What the Ancients Did for Us – The Islamic World
The rise of Islam is one of the most important events in world history. In the 7th century, Mohammed’s intention was to unite the divided Arabs through a new religion. A century after his death, he’d succeeded in producing a medieval superpower. The Arabs and Moors had spread through Spain towards the Pyrenees. Cordoba became renowned as one of the greatest and wealthiest cities in Europe. Moorish cities such as Toledo and Seville were famed for their new culture and universities.
The first What The Ancients Did For Us programme explores the Muslim contribution to the western world – in art, architecture, astronomy, medicine, science, and learning. The early Muslims are credited with inventing distillation and could distil just about anything – from alcohol to perfume. Hygiene is very important in the Muslim world so they invented and manufactured soap – centuries before the West – and hundreds of bathhouses were built throughout Muslim cities.
They understood the fundamentals of light and how we see, and gave us the camera obscura. They invented algebra and worked out the angle of the tilt of the earth. They built the first windmill, pioneered the concept of the crank rod, and designed the first ever torpedo.
Muslim creativity also led to the invention of a unique instrument called the astrolabe – it could find the direction of Mecca, tell the time and, with the help of the stars, navigate you across deserts and oceans. But perhaps most important of all they pursued the cause of knowledge, translating and preserving the works of the ancients and building the world’s largest libraries – their ‘houses of wisdom’. (Excerpt from open2.net)
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Nice one!
Excellent! Alhumdulillah!
Makes me want to become an engineer. Or just to get a camel and a still. Either way, I’m inspired!
How sad we don’t see any of this in our history books.
i dont think muhammed had an intention to unite the divided arabs through a new religion since islam ,unlike judaism based on a race ,is a religion for all(at least in theory) ..not only arabs but also turks, persians and god knows who else r also muslims..
after arabs , ottomans, descendants of turks ,took the mission of spreading the world..
anyway time to watch the doc..
oops .. i mean word..
It’s interesting to note how most modern shows about weapons (specifically I have “Weaponology” in mind) completely fail to even breathe a word about the Islamic advances in weapons. I had honestly never known that torpedoes could be traced back to the 12th century. Nor did I know that Saladin was in command of of them…
@FaJu Shows on The History and Military Channel are designed more to dazzle and impress the “average Joe sixpack” with how “awesome” and “technically advanced” the US military is. They make them look like big fancy toys instead of lethal weapons, so the uncritical public sees their use in Afghanistan and Iraq (and Iran, soon) as scientific progress and American ingenuity. If they started mentioning the Islamic contribution to this technology, viewers might think about the actual Muslim humans these state-of-the-art targeting systems are really targeting, and undermines the goals of this “technological superiority” justification.
In simpler terms, always remember who is behind the c*** you see on TV when you watch it.
Jeah right, all hail Allah….not.
Long before Islam there was the Roman Empire, and after the Empire was split the east roman empire had its Capitol in Konstantinopel, now known as Instambul. Later it was was conquered by Islam, and thats where they got “their” great inventions, from the east roman empire. Even the architecture of Mosques comes from the hagia sophia in Instambul…which actually was a Church before the City was conquered.
So there goes the hyphosis of the superior Islam invening everything important and making the West what it is today. It’s bull, sorry guys, but I’m sure Allah is still great and all. :D