Ibn Zahr (died 1162), a resident of the city of Ashbelia in Andalusia, is considered one of the world’s first parasitologists. He described scabies. In 1206, the eminent Muslim engineer Bad Yaz-Zaman Al-Jazari built a machine by which water was taken to a height. He built a crank-connecting rod system to move water up (i.e. for irrigation).
This invention left a lasting impact on technology and revolutionized the field of engineering. This system is also used in bicycles. In 1206, Al-Jaziri wrote a well-known work on engineering (Al-Jaami bin al-Ilam wa al-Amal al-Nafi fi Unaat al-Hayal) in which he also mentioned valves and pistons. He built a mechanical clock that was powered by weights. He is also called the father of robotics. He was the inventor of more than 50 machines. The combination lock is also his invention.
At the 1976 Festival of the World of Islam at the Science Museum, London, al-Jaziri’s water clock was recreated according to his diagram. Al-Jaziri’s book was translated into English by Daniel Hill.
The Syrian researcher and inventor Jad Hasan al-Ramah wrote a wonderful book on military technology in 1280 AD that presented a diagram of a rocket. Its model is housed in the US National Air and Space Museum, Washington. The recipe for making gunpowder is given in the book. It should be remembered that gunpowder was invented by Mir Fatehullah.
In the fifteenth century, the Muslims also made a torpedo, which had a spear and gunpowder in front of it. It used to blow the decks of enemy ships. A reading system for the blind (Braille) was invented in 1824 by Louis Braille in France. Its alphabet consists of 63 letters. Blind people put their fingers on these letters to form words and read books. But six hundred years before this system, Ali Ibn Ahmad Al-Amidi of Syria (died 1314 AD) could read books even though he was also blind.
Al-Amidi’s fingers were extremely sensitive. He used to tell the names of the books by touching the books on the shelf but also told the total pages of the book. He used to tell me its selling price. Thus, the Braille system originated from Al-Umaydi. Before Columbus, America had been discovered by Zeng, a Chinese Muslim navigator.
Zheng He was a great admiral of China. In 1405, he was appointed head of a naval expedition that visited 37 countries with seven fleets of ships over the next 28 years. At that time, China had the largest ships. Zheng He’s fleet consisted of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of ships. Ku Limbus’ ship was less than a hundred feet long, while Zheng He’s ship was several hundred feet long.
Many musical instruments in Europe are imitations of Arab and Iranian instruments. Like Oud made Guitar, Law made Harp, Harp made Fiddle. The science of anthropology was started by Imam al-Mu’arkhin Ibn Khaldun (1406 AD).
To protect against a disease, the practice of inoculation with the germs of that disease first started in Turkey in the Islamic world. The wife of England’s ambassador to Turkey brought this method from Istanbul to London in 1724. In Turkey, children were vaccinated against cowpox to protect against smallpox