For MS4 teachers, this slide show illustrates the top 20 Arab and Muslim scientists of the golden age of Islam

2. Top 10 Arab and
Muslim
Scientists

3. Arabic scholars
who progressed
science and
technology while
Europe was in a
cultural decline
during the Dark
Ages (5th – 15th
century).

4. 10 HASSAN IBN AL-HAITHAM, MATHEMATICIAN
Basra, Iraq (965 – 1040)
Al-Haitham is considered one of the founders of modern
optics. Ptolemy and Aristotle theorised that light either
shone from the eye to illuminate objects or that light
emanated from objects themselves. But al-Haitham
suggested that light travels to the eye in rays from
different points on an object. However, al-Haitham’s
stellar career ended abruptly after he foolishly promised
the ruler of Cairo that he could stop the Nile from
flooding by building a dam at Aswan. He couldn’t,
feigning insanity to avoid persecution. Ironically, his plans
to build a dam were carried out hundreds of years later,
on the same site he initially proposed, when human
engineering abilities had caught up with his vision.

5. 09 OMAR KHAYYAAM, MATHEMATICIAN
Neyshapur, Iran (1048 – 1131)
Khayyam calculated the length of a solar year to 10
decimal places and was only out by a fraction of a
second when compared to our modern day
calculations. He used this to compose a calendar
considered more accurate than the Gregorian
calendar that came along 500 years later.
His passion for science and interpersonal skills
could classify him as one of the world’s first great
science communicators – he is said to have
convinced a Sufi theologist that the world turns on
an axis.

6. 08 AL-BATTANI, MATHEMATICIAN
Harran, Turkey (858 – 929)
Although first conceptualised in Ancient
Greece, al-Battani further developed
trigonometry as an independent branch of
mathematics, developing relationships such as
tanø=sinø/cosø. His driving force was to obtain
the ability to locate Mecca from any given
geographical point – aiding in Muslim rituals
such as burial and prayer, which require
participants to face the holy city.

7. 07 AL-ZAHRAWI, SURGEON El-Zahra, near
Cordoba, Spain (936 – 1013)
Al-Zahrawi is considered one of the fathers of
modern surgery. It was his idea to use animal
intestines for internal suturing, a material that
produces no immune response and dissolves
naturally, removing the need for further
surgery, and this is still used in some counties
today.
He is also known for the invention of many
surgical instruments, including forceps to assist
in vaginal births.

8. 06 AL-RAZI, MEDICAL RESEARCHER Rey, near
Tehran, Iran (865 – 920)
Al-Razi indentified the fever as part of the body’s
defence, and was the first to describe the symptoms
and pathology of smallpox and measles. He also
challenged the accepted medical theory on
‘bleeding’ – a widely practiced healing technique.
Demonstrating a well-planned experimental
methodology, patients with meningitis were divided
randomly into a treatment group where ‘bleeding’
was applied and a control group where it was not.
Despite his efforts, the ‘bled’ group displayed a
greater recovery.

9. 05 NASIR AL-DIN AL-TUSI, ASTRONOMER AND
MATHEMATICIAN Baghdad, Iraq (1201 – 1274)
Al-Din al-Tusi authoured the Treasury of Astronomy, a
frighteningly accurate table of planetary movements that
reformed the existing planetary model of Roman
astronomer Ptolemy by describing a uniform circular
motion of all planets in their orbits. This work led to the
later discovery, by one of his students, that planets
actually have an elliptical orbit.
Copernicus later drew heavily on the work of al-Din al-
Tusi and his students, but without acknowledgment, says
Masood. The gradual chipping away of the Ptolemaic
system paved the way for the revolutionary idea that the
Earth actually orbited theSun.

10. 04
IBN-SINA, MEDICAL RESEARCHER Bukhara,
Uzbekistan (980 – 1037)
Ibn-Sina made important contributions to the
disciplines of physics, optics, philosophy and
medicine. He wrote The Canon of Medicine, a
text used to teach student doctors in Europe
until the 1600s. He identified that the nerve
cells are responsible for transmitting pain
signals and his detailed observations of disease
vectors, including soil, air, touch and sex,
influenced the future direction of the medical
profession.

11. 03 . IBN AL-NAFIS, SURGEON Damascus, Syria
(1213 – 1288)
Often called the ‘father of circulatory
physiology’, ibn al-Nafis identified pulmonary
transit – that is, that blood enters the heart at
the right atrium, exits via the right ventricle,
arrives at the lungs where it is re-oxygenated,
then passes back through the heart’s left atrium
and is redirected back to the body. Prior to this,
it was thought that blood simply seeped through
holes between the heart’s chambers and did not
pass through the lungs.

12. 02 JABIR IBN-HAYYAN, ALCHEMIST Tous, Iran
(721 – 815)
Jabir was an alchemist (from ‘al-kimya’) who, in his
quest to make gold from other metals, discovered strong
acids such as sulphuric, hydrochloric and nitric acids. He
was the first person to identify the only substance that
can dissolve gold – aqua regis (royal water) – a volatile
mix of hydrochloric and nitric acid.
To control the monster he had created, Jabir produced
Alkalis (‘al-Qaly’) that neutralised their acidic
counterparts. It is disputed whether Jabir was the first to
use or describe distillation, but he was definitely the first
to perform it in the lab using an alembic (from ‘al-inbiq’)
the old-fashioned and iconic flasks.

14. AL-KHWARIZMI, MATHEMATICIAN Persia
(780 – 850) THE FATHER OF ALGEBRA
Can you imagine trying to multiply or divide two numbers on paper
if they were written in Roman numerals? It’s thanks to al-Khwarizmi
you don’t have to. He produced a comprehensive guide to the
numbering system, developed from the Brahmi system in India, using
only 10 digits (0-9, the so-called ‘Arabic numerals’ – see numerals,
right).
Al-Khwarizmi also used the word algebra (‘al-jabr’) to describe the
mathematical operations he introduced, such as balancing equations,
which helped in several day-to-day problems. “The intriguing thing is
that algebra developed out of a need to solve a religious problem –
Islam’s complicated system of divying up inheritance,” says Masood.