known latitude sailing, and was thus the earliest step towards the use of quantitative methods in navigation.
- Programmable machine and automatic flute player: The Banū Mūsā brothers invented a programmable automatic flute player and which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices. It was the earliest programmable machine.[35]
- Sharbat and soft drink: In the medieval Middle East, a variety of fruit-flavoured soft drinks were widely drunk, such as sharbat, and were often sweetened with ingredients such as sugar, syrup and honey. Other common ingredients included lemon, apple, pomegranate, tamarind, jujube, sumac, musk, mint and ice. Middle Eastern drinks later became popular in medieval Europe, where the word "syrup" was derived from Arabic.[36]
- Sine quadrant
A type of quadrant used by medieval Arabic astronomers, it was described by Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī in 9th century Baghdad.[37]
The curved sword or "scimitar" was widespread throughout the Middle East from at least the Ottoman period, with early examples dating to Abbasid era (9th century) Khurasan.[38]
Sugar mills first appeared in the medieval Islamic world.[39] They were first driven by watermills, and then windmills from the 9th and 10th centuries in what are today Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.[40]
Two-step level controls for fluids, a form of discontinuous variable structure controls, was developed by the Banu Musa brothers.
Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
- 10th century
A theorem by ibn al-Haytham solved only in 1997 by Neumann.
The modern Arabic numeral symbols originate from Islamic North Africa in the 10th century. A distinctive Western Arabic variant of the Eastern Arabic numerals began to emerge around the 10th century in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus (sometimes called ghubar numerals, though the term is not always accepted), which are the direct ancestor of the modern Arabic numerals used throughout the world.
The first formulation of the binomial theorem and the table of binomial coefficient can be found in a work by Al-Karaji, quoted by Al-Samaw'al in his "al-Bahir".[44] [45] [46]
Decimal fractions were first used by Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi in the 10th century.[47]
An early historical mention of what appears to be a reservoir pen dates back to the 10th century. According to Ali Abuzar Mari (d. 974) in his Kitab al-Majalis wa 'l-musayarat, the Fatimid caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah demanded a pen that would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen that held ink in a reservoir, allowing it to be held upside-down without leaking.[49]
This was first given by Ibn al-Haytham.
The origin of the muqarnas can be traced back to the mid-tenth century in northeastern Iran and central North Africa,[50] as well as the Mesopotamian region.[51]
The Persian mathematician Al-Karaji (953–1029) wrote a now lost book which contained the first description of Pascal's triangle.[52] [53] [54]
In the 10th century, the Arab physician Masawaih al-Mardini (Mesue the Younger) described a method of extraction of oil from "some kind of bituminous shale".[55]
The law was first accurately described by the Persian scientist Ibn Sahl at the Baghdad court in 984. In the manuscript On Burning Mirrors and Lenses, ibn Sahl used the law to derive lens shapes that focus light with no geometric aberrations.[56] According to Jim al-Khalili, the law should be called ibn Sahl's law.
- Vertical-axle windmill: A small wind wheel operating an organ is described as early as the 1st century AD by Hero of Alexandria.[57] The first vertical-axle windmills were eventually built in Sistan, Persia as described by Muslim geographers. These windmills had long vertical driveshafts with rectangle shaped blades.[58] They may have been constructed as early as the time of the second Rashidun caliph Umar (634-644 AD), though some argue that this account may have been a 10th-century amendment.[59] Made of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind grains and draw up water, and used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries.[60] Horizontal axle windmills of the type generally used today, however, were developed in Northwestern Europe in the 1180s.
- 11th-12th centuries
Persian physician Avicenna, in The Canon of Medicine (1025), first described use of clinical trials for determining the efficacy of medical drugs and substances.[61]
Double-entry bookkeeping was pioneered in the Jewish community of the medieval Middle East.[62] [63]
The theorems of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), Omar Khayyám and Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī on quadrilaterals were the first theorems on hyperbolic geometry.[64]
By the 11th century, much of the Islamic world had industrial steel watermills in operation, from Al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia.[70]
The crossing of nerve fibres, and the impact on vision that this had, was first clearly identified by Persian physician "Esmail Jorjani", who appears to be Zayn al-Din Gorgani (1042–1137).[72] The optic chiasm was earlier theorized by Ibn al-Haytham in the early 11th century.[73]
The earliest recorded use of paper for packaging dates back to 1035, when a Persian traveler visiting markets in Cairo noted that vegetables, spices and hardware were wrapped in paper for the customers after they were sold.[74]
- Bridge mill: The bridge mill was a unique type of watermill that was built as part of the superstructure of a bridge. The earliest record of a bridge mill is from Córdoba, Spain in the 12th century.
- 13th century
It refers to a type of pottery which was first developed in the Near East, beginning in the late 1st millennium, for which frit was a significant ingredient. A recipe for "fritware" dating to c. 1300 AD written by Abu’l Qasim reports that the ratio of quartz to "frit-glass" to white clay is 10:1:1. This type of pottery has also been referred to as "stonepaste" and "faience" among other names.[75] A 9th-century corpus of "proto-stonepaste" from Baghdad has "relict glass fragments" in its fabric.[76]
A detailed account of technology in Islamic Spain was compiled under Alfonso X of Castile between 1276 and 1279, which included a compartmented mercury clock, which was influential up until the 17th century.[77] It was described in the Libros del saber de Astronomia, a Spanish work from 1277 consisting of translations and paraphrases of Arabic works.[78]
The Libros del saber de Astronomia describes a water clock which employs the principle of Mariotte's bottle.[77]
Although Greek philosophers described processes of metabolism, Ibn al-Nafees is the first scholar to describe metabolism as "a continuous state of dissolution and nourishment".[79]
Arabic nakers were the direct ancestors of most timpani, brought to 13th-century Continental Europe by Crusaders and Saracens.[80]
Al Andalus (Islamic Spain)
- 9th-12th centuries
- Inheritance of hemophilia: First proposed by Abu Al-Zahrawi was first to record and suggest that hemophilia was an inherited disease.[81]
- Anesthetic sponge: Invented by al-Zahrawi and Ibn Zuhr. Used a sponge soaked with narcotic drugs and placed it on patient's face.[82] These Muslim physicians were the first to use an anesthetic sponge.[83]
- Lithotrite
Improved version invented by Al-Zahrawi.[84]
- Mercuric oxide: First synthesized by Abu al-Qasim al-Qurtubi al-Majriti (10th century).
- Migraine surgery: First performed by al-Zahrawi (936–1013).
- Early Kocher's method and Walter position: Al-Zahrawi's Kitab al-Tasrif described both what would later become known as "Kocher's method" for treating a dislocated shoulder and the "Walcher position" in obstetrics.[85]
- Treatment of wart: al-Zahrawi first described it.[86]
- Treatment of hydrocephalus: First done by Al-Zahrawi.[87]
- Water and weight driven mechanical clocks: By Spanish Muslim engineers sometime between 900 and 1200. According to historian Will Durant, a watch-like device was invented by Ibn Firnas.
- Andalusian Oud: Abu l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi‘ (789–857),[88] [89] a prominent musician who had trained under Ishaq al-Mawsili (d. 850) in Baghdad and was exiled to Andalusia before 833 AD. He has been credited with adding a fifth string to his oud[90] and with establishing one of the first schools of music in Córdoba.[91]
- 14th century
This was a style of Islamic pottery created in Arab Spain, after the Moors had introduced two ceramic techniques to Europe: glazing with an opaque white tin-glaze, and painting in metallic lusters. Hispano-Moresque ware was distinguished from the pottery of Christendom by the Islamic character of its decoration.[92]
- Polar-axis sundial: Early sundials were nodus-based with straight hour-lines, indicating unequal hours (also called temporary hours) that varied with the seasons, since every day was divided into twelve equal segments; thus, hours were shorter in winter and longer in summer. The idea of using hours of equal time length throughout the year was the innovation of Abu'l-Hasan Ibn al-Shatir in 1371, based on earlier developments in trigonometry by Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (Albategni). Ibn al-Shatir was aware that "using a gnomon that is parallel to the Earth's axis will produce sundials whose hour lines indicate equal hours on any day of the year." His sundial is the oldest polar-axis sundial still in existence. The concept later appeared in Western sundials from at least 1446.[93] [94]
Sultanates
- 12th century
- 13th century
Ismail al-Jazari's water pump employed the first known crank-slider mechanism.
The draw bar was applied to sugar-milling, with evidence of its use at Delhi in the Mughal Empire by 1540, but possibly dating back several centuries earlier to the Delhi Sultanate.[102]
- Minimising intermittence: The concept of minimising the intermittence is first implied in one of Al-Jazari's saqiya devices, which was to maximise the efficiency of the saqiya.[103]
- Programmable automaton and drum machine: The earliest programmable automata, and the first programmable drum machine, were invented by Al-Jazari, and described in The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, written in 1206. His programmable musical device featured four automaton musicians, including two drummers, that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. It was a programmable drum machine where pegs (cams) bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummers could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around.[104]
- Tusi couple
The couple was first proposed by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi in his 1247 Tahrir al-Majisti (Commentary on the Almagest) as a solution for the latitudinal motion of the inferior planets. The Tusi couple is explicitly two circles of radii x and 2x in which the circle with the smaller radii rotates inside the Bigger circle. The oscillatory motion be produced by the combined uniform circular motions of two identical circles, one riding on the circumference of the other.
The griot musical tradition originates from the Islamic Mali Empire, where the first professional griot was Balla Fasséké.[105]
According to various sources, the sitar was invented by Amir Khusrow, a famous Sufi inventor, poet, and pioneer of Khyal, Tarana and Qawwali, in the Delhi Sultanate. Others say that the instrument was brought from Iran and modified for the tastes of the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire.
- 14th century
- 15th century
- Coffee: Although there is early historical accounts of coffee consumption (as qahwa) in Ethiopia, it is not clear whether it was "used" as a beverage.[107] The earliest historical evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century, in the Sufi monasteries of the Yemen in southern Arabia.[108] From Mocha, coffee spread to Egypt and North Africa,[109] and by the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia and Turkey. From the Muslim world, coffee drinking spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, and coffee plants were transported by the Dutch to the East Indies and to the Americas.[110]
Ottoman Empire
- 15th century
Produced in Ottoman Turkey as early as the 15th century AD. It consists of a body, slip, and glaze, where the body and glaze are "quartz-frit."[111] The "frits" in both cases "are unusual in that they contain lead oxide as well as soda"; the lead oxide would help reduce the thermal expansion coefficient of the ceramic.[112] Microscopic analysis reveals that the material that has been labeled "frit" is "interstitial glass" which serves to connect the quartz particles.[113]
- Standing army with firearms: The Ottoman military's regularized use of firearms proceeded ahead of the pace of their European counterparts. The Janissaries had been an infantry bodyguard using bows and arrows. During the rule of Sultan Mehmed II they were drilled with firearms and became "the first standing infantry force equipped with firearms in the world."[114]
- 16th century
Invented by Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf and used at the Constantinople Observatory of Taqi ad-Din (1577–1580).[115]
A steam-powered roasting jack was first described by the Ottoman polymath and engineer Taqi al-Din in his Al-Turuq al-samiyya fi al-alat al-ruhaniyya (The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines), in 1551 CE (959 AH). It was an impulse steam turbine with practical applications as a prime mover for rotating a spit, predating Giovanni Branca's later impulse steam turbine from 1629.[117]
Safavid dynasty
- 15th century
- Classical Oriental carpet: By the late fifteenth century, the design of Persian carpets changed considerably. Large-format medallions appeared, ornaments began to show elaborate curvilinear designs. Large spirals and tendrils, floral ornaments, depictions of flowers and animals, were often mirrored along the long or short axis of the carpet to obtain harmony and rhythm. The earlier "kufic" border design was replaced by tendrils and arabesques. All these patterns required a more elaborate system of weaving, as compared to weaving straight, rectilinear lines. Likewise, they require artists to create the design, weavers to execute them on the loom, and an efficient way to communicate the artist's ideas to the weaver. Today this is achieved by a template, termed cartoon (Ford, 1981, p. 170[118]). How Safavid manufacturers achieved this, technically, is currently unknown. The result of their work, however, was what Kurt Erdmann termed the "carpet design revolution".[119] Apparently, the new designs were developed first by miniature painters, as they started to appear in book illuminations and on book covers as early as in the fifteenth century. This marks the first time when the "classical" design of Islamic rugs was established.[120]
Mughal Empire
- 16th century
- Hookah or water pipe: according to Cyril Elgood (PP.41, 110), the physician Irfan Shaikh, at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar I (15421605) invented the Hookah or water pipe used most commonly for smoking tobacco.[121] [122] [123] [124]
- Metal cylinder rocket: In the 16th century, Akbar was the first to initiate and use metal cylinder rockets known as bans, particularly against war elephants, during the Battle of Sanbal.[125]
- Multi-barrel matchlock volley gun: Fathullah Shirazi (c. 1582), a Persian polymath and mechanical engineer who worked for Akbar, developed an early multi-shot gun. Shirazi's gun had multiple gun barrels that fired hand cannons loaded with gunpowder. It may be considered a version of a volley gun.[126] One such gun he developed was a seventeen-barrelled cannon fired with a matchlock.
- 17th century
Sugar rolling mills first appeared in the Mughal Empire, using the principle of rollers as well as worm gearing, by the 17th century.[102]
- 18th century
See also
External links
- Qatar Digital Library - an online portal providing access to previously digitised British Library archive materials relating to Gulf history and Arabic science
Notes and References
- p. 45, Islamic & European expansion: the forging of a global order, Michael Adas, ed., Temple University Press, 1993, .
- Max Weber & Islam, Toby E. Huff and Wolfgang Schluchter, eds., Transaction Publishers, 1999,, p. 53
- [George Saliba]
- 10.1086/353360 . King . David A. . 1983 . The Astronomy of the Mamluks . Isis . 74 . 4. 531–55 . 144315162 .
- Encyclopedia: Hassan . Ahmad Y . Factors Behind the Decline of Islamic Science After the Sixteenth Century . Islam and the Challenge of Modernity, Proceedings of the Inaugural Symposium on Islam and the Challenge of Modernity: Historical and Contemporary Contexts, Kuala Lumpur, 1–5 August 1994 . Sharifah Shifa Al-Attas . International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC). 1996 . 351–99 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150402150434/http://www.history-science-technology.com/articles/articles%208.html . 2 April 2015.
- Web site: Ghazal Islamic literature . . 13 April 2019.
- Tabbaa, Yasser, The transformation of Islamic art during the Sunni revival, I.B.Tauris, 2002,,, pp. 75-88
- Canby, Sheila, Islamic art in detail, US edn., Harvard University Press, 2005,,, p. 26
- See p. 289 of
- Book: Kraus, Paul. Paul Kraus (Arabist). 1942–1943. Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque. Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. Cairo. 468740510. 9783487091150. vol. I, pp. xvii–lxv.
- Book: RASHED. ROSHDI. collaboration. in. MORELON. RÉGIS. 1996. Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. 10.4324/9780203329030. 978-0-203-32903-0.
- Book: Pacey, Arnold . Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-year History . 1991 . MIT Press . 978-0-262-66072-3 . 80.
- Web site: ʿūd musical instrument . . 6 April 2019.
- Book: Kraus, Paul. Paul Kraus (Arabist). 1942–1943. Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque. Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. Cairo. 468740510. 9783487091150. vol. II, p. 1, note 1; Book: Weisser, Ursula. Otto. Spies. Das "Buch über das Geheimnis der Schöpfung" von Pseudo-Apollonios von Tyana. De Gruyter. 1980. 978-3-11-086693-3. Berlin. 10.1515/9783110866933. p. 199. On the dating and historical background of the Sirr al-khalīqa, see Kraus 1942−1943, vol. II, pp. 270–303; Weisser 1980, pp. 39–72. On the dating of the writings attributed to Jābir, see Kraus 1942−1943, vol. I, pp. xvii–lxv.
- Norris. John. 2006. The Mineral Exhalation Theory of Metallogenesis in Pre-Modern Mineral Science. Ambix. 53. 1. 43–65. 10.1179/174582306X93183. 97109455.
- Caiger-Smith, 1973, p.23
- Book: Eldridge. Frank. Wind Machines. 1980. Litton Educational Publishing, Inc.. New York. 0-442-26134-9. 15. 2nd.
- Book: Shepherd. William. Electricity Generation Using Wind Power. 2011. World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.. Singapore. 978-981-4304-13-9. 4. 1.
- , page 263–277: "In a sense, al-Khwarizmi is more entitled to be called "the father of algebra" than Diophantus because al-Khwarizmi is the first to teach algebra in an elementary form and for its own sake, Diophantus is primarily concerned with the theory of numbers".
- , The Arabic Hegemony, p. 229: "It is not certain just what the terms al-jabr and muqabalah mean, but the usual interpretation is similar to that implied in the translation above. The word al-jabr presumably meant something like "restoration" or "completion" and seems to refer to the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation; the word muqabalah is said to refer to "reduction" or "balancing" – that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation".
- Book: Kraus, Paul. Paul Kraus (Arabist). 1942–1943. Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque. Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. Cairo. 468740510. 9783487091150. Vol. II, pp. 41–42. On the dating of the writings attributed to Jābir, see Kraus 1942−1943, vol. I, pp. xvii–lxv.
- Book: Murray, H. J. R. . H. J. R. Murray . A History of Chess . Reissued . . 1913 . 0-19-827403-3. A History of Chess. 169. The beginnings of the vast literature of chess are to be found in the Golden Age of Arabic .
- Broemeling. Lyle D.. An Account of Early Statistical Inference in Arab Cryptology. The American Statistician. 1 November 2011. 65. 4. 255–257. 10.1198/tas.2011.10191. 123537702.
- Al-Kadi . Ibrahim A. . 1992 . The origins of cryptology: The Arab contributions . Cryptologia . 16 . 2. 97–126 . 10.1080/0161-119291866801.
- Book: Mayr . Otto . The Origins of Feedback Control . 1970 . . 42–43 .
- Ten thousand years of pottery, Emmanuel Cooper, University of Pennsylvania Press, 4th ed., 2000,, pp. 86–88.
- [Ahmad Y. al-Hassan]
- Book: Koenig, Harold George. Faith and mental health: religious resources for healing. 2005. Templeton Foundation Press. 1-932031-91-X.
- Bilkadi . Zayn. The Oil Weapons. Saudi Aramco World. 46 . 1. 20–27.
- Book: Kent . James A. . Bommaraju . Tilak V. . Barnicki . Scott D. . Handbook of Industrial Chemistry and Biotechnology . 2017 . . 9783319522876 . 18 .
- Zayn Bilkadi (University of California, Berkeley), "The Oil Weapons", Saudi Aramco World, January–February 1995, pp. 20–27.
- Book: Bloom, Jonathan M.. The minaret. Edinburgh University Press. 2013. 978-0748637256. Edinburgh. 856037134.
- Charles B. . Fowler . October 1967 . The Museum of Music: A History of Mechanical Instruments . Music Educators Journal . 54 . 2 . 45 - 49 . 10.2307/3391092 . 3391092 . 190524140 .
- Kapur . Ajay . Carnegie . Dale . Murphy . Jim . Long . Jason . Loudspeakers Optional: A history of non-loudspeaker-based electroacoustic music . . 2017 . 22 . 2 . 195–205 . 10.1017/S1355771817000103 . . 1355-7718. free .
- Koetsier . Teun . 2001 . On the prehistory of programmable machines: musical automata, looms, calculators . Mechanism and Machine Theory . 36 . 5 . 589–603 . Elsevier . 10.1016/S0094-114X(01)00005-2.
- Book: Meri, Josef W.. Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. 2005. Routledge. 1135455961. 106.
- David A. King, "Islamic Astronomy", in Christopher Walker (1999), ed., Astronomy before the telescope, p. 167-168. British Museum Press. .
- Book: Daily life in the medieval Islamic world. James E. Lindsay. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2005. 978-0-313-32270-9. 64.
- Adam Robert Lucas (2005), "Industrial Milling in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: A Survey of the Evidence for an Industrial Revolution in Medieval Europe", Technology and Culture 46 (1): 1-30 [10-1 & 27]
- Adam Lucas (2006), Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology, p. 65, Brill Publishers,
- Oaks . J . 2009 . Polynomials and equations in Arabic algebra . Archive for History of Exact Sciences . 63 . 2. 169–203 . 10.1007/s00407-008-0037-7 . 121234840 .
- Maher . P . 1998 . From Al-Jabr to Algebra . Mathematics in School . 27 . 4. 14–15 .
- Book: Mayr . Otto . The Origins of Feedback Control . 1970 . . 42 .
- Web site: THE BINOMIAL THEOREM : A WIDESPREAD CONCEPT IN MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC MATHEMATICS. core.ac.uk. 401. 2019-01-08.
- Taming the unknown. A history of algebra from antiquity to the early ttwentieth century. Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 727. However, algebra advanced in other respects. Around 1000, al-Karaji stated the binomial theorem.
- Book: Rashed, R.. The Development of Arabic Mathematics: Between Arithmetic and Algebra. 1994-06-30. Springer Science & Business Media. 9780792325659. 63.
- Book: Berggren, J. Lennart . The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook . Mathematics in Medieval Islam . Princeton University Press . 2007 . 978-0-691-11485-9 . 518 .
- Web site: Ibn al Haytham - The First Scientist - Alhazen - Ibn al Haitham - Biography - Bradley Steffens. www.firstscientist.net. 2019-06-24.
- Journal of Semitic Studies. 26. 1. 1981. 229–234. A Mediaeval Islamic Prototype of the Fountain Pen?. C. E.. Bosworth. We wish to construct a pen which can be used for writing without having recourse to an ink-holder and whose ink will be contained inside it. A person can fill it with ink and write whatever he likes. The writer can put it in his sleeve or anywhere he wishes and it will not stain nor will any drop of ink leak out of it. The ink will flow only when there is an intention to write. We are unaware of anyone previously ever constructing (a pen such as this) and an indication of 'penetrating wisdom' to whoever contemplates it and realises its exact significance and purpose. I exclaimed, 'Is this possible?' He replied, 'It is possible if God so wills'.. 10.1093/jss/26.2.229.
- Web site: Encyclopedia.com Free Online Encyclopedia. www.encyclopedia.com. 2018-12-12.
- Book: Stephennie, Mulder . The Shrines of the 'Alids in Medieval Syria : sunnis, shi'is and the architecture of coexistence . 2014 . Edinburgh University Press . 9780748645794 . 929836186.
- Book: Selin, Helaine. Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. 2008-03-12. Springer Science & Business Media. 9781402045592. 132.
- https://books.google.com/books?id=vSkClSvU_9AC&pg=PA62 The Development of Arabic Mathematics Between Arithmetic and Algebra - R. Rashed
- Book: From Alexandria, Through Baghdad: Surveys and Studies in the Ancient Greek and Medieval Islamic Mathematical Sciences in Honor of J.L. Berggren. Sidoli. Nathan. Brummelen. Glen Van. 2013-10-30. Springer Science & Business Media. 9783642367366. 54.
- Book: Forbes, Robert James . A Short History of the Art of Distillation from the Beginnings Up to the Death of Cellier Blumenthal . 1970 . . 978-90-04-00617-1 . 41–42.
- Rashed . Roshdi . 1990 . A pioneer in anaclastics: Ibn Sahl on burning mirrors and lenses . . 10.1086/355456 . 81 . 3 . 464–491. 144361526 .
- Dietrich Lohrmann, "Von der östlichen zur westlichen Windmühle", Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, Vol. 77, Issue 1 (1995), pp.1-30 (10f.)
- Ahmad Y Hassan, Donald Routledge Hill (1986). Islamic Technology: An illustrated history, p. 54. Cambridge University Press. .
- Dietrich Lohrmann (199786543). "Von der östlichen zur westlichen Windmühle", Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 77 (1), p. 1-30 (8).
- Donald Routledge Hill, "Mechanical Engineering in the Medieval Near East", Scientific American, May 1991, pp. 64-9 (cf. Donald Routledge Hill, Mechanical Engineering)
- Book: Curtis L. . Meinert . Susan . Tonascia . vanc . Clinical trials: design, conduct, and analysis . 1986 . Oxford University Press, USA . 3. 978-0-19-503568-1 .
- Parker, L. M., "Medieval Traders as International Change Agents: A Comparison with Twentieth Century International Accounting Firms," The Accounting Historians Journal, 16(2) (1989): 107–118.
- MEDIEVAL TRADERS AS INTERNATIONAL CHANGE AGENTS: A COMMENT, Michael Scorgie, The Accounting Historians Journal, Vol. 21, No. 1 (June 1994), pp. 137-143
- Boris A. Rosenfeld and Adolf P. Youschkevitch (1996), "Geometry", in Roshdi Rashed, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Vol. 2, p. 447–494 [470], Routledge, London and New York:
- Kriss. Timothy C.. Kriss. Vesna Martich. History of the Operating Microscope: From Magnifying Glass to Micro neurosurgery . Neurosurgery. 42. 4. 899–907. April 1998. 10.1097/00006123-199804000-00116. 9574655.
- Book: Letcher . Trevor M. . Wind energy engineering: a handbook for onshore and offshore wind turbines . 2017 . . 978-0128094518 . 127–143 . Ibn Bassal (AD 1038–75) of Al Andalus (Andalusia) pioneered the use of a flywheel mechanism in the noria and saqiya to smooth out the delivery of power from the driving device to the driven machine.
- [Ahmad Y Hassan]
- Web site: The Role of Muslim Mechanical Engineers in Modern Mechanical Engineering Dedicate to12th Century Muslim Mechanical Engineer. Shabbir. Asad. Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc..
- Book: Maillard, Adam P. Fraise, Peter A. Lambert, Jean-Yves. Principles and Practice of Disinfection, Preservation and Sterilization. 2007. John Wiley & Sons. Oxford. 978-0470755068. 4.
- Adam Robert . Lucas . 2005 . Industrial Milling in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: A Survey of the Evidence for an Industrial Revolution in Medieval Europe . Technology and Culture . 46 . 1. 1–30 [10] . 10.1353/tech.2005.0026. 109564224 .
- [Ahmad Y Hassan|Hassan, Ahmad Y]
- Davis. Matthew C.. Griessenauer. Christoph J.. Bosmia. Anand N.. Tubbs. R. Shane. Shoja. Mohammadali M.. 2014-01-01. The naming of the cranial nerves: A historical review. Clinical Anatomy. 27. 1. 14–19. 10.1002/ca.22345. 24323823. 15242391. 1098-2353.
- Book: Wade . N. J. . Perception and Illusion: Historical Perspectives . 2006 . . 9780387227238 . 64 .
- The Origins of Paper Based Packaging. Diana Twede. Conference on Historical Analysis & Research in Marketing Proceedings. 12. 2005. 288–300 [289]. 20 March 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716105826/http://faculty.quinnipiac.edu/charm/CHARM%20proceedings/CHARM%20article%20archive%20pdf%20format/Volume%2012%202005/288%20twede.pdf. 16 July 2011. mdy-all.
- Mason and Tite 1994, 77.
- Mason and Tite 1994, 79-80.
- Book: Mayr . Otto . The Origins of Feedback Control . 1970 . . 38 .
- Silvio A. Bedini (1962), "The Compartmented Cylindrical Clepsydra", Technology and Culture, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 115–141 (116–118)
- Web site: Metabolism: The Physiological Power-Generating Process. pulse.embs.org. en-US. 2019-06-29.
- Web site: Timpani Construction paper . https://web.archive.org/web/20060405140951/http://myhome.sunyocc.edu/~bridger/morepages/subpages/timpconstpaper.pdf . dead . 2006-04-05 . 2008-02-18 . Bridge . Robert .
- Book: Handbook to Life in the Medieval World . Madeleine Pelner . Cosman . Linda Gale . Jones . . 2008 . Handbook to Life Series . 2 . 978-0-8160-4887-8 . 528–530.
- Middle East Journal of Anesthesiology . Middle East Journal of Anesthesiology . 1974 . 4 . 86 .
- Book: Allahs Sonne über dem Abendland: unser arabisches Erbe . 2 . 279–80 . The science of medicine has gained a great and extremely important discovery and that is the use of general anaesthetics for surgical operations, and how unique, efficient, and merciful for those who tried it the Muslim anaesthetic was. It was quite different from the drinks the Indians, Romans and Greeks were forcing their patients to have for relief of pain. There had been some allegations to credit this discovery to an Italian or to an Alexandrian, but the truth is and history proves that, the art of using the anaesthetic sponge is a pure Muslim technique, which was not known before. The sponge used to be dipped and left in a mixture prepared from cannabis, opium, hyoscyamus and a plant called Zoan. . Hunke S . Sigrid Hunke . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt . Stuttgart . de . 1960 . 2010-09-13 . 978-3-596-23543-8.
- Butt, Arthur J. (1956). Etiologic Factors in Renal Lithiasis. page 15
- Book: Handbook to Life in the Medieval World . Madeleine Pelner . Cosman . Linda Gale . Jones . . 2008 . Handbook to Life Series . 2 . 978-0-8160-4887-8 . 528–530.
- Missori . Paolo . Brunetto . Giacoma M. . Domenicucci . Maurizio . 2012 . Origin of the Cannula for Tracheotomy During the Middle Ages and Renaissance . World Journal of Surgery . 36 . 4. 928–934 . 10.1007/s00268-012-1435-1 . 22311135 . 3121262 .
- Aschoff . A . Kremer . Paul . Hashemi . Bahram . Kunze . Stefan . 1999 . The scientific history of hydrocephalus and its treatment . Neurosurgical Review . 22 . 2–3. 67–93 . 10.1007/s101430050035 . 10547004 . 10077885 .
- Book: Gill, John. Andalucia: A Cultural History. 2008. Oxford University Press. 978-01-95-37610-4. 81.
- Book: Lapidus, Ira M.. A History of Islamic Societies . 2002. Cambridge University Press. 9780521779333. 311.
- Web site: Encyclopaedia Iranica – Barbat . Iranicaonline.org . 1988-12-15 . 2012-02-04.
- Fixing a Misbegotten Biography: Ziryab in the Mediterranean World. Davila, Carl. Al-Masaq . Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean . 21 . 2 . 2009.
- Caiger-Smith, 1973, p.65
- Web site: History of the sundial. National Maritime Museum. 2008-07-02. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20071010044606/http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.353. 2007-10-10.
- The Sundial And Geometry . Lawrence . Jones . North American Sundial Society . 12 . 4 . December 2005.
- Howard R. Turner, Science in Medieval Islam: An Illustrated Introduction (University of Texas Press, 2006) p: 166
- The Museum of Music: A History of Mechanical Instruments. Charles B.. Fowler. Music Educators Journal. 54. 2. October 1967. 45–49. 10.2307/3391092. 3391092. 190524140.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080507055609/https://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-301961/al-Jazari al-Jazari (Islamic artist)
- Book: Rosheim, Mark E.. Robot Evolution: The Development of Anthrobotics. 1994. Wiley-IEEE. 978-0-471-02622-8. 9–10.
- [Donald Routledge Hill]
- [Irfan Habib]
- [Donald Hill]
- [Irfan Habib]
- [Donald Hill]
- [Noel Sharkey]
- Book: Alexander . Leslie M. . Rucker . Walter C. Jr . Encyclopedia of African American History [3 volumes] ]. 2010 . . 9781851097746 . 48 .
- [Irfan Habib]
- Book: Hattox . Ralph S. . Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East . 9 July 2014 . University of Washington Press . 9780295805498.
- Web site: Ireland . Corydon . 15 July 2011 . Gazette Of the bean I sing . 21 July 2011.
- Web site: John K. Francis . Coffea arabica L. RUBIACEAE . 2007-07-27 . Factsheet of U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.
- Web site: Meyers . Hannah . 2005-03-07 . "Suave Molecules of Mocha" -- Coffee, Chemistry, and Civilization . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20050309110855/http://www.newpartisan.com/home/suave-molecules-of-mocha-coffee-chemistry-and-civilization.html . 9 March 2005 . 2007-02-03.
- Tite 1989, 120.
- Tite 1989, 129.
- Tite 1989, 120, 123.
- Book: Streusand, Douglas E.. Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Philadelphia. Westview Press. 2011. 978-0813313597. 83.
- Book: Fazlıoğlu, İhsan. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. 2014. Springer, New York, NY. 2123–2126. 10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1360. Taqī al-Dīn Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zayn al-Dīn Maҁrūf al-Dimashqī al-Ḥanafī. 978-1-4419-9916-0.
- http://www.history-science-technology.com/Notes/Notes%201.htm Taqi al-Din and the First Steam Turbine, 1551 A.D.
- [Ahmad Y. Hassan]
- Book: Ford. P.R.J.. Oriental Carpet Design. 1981. Thames & Hudson Ltd.. London. 9780500276648. 1st.
- Book: Erdmann. Kurt. Der Orientalische Knüpfteppich. tr. C. G. Ellis as Oriental Carpets: An Essay on Their History, New York, 1960.. 1965. Verlag Ernst Wasmuth. Tübingen. 30–32. 3rd.
- Book: Erdmann. Kurt. Erdmann. Hanna. Beattie (transl.). May H.. Seven hundred years of Oriental carpets.. 1970. University of California Press. Berkeley. 978-0520018167.
- Web site: ḠALYĀN . . 15 December 2000 . 19 December 2012 . Razpush, Shahnaz . 261–265 . X.
- Book: Sivaramakrishnan, V. M. . Tobacco and Areca Nut. 2001 . Orient Blackswan . . 81-250-2013-6 . 4–5.
- Book: Blechynden, Kathleen . Calcutta, Past and Present . 1905 . University of California . Los Angeles . 215.
- Book: Rousselet, Louis . India and Its Native Princes: Travels in Central India and in the Presidencies of Bombay and Bengal . 1875 . Chapman and Hall . London . 290. 9788120618879 .
- Web site: MughalistanSipahi . Islamic Mughal Empire: War Elephants Part 3 . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/Lbzr26t8H2U . 2021-12-13 . live. YouTube . 19 June 2010 . 28 November 2012.
- Bag. A.K.. Fathullah Shirazi: Cannon, Multi-barrel Gun and Yarghu. Indian Journal of History of Science. 2005. 40. 3. 431–436. 0019-5235.
- Roddam Narasimha (1985), Rockets in Mysore and Britain, 17501850 A.D., National Aeronautical Laboratory and Indian Institute of Science"Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. Hyder Ali's son, Tippu Sultan, continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British." – Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). rocket and missile.
- Book: A. Bowdoin Van Riper . Rockets and Missiles: The Life Story of a Technology . 29 October 2007 . JHU Press . 978-0-8018-8792-5 . 14–.
- Web site: Narasimha . Roddam . 27 July 2011 . Rockets in Mysore and Britain, 1750–1850 A.D. . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110727034357/https://www.nal.res.in/pdf/pdfrocket.pdf . 27 July 2011 . National Aeronautical Laboratory and Indian Institute of Science..