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1001 Islamic Inventions

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."

13 of 1,034 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yeah yeah yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Is the Burqa on the list?

  2. Re:Yeah yeah yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yes their mixing skills are limited to chemical weapons and bomb making. For a religion that requires the death of all non-believers it amuses me people are still humouring this dangerous religion. Not that Bush and his group of fundamentalists are any better. Religion should be banned... except for the church of Star Trek, that one's OK.

  3. Re:Nothing after 1300 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Wake me when the radical Islamic world demonstrates...
    -tolerance of others
    -respect for others
    -respect for human life

    (These things have already been invented. I'm just looking for some confirmation of their existence from certain members of a specific region of the world.)

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    Wake me when the Moderate and/or liberal Islamic world denounces the radicals enmass.

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    If it will help things, I'm an American and I admit George Bush is a shithead.

  4. Re:But... by caliph_salahuddin · · Score: 0, Troll

    Glad you also agree.

  5. I call Bull by baldass_newbie · · Score: 1, Troll

    Has didn't make the top 10? Or assassination?
    What kind of list is this that forgets Hassan i Sabbah?

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  6. Lately by wombatmobile · · Score: 1, Troll

    Nothing on the list came from after 1300 CE/AD. What does that tell you?

    I wasn't around then, but for the last few years they've been busy trying to reinvent electricity since they only have it for an hour a day in some places.

  7. As well... by rumblin'rabbit · · Score: 1, Troll
    And don't forget the ever popular "Method and device for destroying infidel skyscrapers".

    I'm going to jahannam (Islamic hell) for that remark, aren't I? They're going to bury me face down with the pigs.

  8. Re:Discrimination by Gothmolly · · Score: 0, Troll

    I knew there was a reason that you were a Freak of mine.

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  9. Re:Nothing after 1300 by Gulthek · · Score: 0, Troll

    That the Middle Eastern countries didn't develop ships (and weren't well enough situated geographically) to reach the vast, vast riches of the New World that allowed the development of a pure intellectual class that spurred a massive trend of technological development that has yet to end.

  10. Re:Turkey has plenty of problems by DJCF · · Score: 1, Troll
    I think the grandparent's point, and he is correct, is that the West removed a democratically-elected leader to install a dictator. Same thing happened in Chile, in Iraq (in case you didn't know, Saddam was originally a CIA operative, albeit an incompetent one), in Niceragua, each time leading to the deaths of thousands if not millions of innocent civilians.

    Good article here.

  11. neh by drac0n1z · · Score: 0, Troll

    Invention #1 Suicide Bomb. Invention #2 (Improved Bomb) Suicide Bomb Car

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  12. The List by rookworm · · Score: 1, Troll
    Here's the 20 listed in the article, with my comments:

    1-Coffee-- TFA admits it was invented before Islam. Doesn't mention that it was drunk by the ancient Mayans thousands of years before that.

    2-Optics- Ibn al-Haitham may have been the first to speculate that light travels from object to the eye, but it is highly dubious that he was `the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one'.

    3-Chess (as we know it)- actually, the current rules for chess date back only a couple hundred years. It was invented in India, and, while it was present in the Arab world, chess playing is forbidden in Islam.

    4-the parachute

    5-soap and shampoo- the TFA admits that Muslims didn't really invent them. It also refers to Westerners as `crusaders' and implies that they stink.

    6-Chemistry-TFA claims Jabir ibn Hayyan `transformed alchemy into chemistry'. No comment necessary.

    7-Robots-TFA claims 12th- C. `ingenious Muslim engineer' al-Jazari `was the father of robotics'. Again, no comment necessary.

    8-Quilting

    9-Pointed Arches

    10-Sundry sugical techniques-- `Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it'- just like Democritus described the atom, etc.

    11-Windmill

    12-`The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world'-- and brought over to Europe, no less. I wonder why Pasteur never heard of this?

    13-Fountain pen

    14-contributions to math--big topic; I have shown the Islamic contribution to math is less than they claim (elsewhere)

    15-3 course meals-- I hereby invent the 23-course meal. nyah!

    16-carpets-- apparently Muslims believe there are carpets in heaven. Who knew?

    17-the cheque-- more like an IOU, as described in TFA

    18-Astronomical facts-- the koran states that the sun sets in a puddle in the desert every night. `Nuff said.

    19-Gunpowder as a weapon-- leave it to the Muslims...

    20-Gardens for pleasure-- TFA says this concept was invented by Muslims, but these were present in the Ancient world for millenia before Islam

    In short, TFA is a group-identity- puff piece, designed to distract from Islam's real contributions to the world: terrorism, unstability, etc., etc.

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  13. Re:But... by Expert+Determination · · Score: 0, Troll

    Actually, Mohammed wasn't the last prophet. I am the last prophet, the last prophet of Expert Determinism. Mohammed, Jesus and Moses were just members of a long line of prophets of Expert Determinism which only finds its true perfection in me.

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