LONDON (Reuters CAIRO) - He's from Leeds. He shut himself from the community itself. His friends convinced him to come and see the exhibition. He came, saw tools that we have remodeled, he read the book for about two hours.
In the end he found a chair in the hall and standing on a chair and said. "Finally I have something to be proud of." Finally the boy said, "Now I feel I became a man!" he said. For many people this book is just another book, but for many young Muslims are the new identity they can be proud of. "
Professor Salim Al-Hassani of the Foundation of Science, Technology and civilization (Foundation of Science, Technology and Civilization - FSTC) is told of a young Pakistani boy who was born and educated in the United Kingdom and has been suffering from feelings of backwardness, hatred of self, an identity crisis and get lost among the group. Books ketidakberartian rescue her from the assumption that he felt it was entitled "1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World." The book was not written to help young Muslims who despair. Instead, this was done as part of the FSTC project in the history of science that tries to shed light on the "dark ages" of Western scientific history.
"In the history books popular science we have a difference a thousand years. The history of science as it is written by Western scholars to forget the contribution of Islam to science. You did not find anything before abad15, until the Greek period," said al-Hassani. About 14 years ago this observation forced him and a group of volunteers to begin their studies in order to fill that gap. "About 10 years ago we established the foundation that has given birth to this book and related exhibition," said al-Hassani.
FSTC today consists of about 60 scientists. About 15 people work full time, about 15 part-time and the rest are volunteers. These people worked on the original manuscript of Muslim scholars or scientists who live in Muslim culture, digitally remodel their discoveries, and if possible, make real-size model from them. After 14 years working with about 15 people working round the clock, FSTC who have collected the amount of scientific information is quite impressive on the innovation introduced by the Islamic civilization. However, al-Hassani is believed that they only get a little. "When we asked the experts manuscripts, they say that there are at least 5 million manuscripts in the archives of the world. Only 50,000 of them have been done until now. In this way we can find a new name, even a new science," he told the Sunday Times.
Because al-Hassani himself is a mechanical engineer, the core of the foundation's work has been done until now has concentrated on mechanical inventions. A clock invented by Al-Jazari in the 13th century, called the Elephant Clock, attracting the attention of the group al-Hassani as it not only shows the time clock, but he also collected a symbol of the political culture of all there is civilization in that era. "Al-Jazari lived in eastern Anatolia, but he did not use a cow as a symbol, but an elephant. Gajah which is a symbol of African civilization. Al-Jazari put carpet on an elephant, this is the civilization of Iran. He used a Chinese dragon in the clock mechanism. He has a phoenix on the top of the hour, spinning and singing every half hour. Phoenix is a symbol of civilization Firaun.Serban of automated robots symbolize Saladin Muslim tradition, and craftsmanship of water in the body of an elephant using Archimedes Principle, so reminiscent of Greek civilization, " said al-Hassani. He recalls when he told former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about this multiperadaban approach, Rice answered through science al-Hassani and his group have created a new area for dialogue. "This is not political, nor religious. It is a neutral zone of science," he added.
1001 Inventions vs. 1001 Nights
Books and exhibition prepared by the FSTC does not cover the 1001 Inventions. That number has been selected as an antidote to the arguments of Western perceptions of Islam who remember that story from 1001 Nights, and dance oriental magic lamp Aladdin and Islam every time the word is pronounced. "We wanted to show that Islam has a 1001 other things that are tongak of our civilization today," said al-Hassani. This book introduces a name like Firnas ibn Abbas (d. 887) who produced the first flying machine, al-Jazari (d. 13th century), which produces mechanical Elephant Clock and other devices, al-Kindi (d. 873) who writes 361 works on various subjects including chemistry, logic, music and astronomy, Fatima Al-Fihri (d. 841), a female scientist who founded one of the universities in the classical era, Ibn al-Haitham (d. 1039) who wrote the principle of optics and found the camera photography, the Master Architect Mimar Sinan (d. 1588), who built the buildings of the most magnificent in the country of Turkey, and the Cheng Ho (d. 1433), Sino-Mongolian Muslim admiral who built one of the largest military fleet in human history.
This foundation not only publish books. They also send books to high schools around the world for free when it can find the necessary funding. Until now the foundation has sent more than 6,500 books to schools in the United Kingdom. They want to reach more schools. The book is accompanied by a poster to be used as educational material. Al-Hassani asked donors who are interested to visit 1001inventions.com to find out how they can contribute to this effort. Books and materials are being translated into nine languages, including European and Malay languages, Arabic and Turkish. Which version of Turkey will soon be in print, and will be slightly thicker than the original because there is the addition of Turkey and kontribusiny to science. Professsor al-Hassani is hoping to translate the material into China as well, but first he wants to start another project that will represent the contributions of scientists from China to civilization. "Chinese people's contributions are ignored as well. We must teach our children that we took the paper from China. We have to teach them about the extraordinary vessel which was built Cheng Ho. Each besranya similar to a football stadium, you know," he explains.
1001 Sports
Although al-Hassani is quite satisfied with his team that conducted the project work 1001, he thinks that science is only one area in which the contribution from Eastern countries must be heard. "We have started a new project in the sporting heritage of Muslims," he said. He said that the polo, "Sports kingdom," was first discovered by a Muslim dynasty in Persia. Al-Hassani said: "When they started this game, men and women play together. We've shown the manuscript of men and women on horses and playing together. This has two important elements: One, the home games. Second, women have become part of the game. Long before women in Europe are considered to have souls, they are a part of sporting activities in the Muslim world, "he explains. He hopes they will be ready for 1001 Sport exhibition at the 2012 London Olympics on the Muslim contribution to sports history.
"The important thing is that this is related to the characteristics of Muslims. The development of science, sports and arts in the Muslim world was not a coincidence. It is the result of understanding of Muslims in the world," he said, and by using a play on words: "The term is Arabic for sport ' riyazah '. But riyazah not mean just training the body, but also' Lust. riyazah Sufis use the term for the period of rest from worldly life and fasting. But the term is used also for mathematics: riyaziyat. Why? Because mathematics is an exercise of the mind. So riyazah in the Muslim tradition has three dimensions: body, mind and heart. It is a holistic approach behind all the inventions of Muslim scientists. "
