Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

1001 Islamic Inventions

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the innovations-come-from-everywhere dept.

pev writes "There's a new traveling exhibition in the UK entitled 1001 inventions. It contains some of the most interesting inventions from the past few thousand years. The common theme, however, is that they all came from the Islamic world and not the west. In some cases [the list is] quite surprising. For the lazy, the Independent newspaper in the UK printed their top 20 from the exhibition."

8 of 1,034 comments (clear)

  1. But... by tsa · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mohammed lived a few hundred years after Jesus, so the Islam can never be more than 1.5 thousand years old!

    --

    -- Cheers!

    1. Re:But... by pnewhook · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, Mohammed didn't create the religion, he's just the last prophet.

      Similarly, Jesus didn't really create Christianity, he was Jewish. The Jews that became Christians decided that Jesus was the son of God as foretold in the old Testament, while the rest of the Jews decided that he was just another prophet and the true son of God hadn't come yet.

      Christianity traces its roots to before Christ, just as Islam traces its roots to a time before Mohammed.

      --
      Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
    2. Re:But... by operagost · · Score: 5, Informative

      The other "Christian gospels" were left out because they are historically inaccurate and contradictory. Also, some may be called "Christian" but they were really created by Gnostics who predate Christianity and modified some Christian concepts for their own uses, much like Mohammed did.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  2. Not very well researched either... by MadTinfoilHatter · · Score: 5, Informative

    From TFA: By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo.

    The fact that the Earth was round (contrary to popular belief) was not big news in the 9th century. The ancient Greeks knew very well that the Earth was a sphere, and they too had calculated the circumference with surprising accuracy several centuries B.C. (not to mention before Mohammed). Also Galileo wasn't controversial because he claimed the Earth was round - it was because he claimed that the Earth revolved around the sun, and not vice versa. Sigh.

  3. "qamara" obscura by ebcdic · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm very doubtful of the claim that the term "camera obscura" comes from an Arabic word "qamara", since it is a Latin phrase meaning "dark chamber", and the Latin word comes from the Greek "kamara".

  4. Re:Those inventions aren't Islamic by tjic · · Score: 5, Informative

    Islam is merely a religion


    Islam is not *merely* a religion; it is a combined religion, culture, and political system, in a way that western religions are not. The Bible has been translated into hundreds of languages - the Koran is *inherently* an Arabic document, and - it is argued -can not be translated, but only glossed in other languages. Christianity and Judaism speak to morality and salvation, but do not specify the political system. Islam does, and specifies crimes, punishments, etc.

    From time to time other Western religions have taken control of the apparatus of governments, and resulted in theocracy. In Islam, this is not an abberation - it is a key tenet of the politico-religious philosophy.
  5. Uh, no... by Dh2000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jews did not and do not believe a "son of God" is coming back. Some do believe in a messiah, but that's completely different.

    Christians like to read a lot into the Old Testament that isn't there.

  6. Re:It's sad . . . by scheme · · Score: 5, Informative
    You are pretty out of touch to compare relgious fundamentalism in the US with islamic fundamentalism...When was the last time someone had their throat slit for Jesus?

    It was just a few years ago that abortion clinics and doctors were being firebombed and shot in order to protect the sanctity of human life.

    --
    "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it