During the Vedic times in ancient India, there were revelations about the solar system that got proven more than fifteen hundred years later. There are ancient scriptures that talked about surgery at a time when Europe or even Egypt did not have any exposure to complicated medical procedures. Religion and science have more often than frequent been at loggerheads. But history has proven time and again that religion has often imposed beliefs, some of what have been proven by science.
Islam is often criticized today because of the heinous misuse of its tenets across Middle East but there was a time when Islamic science was innovative and made steadfast progress, something that the Church did not support in Europe. Here are five things that you did not know about Islamic innovation.
- There was an Arab scholar by the name of Al Khwarizmi who invented algebra. He can be called the father of modern algebra which is the basis of algorithms running search engines and the foundation of engineering. Algebra did not come to Europe till the twelfth century and the Arabs had already mastered the same by then.
- Very few religions in the world focus as much on personal hygiene and cleanliness as Islam. It was the tenets of Quran that lead to the first experiments with what we call toothbrush today. The earliest toothbrush was made of twigs. It is believed that the first toothbrush predates the propagation of Islam and that Prophet Mohammed used to brush his teeth with such twigs, which were called miswak.
- Did you know that the guitar is not a European or American innovation? It originated in Arab and it is as old as the Middle Ages. The instrument was originally an oud, a kind of lute that had a bent neck. This instrument made its way from Andalusia to Spain where it came to be known as qitara. Later, the modern guitar was developed from this design.
- The Arabs of the Middle Ages were developing their mathematical skills and understood time, explained human vision and started making progress in astronomy. It was during this time that they came up with the magnifying glass. One Abu al Hasan, also known as Alhazen, explained how human vision works and that paved the way for glasses for corrective purposes.
- While Islamic innovation did not lead to surgery, it did lead to the invention of forceps and syringes among others. The invention of syringe and forceps is credited to Albucasis, also known as Abu al-Kasim.