Episode 7: Islamic Inventions that changed the world
What invention could you not live without? Is it your iPhone or the internet? Or perhaps imagine a world where you couldn't go on holiday abroad. We don't often hear of Muslims being inventors, scientists, or changing the world. But what if we told you we may not have had any of these things had it not been for the innovation and knowledge of the Islamic world?
This short video will take a look at some of the things that we take for granted today across travel, trade, and architecture that wouldn't have been possible without some of the inventions and inventors of the Islamic Golden Age.
A thousand years before the Wright brothers, a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician, and engineer named Abbas Ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852, he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordova using a loosed cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He had hoped to glide like a bird. He did, but the cloak slowed his fall, creating the first parachute and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, at age 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagle's feathers, he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for 10 minutes, flew a considerable distance, but crashed on landing. Concluding correctly that it was because he had not given his device a tail, so it would stall on landing. Many historians declare even for NASA's invention illustrates how he succeeded in materializing the idea of flight, and every airplane that takes off today has a connection with the flying machine he constructed. Baghdad International Airport and a crater on the moon are named after him today, as is an airline based in the UK.
Modern technology uses a system of satellites and other receiving devices to compute positions on Earth. But back in history, maps were made from travelers' and pilgrims' accounts, sometimes on clay tablets. Some centuries Muslims soon began to leave their homes for trade and for religious reasons, to perform pilgrimages and explore the world that they lived in. They walked routes, sometimes simply gathering knowledge about new places. And when they returned, they gave an account of the ways they had trodden and the people and sites they had encountered. First, this was by word of mouth, but with the introduction of paper in Baghdad in the 8th century, the first maps and travel guides could be produced. This desire to explore and document the surroundings paved the way for the greatest world map of that era, produced by the famous 12th-century Andalusian cartographer al-Idrisi. His world map was regarded as the most elaborate and complete description of the world ever made and was used extensively by travelers for several centuries. It contained detailed descriptions of the Christian North as well as the Islamic world, Africa, and the Far East.
Trade was a core part of the Muslim tradition and naturally led to innovation. Also, the modern check comes from the Arabic "sakk," a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. Did you know that in the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a check in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad?
Following on from the check, you need something to write them with. Luckily, the fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen that would not stain his hands or clothes.
One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind is the crankshaft, which is used in most machinery today. It was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called Al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 book, "Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices," shows that he also invented the use of valves and pistons and was considered the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock. His legacy and importance in the history of engineering are unrivaled. Until modern times, there was no other document from any cultural area that provided a comparable wealth of instructions for the design, manufacture, assembly of machines. The impact of all his inventions can be seen and felt in all of the later designing of steam engines and internal combustion engines, paving the way for automatic control and other modern machinery.
Three brothers known as the Banu Musa brothers were celebrated mathematicians and engineers in 9th-century Baghdad. Their book of ingenious devices, published in 850, was a large illustrated work on mechanical devices that included automata, puzzles, as well as what we would today refer to as executive toys.
Talking of famous mathematicians, you know those algorithms that are used by so many of our websites and technology today? Algorithms are essential to how most of modern technology is programmed. You wouldn't have Facebook or YouTube without algorithms. In fact, you wouldn't even have the internet nor your smartphone. Well, you can thank Persian mathematician and astronomer Al-Khwarizmi, the father of algebra, for that too. Algebra comes from the Arabic and the title of his book.
Most historians believe it was Crusaders who introduced windmills to Europe in the 12th century. No, in fact, a Persian had come to the second caliph over rather than reigned for 10 years from 634 and claimed he could build a mill operated by wind. So the caliph ordered him to have one built. After this, wind power became widely used to run millstones for grinding corn and also to draw water for irrigation in the vast deserts of Arabia. When the seasonal streams run dry, the only source of power was the wind, which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills had six or twelve sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was to be 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.
The pointed arch, so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals, was another invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the rounded arch used by the Roman and Normans and allowed the building of bigger, higher, more complex, and grander buildings. Other borrowings from the Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows, and dome building techniques. Europe's castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world, with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican, and parapets. Square towers gave way to more easily defended round ones. In fact, Henry V's castle architect was a Muslim.
Carpets were regarded as part of paradise by medieval Muslims, thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tints from Islamic chemistry, and a highly developed sense of geometrical pattern, which were the basis of Islamic art.
It is often thought that glass mirrors were first produced in Venice in the year 1291. This is not true. Glass mirrors were actually in use in Islamic Spain as early as the 11th century. The Venetians learned the art of fine glass production from Syrian artisans during the 9th and 10th centuries.