Muslim Inventions

Soap, Cleanliness, Cosmetics, Shampoo, Development of Paper, The Fountain Pen, Development of Cloth, Carpets, Garden, Glass, Development of Chess, Coffee, Sherbet, 3 Course Meal, Pay Cheques, the Windmill, Vaccination, Pointed Arch and the Crank-Shaft


Soap, Shampoo, Cleanliness and Cosmetics


The medieval times, was known for its lack of cleanliness and hygiene, leading to illnesses and diseases, and one of the Crusaders most striking characteristics were that they didn’t wash.
Only a few Muslims, as early as the 7th century, had developed a sophisticated and hygienic way of life, and methods to keep themselves clean and away from diseases. In Islam, cleanliness is considered as half of a Muslims relegion. This was motivation for Muslims, also the fact that not keeping clean led to diseases and bad health.
The greatest thing done for cleanliness by Muslims, is probably the invention of soap. The credit for this goes to Muslim chemists. Before the invention of soap, people used oils to clean themselves, but all people didn’t have these oils.
Soap was made by mixing oil (usually olive oil) with al-qali (a salt like substance). This was then boiled to achieve the right mix, and left to harden, before used in homes and public baths.
Various recipies for soap were written by many Muslim chemists, icluding Al-Razi. A recetly discovered manuscript dating back to the 13th century, containes the recipie to soap. The instructions are given here.
“Take some sesame oil, a sprinkle of potash, alkali and some lime, mix them all together and boil. When cooked, they are poured into moulds and left to set, leaving hard soap”.
One of the leading cosmetologists of the time, Al-Zahrawi, known to the west as Abulcassis, wrote a medical encyclopedia called Al-Tasrif. It was written in thirty volumes. Inside the 19th volume, there contains a whole chapter devoted to cosmetics. This was the first original contribution to cosmetology.
Beutification of the body with purfumes etc was there way before Zahrawi, but Zahrawi considered cosmetics to be a branch of medication apart from beutification. Zahrawi’s contribution to the subject include ; under arm deodorants, hair removing sticks. hair care and also hand lotions. For turning blond hair to black, hair dyes are mentioned. Also, the benefts of suntan lotions are mentioned, also describing their ingredients in detail. His translations into Latin of his books were used as main university textbooks in many European universities.
In the betification part of cosmetics, Zahrawi dealt with perfumes, scented aromatics and incense. There are many hadith’s (quotations of the prophet) of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), refering to cleanliness, care of hair and other parts of the body. Al-Zahrawi described these all within the limitations of Islam.
“Adhan”, and oily substance, was used for medication and beautification. Zahrawi dealt with perfumed stocks, rolled up and pressed into special moulds. These were probably the earliest and nearest representations of present day lipsticks and deodorants.
The greeks contributed a lot to cosmetics, but that was in the beutification part. It is the hygiene aspects that realy matters and affects us. Islam brought forward the method of cleaning yourself, which is practiced by every muslim, prior to praying five times a day called wudu. It was also the muslims who introduced the quarintine of sick patients, so the illness of the patient would not spread. This was done due to the discovery and whole idea of germs (also discovered by muslims). So out of all this, it was the muslims who contributed the most to the health part of cosmetics.
Shampoo, was introduced to Britain by a Muslim, who opened the Mahmomed’s Indian Vapour Baths on the Brighton Seafront, in 1759. He was appointed the shampooing surgeon for King George IV and William IV.


Paper and the Fountain Pen


Although the first paper to write on was papyrus, made by the Egyptians, then a more advanced type of paper which was discovered and made by the Chinese, the secret of papermaking was discovered by the Muslims after capturing two Chinese papermakers in the battle of Talas in 751CE.
After the secret of papermaking was revealed, a more superior type of paper, with better quailty, was produced by the Muslims, like the paper we know today.
The first paper to be manufactured in Islamic countries was in 794 AD, in Baghdad by Yusuf Bin Omar. Muslims brought the paper to Europe and other countries.
The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953. He demanded a pen that wouldn’t leak and stain on his cloths or hands. The pen made for the Sultan, contained a miniature reservoir, as with modern pens, which held the ink and fed the nib, using a combination of gravity and capillary action.


Cloth and Carpets


Muslims, particularly in Spain, were skilled in cloth making. The Muslims cloth was renowned for its durability, and captured most of the big markets of the world. Muslims cloth was seen as the finest.
Thanks to the good quality cloth, combined with the artistic designs and the Muslims advanced weaving patterns, Muslims produced very fine and exquisite carpets and the designs on the carpets were very beautiful. Carpets were usually woven by nunerous home workers, with incredible precision and accuracy, and they were regarded as a part of paradise, by Muslims.
Comparing the Muslims homes and carpets to the Europeans homes of the time, Europeans homes were covered in rushes, that were virtually out of this world. When I mean virtually, I mean really out of this world. Carpets caught on quickly, and heres why. In England, as Erasmus recorded it, the floors were
“covered in rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned”.
Carpets were very renowned and prized by the Europeans and the English, so much that Queen Eleanor, the Castilian bride of King Edward I, brought Andulsian carpets to England, as part of her dowry, in 1255. The Persians were renowned for carpet making, and are still considered the best in the world.


The Garden



Although the garden existed for a long time, it was the Arab Muslims that spread the notion that the garden could be a place of peace, tranquility, beauty and meditation. Flowers that originated from Muslim gardens include the carnation and the tulip. In medieval Europe, gardens were only a place to grow herbs and food.
Mainly after the 8th century onwards, these heavenly gardens spread to India and other Middle Eastern places. The Abbasids created geometrical designs for their flower beds, to provide seclusion from the outside worlds. These magni- ficent garde- ns also contained fountains and shallow canals. Examples of these gardens still can be found in Islamic Persia, Sicily and India, in the gardens of the Taj Mahal, and in the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.
The first appearance of these beautiful gardens in Europe, after Muslim Spain, was first in Toledo, then in Seville around the 11th century. These gardens were used for the testing of new plants brought from the Middle East, into a new climate. The gardens were also generally for pleasure and meditation. It was only five centuries after that these beautiful gardens were introduced to the rest of Europe, first to the Universities of Italy. Examples of these beautiful Muslim gardens can now be seen in all of Europe, from the Stibbert garden in Florence to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England.
The list of heavenly garden produced by the early Muslims was very, very long. Just to give you a glimpse of what it was like, Nisban (in Mesopotamia) was said to have 40,000 gardens, containing fruit trees and orchards, while an even bigger number resided in Damascus, a number of 110,000. In Venice, gardens and orchards were criss-crossed with mile after mile of canals.
The Qu’ran repeatedly describes gardens, to be a place of beauty and serenity, contemplation and reflection. Nature, trees, animals are a blessed gift from Allah, and are a sign of his greatness. Gardens have an elevated status, in a Muslims mind for Islam permits anyone to use and change nature according to the ethical ways and limitations of Islam. Thus gardens were designed to be sympathetic to nature. The garden is seen as a place of wonder and enchantment.
BUT,
It is said that the Greeks made the Garden as a place of beauty and meditation and the evidence is;
In the Odyssey, Book V Homer describes the garden of Calypso:
“And round about the cave there was a wood blossoming, alder and poplar and sweet-smelling cypress. And therein roosted birds long of wing, owls and falcons and chattering sea-crows, which have their business in the waters. And lo, there about the hollow cave trailed a gadding garden vine, all rich with clusters. And fountains four set orderly were running with clear water, hard by one another, turned each to his own course. And all around soft meadows bloomed of violets and parsley, yea, even a deathless god who came thither might wonder at the sight and be glad at heart.”
“The Odyssey” is a mythalogical story (i.e not real), so there is no evidence that something like this was in real life.
ALSO ;
Aristotle’s Academia was held in a grove of olive trees, considered to be a sacred space.
This is only talking about a specific grove of olive trees, and there is no mention of beauty and meditation in it.


Glass


It was Ibn Firnas, who is credited to have making glass from stone, after experimenting with rock crystal. He constructed his home as a sort of planetarium. In his house, one could see the stars, clouds and also lightning.


Chess


A form of chess was played in India called “Chaturanga”, which consisted of four players. From there, it came to Persia, where it was further developed to only two players. The name given to chess there was “Chatrang”. It is believed that the rules of “Chaturanga” and “Chatrang” were similar. From there, chess became popular in
Islamic Countries, and from there also developed to “Shatranj”. There is some controversy about chess in Islam, because some people consider it to be “haraam” (Arabic for “forbidden”). There is a “Hadith” (Arabic for narration of the Prophet) saying that :
“He who played chess is like one who dyes his hand with the flesh and blood of a swine (pig).”
But in 638 A.D. the Caliph (successor to Muhammad) Omar allowed chess among Muslims. It was banned again about 1000 A.D. in Egypt!In about the 8th century, chess spread into Europe and was a favorite game of King Charlemagne of France .


Coffee, the Sherbet and the 3 Course Meals


The first coffee was made by a man named Khalid. The story goes that he was tending sheep, when he noticed that his sheep grew bigger and livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries, and thus the first coffee was made.Beans were exported from Ethiopia to Yemen, and drank by Sufi’s to stay awake all night and pray on special occasions. This was the first record of the drink.It had arrived in Mecca and Turkey in the late 15th century, from where it found its way to Venice, in 1645. Coffee arrived in Britain in 1650, when a coffee house was opened in Lombard Street in London by a Turk, named Pasqua Rosee. The Arabic “qahwa” became the Turkish “kahve”, then the Italian “caffé”, and finally the British “coffee”.
Muslims developed a variety of juices to make their “sharab” (sherbet). Their sherbet was a soft juice drink of crushed fruit, flowers and herbs. It existed as one of the most famous drinks of all time, winning the hearts of people like Lord Byron. “Sharab” is where the Italians “sorbetto” comes from, where the French “sorbet” comes from, and then finally the English “Sherbet” is derived from. There are a number of names, and is associated with a number of traditions. Sherbet is also now produced in America all the way to India. Medieval Muslim sources contain recipes for drink syrups that can be kept out of the refrigerator for weeks and even months.
The concept of the three course meal was brought to Cordoba in the 9th Century, from Iraq. The concept included having soup, followed by fish or some meat, then for desert fruit and nuts. It was brought to Cordoba by Ali Ibn Nafi (also known as Ziryab-Blackbird). He also introduced crystal glasses that were invented by a Muslim.


Pay Cheques


The modern cheque, that we know today in derived from the Arabic word “saqq”. This means a written vow to pay for the goods when they are delivered. This was very good and sophisticated, as it meant that Muslims didn’t have to take money with them across dangerous terrain, avoiding robberies. In the 9th century, Muslim businessman could cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.


The Windmill


The Arabian Desert dried up each year, and breakneck tasks had to be preformed in drawing water, and grinding grain, which had to be done by hand. This had to be done in order to survive. A wind blew steadily in the Arabian Desert, the only power source that the desert could offer. The wind blew for months at a time. A clever Muslim inventor, in 634, built the first windmill, which consisted of six or twelve sails covered in fabric or palm leaves, catching the wind and turning the huge mill stones wheel, which ground the corn. The first windmill was not seen in Europe for another five hundred years.


Vaccination


The west has the wrongly held view that Jenner and Pasteur invented inoculation (protection from viruses). The thing is he didn’t. Vaccination was devised in the Muslim world. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox and vaccination was brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724, exactly seventy two years before Jenner and Pasteur discovered it. A coin has been minted in honour of the discovery of innoculation in the Muslim World.


Pointed Arch


The pointed arch, much stronger than the round one, enabled a much bigger, higher and more complex and grander building to be produced. This can be seen in on the Europe’s Gothic cathedrals, an invention borrowed from Muslim architecture. Other borrowings from Muslim inventions included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome building techniques. Europe’s castles also copied from the Islamic world’s castles and forts with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to more easily defended round ones. Henry V’s castle architect was a Muslim.


Crank-Shaft


The crank-shaft, created by the Muslim genius Al-Jazari, central too many machines of the modern age, translated rotary motion to linear motion. It is also central to the combustion engine. This is one of the most useful and clever mechanical inventions of humankind, and without this invention, many machines could not be created. Al-Jazari originally created the crank-shaft to raise water for irrigation. Al-Jazari also invented the use of valves and a piston, devised some mechanical clocks driven by weights and water, and was the “Father of Mechanics”. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of ingenious Mechanical Inventions verifies this completely. He also invented the combination lock, among his other fifty inventions.