The Great History Of Muslims

The Glorious Islamic Civilization

There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world…Withinits dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creedsand ethnic origins…And this civilization was driven more than anything,by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Itsmathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable     The building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctorsexamined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Itsastronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved theway for space travel and exploration…When other nations were afraidof ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive…Thecivilization I am talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts ofBaghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Sulaymanthe Magnificent.- Carleton Fiorina, 

 Lost History:

The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists Thinkers, and Artists

 By Michael Morgan 

A history of scholars like Ibn Al-Haytham, Ibn Sina,Al-Tusi, Al-Khwarizmi, and Omar Khayyam, towering figures who revolutionised the mathematics,astronomy, and medicine of their time and paved the way for Newton, Copernicus, and many others. 

Islamic Expansion in the Seventh Century

• After the death of Muhammad pbuh in 632 CE, Islamic empire rapidly expanded from conquests:
• Byzantine Syria, Armenia and Palestine (634-639)
• Sassanid Iraq and Persia (633-642)
• Egypt and North Africa (639-665)
• Transoxiana and Khorasan (662-709)• Sindh and Indus valley (664-712)
• Visigothic Iberia (711-720)
• Caucasus and Asia Minor (711-750)
• Second Siege of Constantinople (717-718)

Islamic Centers of Learning

• Medina under the Prophet pbuh and Caliphs (622-685) and later
• Damascus under Umayyad Caliphate (685-750) and later
• Baghdad under Abbasid Caliphate (751-1258)
• Cordoba in Muslim Spain (756-1010)
• Cairo under Fatmid rule (969-1171)
• Ghazni under Ghaznavid dynasty (975-1187)
• Isfahan and Nishapur under Seljuk dynasty (1037-1157) and laterunder Khwarizemid empire (1157-1220)
• Fez under Almoravids and Almohads (1061-1250)
• Samarkand under Timurid dynasty (1370-1509)
• Timbuktu under Mali Empire (1324-1468)

Bayt al-Hikmah in Baghdad

• Caliph Al-Mansur (d. 775) who built Baghdad also founded apalace library, modeled after the Sassanid Imperial Library
• Later, Abbasid caliphs, Al-Harun (d. 809) and Al-Mamun (d. 833), established the Bayt Al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad, which included an observatory, a hospital, and a library
• Early Muslim scientists at Bayt Al-Hikmah included mathematician Mohamed b. Musa Al-Khwarizmi, engineers-inventors Banu Musa brothers, Nestorian physician Hunayn b. Ishaq, and astronomerphilosopher Yaqub b. Ishaq al-Kindi

Islamic Intellectual Tradition

• It was the intellectual explosion created at the time of Harun and Mamun that propelled science into the forefront of knowledge andmade Islamic civilization the beacon of learning for five hundredyears. The work done by the translation schools of Baghdad madepossible the later works of the physician al Razi (d. 925), historian al Masudi (d. 956), the physician Abu Ali Sina (d. 1037), the physicist al Hazen (d.1039), the historian al Baruni (d. 1051), the mathematicianOmar Khayyam (d.1132) and the philosopher Ibn Rushd (d.1198).