A TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT MUSLIM SCIENTISTS 6


   AL-ZAHRAVI

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Abul Qasim Khalaf ibn al-abbas al-Zahrvi (Known in the west as Abulcasis) was born in 936 A.D. in Zahra in the neighborhood of cordova. he became one of the most renowned surgeons of the Muslim era and was physician to king al-Hakam-II of Spain. After a long medical career, rich with significant original contribution, he died in 1013 A. D. 
He is best known for his early and original breakthroughs in surgery as well as for his famous medical Encyclopedia called Al-Tasrif, which is composed of thirty volumes covering different aspects of medical science. the more important part of this series comprises three books on surgery, which describe in detail various aspects of surgical treatment as based on the operations performed by him, including cauterization, removal of stone from the bladder, dissection of animal, midwifery, styptics, and surgery of eye, ear and throat. He perfected several delicate operatios. including remove of the dared foetus and amputation. 


Al-Tasrif was first translated by Gherardo of Cremation into Latin in the Middle Ages. it was followed by several other editors in Europe. the book contains numerous diagrams and illustrations of surgical instruments, in use or developed by him, and comprised a part of the medical curriculum in European countries for many centuries. Contrary to the view that the Muslim fought shy of surgery Al-Zahravi's Al-Tasrif provided a monumental collection of this branch of applied science. 


Al-Zahravi was the inventor of several surgical instruments, of which three are noble. (i) an instrument for internal examination of the ear, (ii) an instrument for internal inspection of the urethra. and (iii) and instrument for applying or removing foreign bodies from the throat. He specialized in curing disease by cauterization and applied the technique to as many as 50 different operations. 


In his book Al-Tasrif, Al-Zahravi has also discussed the preparatory of various medicines, in addition to a comprehensive account of surgical treatment in specialized branches, whose modern counterparts are E.N.T . ophthalmology, etc, in connection with the preparation of medicines, he has also described in detail the application of such techniques as sublimation and recantation. Al-Zahravi was also an expert in dentistry and his book contains sketches of various instruments used Theron, in additional to a description of various important dental operations. He discussed the problem of Non-aligned or deformed teeth and how to rectify theses defects, He developed the technique of preparing artificial teeth and of replacement of defective teeth by these. in medicine, he was the first to describe in detail the unusual disease, hemophilia. 


There can be no doubt the Al-Zahravi influenced the field of medicine and surgery very deeply and the principles laid down by him were recognized as authentic in medical science, especially surgery and those continued to influence the medical world for five centuries According to Dr. Campbell (History ar Arab medicine), his principles of medical science surpassed those of Galen in the European medical curriculum,. 


(Created By Dr. Jamal-ud-din khan MBBS)

A TRIBUTE TO GREAT MUSLIM SCIENTISTS 5


AL-HAITHAM


Abu ali hasan Ibn al-Haitham was one of the most eminent physicists, whose contributions to optics and the scientific methods are outstanding known in the west as alhazen. Ibn al-Hautham was born in 965 A.D. in Basrah, and was educated in Basrah and haghdad. Thereafter. he went to Egypt, where he was asked to find ways of controlling the flood of the Nile. Being unsuccessful in this, he feigned madness until the death of Caliph al-Hakim, he also traveled to spain and during this period. he had ample time for his scientific pursuits, which included optics, mathematics, physics, medicine and devlopment of scientific methods on each of which he has left wveral outstanding books. he made a thorough examination of the passage of light through various media and discovered the laws of refraction. he also carried out the firs experiments on the dispersion of light into its constituent colors. His book Kitab-at-Manazir was translated into Latin in the Middle ages, as also his book delaing with the colors of sunset. He dellt at length with the theory of various physical phenomena like shadows, eclipses, the rainbow, and speculated on the physical nature of light. He is the first to describe accuratley the various parts of the eye and give a scientific explanation of the process of vision. he also attempted to explain binoclular vision, and gave a correct explanation of the apparent increase in size of the sun and the moon when near the horizon. He is known for the earlist use of the camera obscura. He contradicted ptolemy's and Euclid's theory of vision that objects are seen by rays of light emanating from the eyes. according to hin the rays originate in the object of vision and not in th eyee. Through thsese extensive researches on optics, he has been considered as the father of modern optics. the Latin translation of his main work, Kitab-ato-Manazir, exerted a great influence upon western science e.g. on the work on Roger Bacon and Kepler. It brought about a great progress in experimental methods. his research in catoptrics centrered on spherical and parabolic mirrors and spherical aberration. He made the important observation that the radio between the angle of incidence and refraction does not remain constant and investigated the magnifying power of a lens. His catoprics contain the important problem known as Alhazen's problem It comprises drawing lenes from two pionts in the plane of a circle meeting at a point on the circumference and making equal angles with the normal at that point. this leads to an equation of the fouth degree. in his book Mizan al-Hikmah Ibn alk-Haitham has discussed the density of the atmosphere refraction, he discovered that the twilight only ceases or begins when the sun is 19 below the horizon and attempted to measure the ghight of the atompsphere on the basis, he has also discussed the theories of attraction between masses, andit seems that he was aware of the magnitude of accleeration due to gravity. His contribution to mathematics and physics was wxtensive. in mathematics, he developed analytical geometry by establishing linkage between algebra and geometry. He studied the mechanics of motion of a body and was the first to maintain that a body moves perpetualoly unless an external force stops it of changes its dirction of motion. Thsi wold seem equivalent to the first law of motion. The list of his books runs to 200 or so, very few of which have survived. Even his monumental treatise on optics surived through its latin Translation. During the Middle ages his books on cosmology were translated into Latin. Hebrew and othe rlanguages. He has also written on the subject of evolution a book that deserves serious attention even tody. in his writing. one can see a clear devleopment of the scientfici methods as devvloped and applied by the Muslims and comprising the systmeatic obervation of physical phenomena and their linking together into a scientific theory. Thsi was a major breakthrough in scientific methodology, as distinct from guess gesture, and placed scientific pursutits on a sound foundation comprising systematic realtionshop between obervation, bypothesis and verifiction. Ibn al-Haitham'a influence on physical sciences in general and optics in particular, has been held in high esteem and in fact, it ushered in a new era in optical reserach, both in theory and practice. 


(Created By Dr. Jamal-ud-din khan MBBS )

A TRIBUTE TO GREAT MUSLIM SCIENTISTS 4

                  IBN-SINA

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Abu ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn sina was born in 980 A.D at Afshana near bukhara. the young Bu ali received his early education in Bukhara, and by the age of ten had become well versed in the study of the Quran and various sciences. He started studying philosophy by reading various Greek, Muslim and other books on this subject and learnt logic and some other subjects from Abu Abdallah Natili, a famous philosopher of the time, while still young, he attained such a degree of expertise in medicine that his renown spread far and wide. At the age of 17, he war fortunate in curing nooh Ibn Mansoor, the king of Bukhhara, of an illness in which all the well-known physicians had given up hope, on his recovery, the king wished to reward him hut the young physician only desired permission to use his uniquely stocked library. on his father's death, Bu Ali left bukhara and traveled to Jurjan where Khawarizm shah welcomed hi,. There, he met his famous contemporary Abu Raihan al-Biruni. Later he moved to Ray and then to Ramadan, where he wrote his famous book al-Qanun fi al-Tibb. here he treated shams al-Daulah, the king of hamadan, for severe colic. from hamadan he moved to isphahan, where he completed many of his monumental writings. nevertheless, he continued travleing and the excessive mental exertion as well as political turmoil spotlit his health. Finlayy, he returned to hamadan where he died in 1037 A.D he was the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopedic, mathematician and astronomer of his time. his major contribution to medical science was his famous book al-Qanun, known as the 'Canon' in the west. The Qanun fi Al-Tibb is an immense encyclopedia of medicine extending over a million words. it surveyed the entire menial knowledge available from ancient and Muslim sources. Due to its systematic approach, 'formal perfection as well as its intrinsic value, the Qanun superseded Razi's  Hawi, Ali Ibn Abbas's Maliki, and even the works of Galen, and remained supreme for six centuries' In addition to bringing together the then available knowledge, the book is rich with the author's original contribution. His important original contribution includes such advances as recognition of the contagious nature of photolysis and tuberculosis, distribution of diseases by water and soil, and interaction between psychology and health. in addition to describing pharmacological methods, the book described 760 drugs and became the most authentic materia medica of the era. he was also the first to describe meningitis and made rich contributions to anatomy, gynecology and child health. his philosophical encyclopedia Kitab al-Shifa was a monumental work, embodying a vast field of konwledge from philosophy to science. He classified the entire field into theoretical knowledge whcih included physics, mathematics and metaphysics while his classification of practical knowledge ethics, economics and politics. his philosophy synthesizes Aristotelian tradition, Neoplastic influences and Muslim thelogy. Ibn sina also contributed to mathematics. physics. music and other fields. He explained the xasting out of nies and its application to the verification of squares and cubes. he made several astronomical observations, and devised a contrivance similar to the vernier, to increase the precision of instrumental readings. in Physics. his contribution comprised the study of different forms of enery, heat, light and mechanical. and such concepts as force. vacuum and and infinity. He made the important observation that if the. perception of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by the luminous source, the speed of light must be finite. he propounded and interconnection between time and motion, and also made investigations on specific gravity and used an air thermometer. in the field of music, his contribution was an improvement over Farabi's work and was far ahead of knowledge prevailing elsewhere on the subject. Ibn-sina observed that in the series of consonances represented by (n +1) /n. the ear is unable to distinguish them when n-45. in the field of chemistry, he did not believe in the possibility of chemical transmutation because, in his opinion, the metals differed in a fundamental sense. These views were radically opposed to those prevailing at the time. His treatise on minerals was one of the main sources of geology of the Christian encyclopedic of the thirteenth century. Besides shifa his well-known treatises in philosophy are a Najat and Isharat. 


(Created by Dr. Jamal-ud-din khan MBBS)

A TRIBUTE TO GREAT MUSLIM SCIENTISTS 3

        AL-KHAWARIZMI

Abu Abdullah Mohammad Ibn Musa Al-khawarizmi was born at khawarizm (Kheva). south of Aral sea. Very little is known about his early life, except for the fact that his parents had migrated to a place south of baghdad. The exact dates of his birth and death are also not known. but it is established that he flouished under Al-Mamun at baghdad through 813-833. and probabley died around 840 A.D khawarizmi was a mathemaician, astronomer and geographer. he was perhaps one of the greatest mathematicians who ever lived in fact, he was the founder of several branches and basic concepts of mathematics, In the words of phillip Hitti, he influenced mathemtical thought to a greater extent then any other mediaeval writer. His work on algebra was outstanding, as he not only initiate the subject in a systematic form but he also developed it to the extent of giving analytical solutions of linear and quadratic equations, which established him as the founder of algebra. the very name Algebra has been derived from his famous book Al-Jabr wa-al-Mfuqabilah, His arithmetic synthesized Greek and Hindu Knowledge it also contained his own contribution of fundamental importance to mathematics and science. Thus, he explained the use of Zero, a numeral of fundamental importance devloped by the ARabs, Similarly, he veloped the decimal system so that the overall system of unmerals 'algorithm' or 'algorizm' is named after him. in addition to introducing the indian system of numerals (now generally known as Arabic numerals) , he developed at length several arithmetical rocedures, including operations on fractions, it was through his work that the system of numerals was first introduced to arabs and later to Europe, through its translations in European languages. He developed in detail trigonometric tables containing the sine functions, which were probably extrapolated to tangent functions by Maslama. He also perfected the geometric representation of comic sections and eeveloped the calculus of two errors, which parctically led him to the concept of differentiation. he is also reported to have collaborated in the degree measurements ordered by Mamun al-Rashid which were aimed at measuring volume and circumference of the earth. the development of astronomical tables by him was a significant contribution to the science of astronomy, on which he also wrote a book. The contribution of Khawarizmi to geography is also outstanding, in that not only did he revise ptolemy's views on geography. but also corrected them in deail as well as his map of the world. His other contributions inculude original work related to clocks. sun-dials and astrolabes. several of his books were translated into Latin in the early 12th century. in fact, his book on arithmetic, Kitab al-Jam' awal-Ta freeq bil Hisab al-Hindi, was lost in Arabic but survived in a Latin translation his book on algebra, Al-Maqala fi Hisab-al Jabr wa-al-Muqabliah. was also translated into Latin in the 12th century, and its was this translation which introduced this new science to the wast "Completely unknown till then" His astronomical tables were also translated into European languages and chinese. His geography captioned Kitab sura-alArd, together with its maps, was also translated. in addition, he wrote a book on the Jewish calendar istihhraj Tarikh al-Yahud, and two books on the astrolabe, He also wrote Kitab al-Tarikh and his book on sun-dials was captioned Kitab al-Rukhmet but both of them have been lost. The influence of Khawarizmi on the growth of science in general, mathematics, astronomy and geography in particular, is well established in histroy. several of his books were readily translated into a number of other languages and in fact, constituted the university text-books till the 16th century. His approach was systematic and logical. He not only bring together the then prevailing knowledge on various branches of science, particulary mathematics, but also enriched it through his original contribution. No doubt he has been held in high repute throughout the centuries since them.

(Created By Dr. Jamal-ud-din khan MBBS)