NAME: DECAMPONG, NORHAIRA S.

COURSE: BS – CIVIL ENGINEERING

Muslim Scientists
and their
Inventions

SUBMITTED TO:
HADJI ALI, ALMAIRA M.
Muslim scientists and investors, including Arabs, Persians and Turks, were probably hundreds of
years ahead of their counterparts in the European Middle Ages.

ABU NASR AL-FARABI (872-950)

Also known as Alpharabius. Arab
scientists and philosopher, considered as one of
the preeminent thinkers of medieval era.
Abu Nasr Muhammad al- Farabi, one the earliest
Islamic intellectuals who were instrumental in
transmitting the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle to
the Muslim world, had a considerable influence on
the later Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna.
He was an outstanding linguist who translated the
Greek works on Aristotle and Plato and made a considerable additions to them of his own. He
earned the nickname Mallim-e-Sani, which is translated as “second master” or “second
teacher”.
Al-Farabi completed his earlier education at Farab and Bukhara but, later on, he went to
Baghdad for higher studies, where he studied and worked for a long time. During this period he
acquired mastery over several languages as well as various branches of knowledge and
technology.
Farabi contributed considerably to science, philosophy, logic, sociology, medicine,
mathematics and music, but the major ones are in philosophy, logic and sociology and for
which he stands out as an Encyclopedist.
As a philosopher, Farabi was the first to separate philosophy from theology. It is difficult to
find a philosopher both in Muslim and Christian world from Middle Ages onwards who has not
been influenced by his views. He believed in a Supreme Being who had created the world
through the exercise of balanced intelligence. He also asserted this same rational faculty to be
the sole part of the human being that is immortal, and thus he set as the paramount human goal
the development of that rational faculty. He considerably gave more attention to political theory
as compared to any Islamic philosopher. Later in his work, Al-Farabi laid down in Platonic
fashion the qualities necessary for the ruler, he should be inclined to rule by good quality of a
native character and exhibit the right attitude for such rule. At the heart of Al-Farabi’s political
philosophy is the concept of happiness in which people cooperate to gain contentment. He
followed the Greek example and the highest rank of happiness was allocated to his ideal
sovereign whose soul was ‘united as it were with the Active Intellect’.
Therefore, Farabi served as a tremendous source of aspiration for intellectuals of the middle
ages and made enormous contributions to the knowledge of his day, paving the way for the
later philosopher and thinkers of the Muslim world. Farabian epistemology has both a
Neoplatonic and an Aristotelian dimension. The best source for al-Farabi’s classification of
knowledge is his Kitab ihsa al-ulum. This work neatly illustrates Al-Farabi’s beliefs, both
esoteric and exoteric. Through all of them runs a primary Aristotelian stress on the importance
of knowledge. Thus, al-Farabi’s epistemology, from what has been described may be said to be
encyclopedic in range and complex in articulation, using both a Neoplatonic and an Aristotelian
voice. Farabi also participated in writing books on early Muslim sociology and a notable book on
music titled Kitab al-Musiqa (The Book of Music) which is in reality a study of the theory of
Persian music of his day, although in the West it has been introduced as a book on Arab music.
He invented several musical instruments, besides contributing to the knowledge of musical notes.
It has been reported that he could play his instrument so well as to make people laugh or weep at
will. Al-Farabi’s treatise Meanings of the Intellect dealt with music therapy, where he discussed
the therapeutic effects of music on the soul. Farabi traveled to many distant lands throughout his
life and gained many experiences a lot, due to which he made so many contributions for which
he is still remembered and acknowledged. In spite of facing many hardships, he worked with full
dedication and made his name among the popular scientists of history. He died a bachelor in
Damascus in 339 A.H. /950 A.D. at the age of 80 years.

AL-BATTANI (858-929)
Also known as Albatenius. Arab
mathematician, scientists and astronomer who
improved existing values for the length of the
year of the seasons.
Al-Battani is sometimes known by a Latinized
version of his name, being Albategnius, Albategni
or Albatenius. His full name was Abu Abdallah
Mohammad ibn Jabir ibn Sinan al-Raqqi al-
Harrani al-Sabi al-Battani.Al-Battani’s father
was Jabir ibn Sinan al-Harrani who had a high reputation as an instrument maker in Harran.
The name makes the identification certain that al-Battani himself was skilled in making
astronomical instruments and there is a good indication that he learnt these skills from his
father. Abdallah Muhammad Ibn Jabir Ibn Sinan al-Battani al-Harrani was born around 858
C.E. in Harran. Battani was first educated by his father Jabir Ibn San’an al-Battani, who also
was a well-known scientist. He then moved to Raqqa, situated on the bank of the Euphrates,
where he received advanced education and later on flourished as a scholar.
At the beginning of the 9th century, he migrated to Samarra, where he worked till the end of his
life. His family had been members of the Sabian sect, a religious sect of star worshippers from
Harran. Being worshipers of the stars meant that the Sabians had a strong motivation for the
study of astronomy. Al-Battani, unlike Thabit, another mathematician from his home town, was
not a believer in the Sabian religion. His name “Abu Abdallah Mohammad” indicates that he was
certainly a Muslim.Al-Battani made remarkably accurate astronomical observations at
Antioch and ar-Raqqah in Syria. The town of ar-Raqqah, where most of al-Battani’s
observations were made, became prosperous when Caliph Harun al-Rashid built several palaces
there. The Fihrist describes al-Battani as one of the most famous observers and a leader in
geometry, theoretical and practical astronomy, and astrology. He composed work on
astronomy, with tables, containing his own observations of the sun and moon and a more
accurate description of their motions than that given in Ptolemy’s “Almagest”.
The main achievements of al-Battani’s are:
• He cataloged 489 stars.
• He refined the existing values for the length of the year, which he gave as 365 days 5 hours 46
minutes 24 seconds, and of the seasons.
• He calculated 54.5″ per year for the precession of the equinoxes and obtained the value of 23°
35′ for the inclination of the ecliptic.
Rather than using geometrical methods, as other scientists had done, al-Battani used
trigonometric methods which were an important advancement. Al-Battani showed that the
farthest distance of the Sun from the Earth varies and, as a result, annular eclipses of the Sun are
possible as well as total eclipses. Al-Battani is important in the development of science for a
number of reasons, but one of these must be the large influence his work had on scientists such
as Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and Copernicus.

IBN SINA (980-1037)

Also known as Avicenna. Persian
philosopher and scientists known for his
contributions to Aristotelian philosophy and
medicine.
Ibn Sina was indeed a true polymath with his
contributions ranging from medicine, psychology
and pharmacology to geology, physics,
astronomy, chemistry and philosophy. He was
also a poet and an Islamic scholar and
theologian. His most important contribution to
medical science was his famous book al-Qanun, known as the “Canon” in the West. This book is
an immense encyclopedia of medicine including over a million words and like most Arabic
books is richly divided and subdivided. It comprises of the entire medical knowledge available
from ancient and Muslim sources. This great scientist was born in around 980 A.D in the village
of Afshana, near Bukhara which is also his mother’s hometown. His father, Abdullah an
advocate of the Ismaili sect, was from Balkh which is now a part of Afghanistan. Ibn Sina
received his early eduction in his home town and by the age of ten he became a Quran Hafiz. He
had exceptional intellectual skills which enabled him to overtake his teachers at the age of
fourteen. During the next few years he devoted himself to Muslim Jurisprudence, Philosophy and
Natural Science and studied Logic, Euclid, and the Almeagest. Ibn Sina was an extremely
religious man. When he was still young, Ibn Sina was highly baffled by the work of Aristotle on
Metaphysics so much so that he used to leave all the work and pray to God to guide him. Finally
after reading a manual by a famous philosopher al-Farabi, he found the solutions to his
difficulties. At the age of sixteen he dedicated all his efforts to learn medicine and by the time he
was eighteen gained the status of a reputed physician. During this time he was also lucky in
curing Nooh Ibn Mansoor, the King of Bukhhara, of an illness in which all the renowned
physicians had given up hope. On this great effort, the King wished to reward him, but the young
physician only acquired consent to use his exclusively stocked library of the Samanids. On his
father’s death, when Ibn Sina was twenty-two years old, he left Bukhara and moved to Jurjan
near Caspian Sea where he lectured on logic and astronomy. Here he also met his famous
contemporary Abu Raihan al-Biruni. Later he travelled to Rai and then to Hamadan, where he
wrote his famous book Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb. Here he also cured Shams al-Daulah, the King of
Hamadan, for severe colic.From Hamadan, he moved to Isfahn, where he finished many of his
epic writings. Nevertheless, he continued to travel and the too much mental exertion as well as
political chaos spoilt his health. The last ten or twelve years of his life, he spent in the service of
Abu Ja’far ‘Ala Addaula, whom he accompanied as physician and general literary and scientific
consultant. He died during June 1037 A.D and was buried in Hamedan, Iran. Besides his
monumental writings, Ibn Sina also contributed to mathematics, physics, music and other fields.
He explained the concept and application of the “casting out of nines”. He made several
astronomical observations, and devised a means similar to the venire, to enhance the accuracy of
instrumental readings. In physics, his contribution comprised the study of different forms of
energy, heat, light and mechanical, and such concepts as force, vacuum and infinity.
IBN BATTUTA (1304-1369)
Also known as Shams ad-Din. Arab traveler
and scholar who wrote one of the most famous
travel books in the history, the Rihla.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, was a
Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveler. He is
known for his traveling and going on
excursions called the Rihla. His journeys lasted
for a period of almost thirty years. This covered
nearly the whole of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West
Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian
subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance readily surpassing
that of his predecessors. After his travel he returned to Morocco and gave his account of the
experience to Ibn Juzay. Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, was born in Tangier, Morocco,
on the 24th of February 1304 C.E. (703 Hijra) during the time of the Marinid dynasty. He was
commonly known as Shams ad-Din. His family was of Berber origin and had a tradition of
service as judges. After receiving an education in Islamic law, he chose to travel. He left is house
in June 1325, when he was twenty one years of age and set off from his hometown on a hajj
(pilgrimage) to Mecca, a journey that took him 16 months. He did not come back to Morocco for
at least 24 years after that. His journey was mostly by land. To reduce the risk of being attacked,
he usually chose to join a caravan. In the town of Sfax, he got married. He survived wars,
shipwrecks, and rebellions. He first began his voyage by exploring the lands of the Middle East.
Thereafter he sailed down the Red Sea to Mecca. He crossed the huge Arabian Desert and
traveled to Iraq and Iran. In 1330, he set of again, down the Red Sea to Aden and then to
Tanzania. Then in 1332, Ibn Battuta decided to go to India. He was greeted open heartedly by the
Sultan of Delhi. There he was given the job of a judge. He stayed in India for a period of 8 years
and then left for China. Ibn Battuta left for another adventure in 1352. He then went south,
crossed the Sahara desert, and visited the African kingdom of Mali. Finally, he returned home at
Tangier in 1355. Those who were lodging Ibn Battuta’s grave Western Orient lists could not
believe that Ibn Battuta visited all the places that he described. They argued that in order to
provide a comprehensive description of places in the Muslim world in such a short time, Ibn
Battuta had to rely on hearsay evidence and make use of accounts by earlier travelers. Ibn
Battuta often experienced culture shock in regions he visited. The local customs of recently
converted people did not fit his orthodox Muslim background. Among Turks and Mongols, he
was astonished at the way women behaved. They were given freedom of speech. He also felt that
the dress customs in the Maldives and some sub-Saharan regions in Africa were too revealing.

IBN RUSHD (1126-1198)

Also known as Averroes. Arab
philosopher and scholar who produced a series
of summaries and commentaries on most of
Aristotle’s work and on Plato’s Republic.
Abu Walid Mohammad Ibn Rushd born in 1128
C.E. in Cordova has been held as one of the
greatest thinkers and scientists of the history.
A product of twelfth-century Islamic Spain, he
set out to integrate Aristotelian philosophy with
Islamic thought. A common theme throughout
his writings is that there is no inappropriateness between religion and philosophy when both are
properly understood. His contributions to philosophy took many forms, ranging from his detailed
commentaries on Aristotle, his defense of philosophy against the attacks of those who
condemned it as different to Islam and his construction of a form of Aristotelianism which
cleansed it, as far as was possible at the time, of, Neoplatonic influences. Ibn Rushd’s education
followed a traditional path, beginning with studies in Hadith, linguistics, jurisprudence and
scholastic theology. Throughout his life he wrote extensively on Philosophy and Religion,
attributes of God, origin of the universe, Metaphysics and Psychology but he excelled in
philosophy and jurisprudence and was nicknamed “the jurisprudent philosopher.” The role of the
philosopher in the state was a topic of continual interest for Ibn Rushd. His thought is genuinely
creative and highly controversial, producing powerful arguments that were to puzzle his
philosophical successors in the Jewish and Christian worlds. He seems to argue that there are two
forms of truth, a religious form and a philosophical form, and that it does not matter if they point
in different directions. He also appears to be doubtful about the possibility of personal
immortality or of God’s being able to know that particular events have taken place. There is
much in his work also which suggests that religion is inferior to philosophy as a means of
attaining knowledge, and that the understanding of religion which ordinary believers can have is
very different and impoverished when compared with that available to the philosopher. In
philosophy, his most important work Tuhafut al-Tuhafut was written in response to Al-Ghazali’s
work. Ibn Rushd was criticized by many Muslim scholars for this book, which, nevertheless, had
a deep influence on European thought, at least until the beginning of modern philosophy and
experimental science. His views on fate were that man is neither in full control of his destiny nor
is it fully predetermined for him. Al Rushd’s longest commentary was, in fact, an original
contribution as it was largely based on his analysis including interpretation of Quranic concepts.
Ibn Rushd’s summary the opinions (fatwa) of previous Islamic jurists on a variety of issues has
continued to influence Islamic scholars to the present day, notably Javed Ahmad Ghamidi. At the
age of 25, Ibn Rushd conducted astronomical observations in Morocco, during which he
discovered a previously unobserved star. He was also of the view that the Moon is opaque and
obscure, and has some parts which are thicker than others, with the thicker parts receiving more
light from the Sun than the thinner parts of the Moon. He also gave one of the first descriptions
on sunspots. Ibn Rushd also made remarkable contributions in medicine. In medicine his well-
known book Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb was written before 1162 A.D Its Latin translation was
known as ‘Colliget’. In it Ibn Rushd has thrown light on various aspects of medicine, including
the diagnoses, cure and prevention of diseases and several original observations of him.He wrote
at least 67 original works, which included 28 works on philosophy, 20 on medicine, 8 on law, 5
on theology, and 4 on grammar, in addition to his commentaries on most of Aristotle’s works
and his commentary on Plato’s The Republic. A careful examination of his works reveals that
Ibn Rushd (Averroes) was a deeply Islamic man. As an example, we find in his writing, “Anyone
who studies anatomy will increase his faith in the omnipotence and oneness of God the
Almighty”. He believed that true happiness for man can surely be achieved through mental and
psychological health, and people cannot enjoy psychological health unless they follow ways that
lead to happiness in the hereafter, and unless they believe in God and His oneness.
 MUHAMMAD IBN MUSA AL-
KHWARIZMI (780-850)
Also known as Algoritmi or Algaurizin. His
works introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and
the concepts of Algebra into European
mathematics.
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a
Persian mathematician, astronomer,
astrologer geographer and a scholar in the
House of Wisdom in Baghdad. He was born
in Persia of that time around 780. Al-Khwarizmi was one of the learned men who worked in the
House of Wisdom. Al-Khwarizmi flourished while working as a member of the House of
Wisdom in Baghdad under the leadership of Kalif al-Mamun, the son of the Khalif Harun al-
Rashid, who was made famous in the Arabian Nights. The House of Wisdom was a scientific
research and teaching center. Al-Khwarizmi developed the concept of the algorithm in
mathematics (which is a reason for his being called the grandfather of computer science by
some people). Al-Khwarizmi’s algebra is regarded as the foundation and cornerstone of the
sciences. To al-Khwarizmi we owe the world “algebra,” from the title of his greatest
mathematical work, Hisab al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabala.
The book, which was twice translated into Latin, by both Gerard of Cremona and Robert of
Chester in the 12th century, works out several hundred simple quadratic equations by analysis as
well as by geometrical example. It also has substantial sections on methods of dividing up
inheritances and surveying plots of land. It is largely concerned with methods for solving
practical computational problems rather than algebra as the term is now understood. Al-Khwari-
zmi confined his discussion to equations of the first and second degrees. He also wrote an
important work on astronomy, covering calendars, calculating true positions of the sun, moon
and planets, tables of sines and tangents, spherical astronomy, astrological tables, parallax and
eclipse calculations, and visibility of the moon. His astronomical work, Zij al-sindhind, is also
based on the work of other scientists. As with the Algebra, its chief interest is as the earliest Arab
work still in existence in Arabic. His most recognized work as mentioned above and one that is
so named after him is the mathematical concept Algorithm. The modern meaning of the word
relates to a specific practice for solving a particular problem. Today, people use algorithms to do
addition and long division, principles that are found in Al-Khwarizmi’s text written over 2000
years ago. Al-Khwarizmi was also responsible for introducing the Arabic numbers to the West,
setting in motion a process that led to the use of the nine Arabic numerals, together with the zero
sign. Of great importance also was al-Khwarizmi’s contribution to medieval geography. He
systematized and corrected Ptolemy’s research in geography, using his own original
findings that are entitled as Surat al-Ard (The Shape of the Earth). The text exists in a
manuscript; the maps have unfortunately not been preserved, although modern scholars have
been able to reconstruct them from al-Khwarizmi’s descriptions. He supervised the work of 70
geographers to create a map of the then “known world”. When his work became known in
Europe through Latin translations, his influence made a permanent mark on the development of
science in the West. Al-Khwarizmi made several important improvements to the theory and
construction of sundials, which he inherited from his Indian and Hellenistic predecessors. He
made tables for these instruments which considerably shortened the time needed to make specific
calculations. His sundial was universal and could be observed from anywhere on the Earth. From
then on, sundials were frequently placed on mosques to determine the time of prayer. The
shadow square, an instrument used to determine the linear height of an object, in conjunction
with the alidade for angular observations, was also invented by al-Khwarizmi in ninth-century
Baghdad. While his major contributions were the result of original research, he also did much
to synthesize the existing knowledge in these fields from Greek, Indian, and other sources.
A number of minor works were written by al-Khwarizmi on topics such as the astrolabe, on
which he wrote on the Jewish calendar. He also wrote a political history containing horoscopes
of prominent persons

OMAR KHAYYAM (1048-1131)

Persian mathematician, astronomer,
and poet, known for his scientific
achievements and Rubaiyat (“quatrains”).
Omar Khayyam was one of the major
mathematicians and astronomers of the
medieval period. He was acknowledged as
the author of the most important treatise on
algebra before modern times. This is
reflected in his Treatise on Demonstration of
Problems of Algebra giving a geometric
method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. His
significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works, has not
received the same attention as his scientific and poetic writings. Omar Khayyam was born on the
18th of May, 1048 AD in Iran. Omar Khayyam’s full name was Ghiyath al-Din Abu’l-Fath
Umar Ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami. He was born into a family of tent makers. He
spent part of his childhood in the town of Balkh, northern Afghanistan, studying under Sheik
Muhammad Mansuri. Later on, he studied under Imam Mowaffaq Nishapuri, who was
considered one of the greatest teachers of the Khorassan region. Khayyam had notable works
in geometry, particularly on the theory of proportions. He was a Persian polymath,
mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet. He wrote treatises on
mechanics, geography, and music. The treatise of Khayyam can be considered as the first
treatment of parallels axiom which is not based on petition principle but on more intuitive
postulate. Khayyam refutes the previous attempts by other Greek and Persian mathematicians to
prove the proposition. And he refused the use of motion in geometry. Khayyam was the
mathematician who noticed the importance of a general binomial theorem. The argument
supporting the claim that Khayyam had a general binomial theorem is based on his ability to
extract roots. Khayyam was part of a panel that introduced several reforms to the Persian
calendar. On March 15, 1079, Sultan Malik Shah, accepted this corrected calendar as the official
Persian calendar. Khayyam’s poetic work has eclipsed his fame as a mathematician. He has
written about a thousand four-line verses or quatrains. In the English-speaking world, he was
introduced through the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam which are rather free-wheeling English
translations by Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883). Khayyam’s personal beliefs are discernible from
his poetic oeuvre. In his own writings, Khayyam rejects strict religious structure and a literalist
conception of the afterlife. Khayyam taught for decades the philosophy of Avicenna, especially
in his home town Nishapur, till his death. Khayyam, the philosopher can be understood from two
rather distinct sources. One is through his Rubaiyat and the other through his own works in light
of the intellectual and social conditions of his time. The latter could be informed by the
evaluations of Khayyam’s works by scholars and philosophers such as Bayhaqi, Nezami Aruzi,
and Zamakhshari and Sufi poets and writers Attar Nishapuri and Najmeddin Razi. As a
mathematician, Khayyam has made fundamental contributions to the Philosophy of mathematics
especially in the context of Persian Mathematics and Persian philosophy with which, most of the
other Persian scientists and philosophers such as Avicenna, Biruni, and Tusi are associated.

THABIT IBN QURRA (826-901)

Also known as Thebit. Arab
mathematician, physician, and astronomer,
who was the first reformer of the Ptolemaic
system and the founder of statics.
Al-Sabi Thabit ibn Qurra al-Harrani (836 –
901) was a an astronomer and mathematician
born in present day Turkey, best known for
translating classic Greek works on astronomy,
and discovered an equation for determining
the amicable numbers. He was a Mandean
physician, who was known as Thebit in Latin.
Thabit was a member of the Sabian religious sect. His heritage was sharp in traditions of
Hellenistic culture and pagan veneration of the stars. This background, and in particular his
knowledge of Greek and Arabic, made him an attractive prospect for enclosure in one particular
community of scholars, the Banu Musa and their circle in Baghdad. Thabit seems to have been
asked to join this circle by a family member, the mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa ibn
Shakir, who recognized his talents and potential. Thabit subsequently came to fame after
traveling to Baghdad when he was invited by Muhammad bin Musa bin Shakir, one of the Banu
Musa brothers. He worked in Baghdad and he occupied himself with mathematics, astronomy,
mechanics, medicine and philosophy. Thabit is credited with dozens of treatises, covering a wide
range of fields and topics. While some were written in his native Syriac, most were composed in
Arabic. Thabit was trilingual, a skill that enabled him to play a key role in the translation
movement of 9th century Baghdad. He translated works from both Syriac and Greek into Arabic,
creating Arabic versions of important Hellenistic and Greek writings. Several of Thabit’s Arabic
translations are the only extant versions of important ancient works.The medieval astronomical
theory of the trepidation of the equinoxes is often attributed to Thabit. He developed a theory
about the trepidation and oscillation of the equinoctial points, of which many scholars debated in
the Middle Ages. According to Copernicus Thabit determined the length of the sidereal year as
365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 12 seconds (an error of 2 seconds). Copernicus based his claim
on the Latin text attributed to Thabit. Thabit published his observations of the Sun. In the fields
of mechanics and physics he may be recognized as the founder of statics. He observed conditions
of equilibrium of bodies, beams and levers. Thabit also wrote on philosophical and cosmological
topics, questioning some of the fundamentals of the Aristotelian cosmos. He rejected Aristotle’s
concept of the essence as immobile, a position Rosenfeld and Gregorian suggest is in keeping
with his anti-Aristotelian stance of allowing the use of motion in mathematics. Thabit also wrote
important treatises related to Archimedean problems in statics and mechanics. Besides all these
contributions he also founded a school of translation and supervised the translation of a further
large number of books from Greek to Arabic. Among Thabit’s writings a large number have
survived, while several are not present. Most of the books are on mathematics, followed by
astronomy and medicine. The books have been written in Arabic but some are in Syriac. In the
Middle Ages, some of his books were translated into Latin by Gherard of Cremona. In recent
centuries, a number of his books have been translated into European languages and published.
Thabit’s efforts provided a foundation for continuing work in the investigation and reformation
of Ptolemaic astronomy. His life is illustrative of the fact that individuals from a wide range of
backgrounds and religions contributed to the flourishing of sciences like astronomy in Islamic
culture.

ABU BAKR AL-RAZI (865-925)

Also known as Rhazes. Persian
alchemist and philosopher, who was one of
the greatest physician in history.

JABIR IBN HAIYAN (722-804)

 Also known as Geber. The father of Arab chemistry known for his highly influential
works on alchemy and metallurgy.

IBN ISHAQ AL-KINDI (801-873)

Also known as Alkindus. Arab

philosopher and scientist, who is known as
the first of the Muslim peripatetic
philosophers.

IBN AL-HAYTHAM (965-1040)

Also known as Alhazen. Arab

astronomer and mathematician known for
his important contributions to the principles
of optics and the use of scientific
experiments.

IBN ZUHR (1091-1161)

Also known as Avenzoar. Arab

physician and surgeon, known for his
influential book Al Taisir Fil-Mudawat Wal-Tadbeer (Book of Simplification Concerning
Therapeutics and Diet).

IBN KHALDUN (1332-1406)

Arab historiographer and historian

who developed one of the earliest
nonreligious philosophies of history.
Often considered as one of the forerunners
of modern historiography, sociology and
economics.

IBN AL-BAITAR (1197-1248)

Arab scientist, botanist and

physician who systemically recorded the
discoveries made by Islamic physicians in
the Middle Age.