Muslims, especially during their golden era, have made major contributions to all spheres of science. At times, Muslim scientists were pioneers in certain fields of study. Below is a list of some renowned Muslim scientists and a brief summary of each of their amazing contributions.
Medicine is indebted to Ibn Sina for his book called al-Qanun fil-Tibb, which is popularly known in the west as “Canon”. This book, The Qanun fil-Tibb, is a huge encyclopedia of medicine that has over one million words. The book was written after surveying ancient and Muslim medical knowledge available at the time. This book had a systematic and formal approach and also an intrinsic value, which is why it was superior to other similar works and remained supreme for six centuries.
Al Qanun is not just a compilation but also rich with the author’s original contributions. Some findings contained in the book include:
The book described pharmacological methods and also 760 drugs and was regarded as the most authentic materia medica of that era.
Ibn Sina was the first person to ever describe meningitis and made rich contributions to anatomy, gynecology and child health. He also wrote a philosophical encyclopedia called Kitab al-Shifa and embodied vast knowledge from philosophy to science.
In addition, Ibn Sina made contributions in the fields of mathematics, physics, music and astronomy.
Abul Wafa also made some major contributions to trigonometry. Some of these are:
It is but a fact that a major part of modern day trigonometry can be traced back to Abul Wafa.
In the time of Al-Ghazali, Muslim philosophers had developed several viewpoints regarding Greek philosophy; this led to a conflict with several Islamic teachings.
At the same time, sufism took to an extreme and was diverging towards avoidance of obligatory prayers and duties of Islam.
It was Ghazali who endeavored to rectify these trends in philosophy and sufism.
Tackling philosophy, Ghazali maintained that approaches of mathematics and exact sciences were fundamentally correct, but he used techniques found in Aristotelian logic and Neoplatonic procedures to counter Neoplatonic philosophy and reveal its flaws.
Unlike other Muslim philosophers, Ghazali showed that “reason” could not comprehend the absolute and the infinite as he argued that “reason” was only limited to the observation of the relative.
Also unlike other Muslim philosophers, Ghazali did not believe that the universe was finite in space but infinite in time and he contended that an infinite time was related to an infinite space.
Al Ghazali was responsible for cleansing the Sufi approach of Islam from all its excesses and reinstating the orthodox stream of Islam. Ghazali, with his deep and everlasting influence, is considered to be one of the greatest theologians of Islam.
His other famous book called al-Athar al-Baqia, provides an account of the ancient history of nations along with related geographical facts. This book of his discusses the earth’s rotation, providing correct values of latitudes and longitudes for a number of places.
Among his scientific contributions is the fact that he determined accurately the densities of 18 different stones. He also wrote another book called the Kitab-al-Saidana that combined the Arabic knowledge of medicine of that time with that of Indian medicine.
Al-Biruni, it is documented, began (before anyone else) discussing whether the earth rotates around its axis or not. Experiments carried out by Al-Biruni taken together with some other Muslim scientists formed the early basis of modern science. His other achievements include:
Al-Biruni is considered one of the greatest scientists of Islam and also counted among the greatest scientists of all times.
One of his famous discoveries is that he accurately determined the solar year as being 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds. He also determined that the longitude of the sun’s apogee had increased since Ptolemy by 16o, 47′, implying discoveries of the motion of the solar apsides and of a slow variation in the equation of time.
Battani also accurately determined the obliquity of the ecliptic, the length of the seasons and the true and mean orbit of the sun. In addition to this, he corrected several orbits of the moon and the planets and formulated a unique theory to determine conditions for visibility of the new moon.
As a contribution to mathematics he is credited to have replaced Greek chords by sines as he understood them to be superior. He also developed the concept of cotangent, including furnishing their table in degrees.
In philosophy, he attempted to synthesize Platonism and Aristotelism with theology and documented rich commentaries on Aristotle’s physics, meteorology, logic, etc.
Al-Farabi was the author of many books and was regarded as the second teacher after Aristotle.
An important contribution to philosophy by Al-Farabi was that he made the study of logic more easy by dividing it into two categories: Takhayyul (idea) and Thubut (proof).
It was Al-Farabi’s work at synthesizing philosophy and Sufism that paved the way for Ibn Sina’s work.
Al-Farghani was a distinguished astronomer. He was the author of “Elements of Astronomy” (Kitab fi al-Harakat al-Samawiya wa Jawami Ilm al-Nujum). This was a book discussing celestial motion as well as a thorough science of the stars. This book, after being translated into Latin, commanded great influence upon European astronomy. Al-Farghani was the one who calculated the diameter of the earth to be 6,500 miles.
The book “The Elements of Astronomy” is regarded as Al-Farghani’s best and most influential work. It was so influential in that there are quite a few references to it in books written by medieval scholars.
It is certain that he was one of the greatest exponents responsible for spreading knowledge regarding Ptolemaic astronomy till the time of Sacrobosco’s Sphere. This however did not diminish the value of his book “Elements of Astronomy” which continued to be used; Sacrobosco’s Sphere clearly being indebted to it.
It was from “Elements of Astronomy” that Dante stemmed the astronomical knowledge available in the ‘Vita nuova’ and in the ‘Convivio’.
View Comments
السّلام علیکم ،
Brother, you have done a great job by writing this article, however, there's a "grave mistake" in your attempt. :)
You should exclusively mention the English/Latin names given to these scientists so that all the English readers know who they are reading about. For example, the popular name of Ibn Sina is Avicenna. It will be a great discovery for non-Muslims when they come to know that Avicenna was actually a Muslim scientist and his actual name was Ibn Sina.
Best,
عثمان
I concur ^^^
Itz great pleasure n proud to v young Muslims that v had done a great job in the field of science. But my request is to make clear the whole humanity by giving English names of these Muslim scientists who had done such a great job.
Yes, Only seven. How about an article about the hundreds of Jewish scientists that have made our world a better place.
Thanks Greggbc. Actually the objective of this article was not to compete. The fact is that while the great Jewish scholars and scientists such as Einstein, Freud, etc. are well known and respected across the world, Muslim scientists - and there were many more than the 7 mentioned here - have long been forgotten despite their tremendous contributions. They have even been forgotten by the Muslims themselves. One objective of this article was to show that scientific research and debate was very much encouraged and appreciated during the golden age of Islam, despite the sad situation today. In the Qur'an in several passages God has encouraged man to use his intellect and explore the world and use his reason in order to conclude the existence of God. I should also mention that several western scholars have concluded that the Renaissance in Europe took place largely as a result of what Europeans learned from the Muslims. Thanks for your input.
This is what is the motive not to compete but to bring the encouragement in front of the world Thanks Hasan well replied
What are your sources for this information? Thanks. And did you know that al-Ghazali considered Ibn Sina a kafir? Also, it seems generally clear from the writings of the early scholars that at least Ibn Sina and Al-Farabi were not actually Muslims.
Thanks for your comments Abu Hafsa. This information is available in several sources. One book you may have read is 100 Most Influential Muslims in History. Another good one is Saviors of the Islamic Spirit. There are several others. Finally, please understand that we are not scholars. Granted many scholars had great differences of opinions. This is why even giants such as Al-Ghazzali and Ibn Taymiyyah - may Allah have mercy on both - were labelled as 'Kaafirs' during their lifetimes. As far as I am aware their is no consensus of the scholars on the belief of some of the personalities we have mentioned. Until there is, we will avoid taking any position on this issue. One cannot deny their contributions to science.
yes thats true ibn sina and al farabi at the end are tent to be athiest...and how about al kindi..from iraq. is this also a muslim scientist....right
ibn Sina was a nizari Ismaili , Sunni scholars always refered to nizaris as kafirs
can any one give me few names of muslim scientist and their invention of last 2 centuries.
Nil.
Owners of CIPLA, Hamdard, etc. In India can be counted as scientists having worked in medicene field making generic medicines affordable for common man.
very nice work......all these scientist were pioneer some of basic science concepts...which helped alot to many of current muslim and non-muslim scientist to make our world a better place.
Tremendous contribution in knowledge of all of us. Unfortunately, during the past 900 approx years there has not been any significant contribution from any Muslim Scientist. There is a reson for that that we have forgotten basic concept of life. Concentration is towards materialism everywhere. There are very few Research Institutes on Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics , Engineering, Medicine, Surgery etc. New inventions will come from these Research institutes, if ever opened and utilized properly. What to talk of research, we totally lack basic Educational Facilities for our children like school buildings, furniture, clean drinking water and toilets etc. Still, a lot is required to be done in basic education,whereas the world has gone far far ahead of us. I don't know w
I would like to studies,,,about religion please ,kindly request
chandana
I would like to studies,,,about religion please,sent me some information about Islam,
Bro, you have a Muslim name so I thought you are a Muslim already? Please let me know what kind of information are you looking for.
A very nice article for the encouragement of all especially muslims because they are facing a lot of problems everywhere. So hope this article may bring some hope in them. And if they get a chance to read their books then might be they can progress better