LONDON – Mapping the world, water pump or even solar system cardiovascular functions: a museum of London honours since Thursday Muslim scientists.
- The interactive exhibition "1001 Inventions: the discovery of Muslim heritage in our world" gives a spotlight on a millennium of progress and scientific discoveries. A contribution to the knowledge of humanity, unnoticed in their time, or forgotten over the centuries.
It runs until April 25 at Science Museum.
"If we neglect the contributions of other cultures, then it gives a sense of dangerous cultural superiority," said Thursday Professor Salim TS Al-Hassani at the presentation of the exhibition to the press.
"As we enter a new globalization, we must respect and recognize the contributions of other races and cultures that we have today," he added.
The exhibition covers a period from the year 700 to 1700, described as an era of "scientific and technological advances outstanding in China, India, Persia, Africa and the Arab world".
Muslim scientists also used the knowledge of the time to develop new ideas in astronomy, mathematics, architecture, medicine and engineering, which have been largely forgotten in most of European history.
Thus, the astronomers of the Observatory of Maragheh in Iran have developed new models for understanding the universe that opened the way for the Copernican theory in 1543, explaining that the Earth orbits the sun.
Abbas ibn Firnas, a scholar of the ninth century, has made one of the earliest known human flight by jumping from the top of a minaret of the Great Mosque of Cordoba with wings that were reinforced with wood.
For his part, the Egyptian physician Ibn al-Nafis is considered the first to have described the cardiovascular system, more than 200 years before the full description of William Harvey in 1628.
Ennaharonline/ M. O.
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