Columbia U Prof: “All Modern Discoveries Are By Muslim Scientists”
LAHORE: Muslim scientists have made all discoveries of the current age, said University of Columbia’s Arabic and Islamic Studies prof George Saliba at a seminar at the Government College University (GCU) on Monday. The seminar, titled The Problems of Historiography of Islamic Science, was held at Fazl-e-Hussain Hall.
Saliba gave a critique of the standard classical accounts of the rise of Islamic science. He detailed problems in the accounts and explained alternative historiography that described the rise of an Islamic scientific tradition as a result of social and political conditions within the nascent Islamic empire.
He said Muslim philosophy was the impetus behind Islamic science that had contributed to various disciplines including botany, zoology, algebra, trigonometry, physics, chemistry, astronomy, physics, chemistry, physiology and mathematics in the pre-industrial era. He said the use of decimal fractions was not a Western invention and that it was discovered by a Muslim scientist. He said the binary system, on which the computer was based, was also invented by a Muslim scientist.
He said Arab/Islamic science was not an intermediary between Greek science and European science, but was rather the Renaissance that integrated the Islamic science with European science. Saliba also visited the English Language and Literature Department where he engaged faculty members in a conversation on the Islamic and Renaissance paradigms.
Wait! Wait! I know! Muslims invented the Internet…right? Right?
(Daily Times)
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Just for the sake of argument, let’s say they did everything including inventing the lightbulb
; so fucking what? What he is really talking about is merely a demonstration of how pathetic the muslim states are and how they absolutely pised away a legacy then and he doesn’t even know it. Der. 
Their ancester scientists are probably shaking their heads in dismay at what their homelands have become.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:44 amYep, that’s why they are such modern countries
November 7th, 2007 at 11:44 amWhat was this prof George Saliba giving a seminar on…..fiction?……..LMAO!
November 7th, 2007 at 11:45 amIt is a sad day when this kind of crap comes from a university where truth and knowledge do not coincide
November 7th, 2007 at 11:56 amReminds me of story time back in grade school
all of those stories were make believe too but at least Dr Seuss was entertaining
November 7th, 2007 at 12:11 pmThe very term, “muslim scientist” is an oxymoron. And the learned professor is just a regular moron. Islam doesn’t encourage, and in most cases, even allow scientific research. The only “science” that is pursued in Islamic countries is the science of war and destruction, just like the only contribution that Islamic countries have made to the world in modern history is death, destruction, terrorism, enmity, strife, warfare, and a bunch of other synonyms. If you ever meet an “Islamic Scientist”, you’d better check him for biological agents and radioactivity.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:15 pmActually, the Muslims got everything they know from the Greeks. However, considering the fact that Ferdinand and Isabella commissioned Columbus to find a different route to China because Marco Polo’s route went through Muslim lands, I’m willing to venture that Muslims inspired many of today’s inventions. For example, The automobile was invented as a more efficient means of getting away from Muslims; Edison invented the lightbulb so we could see Muslims hiding in the shadows waiting to cut our throats; Bell invented the telephone so we could better communicate where the Muslims are; Winchester invented the repeating rifle as a more efficient way to…well, you get the picture.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:18 pmJust remember, “Modern” by this profs estimation is anything invented during the 7th century.
Oh yeah, muslims invented pork rinds, bacon, and jelly beans too.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:20 pmKafir…
November 7th, 2007 at 12:35 pmTell that to my iPhone, you moron. After getting this amazing gadget, I realise why they are so jealous of us in the West. Alot of minds in Islamic countries are enslaved (as well as their bodies–just ask the women). Enslaved minds do not invent anything. Yes, about 1300 years ago, some innovations occurrred in the Middle East. That was a long time ago. What’s the Univ. of Columbia? At least it wasn’t Columbia Univ.–he should be fired immediately or else Coumbia would risk losing its once stellar reputation.
November 7th, 2007 at 1:13 pmLOL @ Kafir
November 7th, 2007 at 1:16 pmactualy it wasn’t muslim or islamic science it was “arab” science… islam stunted its growth no?
November 7th, 2007 at 1:34 pmKAFIR!! - I’m laughing my ass off!!
November 7th, 2007 at 1:40 pmActually, the Muslims got everything they know from the Greeks.
Well, they did do an important job of preserving Greco-Roman manuscripts that had disappeared in the West, until they were re-introduced. Of course, they got them from the Coptic and Syriac Christians, who like the Church throughout the West and Middle East, had become centers of scholarship after the decline and fall of the Roman empire.
And the prof is willfully ignoring well-known history. The modern scientific method arose from Medieval Christian Scholastic philosophers who formulated a basic syllogism, “God is rational, God created the universe, and therefore the universe is governed by rational laws.” That didn’t occur in the Islamic world.
He said Muslim philosophy was the impetus behind Islamic science that had contributed to various disciplines including…
botany
We have writings from the Romans and Greeks on botany.
zoology
The famous Greek physician Galen studied animals to learn more about human physiology, in a time when dissection of bodies wasn’t allowed. And when you’re living in a agricultural society, it seems odd that your scholars wouldn’t make some study of animals.
algebra
Invented by the Greeks. Euclidean geometry is still studied today.
trigonometry
Practiced in Egypt, India, and Mesopotamia up to 4,000 years ago. First recorded use in the West was by Hipparchus ca. 150 BC (thank you Wikipedia)
physics, chemistry, astronomy
All practiced, in varying ways and degrees, in all great ancient civilizations.
physiology and mathematics…
I’m sure they did, but that is way too vague to claim any credit.
He said the use of decimal fractions was not a Western invention and that it was discovered by a Muslim scientist.
It was invented in India and passed by the Persians.
The Prof. is doing a disservice to Islamic history by mudding the waters with “facts” and ideas that both give credit where it is not due and obscure the true accomplishments of Islamic scholars.
November 7th, 2007 at 1:47 pmVery well said, Mr. Marcoe.
November 7th, 2007 at 2:28 pmI’m sure the 2 hole crapper over there is cutting edge technology.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:44 pmThis one is easy. Modern science would not be possible without Islamic science carried on during the West’s Dark Ages and Islamic science would not be possible without the Classical Greeks. To disparage the Muslims for what they accomplished during their Renaissance is ignorance. For the Professor to discount the achievements of the Classical West and their impact on Islamic science is just as foolish.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:11 pmDavid Marcoe:
Excellent work. I can’t add much to that. However, I would add thus:
Islam made two significant contributions to the world.
1. The fall of Byzantium led many Greeks to seek refuge in the West. So many in fact, that Western universities were filled with Platonists and Aristotelians. This led to an intellectual flowering the likes of which the world had not seen before or since.
2. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Muslims closed the trade routes to the East. Because of this Columbus was forced to travel by a different route in search of another Eastern trade route. Instead, he discovered the New World.
Islam runs counter to rational thought. Qur’an 5:64 was used as a basis for quashing scientific and philosophical reasoning.
The Qur’an portrays allah as absolutely sovereign and bound by nothing.This sovereignty was so absolute that it precluded a key assumption that helped foster the development of science in Europe which is that God is good and his goodness is consistent. Therefore, he created the universe according to rational laws that can be discovered.
Thus, modern science developed in Christian Europe rather than in the House of Islam. In the Islamic world, Allah killed science.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:07 pmCome down off the fence Kipp and pick a side. All of science builds upon those who went before and the knowledge they gave to the world. This prick wants to say it all comes from islamic scientists when so much predates islam itself. And can you name anything that they really did come up with that is unique? I can’t, but in all intellectual honesty I don’t care who gets the credit as much as I care about what this new science give to humanity. Frankly, we all stand on the shoulers of those that went before us, and the next generations will stand on ours.
This cretin is nothing but an islamo-fascist propagandist and that is what the crux of this story is and it is not disparaging to point out the truth that islam is not the genesis of science. You can’t have two positions on one topic, just ask Hill-billy and her NY drivers license fiasco.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:48 pmsadly this guy relys on achievements by arabs from so long ago like the scientist who developed modern day algebra. He of course expanded on previous european developments as western scientists expanded on those principles up to today , as kipp alluded to.
Trivia what country is responsible for the development of the cell phone?
clue: arabs hate this country above all else? and its not the USA?
by the way Pat, Al Gore already claimed to have invented the internet amongst other scientific discoveries.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:48 pmIt’s been about a millennium since Moslem scientists could discover anything more difficult than their own butts with both hands. BTW, the zero was a north India Aryan invention. So was algebra. The arch and dome were European. So was toilet paper, which came as a great revelation to Arabia — not that they had any plant fibers to make it from.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:17 amTJ,
You couldn’t be any more wrong. The Christian church was an obstacle to scientific advancement in the West. This is one reason the Dark Ages remained the Dark Ages. The Church forced us to turn away from the Greeks and the Romans on the grounds they were polytheistic heretics. The Christian Church stifled creativity and ingenuity. Galileo was almost burned at the stake for his beliefs. It took a movement away from Christian (Papal) authority towards the power of Kings along with the Reformation to see significant advances in the West. This is why true liberalism is a good thing. The great advances in the world have been at the hands of great liberal thinkers. The Reformation was one such liberal movement. I know it stings, but the truth often does.
Ted,
The above professor was wrong. Nothing remains in a vacuum but it is not necessary to come off the fence. My statement earlier stands on its own merit. The reality is Columbus would have never sailed beyond the sight of land if it wasn’t for nautical instruments invented by Muslims. The Quran, and Mohammed, encouraged education. The great Muslim thinkers such as Averroes (Ibn Rashid)were products of Islamic thought in the 12th Century. There is no doubt that modern Islam has lost its way but there was a time when we in the West were heathens and they were the enlightened ones. Granted, it was a long time ago.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:09 pmKipp remains an absolute, and complete idiot. Nothing that farts from his shithole has connection to truth or reality. It is fair to say, that he can, and should be completely ignored, as every assertion he has posted on Pat’s page has been soundly refuted by history and reason.
November 11th, 2007 at 4:21 pm