From coffee beans, to carpets, cameras and clocks and many more 'forgotten' inventions of the Muslim world, the "1001 Inventions" book discovers the Muslim Heritage in our World, exploring many inventions and scientific contributions by Muslims that much of Western civilisation now relies on.
"This glorious book overflows with the great ideas of the Muslim middle ages. From al-Jazari and his elegant clocks and al-Kindi and Ibn al-Haitham with their revolutionary optical theories, experiments, and books, to the astronomers who navigated across the desert by the stars, and the map-makers who put north at the bottom, every page is a mine of joyous information. There are even recipes to try out, and everything is beautifully illustrated. I wish I had had this book fifty years ago" Adam Hart-Davis; Photographer, Writer and TV Science Presenter of BBC Series 'What the Ancients Did for Us'.
"1001 Inventions" Book sheds light on hundreds of innovations associated with the western world but originate from Muslim scholarship and science.
In its 350 colourful pages, "1001 Inventions" challenges what a wide range of people believe, that the Dark Ages were a period of stagnation and decline, presenting evidence that the 600 to 1600CE was indeed a golden age for Muslim civilisation that laid the foundations for much of science and technology.
"The extent to which Muslims have contributed to Western Civilisation is not generally well-known. Yet these ancient scholars from the Islamic world gave us many of the everyday things we use today such as coffee, soap and clocks. This exhibition shows that Muslims have always shared the heritage that provides a platform for developments that makes the Western World tick".
"A lot of these scientific and cultural developments are accepted as fact in the academy, but the vast majority of people - because of the nature of the education system - are completely unaware of their origins," Professor Al-Hassani, who has led a five-year project to collate and validate the research behind the book, said.
The organizers of the project, '1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage of Our World', the Manchester-based Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, hope to use the compilation to bring about an audit of the national curriculum to ensure it recognises Islamic achievements and the full extent of knowledge transfer between civilisations through the ages, UK's The Guardian reported.
The same organisation is behind the hugely successful website www.MuslimHeritage.com. Both Elizabeth Woodcock and Dr.Rabah Saoud worked to recomplile years of academic research into an easy to read form. "Open the book at any page and you'll learn something new" said Elizabeth.
"Islam needs to take its place alongside other historic groups, such as the ancient Romans and Greeks," said Professor Mark Halstead, a lecturer in moral education at Plymouth University.
"When Europe was living in the dark ages, Islamic civilisation was blossoming, and the advances during this period are more relevant to the modern world than those of the Ancient Egyptians and Aztecs."
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//www.1001inventions.com