In the Middle Ages while Christians were busy warring plundering and burning heretics at the stake Muslim scholars were inventing the most advanced devices of the day. They refined the scientific method developed effective cardiac drugs and built celestial observatories—yet over time their contributions were largely forgotten.
Historian Fuat Sezgin spent 60 years tracking down ancient manuscripts and commissioning craftspeople to reproduce hundreds of instruments from clocks to syringes. His replicas on display at the Islamic Science and Technology History Museum in Istanbul remind us that the culture now often associated with an antiscience ideology was once a catalyst for innovation. “Modern Muslims do not know this great history ” Sezgin says “so they sometimes have a complex toward modern science.” His work exposes a geeky heritage to be proud of. Here are a few of those bright ideas from the so-called Dark Ages.
” Fathers of Invention: What Muslims Gave the Scientific World