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→‎Weapons: this is not a list of "first use by Muslims"- but inventions originating in the geopolitical "Islamic" world. Removed off topic entry.
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===Weapons===
===Weapons===
* Early '''[[Rockets]]''': Syrian Al-Hassan er-Rammah's manuscript "The Book of Fighting on Horseback and With War Engines"(1280) includes the first known design for a rocket driven torpedo.<ref>http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19762056000</ref><ref>http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-06/st_islamtech</ref>
* Early '''[[Rockets]]''': Syrian Al-Hassan er-Rammah's manuscript "The Book of Fighting on Horseback and With War Engines"(1280) includes the first known design for a rocket driven torpedo.<ref>http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19762056000</ref><ref>http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-06/st_islamtech</ref>
* '''[[Greek fire]]''': Greek fire was first used by Muslims in the 12th century to defend against the Crusaders. An account by Raymund de Agiles describes how Arabs threw pitch, wax sulpher and tow at approaching armies. A special attachment to corps of archers in the Muslim army called "Naphtha troops" specialized in using this incendiary material. <ref>{{cite book|last=Partington|first=J. R.|title=A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder|year=1998|pages=20-23|coauthors=Bert S. Hall}}</ref>


==Music==
==Music==

Revision as of 07:08, 2 August 2013

A number of inventions were made in the medieval Islamic world, a geopolitical region that has at various times extended from Spain and Africa in the west to Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent in the east.[1][page needed] The inventions listed here were developed during the medieval Islamic world, which covers a period from the early Caliphate to the later Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires.[2] In particular, the majority of inventions here date back to the Islamic Golden Age, which is traditionally dated from the 8th to the 13th centuries.[3][4]

Chemistry

Architecture

The interiors of the Alhambra in Spain are decorated with arabesque designs.
At 72.5 meters, the Qutab Minar was the tallest minaret until the 20th century, and remains the tallest brick and stone minaret in the world.
  • Arabesque: An elaborative application of repeating geometric forms often found decorating the walls of mosques.
  • Minaret: The minaret is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic architecture, especially mosques, dating back to the early centuries of Islam. Minarets are generally tall spires with onion-shaped crowns, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure. The tallest minaret in pre-modern times was the Qutub Minar, which was 72.5 meters (237.9 ft) tall and was built in the 12th century, and it remains the tallest brick and stone minaret in the world.

Milling

  • Bridge mill: The bridge mill was a unique type of watermill that was built as part of the superstructure of a bridge. The earliest record of a bridge mill is from Córdoba, Spain in the 12th century.[8]
  • Vertical-axle windmill: A small wind wheel operating an organ is described as early as the 1st century AD by Hero of Alexandria.[9][10] The first vertical-axle windmills were eventually built in Sistan, Persia as described by Muslim geographers. These windmills had long vertical driveshafts with rectangle shaped blades.[11] They may have been constructed as early as the time of the second Rashidun caliph Umar (634-644 AD), though some argue that this account may have been a 10th-century amendment.[12] Made of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind corn and draw up water, and used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries.[13] Horizontal axle windmills of the type generally used today, however, were developed in Northwestern Europe in the 1180s.[9][10]

Medical products

Further information: Medicine in the medieval Islamic world

Military

Weapons

  • Early Rockets: Syrian Al-Hassan er-Rammah's manuscript "The Book of Fighting on Horseback and With War Engines"(1280) includes the first known design for a rocket driven torpedo.[17][18]
  • Greek fire: Greek fire was first used by Muslims in the 12th century to defend against the Crusaders. An account by Raymund de Agiles describes how Arabs threw pitch, wax sulpher and tow at approaching armies. A special attachment to corps of archers in the Muslim army called "Naphtha troops" specialized in using this incendiary material. [19]

Music

  • Guitar: the modern guitar is thought to have developed from the earlier Arabic instrument "Oud." Introduced through medieval Spain, the guitar was initially referred to as guitarra moresca (moorish guitar) in the 12th century. [20][21]
  • Lute: while pre-Islamic Arabs had similar instruments, the Lute is thought to have been invented in the 11th century, and spread from Iraq to other areas under Muslim provinces. [22][20]

Pottery

Main article: Islamic pottery
Tin-glazed Hispano-Moresque ware with lusterware decoration, from Spain circa 1475.
  • Albarello: An albarello is a type of maiolica earthenware jar originally designed to hold apothecaries' ointments and dry drugs. The development of this type of pharmacy jar had its roots in the Islamic Middle East.
  • Fritware: It refers to a type of pottery which was first developed in the Near East, where production is dated to the late 1st millennium AD through the second millennium AD Frit was a significant ingredient. A recipe for "fritware" dating to c. 1300 AD written by Abu’l Qasim reports that the ratio of quartz to "frit-glass" to white clay is 10:1:1.[23] This type of pottery has also been referred to as "stonepaste" and "faience" among other names.[24] A 9th-century corpus of "proto-stonepaste" from Baghdad has "relict glass fragments" in its fabric.[25]
  • Hispano-Moresque ware: This was a style of Islamic pottery created in Islamic Spain, after the Moors had introduced two ceramic techniques to Europe: glazing with an opaque white tin-glaze, and painting in metallic lusters. Hispano-Moresque ware was distinguished from the pottery of Christendom by the Islamic character of its decoration.[26]
  • Iznik pottery: Produced in Ottoman Turkey as early as the 15th century AD[27] It consists of a body, slip, and glaze, where the body and glaze are "quartz-frit."[28] The "frits" in both cases "are unusual in that they contain lead oxide as well as soda"; the lead oxide would help reduce the thermal expansion coefficient of the ceramic.[29] Microscopic analysis reveals that the material that has been labeled "frit" is "interstitial glass" which serves to connect the quartz particles.[30]
  • Lusterware: Lustre glazes were applied to pottery in Mesopotamia in the 9th century; the technique soon became popular in Persia and Syria.[31] Lusterware was later produced in Egypt during the Fatimid caliphate in the 10th-12th centuries. While the production of lusterware continued in the Middle East, it spread to Europe—first to Al-Andalus, notably at Málaga, and then to Italy, where it was used to enhance maiolica.
  • Stonepaste ceramic: Invented in 9th-century Iraq,[32] it was a vitreous or semivitreous ceramic ware of fine texture, made primarily from non-refactory fire clay.[33]
  • Tin-glazing: The tin-glazing of ceramics was invented by Muslim potters in 8th-century Basra, Iraq. The first examples of this technique can be found as blue-painted ware in 8th-century Basra.[34] The oldest fragments found to-date were excavated from the palace of Samarra about fifty miles north of Baghdad.[35]

Other

Al-Kindi's 9th century Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages was the first book on cryptanalysis and frequency analysis.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong:

    "There have been many civilizations in human history, almost all of which were local, in the sense that they were defined by a region and an ethnic group. This applied to all the ancient civilizations of the Middle East—Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Persia; to the great civilizations of Asia—India, China; and to the civilizations of Pre-Columbian America. There are two exceptions: Christianity and Islam. These are two civilizations defined by religion, in which religion is the primary defining force, not, as in India or China, a secondary aspect among others of an essentially regional and ethnically defined civilization. Here, again, another word of explanation is necessary."
  2. ^ Danny Yee. "Islam: The Straight Path, John L. Esposito, Oxford University Press 1998". Danny Yee's Book Reviews. Retrieved 10 October 2009.
  3. ^ p. 45, Islamic & European expansion: the forging of a global order, Michael Adas, ed., Temple University Press, 1993, ISBN 1-56639-068-0.
  4. ^ Max Weber & Islam, Toby E. Huff and Wolfgang Schluchter, eds., Transaction Publishers, 1999, ISBN 1-56000-400-2, p. 53
  5. ^ Derewenda, Zygmunt S. (2007), "On wine, chirality and crystallography", Acta Crystallographica Section A: Foundations of Crystallography, 64 (Pt 1): 246–258 [247], doi:10.1107/S0108767307054293, PMID 18156689
  6. ^ Ansari, Farzana Latif; Qureshi, Rumana; Qureshi, Masood Latif (1998). Electrocyclic reactions: from fundamentals to research. Wiley-VCH. p. 2. ISBN 3-527-29755-3.
  7. ^ Khairallah, Amin A. (1946), Outline of Arabic Contributions to Medicine, chapter 10, Beirut
  8. ^ Lucas, Adam (2006), Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology, Brill Publishers, pp. 62 & 64, ISBN 90-04-14649-0
  9. ^ a b Drachmann, A.G. (1961), "Heron's Windmill", Centaurus, 7: 145–151. {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |author-name-separator= (help); Unknown parameter |author-separator= ignored (help)
  10. ^ a b Dietrich Lohrmann, "Von der östlichen zur westlichen Windmühle", Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, Vol. 77, Issue 1 (1995), pp.1-30 (10f.)
  11. ^ Ahmad Y Hassan, Donald Routledge Hill (1986). Islamic Technology: An illustrated history, p. 54. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-42239-6.
  12. ^ Dietrich Lohrmann (1995). "Von der östlichen zur westlichen Windmühle", Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 77 (1), p. 1-30 (8).
  13. ^ Donald Routledge Hill, "Mechanical Engineering in the Medieval Near East", Scientific American, May 1991, pp. 64-9 (cf. Donald Routledge Hill, Mechanical Engineering)
  14. ^ Maillard, Adam P. Fraise, Peter A. Lambert, Jean-Yves (2007). Principles and Practice of Disinfection, Preservation and Sterilization. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons. p. 4. ISBN 0470755067.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Bowles, Edmund A. (2006), "The impact of Turkish military bands on European court festivals in the 17th and 18th centuries", Early Music, 34 (4), Oxford University Press: 533–60, doi:10.1093/em/cal103
  16. ^ Chevedden, Paul E. (1 January 2000). "The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet: A Study in Cultural Diffusion". Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 54: 71. doi:10.2307/1291833. The traction trebuchet, invented by the Chinese sometime before the fourth century B.C., was partially superseded at the beginning of the eighth century by the hybrid trebuchet. This machine appears to have originated in the realms of Islam under the impetus of the Islamic conquest movements.
  17. ^ http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19762056000
  18. ^ http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-06/st_islamtech
  19. ^ Partington, J. R. (1998). A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder. pp. 20–23. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ a b Barbera, Henry (1998). "The Military Factor in Social Change: The State As Revolution". pp. 116–118. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  21. ^ Evans, Tom (1977). Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock. Paddington Press Ltd. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Houtsma, M. Th (1993). First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936. BRILL. p. 987.
  23. ^ Bernsted, A.K. (2003), "Early Islamic Pottery: Materials and Techniques, London: Archetype Publications Ltd., 25; R.B. Mason and M.S. Tite 1994, The Beginnings of Islamic Stonepaste Technology", Archaeometry, 36 (1): 77. {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |author-name-separator= (help); Unknown parameter |author-separator= ignored (help)
  24. ^ Mason and Tite 1994, 77.
  25. ^ Mason and Tite 1994, 79-80.
  26. ^ Caiger-Smith, 1973, p.65
  27. ^ Tite, M.S. (1989), "Iznik Pottery: An Investigation of the Methods of Production", Archaeometry, 31 (2): 115, doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.1989.tb01008.x. {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |author-name-separator= (help); Unknown parameter |author-separator= ignored (help)
  28. ^ Tite 1989, 120.
  29. ^ Tite 1989, 129.
  30. ^ Tite 1989, 120, 123.
  31. ^ Ten thousand years of pottery, Emmanuel Cooper, University of Pennsylvania Press, 4th ed., 2000, ISBN 0-8122-3554-1, pp. 86–88.
  32. ^ Mason, Robert B. (1995), "New Looks at Old Pots: Results of Recent Multidisciplinary Studies of Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic World", Muqarnas: Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture, XII, Brill Academic Publishers: 5, ISBN 90-04-10314-7.
  33. ^ Standard Terminology Of Ceramic Whiteware and Related Products. ASTM Standard C242.
  34. ^ Mason, Robert B. (1995), "New Looks at Old Pots: Results of Recent Multidisciplinary Studies of Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic World", Muqarnas: Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture, XII, Brill Academic Publishers: 1, ISBN 90-04-10314-7.
  35. ^ Caiger-Smith, 1973, p.23
  36. ^ Harding, John (2006), Flying's strangest moments: extraordinary but true stories from over one thousand years of aviation history, Robson, pp. 1–2, ISBN 1-86105-934-5
  37. ^ a b Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 [100f.]
  38. ^ Weinberg, Bennett Alan (2001), The world of caffeine, Routledge, pp. Page 3–4, ISBN 978-0-415-92723-9 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  39. ^ Ireland, Corydon. "Of the bean I sing". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  40. ^ John K. Francis. "Coffea arabica L. RUBIACEAE" (PDF). Factsheet of U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
  41. ^ Meyers, Hannah (7 March 2005). ""Suave Molecules of Mocha" -- Coffee, Chemistry, and Civilization". Retrieved 3 February 2007.
  42. ^ Broemeling, Lyle D. (1 November 2011). "An Account of Early Statistical Inference in Arab Cryptology". The American Statistician. 65 (4): 255–257. doi:10.1198/tas.2011.10191.
  43. ^ Al-Kadi, Ibrahim A. (1992). "The origins of cryptology: The Arab contributions". Cryptologia. 16 (2): 97–126.
  44. ^ Peter Barrett (2004), Science and Theology Since Copernicus: The Search for Understanding, p. 18, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0-567-08969-X

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