Terra Incognita: Columbus, Islamic discoveries and perpetuating ignorance

[Norwegian]

To continue pioneering innovation, a little historical corrective honesty is in order; Let’s start with this: A Muslim navigator did not “discover” America in 1178.

‘Latin America’s contact with Islam dates back to 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus. Muslim sailors arrived in America 1178. Christopher Columbus mentions the existence of a mosque on a hill along the Cuba coast... Islam had expanded in the American continent even before Columbus arrived,” declared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the closing ceremony of Latin-American Muslim leaders’ submit in Istanbul on November 15.

Erdogan’s invented, moronic and ignorance- laced story is representative of a variety of exaggerated teaching about Islamic “discoveries.” Indeed, one can imagine a leader of Malaysia or Oman one day boasting of Islamic astronauts making the first landing on the moon. After all, why do anything when you can simply claim to have done it?

This is the approach of a whole industry of ignorance that pervades the education systems in Islamic countries and increasingly encourages ignorance among some dutiful Muslims in the West – who think they are being patriotic or dignified by embracing claims like that spewed by Erdogan. Did any of the “leaders” present at the dinner reproach Erdogan for his nonsense? To the contrary, it’s likely most felt proud that “we discovered America, not those Catholics. We’re better – I knew it.”

In September 2012 The New York Times deftly reported that “Hundreds of works of art from infinitely diverse cultures lumped together under the banner of Islam went on view Wednesday in the newly opened Islamic art wing at the Musée du Louvre.” The galleries for “Islamic art” at the Louvre were part of a $125 million project that opened that year, partly funded by such open-minded and progressive sponsors as Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, and the governments of Oman, Morocco and Kuwait. The Times’ critical reception of the galleries was correct; had all “Buddhist art” from around the world been lumped together like this under any other banner, the curator would have been laughed at.

The “Islamic art” hodge-podge is connected to the Erdogan propaganda by an interesting thread. It is part of the soft-sell to the West of “Islamic” accomplishments - some real, such as Algebra, some exaggerated, such as coffee and alcohol, and some invented. Vases produced in India and Bosnia, calligraphy from Morocco and Tashkent, a rug from Azerbaijan and another from Sudan; all this is part of the glory of “Islamic art.”

Can you imagine if one were to set the same standard for “Christian art”? Start at Faberge eggs, throw in some Georgia O’Keeffe and then an ancient tombstone from a church on the Faroe Islands, and a sword from reign of Charles the Fat. It’s all “Christian,” no? How did calligraphy from the 18th century Dodecanese get placed on par with the Mona Lisa, anyway? And how are architecture and vases from India and the Middle East, much of it influenced by diverse non-Muslim cultures, all simply folded into the “Islamic world”? Similar to the way that Columbus was: a quietly spoken exaggeration, told loud enough that it became true.

Let’s examine a few other examples of this paradigm. A fervent Islamophile of the Muslims- invented-everything mindset claimed in a 2013 article at The Huffington Post called “How Islam made the West Cool”:

“Islam is not alien to Western civilization but an integral part of it. In fact, Islam and the Muslim influence are deeply woven into the West’s social and civilizational fabric.”

He claims that one 8th-century Iraqi-born Abul Hassan Ali Ibn Nafie, who went by the name Ziryab, came up with the “earth-shattering innovation” of submitting “fashion to the cycle of the seasons.” He concludes: “remember that Muslims have had a cool, and not just a chilling, in fluence on Western society.” This is like taking Calvin Klien and Ralph Lauren and concluding “Christians have influenced Islamic society” because, after all, some people in the Muslim world wear styles by them.

What happens is every time a person who happens to be Muslim has accomplished something in world history, it becomes an “Islamic” accomplishment. Oddly, however, Copernicus’s discoveries, Alan Turing’s, Robert Goddard’s, or Jonas Salk’s, are not “Christian accomplishments.”

The theory of Islamic contribution is predicated on the notion of the Islamic “Golden Age” from the 7th to 13th centuries when, textbooks tell us, “the Islamic world contributed to agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sociology and technology.” Medical journal peer-review was invented by none other than Syrian Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi, and Jabbir Ibn Hayan was a pioneer in chemistry.

Note here how again, the accomplishments of some brilliant sheikhs and sultans in Baghdad and Spain are all subsumed into the “Islamic world.” In an article called “The Glory that was Baghdad,” Alex Markels claims “in what was, perhaps, history’s first international scientific endeavor, scholars were sent out to gather the texts of the ancient Greeks, Persians and Hindus, wresting them from oblivion and translating them into Arabic.”

He notes: “Muslim society’s most important contribution to human knowledge came in mathematical disciplines, such as algebra, trigonometry, and logarithms.” Islamic civilization even invented “the world’s first international banking system.” Other authors have gone further, claiming the Islamic decision to use paper, which they had taken from the Chinese, led to an “explosion of book printing” and “democratization of knowledge.”

It wouldn’t be so preposterous if the degree to which this narrative is perpetuated wasn’t so extraordinary. The Museum of the History of Science in Oxford has a pamphlet for teachers to help them explain the greatness of Islamic science called “Science and technology in medieval Islam.” The pamphlet claims: “Seeking knowledge about the natural world was seen as the duty of every Muslim” because one Hadith says, “the scholar’s ink is holier than the martyr’s blood.” The text notes, “Islamic theory of numbers was influenced by the Greek mathematician, Pythagoras.”

Interestingly, Pathagoras is not given credit as a “pagan mathematician”; while every influential Muslim mathematician from India to Spain is credited first as a “Muslim” as if the central importance of their existence was to glorify Islamic civilization, rather than the other way around.

Years ago I attended a lecture by Ali Salem, the Egyptian writer. He joked that there was a well-known rumor that Shakespeare was an Arabic author named Shaykh al-Zubayr.

The thing is, it is easier to simply re-define Shakespeare as a Muslim or claim that he borrowed his ideas from “Islamic philosophers” than to ask why there is such a dearth of published books today in the Muslim intellectual capitals of old: Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo. It’s easier to claim Muslims invented fashion than to wonder why a belly-dancing show was banned from TV in Cairo and why the few fashion designers there are in the Middle East are concentrated in Beirut – mostly due to its Christian legacy of openness. How’s the fashion industry going in “Persia,” where once were philosophers and scientists?

If someone told you that a religion, over its 1,300 year history, had, in widely scattered locations, experienced a century or so of renaissance in scientific pursuits, would you ascribe it all to the faith? After all, that’s why we call it the “Italian Renaissance,” and not the Christian renaissance. It’s why we have “Dutch Masters,” and not just Christian painters. It’s why the Americans made the lunar landing, not “Protestants contributing to space exploration.”

The truth about innovations in Islamic societies is that they were rare. There was a golden age of Baghdad and Spain, mind you, but hardly the liberal progressive era it is imagined to have been; like the period of the Italian Renaissance, these golden ages were also built on slavery and oppression.

By burnishing the credentials of fake “Islamic discoveries” and exaggerating others, today’s Muslim students are not being encouraged to make new discoveries, but to rest on imagined laurels. It’s not a surprise Erdogan wants to build a mosque in Cuba atop his imagined Muslim mosque from Columbus’ time. He doesn’t want to build a university, medical lab, or a school of philosophy. New York University builds campuses in Abu Dhabi to teach humanities and science, while Saudis fund Islamic studies departments at Harvard and Georgetown.

For too long Christian history has been taught as Crusades, Inquisitions, book burnings and Salem witch trials, and Islamic history has been taught as accomplishments in philosophy, architecture and pre-Columbian navigation. For the sake of the West, and for the sake of Islamic societies, to continue pioneering innovation, a little historical corrective honesty is in order. Let’s start with this: A Muslim navigator did not “discover” America in 1178.

There were already Native Americans there – they “discovered” it.
Terra Incognita: Columbus, Islamic discoveries and perpetuating ignorance

And then there are tons of scientific archeological evidences that clearly refute Islamist Turkish President Erdogan's wild claims that Muslims discovered America before Columbus as it was neither of them but Nordic Vikings:

According to the sagas, at precisely A.D. 1000, Leif Eriksson, first son of the notorious Erik the Red, voyaged from Greenland for lands sighted to the west. He then landed on the shores of a beautiful place he named Vinland (Vine land). Later voyagers to Vinland met strange peoples, whom they called skraeling.

Ever since these tales became widely known in the 19th century, scholars have debated their veracity while enthusiasts have proclaimed locations from Labrador to Florida as Leif’s Vinland.

But in 1960, undeniable proof of Vikings in North America came to light at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. Several Norse Viking pieces and clear Icelandic- style house foundations gave proof positive that Vikings had indeed landed, and briefly settled, in North America 500 years before Columbus.

More recent archaeological work has revealed over 300 years of sporadic contact between the Greenlandic Norse and various Indian, Inuit, and other Native American peoples, concentrated primarily in the Canadian Arctic.

Vikings

On a shorter note, its worth knowing that all these so-called "discoveries" of America are actually re-discovery as Native Americans were already permanent settlers of this continent when explorers from our part of the known-world contacted them. It could have likely been the other way around if advanced explorers from Native American nations reached us first with their state of the art weaponry together with unimaginable lust for gold / land and then (re)write accounts of history with their liking. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us it didn't happen exactly the same although research suggests some earlier contacts from Native Americans:

When Christopher Columbus paraded his newly discovered American Indians through the streets of Spanish towns at the end of the 15th century, he was not in fact introducing the first native Americans to Europe, according to new research.

Scientists who have studied the genetic past of an Icelandic family now claim the first Americans reached Europe a full five centuries before Columbus bumped into an island in the Bahamas during his first voyage of discovery in 1492.

Researchers said today that a woman from the Americas probably arrived in Iceland 1,000 years ago, leaving behind genes that are reflected in about 80 Icelanders today.

First Americans 'reached Europe five centuries before Columbus discoveries' | Science | The Guardian

A Danish-led international research team has mapped the hitherto oldest genome of an anatomically modern human: the genome of a boy buried at Mal’ta near Lake Baikal in south-central Siberia some 24,000 years ago.

Surprisingly, the genetic material reveals that the boy was European, which means that a European culture reached all the way east to Lake Baikal.

The really sensational news, however, is that a large proportion (about a third) of all living Native Americans are descendants of the Mal’ta people. In other words, Native Americans have partly European ancestry.

DNA links Native Americans with Europeans | ScienceNordic

@Tridibans @wolfschanzze @TheFlyingPretzel @DRAY @narcon @madooxno9 @danish_vij @FaujHistorian @1000 @Norwegian @FNFAL @gau8av @ROCKING @abhi21 @naveen mishra @Marxist @Kunwar Anurag Rathore @AgNoStiC MuSliM @Krate M @LeveragedBuyout @MastanKhan @Agent Smith @shuntmaster @Akheilos @dexter @Slav Defence @sur @XenoEnsi-14 @TankMan @DESERT FIGHTER @p100 @BDforever @hunter_hunted @Mav3rick @rockstar08 @asad71 @Major Sam @pursuit of happiness @Faizan Memon @Spy Master @ozzy22 @Manticore @war khan @ShowGun @Afridistan @Razia Sultana @madmusti @farhan_9909 @ghazaliy2k @KingMamba @Khalid Newazi

 

[FaujHistorian]

To continue pioneering innovation, a little historical corrective honesty is in order; Let’s start with this: A Muslim navigator did not “discover” America in 1178.

‘Latin America’s contact with Islam dates back to 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus. Muslim sailors arrived in America 1178. Christopher Columbus mentions the existence of a mosque on a hill along the Cuba coast... Islam had expanded in the American continent even before Columbus arrived,” declared Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the closing ceremony of Latin-American Muslim leaders’ submit in Istanbul on November 15.

Erdogan’s invented, moronic and ignorance- laced story is representative of a variety of exaggerated teaching about Islamic “discoveries.” Indeed, one can imagine a leader of Malaysia or Oman one day boasting of Islamic astronauts making the first landing on the moon. After all, why do anything when you can simply claim to have done it?

This is the approach of a whole industry of ignorance that pervades the education systems in Islamic countries and increasingly encourages ignorance among some dutiful Muslims in the West – who think they are being patriotic or dignified by embracing claims like that spewed by Erdogan. Did any of the “leaders” present at the dinner reproach Erdogan for his nonsense? To the contrary, it’s likely most felt proud that “we discovered America, not those Catholics. We’re better – I knew it.”

In September 2012 The New York Times deftly reported that “Hundreds of works of art from infinitely diverse cultures lumped together under the banner of Islam went on view Wednesday in the newly opened Islamic art wing at the Musée du Louvre.” The galleries for “Islamic art” at the Louvre were part of a $125 million project that opened that year, partly funded by such open-minded and progressive sponsors as Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, and the governments of Oman, Morocco and Kuwait. The Times’ critical reception of the galleries was correct; had all “Buddhist art” from around the world been lumped together like this under any other banner, the curator would have been laughed at.

The “Islamic art” hodge-podge is connected to the Erdogan propaganda by an interesting thread. It is part of the soft-sell to the West of “Islamic” accomplishments - some real, such as Algebra, some exaggerated, such as coffee and alcohol, and some invented. Vases produced in India and Bosnia, calligraphy from Morocco and Tashkent, a rug from Azerbaijan and another from Sudan; all this is part of the glory of “Islamic art.”

Can you imagine if one were to set the same standard for “Christian art”? Start at Faberge eggs, throw in some Georgia O’Keeffe and then an ancient tombstone from a church on the Faroe Islands, and a sword from reign of Charles the Fat. It’s all “Christian,” no? How did calligraphy from the 18th century Dodecanese get placed on par with the Mona Lisa, anyway? And how are architecture and vases from India and the Middle East, much of it influenced by diverse non-Muslim cultures, all simply folded into the “Islamic world”? Similar to the way that Columbus was: a quietly spoken exaggeration, told loud enough that it became true.

Let’s examine a few other examples of this paradigm. A fervent Islamophile of the Muslims- invented-everything mindset claimed in a 2013 article at The Huffington Post called “How Islam made the West Cool”:

“Islam is not alien to Western civilization but an integral part of it. In fact, Islam and the Muslim influence are deeply woven into the West’s social and civilizational fabric.”

He claims that one 8th-century Iraqi-born Abul Hassan Ali Ibn Nafie, who went by the name Ziryab, came up with the “earth-shattering innovation” of submitting “fashion to the cycle of the seasons.” He concludes: “remember that Muslims have had a cool, and not just a chilling, in fluence on Western society.” This is like taking Calvin Klien and Ralph Lauren and concluding “Christians have influenced Islamic society” because, after all, some people in the Muslim world wear styles by them.

What happens is every time a person who happens to be Muslim has accomplished something in world history, it becomes an “Islamic” accomplishment. Oddly, however, Copernicus’s discoveries, Alan Turing’s, Robert Goddard’s, or Jonas Salk’s, are not “Christian accomplishments.”

The theory of Islamic contribution is predicated on the notion of the Islamic “Golden Age” from the 7th to 13th centuries when, textbooks tell us, “the Islamic world contributed to agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sociology and technology.” Medical journal peer-review was invented by none other than Syrian Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi, and Jabbir Ibn Hayan was a pioneer in chemistry.

Note here how again, the accomplishments of some brilliant sheikhs and sultans in Baghdad and Spain are all subsumed into the “Islamic world.” In an article called “The Glory that was Baghdad,” Alex Markels claims “in what was, perhaps, history’s first international scientific endeavor, scholars were sent out to gather the texts of the ancient Greeks, Persians and Hindus, wresting them from oblivion and translating them into Arabic.”

He notes: “Muslim society’s most important contribution to human knowledge came in mathematical disciplines, such as algebra, trigonometry, and logarithms.” Islamic civilization even invented “the world’s first international banking system.” Other authors have gone further, claiming the Islamic decision to use paper, which they had taken from the Chinese, led to an “explosion of book printing” and “democratization of knowledge.”

It wouldn’t be so preposterous if the degree to which this narrative is perpetuated wasn’t so extraordinary. The Museum of the History of Science in Oxford has a pamphlet for teachers to help them explain the greatness of Islamic science called “Science and technology in medieval Islam.” The pamphlet claims: “Seeking knowledge about the natural world was seen as the duty of every Muslim” because one Hadith says, “the scholar’s ink is holier than the martyr’s blood.” The text notes, “Islamic theory of numbers was influenced by the Greek mathematician, Pythagoras.”

Interestingly, Pathagoras is not given credit as a “pagan mathematician”; while every influential Muslim mathematician from India to Spain is credited first as a “Muslim” as if the central importance of their existence was to glorify Islamic civilization, rather than the other way around.

Years ago I attended a lecture by Ali Salem, the Egyptian writer. He joked that there was a well-known rumor that Shakespeare was an Arabic author named Shaykh al-Zubayr.

The thing is, it is easier to simply re-define Shakespeare as a Muslim or claim that he borrowed his ideas from “Islamic philosophers” than to ask why there is such a dearth of published books today in the Muslim intellectual capitals of old: Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo. It’s easier to claim Muslims invented fashion than to wonder why a belly-dancing show was banned from TV in Cairo and why the few fashion designers there are in the Middle East are concentrated in Beirut – mostly due to its Christian legacy of openness. How’s the fashion industry going in “Persia,” where once were philosophers and scientists?

If someone told you that a religion, over its 1,300 year history, had, in widely scattered locations, experienced a century or so of renaissance in scientific pursuits, would you ascribe it all to the faith? After all, that’s why we call it the “Italian Renaissance,” and not the Christian renaissance. It’s why we have “Dutch Masters,” and not just Christian painters. It’s why the Americans made the lunar landing, not “Protestants contributing to space exploration.”

The truth about innovations in Islamic societies is that they were rare. There was a golden age of Baghdad and Spain, mind you, but hardly the liberal progressive era it is imagined to have been; like the period of the Italian Renaissance, these golden ages were also built on slavery and oppression.

By burnishing the credentials of fake “Islamic discoveries” and exaggerating others, today’s Muslim students are not being encouraged to make new discoveries, but to rest on imagined laurels. It’s not a surprise Erdogan wants to build a mosque in Cuba atop his imagined Muslim mosque from Columbus’ time. He doesn’t want to build a university, medical lab, or a school of philosophy. New York University builds campuses in Abu Dhabi to teach humanities and science, while Saudis fund Islamic studies departments at Harvard and Georgetown.

For too long Christian history has been taught as Crusades, Inquisitions, book burnings and Salem witch trials, and Islamic history has been taught as accomplishments in philosophy, architecture and pre-Columbian navigation. For the sake of the West, and for the sake of Islamic societies, to continue pioneering innovation, a little historical corrective honesty is in order. Let’s start with this: A Muslim navigator did not “discover” America in 1178.

There were already Native Americans there – they “discovered” it.
Terra Incognita: Columbus, Islamic discoveries and perpetuating ignorance

And then there are tons of scientific archeological evidences that clearly refute Islamist Turkish President Erdogan's wild claims that Muslims discovered America before Columbus as it was neither of them but Nordic Vikings:


Vikings

On a shorter note, its worth knowing that all these so-called "discoveries" of America are actually re-discovery as Native Americans were already permanent settlers of this continent when explorers from our part of the known-world contacted them. It could have likely been the other way around if advanced explorers from Native American nations reached us first with their state of the art weaponry together with unimaginable lust for gold / land and then (re)write accounts of history with their liking. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us it didn't happen exactly the same although research suggests some earlier contacts from Native Americans:


First Americans 'reached Europe five centuries before Columbus discoveries' | Science | The Guardian


DNA links Native Americans with Europeans | ScienceNordic

@Tridibans @wolfschanzze @TheFlyingPretzel @DRAY @narcon @madooxno9 @danish_vij @FaujHistorian @1000 @Norwegian @FNFAL @gau8av @ROCKING @abhi21 @naveen mishra @Marxist @Kunwar Anurag Rathore @AgNoStiC MuSliM @Krate M @LeveragedBuyout @MastanKhan @Agent Smith @shuntmaster @Akheilos @dexter @Slav Defence @sur @XenoEnsi-14 @TankMan @DESERT FIGHTER @p100 @BDforever @hunter_hunted @Mav3rick @rockstar08 @asad71 @Major Sam @pursuit of happiness @Faizan Memon @Spy Master @ozzy22 @Manticore @war khan @ShowGun @Afridistan @Razia Sultana @madmusti @farhan_9909 @ghazaliy2k @KingMamba @Khalid Newazi

Whenever you mix religion and science, only religion happens.

or in other words "$hit happens".

It is huge $tupidity to claim Islam this and Islam that.

Muslims this or Muslims that. It is all cheap talk.

Peace

 

[TankMan]

Some ignorant beliefs shared by some people does not entirely discredit the entirety of Muslim scholars and scientists. Just because Muslims did not go to America before Columbus doesn't mean they didn't do anything at all. This article just goes from one thing to another.

The only actual point made by this article is this:

Pathagoras is not given credit as a “pagan mathematician”

Well that's probably because of the fact that he was not a Pagan. Pythagoreanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

today’s Muslim students are not being encouraged to make new discoveries, but to rest on imagined laurels.

Again, wrong. What teaching about these 'imagined laurels' achieves is that the students are encouraged to make new discoveries. Also, it proves to them that Islam is in no way opposed to science or 'worldly knowledge'.

The pamphlet claims: “Seeking knowledge about the natural world was seen as the duty of every Muslim” because one Hadith says, “the scholar’s ink is holier than the martyr’s blood.”

That's probably because it's true. The Quran has, multiple times, emphasized on the importance of knowledge.

Oddly, however, Copernicus’s discoveries, Alan Turing’s, Robert Goddard’s, or Jonas Salk’s, are not “Christian accomplishments.”

That's probably because Alan Turing was not Christian. Neither was Jonas Salk.
Seriously, is this supposed to be a satire?

If someone told you that a religion, over its 1,300 year history, had, in widely scattered locations, experienced a century or so of renaissance in scientific pursuits, would you ascribe it all to the faith?

Not a bad point. But then, if someone told you that a religion was behind terrorism, would you ascribe it all to faith? No? Then why do you so often?

Another thing is that the countries from where these philosophers came from were usually Islamic Empires. On the other hand, the Westerners were mostly not part of any Christian Empire but rather secular states or divided countries, the exact opposite of a united religious empire. I am not saying that Islam was the only thing behind all the inventions and developments. I am saying that Islam allowed for all this, it even encouraged it. I am saying that Islam does not oppose science. It endorses it (doesn't mean it causes it, just supports it)

Now let me present my point of view. I do not pride myself for the achievements of Muslims centuries ago. Nor do I consider myself superior to others because of my faith. Both of those are forbidden in Islam. The whole point behind talking about 'Muslim scientists' or 'Islamic developments' is not pride or superiority : It is simply to prove that we are capable of doing good and contributing to the world and that Islam does not oppose science.

When I see columnists and people like that trying so, so hard to prove that Muslims are all barbaric monkeys who have never done anything good, one question comes to mind: 'What will this guy achieve if he manages to convince 1.7 Billion people that their religion is an evil terrorist religion that is against science and everything good?' Where so many negative portrayals and stereotypes exist, so much hatred and antagonism against Muslims, what's wrong with the existence of one good positive one? Why is this author and people like him so hell-bent on demonizing Muslims even further?

I mean seriously, are we not humans? Should I go and die just because some a**hole a thousand miles away killed some innocents in the name of my religion or because some politician believes stupid things? What should I do? Should I go and start killing people who kill people because killing people is wrong? I mean, you people clearly aren't happy with peaceful protesting, letters and other forms of civilized communication to show that we are not all like this.
Should I go and kill Erdogan to prove that I do not believe his false stories?

What do I, and 1.7 Billion Muslims, need to do to prove that we, like every other human on Earth, simply want to go about our daily lives, eat and be healthy and live good lives? That we do not in any way endorse the crimes of others, that we do not oppose science and that we DO want to do good in this world?

All these 'Liberals' have no Idea how it feels to be constantly demonized by the very people who claim to be 'open-minded' and tolerant. And now they're trying to 'disprove' the few things that we have that make us look like human beings to the rest of the world. Extremely saddening.

 

[KingMamba]

Some ignorant beliefs shared by some people does not entirely discredit the entirety of Muslim scholars and scientists. Just because Muslims did not go to America before Columbus doesn't mean they didn't do anything at all. This article just goes from one thing to another.
The only actual point


Well that's probably because of the fact that he was not a Pagan. Pythagoreanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Again, wrong. What teaching about these 'imagined laurels' achieves is that the students are encouraged to make new discoveries. Also, it proves to them that Islam is in no way opposed to science or 'worldly knowledge'.


That's probably because it's true. The Quran has, multiple times, emphasized on the importance of knowledge.


That's probably because Alan Turing was not Christian. Neither was Jonas Salk.
Seriously, is this supposed to be a satire?


Not a bad point. But then, if someone told you that a religion was behind terrorism, would you ascribe it all to faith? No? Then why do you so often?

Another thing is that the countries from where these philosophers came from were usually Islamic Empires. On the other hand, the Westerners were mostly not part of any Christian Empire but rather secular states or divided countries, the exact opposite of a united religious empire. I am not saying that Islam was the only thing behind all the inventions and developments. I am saying that Islam allowed for all this, it even encouraged it. I am saying that Islam does not oppose science. It endorses it (doesn't mean it causes it, just supports it)

Now let me present my point of view. I do not pride myself for the achievements of Muslims centuries ago. Nor do I consider myself superior to others because of my faith. Both of those are forbidden in Islam. The whole point behind talking about 'Muslim scientists' or 'Islamic developments' is not pride or superiority : It is simply to prove that we are capable of doing good and contributing to the world and that Islam does not oppose science.

When I see columnists and people like that trying so, so hard to prove that Muslims are all barbaric monkeys who have never done anything good, one question comes to mind: 'What will this guy achieve if he manages to convince 1.7 Billion people that their religion is an evil terrorist religion that is against science and everything good?' Where so many negative portrayals and stereotypes exist, so much hatred and antagonism against Muslims, what's wrong with the existence of one good positive one? Why is this author and people like him so hell-bent on demonizing Muslims even further?

I mean seriously, are we not humans? Should I go and die just because some a**hole a thousand miles away killed some innocents in the name of my religion or because some politician believes stupid things? What should I do? Should I go and start killing people who kill people because killing people is wrong? I mean, you people clearly aren't happy with peaceful protesting, letters and other forms of civilized communication to show that we are not all like this.
Should I go and kill Erdogan to prove that I do not believe his false stories?

What do I, and 1.7 Billion Muslims, need to do to prove that we, like every other human on Earth, simply want to go about our daily lives, eat and be healthy and live good lives? That we do not in any way endorse the crimes of others, that we do not oppose science and that we DO want to do good in this world?

All these 'Liberals' have no Idea how it feels to be constantly demonized by the very people who claim to be 'open-minded' and tolerant. And now they're trying to 'disprove' the few things that we have that make us look like human beings to the rest of the world. Extremely saddening.

I agree that Muslims did not discover the Americas and that it is laughable that Erdogan suggested such a thing. That being said the article itself is just as laughable and looking at the source one need not wonder why.

 

[asad71]

1.People point out the physical features of Red Indians. They look Arab/N African. Pyramids of S America are similar to those of Egypt. It is known that Columbus was guided to his American "discovery" by a Moor/Muslim navigator on board.



2.Christian Church commissioned writers and historians have hidden so much truth and introduced so much of lies and filth that it will take a while to know the truth here as well as elsewhere.

 

[Krate M]

I have a slightly different point of view. Both erdogan and western claims are not true.
The native American history has contact and trade with African traders, even before advent of Islam or Christianity. This is just an attempt to show the native American people as savages.
The native American culture needs to be brought to light and these kinds of propaganda should be dismissed. This is disrespectful to their culture.
The Western Christian claims are an attempt to show that they brought "culture" to the natives and the erdogan claim is an attempt to show that Islam is responsible for all good in the world.
Both of them are so wrong I don't know where to begin.

PS the scientific paper should say Caucasian link to native Americans, not European. It is a well known fact that migration over frozen Bering Sea happened

 

[Krate M]

To another point, I feel the biggest impediment to the uplifting of the masses is the orthodox mindset of certain leaders of all religions.
Claims of past glories and attempts to denigrate other civilizations is not going to bring peace and prosperity to the people. Innovation and use of that to uplift the have nots will.
PS @Norwegian thanks for tagging.

 

[TheFlyingPretzel]

From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we take for granted in daily life. As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential- and identifies the men of genius behind them​

The Independent : 11 March 2006

1 The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffe and then English coffee.

2 The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one.

3 A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan. The word rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot.

4 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 Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn't. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles' feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.

5 Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.

6 Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today - liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry.

7 The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanicalinventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.

8 Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there from India or China. But it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the Crusaders' metal armour and was an effective form of insulation - so much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland.

9 The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander buildings. Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe's castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world's - with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to more easily defended round ones. Henry V's castle architect was a Muslim.

10 Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.

11 The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.

12 The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it.

13 The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action.

14 The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after al-Khwarizmi's book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the Muslim world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the basis of modern cryptology.

15 Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas - see No 4).

16 Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of Islam's non-representational art. In contrast, Europe's floors were distinctly earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were "covered in rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned". Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught on quickly.

17 The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.

18 By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth's circumference to be 40, 253.4km - less than 200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.

19 Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both a rocket, which they called a "self-moving and combusting egg", and a torpedo - a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and then blew up.

20 Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim gardens include the carnation and the tulip.

"1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World" is a new exhibition which began a nationwide tour this week. It is currently at the Science Museum in Manchester. For more information, go towww.1001inventions.com

 

[Razia Sultana]

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a politician and not a historian so his comments should not be considered for academic purposes. He may have some ulterior motive behind it. There is no one who can sue him for his statement and seek explanation. Secondly, it is meaningless to have a false pride about one's past. Many countries claim to be the pioneers of human civilization like my own country India. We may have 5000 yr old civilization but still have not learnt to keep our surroundings clean and not discriminate humans based on caste, color and creed. We call Islam to be the religion of peace but maximum violence takes place in muslim nations. What civilization did it take to kill millions in mindless world wars?
Did Neil Armstrong say "its a small step for myself but a leap for Christianity? No one discovered America. There were red indians living there and they had their own civilization. Its just that a sea route to the new world was accidentally discovered by Christopher Columbus who happenned to be a white, a male and a christian from Europe and he did not go there alone but with a team under his command.
It would be prudent on part of Erdogan to set aside some fund for research into his claim or else he will make himself a laughing stock and also the others who would take his words to be true.

 

[Mav3rick]

Whenever you mix religion and science, only religion happens.

or in other words "$hit happens".

It is huge $tupidity to claim Islam this and Islam that.

Muslims this or Muslims that. It is all cheap talk.

Peace

You **** all over the place and end with a 'peace'. How very contradictory!

 

[Mav3rick]

I agree that Muslims did not discover the Americas and that it is laughable that Erdogan suggested such a thing. That being said the article itself is just as laughable and looking at the source one need not wonder why.

It is laughable because of our belief in the version of history that was taught to us, but I would like to know why Erdogan made the claim, if he even made it.

 

[Razia Sultana]

14 The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825.

There is no doubt that the system of numbering and mumerals came from India. Zero was invented in India and Arabs took it from India. The arabic script is written from right to left but its numerals are written from left to right. Europeans learnt this from Arabs so they called it Arabic numerals whereas it has Indian origin.

 

[Joeblow]

Now let me present my point of view. I do not pride myself for the achievements of Muslims centuries ago. Nor do I consider myself superior to others because of my faith. Both of those are forbidden in Islam. The whole point behind talking about 'Muslim scientists' or 'Islamic developments' is not pride or superiority : It is simply to prove that we are capable of doing good and contributing to the world and that Islam does not oppose science.

When I see columnists and people like that trying so, so hard to prove that Muslims are all barbaric monkeys who have never done anything good, one question comes to mind: 'What will this guy achieve if he manages to convince 1.7 Billion people that their religion is an evil terrorist religion that is against science and everything good?' Where so many negative portrayals and stereotypes exist, so much hatred and antagonism against Muslims, what's wrong with the existence of one good positive one? Why is this author and people like him so hell-bent on demonizing Muslims even further?

I mean seriously, are we not humans? Should I go and die just because some a**hole a thousand miles away killed some innocents in the name of my religion or because some politician believes stupid things? What should I do? Should I go and start killing people who kill people because killing people is wrong? I mean, you people clearly aren't happy with peaceful protesting, letters and other forms of civilized communication to show that we are not all like this.
Should I go and kill Erdogan to prove that I do not believe his false stories?

What do I, and 1.7 Billion Muslims, need to do to prove that we, like every other human on Earth, simply want to go about our daily lives, eat and be healthy and live good lives? That we do not in any way endorse the crimes of others, that we do not oppose science and that we DO want to do good in this world?

All these 'Liberals' have no Idea how it feels to be constantly demonized by the very people who claim to be 'open-minded' and tolerant. And now they're trying to 'disprove' the few things that we have that make us look like human beings to the rest of the world. Extremely saddening.

@TankMan The events from the last few years has given the racists & bigots of this world the green light to come out and present their views as legitimate arguments and they are being echoed by fools who wouldn't know their elbow from their ******e. People are bullies by nature. They love to gang up and pick on one person or group. You just happen to be easy target right now. Don't worry. As the old adage goes, "This too shall pass."

 

[Razia Sultana]

1.People point out the physical features of Red Indians. They look Arab/N African. Pyramids of S America are similar to those of Egypt. It is known that Columbus was guided to his American "discovery" by a Moor/Muslim navigator on board.

Columbus was the Commander or Captain of his ship/flotilla. A navigator does not guide his captain but rather takes command from him. A captain gets the credit or discredit for his voyage. And by the way he discovered America by fluke as he had set off for India.

 

[asad71]

Columbus was the Commander or Captain of his ship/flotilla. A navigator does not guide his captain but rather takes command from him. A captain gets the credit or discredit for his voyage. And by the way he discovered America by fluke as he had set off for India.

Then, wise guy, tell me what does a navigator do?