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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."
Has didn't make the top 10? Or assassination?
What kind of list is this that forgets Hassan i Sabbah?
The opposite of progress is congress
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.
I'm going to jahannam (Islamic hell) for that remark, aren't I? They're going to bury me face down with the pigs.
Good article here.
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.
The toad can't burp - and for some reason can't fart either, so it swells up and eventually explodes. --Anonymous Coward