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Timeline of Muslim scientists and engineers
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This timeline of Islamic science and engineering covers the general development of science and technology in the Islamic world during the Islamic Golden Age, usually dated from the 7th to 16th centuries.
From the 17th century onwards, the advances made by Muslim scientists and engineers occurred both within and outside of the Islamic world. For the timeline of Muslim scientists and engineers during the modern period, see Timeline of modern Muslim scientists and engineers.
All year dates are given according to the Gregorian calendar except where noted.
7th century
- See also: Islam and science
- 610 - 632 [astrology] Several hadiths attributed to Muhammad show that he was generally opposed to astrology as well as superstition in general. An example of this is when an eclipse occurred during his son Ibrahim ibn Muhammad's death, and rumours began spreading about this being God's personal condolence. Muhammad is said to have replied: "An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a human being."5
- 610 - 632 [medicine] Muhammad is reported to have made the following statements on early Islamic medicine: "There is no disease that Allah has created, except that He also has created its treatment";6 "Make use of medical treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, with the exception of one disease, namely old age";7 "Allah has sent down both the disease and the cure, and He has appointed a cure for every disease, so treat yourselves medically";8 "The one who sent down the disease sent down the remedy."9 The belief that there is a cure for every disease encouraged Muslims at the time to seek out a remedy for every disease known to them.
- 610 - 632 [medicine, pathology] Early ideas on contagion can be traced back to several hadiths attributed to Muhammad, who is said to have understood the contagious nature of leprosy, mange, and sexually transmitted disease.10 These early ideas on contagion arose from the generally sympathetic attitude of Muslim physicians towards lepers (who were often seen in a negative light in other ancient and medieval societies) which can be traced back through hadiths attributed to Muhammad and to the following advice given in the Qur'an: "There is no fault in the blind, and there is no fault in the lame, and there is no fault in the sick."11
8th century
- 700s - [ceramics, pottery] From the eighth to eighteenth centuries, the use of glazed ceramics was prevalent in Islamic art, usually assuming the form of elaborate pottery.15 Tin-opacified glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by the Islamic potters. The first Islamic opaque glazes can be found as blue-painted ware in Basra, dating to around the 8th century.16
- 715 - 815 - [chemistry] Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan), a Muslim chemist, is "considered by many to be the father of chemistry",192021 for introducing the experimental scientific method for chemistry, as well as laboratory apparatus such as the alembic, still and retort, and chemical processes such as pure distillation, liquefaction, crystallisation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration.2223 He also invented more than twenty types of laboratory apparatus.24 His collection of works (known as the Jabirian corpus) include The elaboration of the Grand Elixir, The chest of wisdomcitation needed in which he introduces nitric acid, Kitab al-Istitmamcitation needed (later translated to Latin as Summa Perfectionis)citation needed, and many others.
- 715 - 815 - [alchemy] Geber, also a Muslim alchemist, introduces theories on the transmutation of metals, the philosopher's stone, and Takwin, the artificial creation of life in the laboratory. He also further developed the five classical elements into seven elements by adding two metals: sulfur (‘the stone which burns’ that characterized the principle of combustibility) and mercury (which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties) as 'elements'.25
- 715 - 815 - [chemical technology, glass] In the Book of the Hidden Pearl, Geber scientifically described 46 original recipes for producing coloured glass, in addition to 12 recipes inserted by al-Marrakishi in a later edition of the book; the first recipes for the manufacture of artificial pearls and for the purification of pearls that were discoloured from the sea or from grease; the first recipes for the dying and artificial colouring of gemstones and pearls; the first recipes for the manufacture of glue from cheese; and invented plated mail for use in armours (jawasin), helmets (bid) and shields (daraq).31 and first described the production of high quality coloured glass cut into artificial gemstones.32unreliable source?
- late 700s - early 800s - [musical science] Mansour Zalzal of Kufa. Musician (luth) and composer of the Abbasid era. Contributed musical scales that were later named after him (the Mansouri scale) and introduced positions (intervals) within scales such as the wasati-zalzal that was equidistant from the alwasati alqadima and wasati al-fors. Made improvements on the design of the luth instrument and designed the Luth. Teacher of Is-haq al-Mawsili.
9th century
- 721 - 925 - [chemical technology] Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi described the following tools that were invented by him and his Muslim predecessors for the preparation of drugs (li-tadbir al-aqaqir): cucurbit and still with evacuation tube (qar aq anbiq dhu-khatm), receiving matras (qabila), blind still (without evacuation tube) (al-anbiq al-ama), aludel (al-uthal), goblets (qadah), flasks (qarura or quwarir), rosewater flasks (ma wariyya), cauldron (marjal aw tanjir), earthenware pots varnished on the inside with their lids (qudur aq tanjir), water bath or sand bath (qadr), oven (al-tannur in Arabic, athanor in Latin), small cylindirical oven for heating aludel (mustawqid), funnels, sieves, filters, etc.47
- 721 - 925 - [chemical substances] Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi wrote that he and his Muslim predecessors (Calid, Geber and al-Kindi) invented the following derivative and artificial chemical substances: lead(II) oxide (PbO), red lead (Pb3O4), tin(II) oxide (Isfidaj), copper acetate (Zaniar), copper(II) oxide (CuO), lead sulfide, zinc oxide, bismuth oxide, antimony oxide, iron rust, iron acetate, Daws (a contituent of steel), cinnabar (HgS), arsenic trioxide (As2O3), alkali (al-Qili), sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), and Qalimiya (anything that separates from metals during their purification).48
- 721 - 925 - [chemical substances] Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi classified the natural chemical substances that were discovered by him and his Muslim predecessors (mainly Calid, Geber, al-Kindi and al-Tamimi) as follows: Four spirits (mercury, sal ammoniac, arsenic, sulfur), eight fusible metals (gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, mercury), rhirteen stones (marqashisha, maghnisiya, daws (a constituent of iron and steel), tutiya, lapis lazuli, malachite green, turquoise, hematite, arsenic oxide, lead sulfide, talq (mica and asbestos), gypsum, glass), six vitriols (black vitriol, alum, qalqand, qalqadis, qalqatar, suri), seven borates (borax, bread borax, natron, nitrate, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sodium borate), and thirteen salts (lead(II) acetate (sweet), magnesium sulfate (bitter), andarani salt, tabarzad, potassium nitrate, naphthenate, black salt (Indian), salt of egg, alkali (al-qali), salt of urine, calcium hydroxide (slaked lime), salt of oak ashes, natron).48
- 789 - 857 - [cosmetics, cuisine, fashion, hygiene] Ziryab ("Blackbird") opens a beauty parlour or “cosmetology school” for women near Alcázar, Al-Andalus, where he introduces a "shorter, shaped cut, with bangs on the forehead and the ears uncovered." He also taught "the shaping of eyebrows and the use of chemical depilatories for removing body hair", and he introduced new perfumes and cosmetics.51 Ziryab is also known to have invented an early toothpaste, which he popularized throughout Islamic Spain.52 The exact ingredients of this toothpaste are not currently known,51 but it was reported to have been both "functional and pleasant to taste."52 He also invented under-arm deodorants and "new short hairstyles leaving the neck, ears and eyebrows free,"53 as well as shaving for men. He also introduced the three-course meal, insisting that meals should be served in three separate courses consisting of soup, the main course, and dessert.53
- 800 - [medicine, psychiatry, psychology] The first psychiatric hospital and insane asylum in Egypt is built by Muslim physicians in Cairo.38
- 800 - 873 - [technology] The Banū Mūsā brothers write the Book of Ingenious Devices, in which they describe their following inventions: valve, float valve, feedback controller,58 float chamber, automatic control,26 Automatic flute player, Programmable machine,59 Trick drinking vessels, gas mask, grab, clamshell grab, fail-safe system, hurricane lamp, self-feeding oil lamp, self-trimming oil lamp,60 mechanical musical instrument, and Hydropowered organ.61
- 800s - [chemistry, petroleum] Oil fields first appear in Baku, Azerbaijan, and generate commercial activities and industry. These oil fields, where oil wells are dug to get the Naft (naphta, or crude petroleum), are described by geographer Masudi in the 10th century and by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads.
- 800s - [legal science, education] The origins of the doctorate dates back to the ijazat attadris wa 'l-ifta' ("license to teach and issue legal opinions") in the medieval Islamic legal education system, which was equivalent to the Doctor of Laws qualification and was developed during the 9th century after the formation of the Madh'hab legal schools. To obtain a doctorate, a student "had to study in a guild school of law, usually four years for the basic undergraduate course" and ten or more years for a post-graduate course. The "doctorate was obtained after an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses," and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose" which were scholarly exercises practiced throughout the student's "career as a graduate student of law." After students completed their post-graduate education, they were awarded doctorates giving them the status of faqih (meaning "master of law"), mufti (meaning "professor of legal opinions") and mudarris (meaning "teacher"), which were later translated into Latin as magister, professor and doctor respectively.62
- 800 - 873 - [chemistry, environment, medicine, philosophy, physics] Ibn Ishaq Al-Kindi (Latinized, Alkindus) contributed to early Islamic philosophy, Islamic physics, optics, Islamic medicine, Islamic mathematics, cryptography, and metallurgy. He Worked at the House of Wisdom which was set up in 810. He introduces quantification into medicine in his De Gradibus, and he is the first to isolate ethanol (alcohol) as a pure compound.68
- 810 - 888 - [aviation, glass, medicine, technology] Abbas Ibn Firnas "was a polymath: a physician, a rather bad poet, the first to make glass from stones (quartz), a student of music, and inventor of some sort of metronome." He contributed to the mechanics of flight, planetarium, and artificial crystals, and he made the earliest recorded attempt at controlled flight. He also designed a water clock, devised means of manufacturing colorless glass, developed a chain of rings that could be used to display the motions of the planets and stars, and developed a process for cutting rock crystal. Another one of his inventions was an artificial weather simulation room, in which spectators saw stars and clouds, and were astonished by artificial thunder and lightning due to mechanisms hidden in the basement.69 He also describes corrective lens33 and clear colourless high-purity glass,32 and invents silica glass and fused quartz glass.69
- 820 - [mathematics] Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (Persian name: خوارزمي, Arabicized name الخوارزمي al-Khwarizmi, Latinized name Algorithm) wrote the Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala (Calculus of resolution and juxtaposition), more briefly referred to as al-jabr, or algebra. "Algebra was a unifying theory which allowed rational numbers, irrational numbers, geometrical magnitudes, etc., to all be treated as "algebraic objects". It gave mathematics a whole new development path so much broader in concept to that which had existed before, and provided a vehicle for future development of the subject. Another important aspect of the introduction of algebraic ideas was that it allowed mathematics to be applied to itself in a way which had not happened before."70 As Rashed writes: "Al-Khwarizmi's successors undertook a systematic application of arithmetic to algebra, algebra to arithmetic, both to trigonometry, algebra to the Euclidean theory of numbers, algebra to geometry, and geometry to algebra. This was how the creation of polynomial algebra, combinatorial analysis, numerical analysis, the numerical solution of equations, the new elementary theory of numbers, and the geometric construction of equations arose."7172
- 820 - [mathematics] Al-Mahani (full name Abu Abdollah Muhammad ibn Isa Mahani - in Arabic Al-Mahani). Conceived the idea of reducing geometrical problems such as duplicating the cube to problems in algebra.70
- 828 - 896 [agriculture, astronomy, biology, botany, Earth sciences, meteorology] Al-Dinawari, the founder of Arabic botany, writes the Book of Plants, which describes at least 637 plants; discusses plant evolution from its birth to its death, describing the phases of plant growth and the production of flowers and fruit. He also deals with the applications of Islamic astronomy and meteorology to agriculture: he describes the astronomical and meteorological character of the sky, the planets and constellations, the sun and moon, the lunar phases indicating seasons and rain, the anwa (heavenly bodies of rain), and atmospheric phenomena such as winds, thunder, lightning, snow, floods, valleys, rivers, lakes, wells and other sources of water. He also deals with the Earth sciences in the context of agriculture: he considers the Earth, stone and sands, and describes different types of ground, indicating which types are more convenient for plants and the qualities and properties of good ground.73
- mid-800s - [chemistry] Al-Kindi writes on the distillation of wine as that of rose water and gives 107 recipes for perfumes, in his book Kitab Kimia al-`otoor wa al-tas`eedat (Book of the chemistry of perfumes and distillations).
- 850/858 - 929 - [astronomy - mathematics] Al-Battani (Albatenius) writes works on astronomy and trigonometry. He is mentioned twenty-three times in Copernicus' work De revolutionibus orbium celestium (On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres).75
- 850 - 930 [mathematics] born Abu Kamil of Egypt (full name, Abu Kamil Shuja ibn Aslam ibn Muhammad ibn Shuja) Forms an important link in the development of algebra between al-Khwarizmi and al-Karaji. Despite not using symbols, but writing powers of x in words, he had begun to understand what we would write in symbols as
.70
- 864 - 930 - [chemistry, medicine] Al-Razi (Rhazes) wrote on Naft (naphta or petroleum) and its distillates in his book Kitab sirr al-asrar (Book of the secret of secrets). When choosing a site to build Baghdad's hospital, he hung pieces of fresh meat in different parts of the city. The location where the meat took the longest to rot was the one he chose for building the hospital. He advocated that patients not be told their real condition so that fear or despair do not affect the healing process. He wrote the earliest descriptions on alkali, caustic soda, glycerine, and he first described the modern formula for soap and invented the soap bar.77 He also Gave descriptions of equipment, processes and methods in his book Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets) in 925, and he was the first to clearly describe and differentiate between measles and smallpox. He was also a pioneer of chemotherapy78 and antiseptics.33
- 875 - [aviation, flight] Abbas Ibn Firnas made the first recorded attempt at controlled flight employing a glider .69
10th century
- 800 - 1300 [environmental science] The earliest known treatises dealing with environmentalism and environmental science, especially pollution, were Arabic medical treatises written by al-Kindi, Qusta ibn Luqa, al-Razi, Ibn Al-Jazzar, al-Tamimi, al-Masihi, Avicenna, Ali ibn Ridwan, Ibn Jumay, Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, Abd-el-latif, Ibn al-Quff, and Ibn al-Nafis. Their works covered a number of subjects related to pollution such as air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination, municipal solid waste mishandling, and environmental impact assessments of certain localities.90 Cordoba, al-Andalus also had the first waste containers and waste disposal facilities for litter collection.91
- 800 - 1300 [medicine, urology] In sexual health, Muslim physicians and pharmacists identified the issues of sexual dysfunction and erectile dysfunction, and they were the first to prescribe medication for the treatment of these problems. They developed several methods of therapy for this issue, including the single drug method where a drug is prescribed, and a "combination method of either a drug or food." These drugs were also occasionally used for recreational drug use to improve male sexuality in general by those who did not suffer from sexual dysfunctions. Most of these drugs were oral medication, though a few patients were also treated through topical and transurethral means. Sexual dysfunctions were being treated with tested drugs in the Islamic world since the 9th century until the 16th century by a number of Muslim physicians and pharmacists, including Ibn Al-Jazzar, Al-Razi, Thabit bin Qurra, Avicenna (The Canon of Medicine), Averroes, Ibn al-Baitar, and Ibn al-Nafis (The Comprehensive Book on Medicine).92
- 865 - 925 [chemistry, medicine] Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes), in his Doubts about Galen, was the first to prove both Aristotle's theory of classical elements and Galen's theory of humorism wrong using an experimental method. He carried out an experiment which would upset these theories by inserting a liquid with a different temperature into a body resulting in an increase or decrease of bodily heat, which resembled the temperature of that particular fluid. Al-Razi noted particularly that a warm drink would heat up the body to a degree much higher than its own natural temperature, thus the drink would trigger a response from the body, rather than transferring only its own warmth or coldness to it. Al-Razi's chemical experiments further suggested other qualities of matter, such as "oiliness" and "sulfurousness", or inflammability and salinity, which were not readily explained by the traditional fire, water, earth and air division of elements.93
- 858 - 1048 [astronomical instruments] The first reference to an "observation tube" is found in the work of Al-Battani, and the first exact description of the observation tube was given by al-Biruni, in a section of his work that is "dedicated to verifying the presence of the new crescent on the horizon." Though these early observation tubes did not have lenses, they "enabled an observer to focus on a part of the sky by eliminating light interference." These observation tubes were later adopted in Latin-speaking Europe, where they influenced the development of the telescope.94
- 865 - 925 [chemical technology] Kerosene was produced from the distillation of petroleum and was first described by al-Razi (Rhazes) in Baghdad. In his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets), he described two methods for the production of kerosene. One method involved using clay as an absorbent, while the other method involved using ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac). Al-Razi also described the first kerosene lamps (naffatah) used for heating and lighting in his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets). These were used in the oil lamp industry.95
- 865 - 925 [alchemy] Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi writes that the only vegetable substance used by Muslim alchemists are the ashes of the Ushnan plant, from which they produced alkali metals and alkali salts. Razi also lists ten animal substances that were used by him and his contemporary alchemists: hair, skulls, brains, bile, blood, milk, urine, eggs, nacre (mother of pearl) and horn. He writes that hair, brains, bile, eggs, skulls and blood were used to prepare sal ammoniac.48
- 900s - [mathematics, accounting] By this century, three systems of counting are used in the Arab world. Finger-reckoning arithmetic, with numerals written entirely in words, used by the business community; the sexagesimal system, a remnant originating with the Babylonians, with numerals denoted by letters of the arabic alphabet and used by Arab mathematicians in astronomical work; and the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, which was used with various sets of symbols.70 Its arithmetic at first required the use of a dust board (a sort of handheld blackboard) because "the methods required moving the numbers around in the calculation and rubbing some out as the calculation proceeded." Al-Uqlidisi (born 920) modified these methods for pen and paper use.70 Eventually the advances enabled by the decimal system led to its standard use throughout the region and the world.
- 903 - 986 - [astronomical instruments] Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Latinized name, Azophi) first described over 1,000 different uses of an astrolabe, in areas as diverse as astronomy, astrology, horoscopes, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, Qibla, Salah prayer, etc.105
- 920 [mathematics] Born al-Uqlidisi. Modified arithmetic methods for the Indian numeral system to make it possible for pen and paper use. Until then, doing calculations with the Indian numerals necessitated the use of a dust board as noted earlier.
- 936 - 1013 [medicine] Al-Zahrawi (Latinized name, Albucasis) Surgery, Medicine. Called the "Father of Modern Surgery."74
- 940 - 997 [astronomy; mathematics] Muhammad Al-Buzjani. Mathematics, Astronomy, Geometry, Trigonometry.
- 940 [mathematics] Born Abu'l-Wafa al-Buzjani. Wrote several treatises using the finger-counting system of arithmetic, and was also an expert on the Indian numerals system. About the Indian system he wrote: "[it] did not find application in business circles and among the population of the Eastern Caliphate for a long time."70 Using the Indian numeral system, abu'l Wafa was able to extract roots.
- 953 [mathematics] Born al-Karaji of Karaj and Baghdad (full name, Abu Bekr ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn Al-Karaji or al-Karkhi). Believed to be the "first person to completely free algebra from geometrical operations and to replace them with the arithmetical type of operations which are at the core of algebra today. He was first to define the monomials x, x2, x3, ... and 1 / x, 1 / x2, 1 / x3, ... and to give rules for products of any two of these. He started a school of algebra which flourished for several hundreds of years".70 Discovered the binomial theorem for integer exponents. This "was a major factor in the development of numerical analysis based on the decimal system."70
- 953 [technology] The earliest historical record of a reservoir fountain pen dates back to 953, when Ma'ād al-Mu'izz, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib via gravity and capillary action, as recorded by Qadi al-Nu'man al-Tamimi (d. 974) in his Kitdb al-Majalis wa'l-musayardt.110111
- 957 [geography; cartography; exploration; chemistry] died Abul Hasan Ali Al-Masudi, best known as a cartographer, was also a traveler historian, etc. Al-mas`oudi described his visit to the oilfields of Baku. Wrote on the reaction of alkali water with zaj (vitriol) water giving sulfuric acid.
- 965 - 1040 [mathematics; optics; physics] Born ibn al-Haitham (full name, ; Latinized name, Alhazen). Possibly the first to classify all even perfect numbers (i.e., numbers equal to the sum of their proper divisors) as those of the form 2k − 1(2k − 1) where 2k − 1 is prime number.70 Al-Haytham is also the first person to state Wilson's theorem. if p is prime than 1 + (p − 1)! is divisible by p. "It is called Wilson's theorem because of a comment by Waring in 1770 that John Wilson had noticed the result. There is no evidence that Wilson knew how to prove it. It was over 750 years later that Lagrange gave the first known proof to the statement in 1771.!70 “Haytham in the tenth-eleventh century wrote a scathing critique of Ptolemy’s work: ‘Ptolemy assumed an arrangement that cannot exist, and the fact that this arrangement produces in his imagination the motions that belong to the planets does not free him from the error he committed in his assumed arrangement, for the existing motions of the planets cannot be the result of an arrangement that is impossible to exist’.”112
- 980 [mathematics] Born al-Baghdadi (full name, ). Studied a slight variant of Thabit ibn Qurra's theorem on amicable numbers.70 Al-Baghdadi also wrote texts comparing the three systems of counting and arithmetic used in the region during this period. Made improvements on the decimal system.
- 981 - 1037 [astronomy; mathematics; medicine; philosophy] Ibn Sina (Avicenna); Medicine, Philosophy, Mathematics, Astronomy. Is considered to be the father of modern medicine
11th century
- 1000 - [medicine, surgery, engineering] Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis), the father of modern surgery, publishes his 30-volume medical encyclopedia, the Kitab al-Tasrif, which remains a standard textbook in Muslim and European universities until the 16th century. The book first introduced many surgical instruments, including the first instruments unique to women,120 as well as the surgical uses of catgut and forceps, the ligature, surgical needle, curette, retractor, surgical spoon, sound, surgical hook, surgical rod, specula,121 lithotomy
