Golden_Age_Facts

INVENTIONS AND FACTS FROM MUSLIM CIVILIZATION (Golden Age)

FATIMA AL FIHRI: Founded the world's first university. She financed and supervised the building of the Al Qarawiyin Mosque, in Fez, Morocco about 1,150 years ago. It is now the world's oldest active university.

JABIR IBN HAYYAN: Perfected the distillation process which is still used in the creation of perfume, gasoline, and more. He is also famous for discovering Sulfuric acid and Hydrochloric acid.

MIMAR SINAN: Born in Turkey, he was a famous architect and designed and built more than 477 mosques, schools and structures throughout the Muslim world. He was the chief architect for the Ottoman Sultans. Two of his most famous mosques are Selimiye in Edirne, Turkey and Suleymaniye in Istanbul, Turkey.

AL KHWARIZMI: He was the "Father Of Algebra" who introduced new concepts in Math in Baghdad around 830. His book Al Jabr Wa l Muqabala introduced basics of Algebra, that we study today. Al khwarizmi in Latin is known as ALGORITMI, the source of the term, ALGORITHM.

AL IDRISI: In 1154, the Muslim geographer, Al Idrisi finished the first atlas, which showed most of North Africa, Asia and Europe.This was about 100 years before Marco Polo wrote about his travels to China and back.

MUHAMMAD AL KARAJI: An 11th century mathematician and engineer from Persia, he described a network of underground tunnels called QANATS, that could carry water over long distances without evaporation. QANATS are still used in some areas in Iran and other Middle East countries.

AL JAZARI: Made the first machine that combined a crank and connecting rod to convert circular motion to linear motion.

Today crank-rod system is used in everything from car engines to toys.

IBN BATTUTA: In 1324, a 21 year old Moroccan, named Ibn BATTUTA set out for Mecca on a journey that would last 29 years and take him to he four corners of the world. He travelled more than 75,000 miles and 44 countries. He called CHINA the safest and best country for travelers. He is often called the Muslim Marco Polo.

TURKISH KIOSKS OR KOSHKS: A domed hall with open, arched sides. In Muslim civilizations, KOSHKS were usually attached to a mosque and often over looked gardens. "Glass Rooms" or "Conservatories" evolved from koshks. One of the most famous Kiosk or koshk, CINILI KOSHK, was built in 1473 at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Turkey.

An Abyssinian goat herder, about 1200 years ago discovered coffee, when his goats got an energy boost after eating some red berries.People soon began boiling berries to make coffee.

MOCHA is both the name of a kind of coffee bean and the name of the port in Yemen, that was the center of coffee trade from 15th to 17th centuries.

COTTON: From India was imported to Sicily and Spain by Muslims and became a major crop. The cotton plant is called ALGODON in Spanish, from the Arabic word AL QUTN.

SUGAR CANE: Found its way to Zanzibar, Ethiopia and Spain, thanks to Muslim traders. Today some of the best sugar comes from Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania in East Africa.

The word CHECK MATE comes from the Persian word "Shahmat" which means the king is dead.

9th century philosopher and scientist AL KINDI was the first to lay down the foundations of modern day optics, by questioning earlier theories of vision. He has been called one of the "12 GIANT MINDS of history."