Muslim Contribution to World Civilization
Muslim Contribution to World Civilization
There are two Professors in the World now as frontiers of the work on Muslim Contribution to World Civilization. Professor Salim Al-Hassani is based in UK, Machester University whereas Turkish Professor Fuat Sezgin is based in Goethe University in Germany. The following is about Turkish Professor Fuat Sezgin.
Professor Fuat Sezgin’s Work on Muslim Contribution to World Civilization
Turkish Professor Emeritus of History of Science Fuat Sezgin, who crafted miniatures of 800 inventions by Muslims scholars throughout history and exhibits them in Frankfurt, Germany, fascinates the world.
Sezgin took the initiative to establish a museum in Istanbul similar to the Historical Museum of Islamic Sciences in Frankfurt and received support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The symbolic works of Sezgin will be exhibited at a museum that will be established in the historic Suleymaniye Complex in Istanbul.
An authority in the history of science, Professor Sezgin will establish the museum in Istanbul similar to the Historical Museum of Islamic Sciences established in Frankfurt, Germany.
About 800 unique inventions from the fields of mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, geography, geology, and mineralogy will be exhibited at the museum. These inventions, today, do not existent and could only be found in books by Muslim scholars from earlier centuries.
Sezgin coming together with Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Atilla Koc in Frankfurt recently said he would like to establish the museum in Istanbul, and that he would be supported both physically and financially.
“I am 81 years old. I’m getting older and don’t have much time left. Let’s finish this project quickly. In this way, I would also pay my debt of loyalty to my country and my nation,” the Professor said. He noted that such a museum would serve as a bridge between the East and the West. “Okay. We are ready. We can assign the Medresetu’r-Rabi at the Suleymaniye Complex for the museum project,” Koc replied.
Sezgin impressed by the minister’s remarks started to prepare the museum project. The renowned scholar will also donate 5,000 unique Islamic handwritten manuscripts, which he was unable to release to the Goethe University for display despite several requests, to the future museum in Istanbul.
Professor Sezgin manufacturing and reviving technological instruments invented by Islamic scholars in the earlier centuries exhibits them in the museum he opened in Frankfurt. Most of these inventions have either become obsolete or remained only in theory in the writings of the Islamic scholars. A water pump and clocks invented by Taqiyuddin Efendi, founder of the Istanbul Observatory in the 16th century, a weighing scale by Biruni and a compass manufactured based on his instructions, a ship by Arabian geographer Ibn Hauqal, the famous globe by Hilfe Ma’mun, and the renowned heaven sphere by Sufi are among the revived instruments exhibited.
Turkish scholars argue that modern science originally emerged from the inventions created by Islamic scholars. Noting that many inventions in the West emanated from inventions developed in the East, the professor specifically called on those that have sense of inferiority to the West to, “come to the museum. You will see that you don’t have a disgraceful history.”
Emphasizing that the Historical Museum of Islamic Sciences was an expression of the rich heritage of the Turkish nation and Islamic civilization, Sezgin continued, “European sciences emanated from Islamic sciences. This fact will be evidenced once again with this museum.
Sezgin is also the director of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Sciences at Goethe University. He established the Institute thanks to the King Faisal Prize (considered as the Nobel Prize of the Islamic world) that he won in 1982. He has twice been awarded a medal of merit by the Germangovernment. (Abdullah Kilic/Zaman)
Professor Salim Al-Hassani’s Work on Muslim Contribution to World Civilization
Professor Salim Al-Hassani has published their work in UK in several places. Their work is well-known as 1001 Inventions. The following video on 1001 Inventions is taken in an exhibition on Muslim Contribution to World Civilization in Manchester.
Nanotechnology Pictures
A new album titled Nanotechnology Pictures was added to Photo Gallery. If you want to share interesting pictures of Nanotechnology materials, products, carbon nanotubes, or pictures regarding nano processes, you can share in the album. The link for the album is http://www.drcetiner.org/photo_gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=19631
What is carbon nanotube?
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are an allotrope of carbon. They take the form of cylindrical carbon molecules and have novel properties that make them potentially useful in a wide variety of applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat. Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesized.
Nanotubes are members of the fullerene structural family, which also includes buckyballs. Whereas buckyballs are spherical in shape, a nanotube is cylindrical, with at least one end typically capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several millimeters in length. There are two main types of nanotubes: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs).
The nature of the bonding of a nanotube is described by applied quantum chemistry, specifically, orbital hybridization. Nanotubes are composed entirely of sp2 bonds, similar to those of graphite. This bonding structure, which is stronger than the sp3 bonds found in diamond, provides the molecules with their unique strength. Nanotubes naturally align themselves into “ropes” held together by Van der Waals forces. Under high pressure, nanotubes can merge together, trading some sp2 bonds for sp3 bonds, giving great possibility for producing strong, unlimited-length wires through high-pressure nanotube linking.