AL-JAZARI

And the History of the Water Clock

 

Gunpowder Composition for Rockets and Cannon

in Arabic Military Treatises

In Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

 

A Gap in the history of gunpowder and cannon

In some documented histories of warfare and weapons in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance there is a noticeable gap in the history of gunpowder and cannon in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Some Authors jump from China in the far east to Europe in the far west with the slightest reference or no reference at all to the Arabic and Islamic lands that spanned the whole distance between east and west. In the thirteenth century, technology could hardly have been transferred between the two extremities of the old world unless it passed through the Arabic and Islamic medium and subjected to more developments.

For some of the key Arabic words in this article, please see here.

Science in the medieval Islamic world

Science in the medieval Islamic world

Science in the medieval Islamic world, also known as Islamic science or Arabic science, is the science developed and practised in the Islamic world during the Islamic Golden Age (c.750 CE – c.1258 CE). During this time, Indian, Asyriac, Iranian and especially Greek knowledge was translated into Arabic. These translations became a wellspring for scientific advances, by scientists from the Islamic civilization, during the Middle Ages.[1]

According to Dallal, science in medieval Islam was "practiced on a scale unprecedented in earlier human history or even contemporary human history".[2]

Scientists within the Islamic civilization were of diverse ethnicities. Most were Persians,[3][4][5][6] Arabs,[5] Moors, Assyrians, and Egyptians. They were also from diverse religious backgrounds. Most were Muslims,[7][8][9] but there were also some Christians,[10] Jews[10][11] and irreligious.[12][13]
Contents

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History of Islamic Science

Based on the book

Introduction to the History of Science by George Sarton
(provided with photos and portraits)
Edited and prepared by Prof. Hamed A. Ead

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George Sarton's Tribute to Muslim Scientists in the "Introduction to the History of Science,"
"It will suffice here to evoke a few glorious names without contemporary equivalents in the West: Jabir ibn Haiyan, al-Kindi, al-Khwarizmi, al-Fargani, al-Razi, Thabit ibn Qurra, al-Battani, Hunain ibn Ishaq, al-Farabi, Ibrahim ibn Sinan, al-Masudi, al-Tabari, Abul Wafa, 'Ali ibn Abbas, Abul Qasim, Ibn al-Jazzar, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, Ibn Yunus, al-Kashi, Ibn al-Haitham, 'Ali Ibn 'Isa al-Ghazali, al-zarqab, Omar Khayyam. A magnificent array of names which it would not be difficult to extend. If anyone tells you that the Middle Ages were scientifically sterile, just quote these men to him, all of whom flourished within a short period, 750 to 1100 A.D."