Contributions of Muslims and Islam to Civilization

This spring semester, Dr. Bashar Shala presented a lecture at Rhodes College on how Islam and Muslims have contributed to the civilization of the world as it is today. First of all, Dr. Shala defined a civilization as a collective sum of different contributions through ages, led by dominant cultures at any certain point in history. Culture, as defined by American Heritage Dictionary, includes language, religion, social customs, agriculture, science, transportation and industry. Dr. Shala noted an interesting fact, that in order for a culture to develop, it had to exchange information with other cultures. The idea that not one culture has “monopoly” in civilization is supported in the Holy Qur’an.

First, Dr. Shala introduced the concept that the ongoing seeking of education is highly encouraged in Islam, and is emphasized many times in the Holy Qur’an. Dr. Shala presented important scientific developments that were discovered by Muslim scholars and are still in use today in the original or innovated form. For example, Arabic numerals were developed by Muslim scholars from India. They became widely used in Europe, and are used to this day as a standard numerological system. Then, the Muslim scholars developed the concept of “zero”. Without that concept, we would not have computers, digital development or complex mathematics like Algebra.

Muslims have definitely contributed in Astronomical and Physical Sciences. For example, the Astrolabe was a tool used to chart the precise time of the sunrise and sunset, ( that was especially used in the time of Ramadan for prayer time) which aided in the development of the modern clock. Navigational tools such as a compass and the astrolabe enable long journey navigation, which lead to the discovery of the New World. According to sources, the Columbus took Moore (Muslim) navigators from Spain during his journeys. Also, it was Muslim navigators who helped the Portuguese find a way to India for trade. By the way, Al-Biruni, a Muslim scientist, was one of the first to discuss the possibility of the Earth rotation on only 1 axis.

Muslims with their passion for learning, that is encouraged by Islam, made great discoveries in the world of medicine. The first anesthesia and cauterization of wounds were performed by Muslim physicians in the Middle Ages. The discovery of disease transmission through air was made at that time as well. Dr. Al-Razi was the first one to diagnose smallpox and measles, which lead to the association with human contamination. Ibn Sina contributed to the European Renaissance by writing a fundamental medicine encyclopedia. Az-Zahrawi created surgical instruments that were used in 17^th century Europe.

With education being emphasized, the Arabian Penninsula region was the first one to begin building universities for higher education opportunities. Muslim scholars have influenced the modern way of thinking. Ibn Khaldun wrote “Al-Muqaddamah”, a book of modern sociology still in use today. Ibn al-Haytham suggested the damming of the Nile River, which was not performed until the 20^th century. He explained the formation of a rainbow and the science behind the formation of light.

Muslims were the ones cultivating a variety of fruits and other plants that are widely used in today’s world. The examples of such are: peaches, apricots, lemons, oranges, olives, coffee and cotton. They were all brought to Southern Europe from the Persian region. Spices and crops like rice, sesame, pepper, and ginger were all brought from Palestine. The melons, dates and figs were discovered by Europeans from their trips to a Middle East, as well.

The modern world of cosmetics owes to its first Muslim founders, as well. Things like perfumes, body oils, hair dyes (first from henna) all originated in the Middle East. Kohl was the initial material used for eye shadow, eye liner and mascara. A variety of musical instruments were made by the Muslims, too. For example, what we know as the piano today, is just a pair of kanuns put together. A modern guitar was first used as an Amorisco by the Spanish Moores. The percussion was an especially important Muslim musical instrument, since melodic music generally is discouraged by Islam because of its romantic flow, but the drum beat is commonly semi-tolerated. Muslim architects highly influenced the cathedrals in Spain. Since Islam prohibits images of living creatures, the styles are always very abstract. That gave rise to various modern art movements. Muslims gave rise to calligraphy and mosaics. Crafts such as silk, rugs and glass were taken from Muslims and introduced to Europe during the Crusades.

Arabic language, which is the language of the Holy Qur’an, has influenced the development of new words in English and other languages. Words like coffe, soda, candy,cotton, sofa, syrup, magazine, alkali, algebra, alcohol and more were all borrowed from the Arabic language.

Most importantly, Islam influenced the principles that are followed in many civilized countries today. Islam encourages continuous seeking of knowledge, sincerity in performing work, achieving the best, justice and equality. Islam teaches religious tolerance, freedom of religion, human rights, absence of discrimination and no superiority of one being over another. Interestingly, Napoleon Bonaparte tried to implement Shari’ah (Islamic law) into his Empire. Some of the Shari’ah is still present in the French Constitution. Dr. Shala had wonderful slides with verses from the Holy Qur’an and the translation supporting those claims. Unfortunately, we got to this most interesting part of the lecture toward the end. Many students started looking at their watches, so Dr. Shala felt rush. He tried to finish his presentation sooner, because it was getting late. The presentation was very long, and it would have been much longer if Dr. Shala had not rushed through the last part. Unfortunately the last part was the most interesting, and in my opinion, the most important Islamic contribution to civilization. I wish that sometime Dr. Shala would come back to the Rhodes campus and take time discussing Islamic contributions again without time pressure.