- To learn about the various
contributions of Muslims to world
civilizations.
• Students will examine images of Muslim
contributions.
• design a visual symbol.
• This symbol will be placed on a map of the
Muslim Empire.
• write a summary sentence of the achievement.
• Introduced to the Muslim
world by the Persians.
• The Persians imported it
first from India.
• Caliphs (rulers) would
invite champions of the
games to chess matches
at their palaces.
• Eventually, they
introduced chess to
Europeans.
• The word rook comes
from the Persian rukh,
which means chariot.
• Because water was so
scarce in the desert regions
ways to get more water
were needed.
• Developed ingenious
irrigation techniques and
underground wells.
• Dams, reservoirs, and
aqueducts were constructed
throughout the Islamic
Empire as early as the
tenth century.
• Muslims perfected the
Roman water wheel, or
noria, a technique that
could be operated by man,
or animals, or the wind.
The word “noria,” comes from the
arabic word “na-urah,” meaning first
water machine.
Both the Umayyad and Abbasid
rulers preserved and improved the
series of Underground wells, called
“qanats” used to irrigate fields in
Syria and Spain.
Much of the agriculture of the
Muslim Empire was dependent upon
these irrigation techniques.
•Muslim scholars made great
advances in zoology, the study of
animals.
•Muslim lifestyles and economy
were dependent upon animals.
•Al-Jahiz, in Baghdad, was the
foremost scholar to explore
zoology.
•He wrote some 200 works about
animals, the most famous, the
Book of Animals.
•His work was a model for later
scholars.
•During the rule of the Abbasids of
Baghdad, a banking system was
developed that helped to end the
confusion caused by the many
currencies (kinds of money) that were
then in use.
•From this system came the word
“check” from the Arabic word sakk.
•There were central banks and branch
offices and an elaborate system of
checks and letters of credit.
•This was important because international trade
had expanded and goods were being marketed
(sold) abroad (in foreign countries).
• Calligraphy, beautiful writing, is the art
of elegant handwriting.
• It was first used by the Arabs of the
Arabian Peninsula when they began
preparing copies of the Qur’an.
• The most common design was the arabesque, which
was a winding stem of leaves and flowers that
formed a spiraling design.
• These designs decorated everything from small
objects to carpets and entire walls.
• It was used to express the idea that there was
unity and order in all things at all times.
• During the rule of the Abbasids, Chinese soldiers
captured during a battle in Central Asia were
discovered to be skilled artisans in paper making.
• These Chinese prisoners taught their captors how
to make paper, and this new skill spread
throughout the empire.
• Baghdad, established the first paper factory in
the Muslim Empire.
• As a result, books became more available and
contributed to interest in all kinds of learning.
• It was a status symbol to own them and the sign
of a wealthy person was a well-stocked library.
• The House of Wisdom was an educational
institution founded in Baghdad by the Abbasid
caliph al-Ma’mun, in A.D. 830.
• It was here that many scholars from all parts of
the world translated into Arabic, Greek, Persian,
and Indian texts on such topics as mathematics.
Astronomy and logic.
• Scholars who came here translated Greek classics
in philosophy and science into Arabic.
• They helped to preserve many classical works that
would have been lost during the Dark Ages.
• Astronomy, the scientific study of the stars, was an area
in which Islamic scientists made great achievements.
• In Baghdad and Cordoba, Spain were some of the finest
observatories.
• Muslim astronomers discovered and corrected many of the
mistakes made by Ptolemy.
• They used an astrolabe, a device adapted from the Greeks.
• Using this they could tell the time of day, measure
latitude, and determine the position of the planets and
stars.
• They knew the earth was a globe, began to believe that
the earth rotated on its axis, and that the sun was the
center of the universe.
• These same ideas were discovered centuries later in
Western Europe.
• The Muslim scholars of the Abbasid period were
very interested in furthering the developments of
the Greeks in mathematics.
• They spent hours trying to stump one another with
difficult mathematic puzzles.
• They invented the “magic boxes.”
• It was given its name by Al Khwarazmi, of Baghdad
who introduced algebra to civilization.
• Algebra comes from the word “al jabr,” which
means the coming together of separate parts.
• In algebra the mathematician substitutes symbols
such as x, y, or z for numbers in order to solve
mathematical problems.
• Muhammad stated that Allah had provided a cure for every
illness.
• It was in the city of Damascus that the first hospital was
founded.
• Baghdad built the largest hospital of its time.
• It became a model for future hospitals.
• It was staffed by doctors who were paid by the
government.
• Hospitals were designed to promote health, cure diseases,
and teach, and expand medical knowledge.
• Hospitals had lecture halls, libraries, pharmacies,
laboratories, and patient rooms with beds.
• Patients with communicable diseases, as well as those
recovering from surgery were kept in a separate part of
the hospital.
• Muslim doctors in Damascus experimented with the treatment
of disease through herbal medicines.
• Plants such as coriander (an herb of the carrot family) were
used for their medicinal powers.
• Sedatives (drugs used to calm or tranquilize), including hashish
(a strong narcotic), were used to kill pain during surgery.
a. Al-Zahrawi, a Muslim doctor from Spain, began using
antiseptics (substances derived from herbs that kill germs) to
cleanse wounds, a practice unheard of in other parts of Europe
until centuries later.
• Ibn Sina, a famous Persian healer, designed treatments involving
the use of herbs and medicinal plants.
• Pharmacies developed advances in herbal medicine in Baghdad to
heal illnesses.
• Pharmacies filled prescriptions much as present-day drug stores
do.
• Baghdad, now the capital city of Iraq, was chosen
by the Abbasid ruler, Caliph al-Mansur, to be the
center of his empire in the eighth century.
• Baghdad was an ideal choice because it lay between
two rivers and was at the crossroads of great
trade routes.
• The city was built in concentric circles(each inside
the other), with a deep moat surrounding three
circular walls.
• His palace was at the exact center of his city.
• It was considered the most spectacular city in the
empire.
• Polo was introduced to the Muslim world by the
Persians.
• Polo is a fast-paced ball and goal game played on
horseback by two teams of four on a grass field
with goal posts at either end.
• The game was a favorite among the wealthy
because of the use of horses.
• The Muslims adapted and improved the game,
which was then introduced to Europeans.
• Today it is played all over the world.
• In the eighth century a new and independent Muslim kingdom
was established by the Umayyads in Spain.
• Its capital city, Cordoba, became a center of learning and
intellectual life and was widely known as a city of bibliophiles
(people who love books).
• The most celebrated library in Cordoba was run by Caliph alHakam II al-Mustanir (A.D. 961-976).
• Al-Hakam, who was an accomplished scholar, sent bookbuyers
all over the Muslim Empire to find books for his library.
• Library clerks, many of them women, carefully hand-copied
the books while calligraphers and bookbinders created
beautiful text and cover designs.
• Al-Hakam’s library was said to have contained more than
400,000 books, whose titles filled a 44-volume catalog.
• The people of Cordoba also collected their own books.
• The music of Muslim Spain, which combined musical styles
from all over the world, was an important achievement
during the Golden Age of Muslims.
• Europe’s first music conservatory (school) was established
in Cordoba by an Arab named Ziryad, a slave liberated
from Baghdad.
• Musicians from all over Central Asia and Africa were hired
by royal courts to entertain royalty and important visitors,
such as wealthy merchants.
• These musicians developed a distinct style of music from
the patterns and rhythms of poetry that combined the
styles of Classical Arab and native Spanish cultures.
• The origins of many instruments, including the oboe,
trumpet, violin, guitar, harp, and percussion instruments
can be traced to this music of Muslim Spain.