Invention, Medical technology, Robotics and Civil Engineeing in the Islamic World, Medicinal drugs

Medicinal drugs
Muslim physicians pioneered a number of drugs and medications for use in medicine, including:
• Chemotherapeutic drugs by al-Razi, who introduced the use of chemical substances such as vitriol, copper, mercuric and arsenic salts, sal ammoniac, gold scoria, chalk, clay, coral, pearl, tar, bitumen and alcohol for medical purposes.
• At least 2,000 medicinal substances were first used by Muslim physicians.
• Application of pure alcohol to wounds as an antiseptic agent, and the use of alcohol as a solvent and antiseptic, by Muslim physicians and surgeons in the 10th century.
• Medicinal-grade alcohol through distillation, and the first distillation devices for use in chemistry and medicine manufactured on a large scale, in the 10th century.
• The origins of clinical pharmacology date back to Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine in the 11th century.

Surgical instruments
A wide variety of surgical instruments and techniques were invented in the Muslim world, as well as the refinement of earlier instruments and techniques. The following instruments are known to have been invented by Muslim surgeons:
• Hollow hypodermic needle and injection syringe by Ammar ibn Ali al-Mawsili (c. 1000).
• Over 200 surgical instruments were listed by Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) in the Al-Tasrif (1000), many of which were never used before by any previous surgeons. Hamidan, for example, listed at least twenty six innovative surgical instruments that Abulcasis introduced.
• Bone saw by Abulcasis.
• Use of catgut for internal stitching, by Abulcasis.
• Ligature, by Abulcasis in the Al-Tasrif, for the blood control of arteries in lieu of cauterization.
• Curette, retractor, surgical spoon, sound, surgical hook, and surgical rod, by Abulcasis in his Al-Tasrif (1000).
• Plaster and adhesive bandage, by Abulcasis.
• Modern oral and inhalant anesthesia by Muslim anesthesiologists.
• Surgeries under inhalant anesthesia with the use of narcotic-soaked sponges which were placed over the face, by Abu al-Qasim and Ibn Zuhr in Islamic Spain.
• While tracheostomy may have possibly been portrayed on ancient Egyptian tablets, the first correct description of the tracheotomy operation for suffocating patients was described by Ibn Zuhr in the 12th century.

Robotics
Mark E. Rosheim summarizes the advances in robotics made by Arab engineers as follows:
"Unlike the Greek designs, these Arab examples reveal an interest, not only in dramatic illusion, but in manipulating the environment for human comfort. Thus, the greatest contribution the Arabs made, besides preserving, disseminating and building on the work of the Greeks, was the concept of practical application. This was the key element that was missing in Greek robotic science."
"The Arabs, on the other hand, displayed an interest in creating human-like machines for practical purposes but lacked, like other preindustrial societies, any real impetus to pursue their robotic science."

Mechanical singing birds
Caliph al-Mamun had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad in 827, which had the features of an automatic machine. There were metal birds that sang automatically on the swinging branches of this tree built by Muslim engineers at the time.
The Abbasid Caliph al-Muktadir also had a golden tree in his palace in Baghdad in 915, with birds on it flapping their wings and singing.

Programmable automatic flute player
The Banu Musa invented an automatic flute player which appears to have been the first programmable machine.

Programmable humanoid robot band
Al-Jazari (1136-1206) created the first recorded designs of a programmable humanoid robot in 1206, as opposed to the non-programmable automata in ancient times. Al-Jazari's robot was originally a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around. According to Charles B. Fowler, the automata were a "robot band" which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection."

Hand-washing automaton with flush mechanism
Al-Jazari invented a hand washing automaton incorporating a flush mechanism now used in modern flush toilets. It features a female humanoid automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the female automaton refills the basin.

Peacock fountain with automated servants
Al-Jazari's "peacock fountain" was a more sophisticated hand washing device featuring humanoid automata as servants which offer soap and towels. Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows:
"Pulling a plug on the peacock's tail releases water out of the beak; as the dirty water from the basin fills the hollow base a float rises and actuates a linkage which makes a servant figure appear from behind a door under the peacock and offer soap. When more water is used, a second float at a higher level trips and causes the appearance of a second servant figure — with a towel!"

Other automata
In 1206, al-Jazari, along with his inventions above, also designed and constructed a number of other automata, such as home appliances and musical automata powered by water (see one of his works at The Automata of Al-Jazari).

Avicenna, considered the father of modern medicine and the father of momentum, described various anesthetics and medical and therapeutic drugs in his Canon of Medicine.

Other inventions
Fielding H. Garrison wrote in the History of Medicine:
"The Saracens themselves were the originators not only of algebra, chemistry, and geology, but of many of the so-called improvements or refinements of civilization, such as street lamps, window-panes, firework, stringed instruments, cultivated fruits, perfumes, spices, etc..."

Other inventions from the Islamic world include:
• Frequency analysis, cryptanalysis, three-course meal, the Persian carpet, the modern cheque.
• An early system of air mail utilizing homing pigeons (by Fatimid Caliph Aziz), advances in the field of optics, musical theory, and certain irrigation techniques.

Graph paper and orthogonal grids
The first known use of graph paper dates back to the medieval Islamic world, where weavers often carefully drew and encoded their patterns onto graph paper prior to weaving. Islamic quadrants used for various astronomical and timekeeping purposes from the 10th century also introduced markings and orthogonal or regular grids that are still identical to modern graph paper.

Disputed inventions
These are disputed inventions with uncertain origins, hence they may or may not have been first invented in the Islamic world, with some scholars suggesting they were, and others suggesting they were invented in contemporary or earlier civilizations, such as China, Greece, India, Rome, or pre-Islamic Egypt, Mesopotamia or Persia.
Some of the technologies which were invented in the Islamic world independantly of other civilizations are also listed here, as well as innovations from the Islamic world which some consider to be improvements or refinements rather than completely original inventions.

Astrolabes
Muslim astronomers made significant improvements to the astrolabe which originally appeared in the Hellenistic world, and they produced a variety of different innovative variations. Some of these variations include:
• Mechanical geared astrolabe by Ibn Samh (c. 1020).
• In the 10th century, al-Sufi first described over 1000 different uses of an astrolabe, including uses in astronomy, astrology, horoscopes, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, Qibla, Salah, etc.
• Navigational astrolabe was invented in the Islamic world. It employed the use of a polar projection system.
• Saphaea, the first universal astrolabe developed for all latitudes, by Abï¿½ Ishï¿½q Ibrï¿½hï¿½m al-Zarqï¿½lï¿½ (Arzachel)
• Orthographical astrolabe by Abï¿½ Rayhï¿½n al-Bï¿½rï¿½nï¿½ in the 11th century.
• Zuraqi, a heliocentric astrolabe where the Earth is in motion rather than the sky, by al-Sijzi in the 11th century.
• Linear astrolabe ("staff of al-Tusi") by Sharaf al-Dï¿½n al-Tï¿½sï¿½ in the 12th century.

Chemical technology

Chemical processes
• Liquefaction, purification, oxidisation and evaporation (tabkhir) by Geber.
• Assation (or roasting), cocotion (or digestion), ceration, lavage, solution, mixture, and fixation.
• Calcination (al-tashwiya).

Chemical substances
• Dyestuff by Muslim chemists.
• Rice vinegar by Geber.
• The classification of all seven classical metals: gold, silver, tin, lead, mercury, iron, and copper, by Geber.
• Camphor, pomades, and syrups.

Glass industry
• Stained glass, by Muslim architects in Southwest Asia.
• Clear, colourless, high-purity glass, by Muslims in the 9th century.
• Artificial gemstone produced from high-quality coloured glass, by Geber (d. 815).

Hygiene industries
• Sodium Lye (Al-Soda Al-Kawia), perfumed and colored soaps, and liquid and solid soaps by Muslim chemists.
• Recipes for soaps, such as ones made from sesame oil, potash, alkali, lime, and molds, leaving hard soap (soap bar).
• Shampoo by the Bengali Muslim Sake Dean Mahomet in 1759.
Laboratory Apparatus
• Al-Razi (Rhazes), in his Secretum secretorum (Latinized title), first described the following tools for melting substances (li-tadhwib): hearth (kur), bellows (minfakh aw ziqq), crucible (bawtaqa), the but bar but (in Arabic) or botus barbatus (in Latin), tongs (masik aq kalbatan), scissors (miqta), hammer (mukassir), file (mibrad).
Many of these tools are required, in some form or another, to melt metals and prepare alloys such as bronze and brass. Tongs, hammers, scissors, and files are similarly ancient.

Civil engineering

Cobwork
Cobwork (tabya) first appeared in the Maghreb and al-Andalus in the 11th century and was first described in detail by Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century, who regarded it as a characteristically Muslim practice. Cobwork later spread to other parts of Europe from the 12th century onwards.

Skyscrapers
The 16th-century city of Shibam in Yemen is regarded as the "oldest skyscraper-city in the world" and the "Manhattan of the desert." Some of the buildings are over 100 feet high (over 30 meters), thus qualifying as high-rise buildings (which need to be at least 75 feet or 23 meters). However, the "first skyscraper" is usually considered to be the Home Insurance Building, which was 138 feet (42 m) tall and was built in 1885.
In the 20th century, the Bangladeshi engineer Fazlur Khan, regarded as the "Einstein of structural engineering" and "the greatest architectural engineer of the second half of the 20th century" produced designs of structural systems that remain fundamental to all high-rise skyscrapers, which he employed in his constructions for the John Hancock Center and Sears Tower.
The Sears Tower remained the world's tallest building up until 2007, when the Burj Dubai, currently under construction in Dubai, surpassed its height as the world's tallest building. The world's tallest twin towers, the Petronas Twin Towers, was also built in Malaysia in 1998.
In ancient Egypt, a pyramid was referred to as mer, which was also their word for the country of Egypt itself, showing how intrinsic the structures were to the culture. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest in Egypt and one of the largest in the world. The tallest Islamic minaret in medieval times was the Qutub Minar, which was 72 meters tall (237.8 ft). Until Lincoln Cathedral was built in 1300 AD, it was the tallest building in the world. The base is over 52,600 square meters in area.
The tallest medieval Islamic minaret was perhaps the Qutub Minar, which is 72 meters (237.8 ft) tall and was built in the 12th century. The tallest current minaret is the one at Hassan II Mosque, which is 210 metres (689 ft) tall and was built in 1986.

Hang glider
Abbas Ibn Firnas possibly built the first hang glider, though there were earlier instances of manned kites being used in ancient China. Knowledge of Firman and Firnas' flying machines spread to other parts of Europe from Arabic references.

Industrial milling

Industrial mills
A variety of industrial mills were possibly first invented in the Islamic world, including fulling mills, gristmills, hullers, paper mills, sawmills, stamp mills, steel mills, sugar mills, and windmills. By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation, from al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia.
Other innovations that were unique to the Islamic world include the situation of water mills in the underground irrigation tunnels of a qanat an on the main canals of valley-floor irrigation systems.
These advances made it possible for many industrial operations that were previously driven by manual labour in ancient times to be driven by machinery instead in the Islamic world. The transfer of these technologies to medieval Europe later laid the foundations for the Industrial Revolution in 18th century Europe.

Shipmill
The shipmill was a unique type of water mill powered by water wheels mounted on the sides of ships moored in midstream. This was employed along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in 10th century Iraq, where shipmills could produce 10 tons of flour from corn every day for the granary in Baghdad. Having previously been invented at least as early as 547AD, at Rome, when Belisarius was beseiged there. (Procopius of Caesarea Gothic wars 1.19.8-29)

Tide mill and tidal-powered machine
The earliest documented description of the tide mill, the first machine driven by tidal power, dates back to Muslim sources in 10th century Basra. It was first described by al-Muqaddasi in 990. Similar tide mills later appear in medieval France.
However, the earliest excavated tide mill, dating from 787, is the Nendrum Monastery mill on an island in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. Its millstones are 830mm in diameter and the horizontal wheel is estimated to have developed 7/8HP at its peak. According to Rob Spain, tide mills may have also possibly existed in the Roman Empire.

posted on 25-12-2009