Avicenna

Ibn Sina (Persian: ‫ ;ابن سٌنا‬980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West
as Avicenna (/ˌævɪˈsɛnə, ˌɑːvɪ-/), was a Persian[4] polymath who is regarded as one of the most
significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic Golden Age,[5] and the father of
early modern medicine.[6][7][8] Sajjad H. Rizvi has called Avicenna "arguably the most influential philosopher
of the pre-modern era".[9] He was a Muslim Peripatetic philosopher influenced by Greek Aristotelian
philosophy. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on
philosophy and 40 on medicine.[10]
His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The
Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia[11][12][13] which became a standard medical text at many
medieval universities[14] and remained in use as late as 1650.[15] Besides philosophy and medicine,
Avicenna's corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic
theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and works of poetry.[16]

CANON OF MEDICINE

The Canon of Medicine (Qanun: Law of Medicine) by Avicenna is one of the most famous books in the history of
medicine. This book is a five-volume medical encyclopedia that was completed in 1025. The Arabic text of the
Canon was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century and into Hebrew in 1279. This
masterpiece has served as an essential medical encyclopedia for scholars in the Islamic territories and Europe
for more than six centuries and, in the words of Dr. William Osler, it has remained “a medical Bible for a longer
time than any other work”.[5]

Pulsology

Avicenna was a pioneer in pulsology. In the words of Avicenna every beat of the pulse comprises two movements
and two pauses. Thus, expansion: pause: contraction: pause. In ancient times, Galen as well as Chinese physicians
erroneously believed that there was a unique type of pulse for every organ of the body and for every disease.[7]

The first correct explanation of pulsation was given by Avicenna, after he refined Galen's theory of the pulse.
Avicenna was also the pioneer of the modern approach of examining the pulse using the wrist which is still
practiced in the current time.[8]

Palpitation

The symptoms, effects, and treatment of palpitation are explained in detail by Avicenna. He mentioned that
palpitation is a physiological affliction of the heart caused by injuries to the heart, to its outer covering or the
anatomical organs close to the heart. All kinds of weaknesses of the heart result in palpitation on account of
disharmony in its temperament.

Abbas ibn Firnas

Abu al-Qasim Abbas ibn Firnas ibn Wirdas al-Takurini (Arabic: ً‫ ;أبو القاسم عباس بن فرناس بن ورداس التاكرن‬c.
809/810 – 887 A.D.), also known as Abbas ibn Firnas (Arabic: ‫)عباس ابن فرناس‬, Latinized Armen
Firman,[1][dubious –
discuss]
was a Berber Andalusian polymath:[2][3][4] an inventor, astronomer, physician, chemist, engineer, Anda
lusi musician, and Arabic-language poet.[4] He was reported to have experimented with a form of
flight.[2][5][6][7]
Ibn Firnas made various contributions in the field of astronomy and engineering. He constructed a device
which indicated the motion of the planets and stars in the Universe. In addition, ibn Firnas came up with a
procedure to manufacture colourless glass and made magnifying lenses for reading, which were known
as reading stones.[6][7]

Work[edit]
Abbas Ibn Firnas devised a means of manufacturing colorless glass, invented various glass planispheres,
made corrective lenses ("reading stones"), devised a chain of things that could be used to simulate the
motions of the planets and stars, and developed a process for cutting rock crystal that allowed Spain to
cease exporting quartz to Egypt to be cut.[6][7] He introduced the Sindhind to al-Andalus,[2] which had
important influence on astronomy in Europe.[8] He also designed the al-Maqata, a water clock.[9]
aviation

Among other very curious experiments which he made, one is his trying to fly. He covered himself with
feathers for the purpose, attached a couple of wings to his body, and, getting on an eminence, flung himself
down into the air, when according to the testimony of several trustworthy writers who witnessed the
performance, he flew a considerable distance, as if he had been a bird, but, in alighting again on the place
whence he had started, his back was very much hurt, for not knowing that birds when they alight come
down upon their tails, he forgot to provide himself with one.[7]

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī[note 1] (Arabic: ً‫محمد بن موسى الخوارزم‬, romanized: Muḥammad ibn Musā
al-Khwārazmi; c. 780 – c. 850), or al-Khwarizmi, was a Persian polymath from Khwarazm,[6][7][8][9][10][11] who
produced vastly influential works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography. Around 820 CE, he was
appointed as the astronomer and head of the library of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.[12]: 14 
Al-Khwarizmi's popularizing treatise on algebra (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and
Balancing, c. 813–833 CE[13]: 171 ) presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations.
One of his principal achievements in algebra was his demonstration of how to solve quadratic equations
by completing the square, for which he provided geometric justifications.[12]: 14  Because he was the first to
treat algebra as an independent discipline and introduced the methods of "reduction" and "balancing" (the
transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on
opposite sides of the equation),[14] he has been described as the father[6][15][16] or founder[17][18] of algebra.
The term algebra itself comes from the title of his book (the word al-jabr meaning "completion" or
"rejoining").[19] His name gave rise to the terms algorism and algorithm,[20][21] as well as Spanish, Italian and
Portuguese terms algoritmo, and Spanish guarismo[22] and Portuguese algarismo meaning "digit".

Contributions
A page from al-Khwārizmī's Algebra
Al-Khwārizmī's contributions to mathematics, geography, astronomy, and cartography established the basis
for innovation in algebra and trigonometry. His systematic approach to solving linear and quadratic
equations led to algebra, a word derived from the title of his book on the subject, "The Compendious Book
on Calculation by Completion and Balancing".[41]
On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, written about 820, was principally responsible for spreading
the Hindu–Arabic numeral system throughout the Middle East and Europe. It was translated into Latin
as Algoritmi de numero Indorum. Al-Khwārizmī, rendered as (Latin) Algoritmi, led to the term "algorithm".
Algebra
Some of his work was based on Persian and Babylonian astronomy, Indian numbers, and Greek
mathematics.
The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing (Arabic: ‫الكتاب المختصر فً حساب الجبر‬
‫ والمقابلة‬al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wal-muqābala) is a mathematical book written approximately
820 CE. The book was written with the encouragement of Caliph al-Ma'mun as a popular work on
calculation and is replete with examples and applications to a wide range of problems in trade, surveying
and legal inheritance.[44] The term "algebra" is derived from the name of one of the basic operations with
equations (al-jabr, meaning "restoration", referring to adding a number to both sides of the equation to
consolidate or cancel terms) described in this book.

Arithmetic
Al-Khwārizmī's second most influential work was on the subject of arithmetic, which survived in Latin
translations but is lost in the original Arabic. His writings include the text kitāb al-ḥisāb al-hindī ('Book of
Indian computation'[note 2]), and perhaps a more elementary text, kitab al-jam' wa'l-tafriq al-ḥisāb al-
hindī ('Addition and subtraction in Indian arithmetic').[55][56] These texts described algorithms on decimal
numbers (Hindu–Arabic numerals) that could be carried out on a dust board. Called takht in Arabic
(Latin: tabula), a board covered with a thin layer of dust or sand was employed for calculations, on which
figures could be written with a stylus and easily erased and replaced when necessary. Al-Khwarizmi's
algorithms were used for almost three centuries, until replaced by Al-Uqlidisi's algorithms that could be
carried out with pen and paper.[57]

Trigonometry
Al-Khwārizmī's Zīj al-Sindhind also contained tables for the trigonometric functions of sines and cosine.[63] A
related treatise on spherical trigonometry is also attributed to him.[50]
Al-Khwārizmī produced accurate sine and cosine tables, and the first table of tangents.[66][67]

Ibn al-Haytham
Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen[10] (/ælˈhæzən/;[11] full name Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan
ibn al-Haytham ‫ الحسن بن الحسن بن الهٌثم‬،ً‫ ;أبو عل‬c. 965 – c. 1040), was a medieval mathematician, astronomer,
and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age from present-day Iraq.[12][13] Referred to as "the father of modern
optics",[14][15] he made significant contributions to the principles of optics and visual perception in particular.
His most influential work is titled Kitāb al-Manāẓir (Arabic: ‫كتاب المناظر‬, "Book of Optics"), written during
1011–1021, which survived in a Latin edition.[16]
Ibn al-Haytham was an early proponent of the concept that a hypothesis must be supported by experiments
based on confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence—an early pioneer in the scientific method five
centuries before Renaissance scientists.[17][18][19][20] On account of this, he is sometimes described as the
world's "first true scientist".[15] He was also a polymath, writing on philosophy, theology and medicine.[21] Ibn
al-Haytham was the first to explain that vision occurs when light reflects from an object and then passes to
one's eyes,[22] and to argue that vision occurs in the brain, pointing to observations that it is subjective and
affected by personal experience.[23]
Born in Basra, he spent most of his productive period in the Fatimid capital of Cairo and earned his living
authoring various treatises and tutoring members of the nobilities.[24] Ibn al-Haytham is sometimes given
the byname al-Baṣrī after his birthplace,[25] or al-Miṣrī ("the Egyptian").[26][27] Al-Haytham was dubbed the
"Second Ptolemy" by Abu'l-Hasan Bayhaqi[28] and "The Physicist" by John Peckham.[29] Ibn al-Haytham
paved the way for the modern science of physical optics.[30]

Book of Optics
Alhazen's most famous work is his seven-volume treatise on optics Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics),
written from 1011 to 1021.[47] In it, Ibn al-Haytham was the first to explain that vision occurs when light
reflects from an object and then passes to one's eyes,[22] and to argue that vision occurs in the brain,
pointing to observations that it is subjective and affected by personal experience.[23]
Optics was translated into Latin by an unknown scholar at the end of the 12th century or the beginning of
the 13th century.[48][a]
Camera Obscura
The camera obscura was known to the ancient Chinese, and was described by the Han
Chinese polymath Shen Kuo in his scientific book Dream Pool Essays, published in the year 1088 C.E.
Aristotle had discussed the basic principle behind it in his Problems, but Alhazen's work also contained the
first clear description, outside of China, of camera obscura in the areas of the Middle
East, Europe, Africa and India.[89] and early analysis[90] of the device.
Ismail al-Jazari
Badīʿ az-Zaman Abu l-ʿIzz ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ar-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206, Arabic: ُ‫بدٌع الزمان أَبُ اَ ْلع ِِز إبْن‬
‫ٌِل إبْنُ الرِّ زاز الجزري‬
ِ ‫إسْ ماع‬, IPA: [ældʒæzæriː]) was a polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical
engineer, artisan, artist and mathematician from the Artuqid Dynasty of Jazira in Mesopotamia. He is best
known for writing The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (Arabic: ‫كتاب فً معرفة الحٌل‬
‫الهندسٌة‬, romanized: Kitab fi ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiya, lit. 'Book in knowledge of engineering tricks') in
1206, where he described 50 mechanical devices, along with instructions on how to construct them. He is
credited with the invention of the elephant clock.[2] He has been described as the "father of robotics" and
modern day engineering.[3]
Camshaft[edit]
A camshaft, a shaft to which cams are attached, was introduced in 1206 by al-Jazari, who employed them
in his automata,[16] water clocks (such as the candle clock)[17] and water-raising machines.[16] The cam and
camshaft also appeared in European mechanisms from the 14th century.[18]

Water supply system[edit]

al-Jazari developed the earliest water supply system to be driven by gears and hydropower, which was built
in 13th century Damascus to supply water to its mosques and Bimaristan hospitals. The system had water
from a lake turn a scoop-wheel and a system of gears which transported jars of water up to a water
channel that led to mosques and hospitals in the city.[39]
Musical robot band[edit]
Al-Jazari's work described fountains and musical automata, in which the flow of water alternated from one
largetank to another at hourly or half-hourly intervals. This operation was achieved through his innovative
use of hydraulic switching.[8]