What the Ancients Did for Us Islamic Civilization

Episode one: The Islamic World
—Adam Hart-Davies
The Astrolabe, demonstrated to Hart-Davis, was used by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi and Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi to develop Islamic astronomy and Islamic geography.
Optical science was developed using a camera obscura, demonstrated by Hart-Davis, created by Ibn al-Haytham, an Iraqi physicist, while under house arrest.
The windmill, demonstrated by Jopsom, originated in Afghanistan and was brought back to the West by the Crusaders.
The House of Wisdom founded by al-Ma’mun translated and preserved the science and philosophy of the ancient Greeks.
The grab, demonstrated by Jopsom, was designed by the Ban? M?s? brothers to pick things up from the seabed.
The Alhambra, visited by Zain, features magnificent gravity-driven fountains in the finest example of early Islamic architecture.
Etiquette, fashion and fine-dining were introduced in Andalusia, visited by Zain, by a freed slave Ziryab.
Lusterware, demonstrated to Hart-Davis, was developed by early Muslim alchemists to create beautiful porcelain.
Distillation, demonstrated by Jopsom, was developed by ibn Hayyan using the alembic to make perfume, petrol and alcohol.
Soap making, demonstrated by Hart-Davis, introduced hard soap to the bathhouses of the Islamic World.
The reciprocating piston suction pump, incorporating a crankshaft-connecting rod mechanism, invented by Al-Jazari, is demonstrated.
The torpedo by the Syrian inventor Hasan al-Rammah is demonstrated.


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