Great? Arab civilization is anything but, and here's the FACTS

[rhodescholar]

Read this article to see how Islam means anything BUT peace, and how the Arab Muslims have destroyed many great cultures, claiming responsibility for ideas/inventions they never created:

http://www.ninevehsoft.com/fiorina.htm

[minusthejihad]

Originally posted by rhodescholar
Read this article to see how Islam means anything BUT peace, and how the Arab Muslims have destroyed many great cultures, claiming responsibility for ideas/inventions they never created:

http://www.ninevehsoft.com/fiorina.htm

Very informative. My favorite part is:

"Even in America this Arabization policy continues. On October 27th a coalition of seven Assyrian and Maronite organizations sent an official letter to the Arab American Institute asking it to stop identifying Assyrians and Maronites as Arabs, which it had been deliberately doing."

[victot]

VERY interesting, thanks.
pieces which single out a single nation like that normally bug me, but i hate the fact that some people will point to zionists as imperialist conquerers, and the poor arabs who conquered millions of square kilometers of land from other civilizations, are now considered "natives" by some.

i think ill edit this and send it to my school newspaper, good job rhodescholar

[IlyaFurman]

The fact that they have so much land, and so much followers makes them a great civilization. Look at ottaman and the arab empries it spanned half the modern world.

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by IlyaFurman
The fact that they have so much land, and so much followers makes them a great civilization. Look at ottaman and the arab empries it spanned half the modern world.

did you read the piece? It was superbly researched, and is quite thorough. Please comment AFTER reading it. you would then understand HOW and WHY they had so much land.

It wasnt b/c their "religion" was so desirable or was The Truth, it was because of coercion. And most if not all of the accomplishments the arab muslims are given credit for by the media and others not well-read are stolen from others.

The arab muslim civilization, much like the notion of a people called the "Palestinians" are one of the Greatest Frauds ever perpetuated.

[elke]

This is really a very interesting piece. However, here are a couple of points that IMO should be kept in mind:

It seems to me that what the author is saying is that by far, most of the Arab accomplishments were actually made by the Assyrians who lived in the Arab/Muslim Empire. Much research would have to be done to confirm that this is indeed the case. I am sorry, but a couple of books cited are not IMO adequate to make such a sweeping statement, given the large size and diverse population of the said Empire.

Second of all, it is not unusual to ascribe accomplishments of the members of a large historical entity to that historical entity, whether they are members of the majority community or not. As Jews, I should think that we are well aware of this, as most of the accomplishments of our people in various endeavors, are ascribed to the country of origin or residence. There is also a good reason for that: human accomplishments are not only the product of the individual's capabilities and/or cultural attributes, but also of the environment conducive to such accomplishments. This external environment is very much subject to the political and social atmosphere present in this large historical entity. Therefore, if nothing more, the Arab/Muslim Empire has provided such an atmosphere, where its subjects were able to make these discoveries, write the literature, etc.

The third point to keep in mind is that all human knowledge builds on what has been done before. We are the dominant species on this planet (with the exception of cockroaches, I guess :)) because we do not start from scratch every time. Therefore, the argument that the Arab/Muslim civilization did not create anything new but simply developed what was already there, is not a good one. It's like saying that the original cars were just an improvement on the wheel, which was created by the Sumerians 5000 BCE, or so.

To summarize, this is an interesting view on the matter; but let's give credit where credit is due.

[victot]

The fact that they have so much land, and so much followers makes them a great civilization. Look at ottaman and the arab empries it spanned half the modern world.

yes, this is absolutely true. however, NOWADAYS, the entire arab world combined, as well as many muslims, cannot eliminate the tiny state of israel, and they try with all thier effort. If when they conquered the arab territories, the west had played by the same rules of the game the arabs used when they conquered all those civilizations, there would be no islam.
im not so sure the arab nation deserves so much land when they are as inefficient as they are now. the arab countries, as well as most muslim countries all have dictatotrships, they have completely stopped all contributions to mankind in terms of science, culture, achievements... yet they have more land than just about any people... (maybe russians have more, but what other nation of people has control of so much land?)
anyways, i think the arab/muslim world, with VERY few exceptions, really needs to get their act togather. i really wouldn't care very much, if not for the fact the arab, as well as a lot of muslim countries want to completely eliminate the tiny jewish country of israel from the map, they think israel just being there is too much of a provocation. im sorta starting to think that maybe israel should begin threatening the very existence of some of these arab countries around it, who continue to sponsor the killing of israelis, and continue to advocate for the absolute annihilation of israel.
im beginning to think israel shouldn't be the only country to have to worry about its very existance in the middle east. israel should draw a line, and say to hostile countries around it: "we feel like your trying to destroy us, you couldnt succeed in all out war, and now we feel like you're trying to weaken un by launching a perpetual war of attrituion against us, so you would be able to destroy us afterwards. if you cross this line, we will elminate you as a country, we will expel all citizens currently living in your country, and we will take it over"
i dont really know if i think israel should use its nuclear weapons, but somehting has gotta give. im beginning to see the merit in expelling the palestinians from the west bank... they're on land the jewish people consider to be SO holy, yet Israel continues to let them hurt, terrorize weaken the jewish state. It cant be like that forever.

[IlyaFurman]

Originally posted by rhodescholar
The arab muslim civilization, much like the notion of a people called the "Palestinians" are one of the Greatest Frauds ever perpetuated.

That article was funny, I hope no ones belives it, lol, I can say the same thing for any civiilzation, THE AMERICAN EMPIRE is not actually AMERICAN, it was BRITISH??? rite??? This can be said for anything, if anyone has enough time and enough hate they can disregard anything a great civilization has done for them.

Period.

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by IlyaFurman
That article was funny, I hope no ones belives it, lol, I can say the same thing for any civiilzation, THE AMERICAN EMPIRE is not actually AMERICAN, it was BRITISH??? rite??? This can be said for anything, if anyone has enough time and enough hate they can disregard anything a great civilization has done for them.

Period.

Unfortunately for people like you, who would prefer the arab muslim propaganda line to facts, the article is well-respected and historically accurate.

Should you wish to debate any of the points it makes, we are all ears. But like most friends of the arab/liars, you prefer to assault and denigrate instead of debate with facts.

And unlike your poor example above, i dont hear american citizens declaring how they created parliament, the right to vote, or habeous corpus. They DO claim that they practice democracy better, which is of course debatable.

But this is a long way from the historical facts that undermine many arab claims, including their invention of the current decimal-based numeric system and their religion's peaceful history and intent.

[Mediocrates]

Originally posted by IlyaFurman
That article was funny, I hope no ones belives it, lol, I can say the same thing for any civiilzation, THE AMERICAN EMPIRE is not actually AMERICAN, it was BRITISH??? rite??? This can be said for anything, if anyone has enough time and enough hate they can disregard anything a great civilization has done for them.

Period.

If we're an empire then where are our imperial territories?

[jcsd]

The 'article'(it's a letter) is not well respected, the writer Peter Betbasoo's only sources are articles from a variety of Assyrian associations many of which he wrote himself. The modern day Assyrians themselves are christians orginating from a region roughly covering Kurdistan who were not Islamicised when the area was conquered by muslims. They appear to take their name from a late Assyrian buffer state, and despite their claims there is little solid evidence of their connection with the Assyrian and neo-Assyrian empires other than geography.

There must be severe doubts over the article as it is delibrately misleading and vague in some places for example attributing some mathematical discoveries to the Assyrians and Babylonians when they were solely Babylonian discoveries i.e knowledge of pythagoras's theorum (though it is difficult to tell how abstract that knowledge was). The article also claims knowledge of the abstract form of zero, which was first hinted at in Egypt but did not properly appear until much later in either Greece or India (the Indians are usually credited with it but, there is some doubt over the translations of the proto-sanskrit).

The article also overplays the work of Assyrian philosphers, making ridculous claims such as the anticipation of quatum mechanics. It also ignores the huge body of Arab literary work and in particular the large amount of poetry produced during the European Dark ages. His assertation about the key translators and intereptors of greek science being Assyrian is again false and based on the geographical area that these men lived in rather than their cultural or religious identification. One of the most important Arab mathematicians (and astronmer too) Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khwarizimi (the father of Algebra, which the name itself comes from the Arabic Al-Jabr) he has as a non-Arabic persian simply because he lived in Baghdad.

The article itself is a squarely aimed at revisionist attack on the Arab and Muslim world.

[IlyaFurman]

Originally posted by rhodescholar
Should you wish to debate any of the points it makes, we are all ears. But like most friends of the arab/liars, you prefer to assault and denigrate instead of debate with facts.


Emmm, is that article a fact?? lol, its not, its an OPINION of ONE PERSON, if you take that article for a fact, then I really dont know what to say.

The author of that article choose to ignore the facts, most of the assyrians, maronites, and copt population have assimilated with the arab population, mixed and intermarried, and many arab states like Iraq and Syria have Assyrian ancestory, the ancient egyptians which had a great civiliaztion historians belive are the Bebers not the Arabs, and there is still a significant Beber population in North Africa even though they have mixed in with the arabs.

Dont forget before the Jews were called "jews" they were called something else.

And before the arabs were called "arabs" they are were called somthing else.

Persia has a great history, the Arabs and their ancestors have a great history, some people might want to ignore that for their own personal agenda, but thats ok, to each his own. But I live in the real world.

[IlyaFurman]

Originally posted by Mediocrates
If we're an empire then where are our imperial territories?

One of the definitions of an Empire is

empire - Supreme power; sovereignty; sway; dominion.

And yes the last time I check the US is a Supreme power.

heres some info for people

http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/history.html

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by elke
This is really a very interesting piece. However, here are a couple of points that IMO should be kept in mind:

It seems to me that what the author is saying is that by far, most of the Arab accomplishments were actually made by the Assyrians who lived in the Arab/Muslim Empire. Much research would have to be done to confirm that this is indeed the case. I am sorry, but a couple of books cited are not IMO adequate to make such a sweeping statement, given the large size and diverse population of the said Empire.

Second of all, it is not unusual to ascribe accomplishments of the members of a large historical entity to that historical entity, whether they are members of the majority community or not. As Jews, I should think that we are well aware of this, as most of the accomplishments of our people in various endeavors, are ascribed to the country of origin or residence. There is also a good reason for that: human accomplishments are not only the product of the individual's capabilities and/or cultural attributes, but also of the environment conducive to such accomplishments. This external environment is very much subject to the political and social atmosphere present in this large historical entity. Therefore, if nothing more, the Arab/Muslim Empire has provided such an atmosphere, where its subjects were able to make these discoveries, write the literature, etc.

The third point to keep in mind is that all human knowledge builds on what has been done before. We are the dominant species on this planet (with the exception of cockroaches, I guess :)) because we do not start from scratch every time. Therefore, the argument that the Arab/Muslim civilization did not create anything new but simply developed what was already there, is not a good one. It's like saying that the original cars were just an improvement on the wheel, which was created by the Sumerians 5000 BCE, or so.

To summarize, this is an interesting view on the matter; but let's give credit where credit is due.

Sorry elke, but dont agree here. The article implies that the inventions were created by the various groups BEFORE they were conquered by the arabs. it does not indicate that the conquered made these advancements while under occupation.

[IlyaFurman]

This is the same as saying the jewish people have no history cause their ancestors were not jewish so they cant take credit.

And America was founded by britian, so America cant take credit for this American Civiliaztion its all Britians doing.

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by victot
yes, this is absolutely true. however, NOWADAYS, the entire arab world combined, as well as many muslims, cannot eliminate the tiny state of israel, and they try with all thier effort. If when they conquered the arab territories, the west had played by the same rules of the game the arabs used when they conquered all those civilizations, there would be no islam.
im not so sure the arab nation deserves so much land when they are as inefficient as they are now. the arab countries, as well as most muslim countries all have dictatotrships, they have completely stopped all contributions to mankind in terms of science, culture, achievements... yet they have more land than just about any people... (maybe russians have more, but what other nation of people has control of so much land?)
anyways, i think the arab/muslim world, with VERY few exceptions, really needs to get their act togather. i really wouldn't care very much, if not for the fact the arab, as well as a lot of muslim countries want to completely eliminate the tiny jewish country of israel from the map, they think israel just being there is too much of a provocation. im sorta starting to think that maybe israel should begin threatening the very existence of some of these arab countries around it, who continue to sponsor the killing of israelis, and continue to advocate for the absolute annihilation of israel.
im beginning to think israel shouldn't be the only country to have to worry about its very existance in the middle east. israel should draw a line, and say to hostile countries around it: "we feel like your trying to destroy us, you couldnt succeed in all out war, and now we feel like you're trying to weaken un by launching a perpetual war of attrituion against us, so you would be able to destroy us afterwards. if you cross this line, we will elminate you as a country, we will expel all citizens currently living in your country, and we will take it over"
i dont really know if i think israel should use its nuclear weapons, but somehting has gotta give. im beginning to see the merit in expelling the palestinians from the west bank... they're on land the jewish people consider to be SO holy, yet Israel continues to let them hurt, terrorize weaken the jewish state. It cant be like that forever.

Now you are starting to understand. The arab understands only violence, and MUST be treated as such.

Dont forget that the ENTIRE muslim world has produced a handful of nobel prize winners, while jews/israel has hundreds iirc. There are more scientists working in israel than in the entire 1.2 billion pop muslim world. They are an absolute failure of a culture and society, and in my old age, after seeing them fail in every type of govt, have simply grown tired of the arabs/muslims.

I dont advocate their extermination per se - unless they launch an all-out war on israel again - but i do advocate (in a piece i wrote here earlier) that the muslim world simply be isloated and ignored, with no trade nor immigration to/from for the indefinite future.

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by jcsd
The 'article'(it's a letter) is not well respected, the writer Peter Betbasoo's only sources are articles from a variety of Assyrian associations many of which he wrote himself. The modern day Assyrians themselves are christians orginating from a region roughly covering Kurdistan who were not Islamicised when the area was conquered by muslims. They appear to take their name from a late Assyrian buffer state, and despite their claims there is little solid evidence of their connection with the Assyrian and neo-Assyrian empires other than geography.

There must be severe doubts over the article as it is delibrately misleading and vague in some places for example attributing some mathematical discoveries to the Assyrians and Babylonians when they were solely Babylonian discoveries i.e knowledge of pythagoras's theorum (though it is difficult to tell how abstract that knowledge was). The article also claims knowledge of the abstract form of zero, which was first hinted at in Egypt but did not properly appear until much later in either Greece or India (the Indians are usually credited with it but, there is some doubt over the translations of the proto-sanskrit).

The article also overplays the work of Assyrian philosphers, making ridculous claims such as the anticipation of quatum mechanics. It also ignores the huge body of Arab literary work and in particular the large amount of poetry produced during the European Dark ages. His assertation about the key translators and intereptors of greek science being Assyrian is again false and based on the geographical area that these men lived in rather than their cultural or religious identification. One of the most important Arab mathematicians (and astronmer too) Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khwarizimi (the father of Algebra, which the name itself comes from the Arabic Al-Jabr) he has as a non-Arabic persian simply because he lived in Baghdad.

The article itself is a squarely aimed at revisionist attack on the Arab and Muslim world.

Uh, no. I have run this piece by several PhDs in Middle East history in NYC, and they ALL vouch for it. If you want to point out specific items which you believe to be absolutely false, by all means.

[jcsd]

I have already pointed out several falsities in it such as the tenous link between modern day Assyrians and the Assyrian and neo-Assyrian empires, also the claim on the background of the key mathematicans of the day is false. Saying the Koran is the only important piece of Arab literature of this period (Arabian Nights anyone?) is again a false statement.

Much of Arabic knowledge was absorbed from the Assyrians (as in the Christian sect of that name)who in turn got it from the Greeks, but the most important factor is the way in which this knowledge was expanded upon by the Arabs.

[IlyaFurman]

Originally posted by rhodescholar
but i do advocate (in a piece i wrote here earlier) that the muslim world simply be isloated and ignored, with no trade nor immigration to/from for the indefinite future.

LOL, there goes your genious? Do you realize what the WESTERN WORLD RUNS ON??? name that "thing" the WESTERN WORLD runs on??? yes its oil, we need it, we want it, we cant live without it.

Osama would love what your proposing, isolation of the western world from the islamic world, and lack of western influence in the Islamic countries. Osamas dream.

[IlyaFurman]

I Guess people like RHODESCHOLAR would like to give an opinion on these OTHER ludicrious ISSUES, supported like people that think like him.

THE HOLOCAUST WAS A HOAX

http://www.holocaust-history.org/~jamie/the-hoax.shtml

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/holohoax.htm

http://www.natvan.com/national-vanguard/assorted/hoax.html

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR WAS A FRAUD

http://www.martinlutherking.org/

ps all these ridicolous sites have "facts"

[reason]

Originally posted by rhodescholar
Uh, no. I have run this piece by several PhDs in Middle East history in NYC, and they ALL vouch for it. If you want to point out specific items which you believe to be absolutely false, by all means.

NO my friend where is YOUR PROOF. You brought forth a theory that is against the current known theory, YOU are the one who needs to provide proof, sources and support.This is the way it is done.No one makes up a theory and asks for proof against it, and until you provide your proof this is just another factless mambo jumbo.Now post more if you have facts, and spare us your rubbish if you have none.

[reason]

Originally posted by rhodescholar
Now you are starting to understand. The arab understands only violence, and MUST be treated as such.

Dont forget that the ENTIRE muslim world has produced a handful of nobel prize winners, while jews/israel has hundreds iirc. There are more scientists working in israel than in the entire 1.2 billion pop muslim world. They are an absolute failure of a culture and society, and in my old age, after seeing them fail in every type of govt, have simply grown tired of the arabs/muslims.

I dont advocate their extermination per se - unless they launch an all-out war on israel again - but i do advocate (in a piece i wrote here earlier) that the muslim world simply be isloated and ignored, with no trade nor immigration to/from for the indefinite future.

rhodescholar,

Maybe we could do away with the racisism and concentrate on facts. If there were no Arab scholars there would be NO Einstein, simply because they discovered the Zero, optics (other wise einstein wouldnt have been able to read), etc....

I ask the moderator to lock this thread since it contains nothing more than racist propaganda.

[Ezra]

Originally posted by reason
NO my friend where is YOUR PROOF. You brought forth a theory that is against the current known theory, YOU are the one who needs to provide proof, sources and support.This is the way it is done.No one makes up a theory and asks for proof against it, and until you provide your proof this is just another factless mambo jumbo.Now post more if you have facts, and spare us your rubbish if you have none.

Look who's asking for a proof! :eek:

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by reason
rhodescholar,

Maybe we could do away with the racisism and concentrate on facts. If there were no Arab scholars there would be NO Einstein, simply because they discovered the Zero, optics (other wise einstein wouldnt have been able to read), etc....

I ask the moderator to lock this thread since it contains nothing more than racist propaganda.

This is just too funny. In either this thread or the other one on the same topic people indicate that the zero concept comes from the babylonians/greeks or others.

Pseudo-aceademics like yourself should stick to Internet web site research, and leave the genuine research work to the professionals.

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by IlyaFurman
LOL, there goes your genious? Do you realize what the WESTERN WORLD RUNS ON??? name that "thing" the WESTERN WORLD runs on??? yes its oil, we need it, we want it, we cant live without it.

Osama would love what your proposing, isolation of the western world from the islamic world, and lack of western influence in the Islamic countries. Osamas dream.

Amd I would gather that the minute the oil flow stops somehow, somewhere:

-either a scientist in the West might just have the ability to develop an alternative. People can come up with new ideas, right?

-exxon/mobil will issue a press release that they just recently discovered a new fuel option, which they of course have all the relevent patents on

-people in the west will have to use current alternative technologies, which might be more expensive, but keep in mind many technologies today came from WW2, and in times of hardship people can become quite resourceful.

Any and all of these options will lead to a wonderful event - the compulsory decision by the arab muslim world to either change and grow or vanish. The dictators will no longer hve access to the oil $$ to fund their diseased, decrepit and autocratic governments.

This I think is one of the best options to modernizing the arab world, and avoiding what right now, to students of the 1930s, appears to be an unavoidable cataclysmic confrontation between cultures.

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by IlyaFurman
Osama would love what your proposing, isolation of the western world from the islamic world, and lack of western influence in the Islamic countries. Osamas dream.

On second reading i noticed something that i didnt respond to initially that is important.

As an FYI, many of osama's folowers, particularly the 19 hijackers of 9/11 either studied or lived in teh West for many years. Clearly, many of the millions of arab muslims dont soften their radicalism even after they have moved/lived in the US or Europe (covered in another thread here) for many years, so it is certainly debatable whether western thinking has any substantial influence on them.

[IlyaFurman]

Originally posted by rhodescholar
As an FYI, many of osama's folowers, particularly the 19 hijackers of 9/11 either studied or lived in teh West for many years.

Why?, For the sole purpose of commiting terror nothing else.

[rhodescholar]

Originally posted by IlyaFurman
Why?, For the sole purpose of commiting terror nothing else.

Utterly false. Some of the 19 were living in the West for many years - and were co-opted by the mosques they went to. They may have lived in the west for decades, as Richard Reid did, before al qaeda even existed. So my point is that their long exposures to western thought and openness had no effect on them. As i said, there is another thread at israelforum.com that deals with the terrible problems that europes is having with their muslim populations, which refuses to assimilate. These muslims cause a disproportionate amount of crime and bring their hatreds of others - especially jews - along with them, poisoning the new countries they move to. The WSJ even had a front page article recently about a muslim in germany who hated that country with a passion, but saw no contradiction with living with his 9 or 10 child family on the dole there. This sickness of mind is indicative of many of the muslims living in the West, where they make little attempt to assimilate, and bite the hand that graciously feeds and accepts them from their previous despotic country.

[IlyaFurman]

Oh well, sterotyping people has caused the major genocides in the world, and its not a good thing.

[Simon]

rhodescholar,

Maybe we could do away with the racisism and concentrate on facts. If there were no Arab scholars there would be NO Einstein, simply because they discovered the Zero, optics (other wise einstein wouldnt have been able to read), etc....



Rather typical muslims lies. Arab civilization was nothing but a blatant stealing of the ideas invented by others. Reason is just the latest ****bag to propound a millenia of lies.

The number zero was invented by Indians and is mentioned even in Vedic times, stretching to almost 2000-2500 yrs BC.


http://india.coolatlanta.com/GreatPages/sudheer/maths.html
Mathematics represents a high level of abstraction attained by the human mind. In India, mathematics has its roots in Vedic literature which is nearly 4000 years old. Between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D. various treatises on mathematics were authored by Indian mathematicians in which were set forth for the first time, the concept of zero, the techniques of algebra and algorithm, square root and cube root.


http://www.fh.org/nationshapers/india/zero.shtml
India: Inventor of Zero

Zippo. Nada. Zilch. The "big goose egg." Where did zero come from? Although its actual identity continues to be debated among today’s scholars and teachers, most agree that the number zero, and the circular symbol representing it, originated in India.

Historians date the origins of mathematics back to India in 6000 B.C., when the mathematical concept book, "Vedah," was written. This book described the concepts of addition, subtraction, division and algebra, and cited the first known use of "zero" and "infinite" in mathematics.


http://www.geocities.com/borhoo/History.htm
The number zero as we know it was conceived by the Hindus from India. The Hindus were the first to recognize a mathematical representation of concept of no quantity. It had not occurred to earlier civilizations, even to the Greeks, that it would be useful to have a number which represents the absence of any objects. Connected with this late appearance of the number is the second significant fact, namely, that zero must be distinguished from nothingness (null). Undoubtedly it was the inability of earlier peoples to perceive this distinction which accounts for their failure to introduce the zero. This was very understandable because the difference is very subtle. You can see the distinction of zero and nothing by considering the following examples: A person's grade in a course he never took is no grade or nothing. But he may, however, have a grade of zero. Or if a person has no account in a bank, his balance is nothing. On the other hand, if he has a bank account, he may very well have a balance of zero.

[IlyaFurman]

Arab contributions to mathematics and the introduction of the Zero
Regional, Science, 4/22/1998

Arab contributions to human civilization are noteworthy. In arithmetic the style of writing digits from right to left is an evidence of its Arab origin. For instance, the numeral for five hundred in English should be written as 005, not as 500 according to English's left-to-right reading style.

Another invention that revolutionized mathematics was the introduction of the number zero by Muhammad Bin Ahmad in 967 AD. Zero was introduced in the West as late as the beginning of the thirteenth century. Modern society takes the invention of the zero for granted, yet the Zero is a non-trivial concept, that allowed major mathematical breakthroughs.

Arab civilizations also made a great contribution to fractions and to the principle of errors, which is employed to solve Algebra problems arithmetically.

Concerning Algebra, al-Khawarzmi is credited with the first treatise. He solved Algebra equations of the first and second degree (known as quadratic equations, and are are prevelant in science and engineering) and also introduced the geometrical method of solving these equations.

He also recognized that quadratic equations have two roots. His method was continued by Thabet Bin Qura, the translator of Ptolemy's works who developed Algebra and first realized application in geometry. By the 11th century the Arabs had founded, developed and perfected geometrical algebra and could solve equations of the third and fourth degree.

Another outstanding Arab mathematician is Abul Wafa who created and successfully developed a branch of geometry which consists of problems leading to equations in Algebra of a higher degree than the second. He made a number of valuable contributions to polyhedral theory.

Al-Karaki, of the 11th century is considered to be one of the greatest Arab mathematicians. He composed one arithmetic book and another on Algebra. In the two books, he developed an approximate method of finding square roots, a theory of indices, a theory of mathematical induction and a theory of intermediate quadratic equations.

Arabs have excelled in geometry, starting with the transition of Euclid and conic section of Apolonios and they preserved the genuine works of these two Greek masters for the modern world, by the 9th century AD. and then started making new discoveries in this domain.

In his book translated by Roger Bacon, Ibn al-Haitham wrote a book on geometrical optics, dealing with problems that would be difficult to solve even now.

It is also at the hand of the Arabs that the geometry of conic sections was developed to a great extent.

However, Arab achievements in this field were crowned by the discovery made by Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan, known as Nassereddine al-Tusi. Al-Tusi separated trigonometry from astronomy. This contribution recognizes and explains weakness in Euclid's theory of parallels, and thereby may thus be credited as founder of non-Euclidian geometry.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WHO TO BELIVE??

[IlyaFurman]

A is for Arabs: Some Arab contributions to civilization
By George Rafael


From algebra and coffee to guitars, optics and universities -- an alphabetical reminder of what the West owes to the People of the Crescent Moon.

Even before Sept. 11 forced the West to face the cultural friction between it and the Arab/Islamic world, there was an unwarranted sense of superiority. The renowned Italian journalist and interviewer Oriana Fallaci wrote Arab culture off as a few interesting architectural flourishes and the Quran. Apparently, it's easy to forget that history is cyclical and the roles were once reversed. A millennium ago, while the West was shrouded in darkness, Islam enjoyed a golden age. Lighting in the streets of Cordoba when London was a barbarous pit; religious tolerance in Toledo while pogroms raged from York to Vienna. As custodians of our classical legacy, Arabs were midwives to our Renaissance. Their influence, however alien it might seem, has always been with us, whether it's a cup of steaming hot Joe or the algorithms in computer programs. A little magnanimity is called for.

A is for algebra

From "al-jabr," Arabic for "restoration," itself a transliteration of a Latin term, and just one of many contributions Arab mathematicians have made to the "Queen of Sciences." Al-Khwarizmi (c.780-c.850), the chief librarian of the observatory, research center and library called the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, was the man responsible for making my life miserable at school. The motivation behind his treatise, "Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala" ("Calculation by Restoration and Reduction": widely used up to the 17th century), which covers linear and quadratic equations, was to solve trade imbalances, inheritance questions and problems arising from land surveyance and allocation. In passing, he also introduced into common usage our present numerical system, which replaced the old, cumbersome Roman one. Al-Karaji of Baghdad (953-c.1029), founder of a highly influential school of algebraic thought, defined higher powers and their reciprocals in his "al-Fakhri" and showed how to find their products. He also looked at polynomials and gave the rule for expanding a binomial, anticipating Pascal's triangle by more than six centuries. Arab syntheses of Babylonian, Indian and Greek concepts also led to important developments in arithmetic, trigonometry (the algorithm, for instance, thanks to al- Khwarizmi) and spherical geometry.

B is for backgammon

Sheshbesh is what it's called in Beirut and Cairo, whence the savviest players hail. Although this beautiful waste of time dates back to the pharaohs, the form we enjoy today came to us via Moorish Spain in the 10th century. Ghioul and moultezim are two other variants of "the game of kings," popular wherever the happy hookah is indulged.

C is for cough medicine

Necessity being the mother of invention, the Arabs were the first to distill water, for long journeys across areas (such as the Sahara) where supplies were uncertain. Their experiments with various chemical compounds also gave us ethanol alcohol, sulfuric acid, ammonia (have you ever noticed the uncanny resemblance between Mr. Clean and the genie in "Thief of Baghdad"?) and mercury. In applied chemistry they discovered better and more efficient ways for tanning leather and forging metals. Messing around with mortars and pestles produced camphor, pomades and syrups.

D is for Dante

Her countryman Silvio Berlusconi echoed Fallaci's ill-spoken sentiments that, on the whole, Western civilization was superior to that of Islam. She said she was quite happy with Dante, thank you very much. She spoke too soon. Though the theory has long incited fierce debate, Dante may have been acquainted with "ascension literature," a fantastical literary genre that deals with Mohammed's ascent to Heaven (using a spiraling, magical ladder; ascension literature is still popular in the Middle East and Africa). Dante was undoubtedly acquainted with Avicenna and Averroes ("who made the great commentary"), assigned as they are to that benign circle of the Inferno reserved for pagan and non- Christian worthies known as Limbo.

Moreover, according to the dean of Arabic literary studies, the formidable Robert Irwin, "a full understanding of the writings of Voltaire, Dickens, Melville, Proust and Borges, or indeed of the origins of science fiction, is impossible without some familiarity with the stories of the Arabian Nights." Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and Scheherazade, archetypes each and every one, are honorary members of the Western canon. The mock, allegorical travelogues and cautionary tales of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Johnson and other 18th-century writers and philosophes, are inconceivable without the garrulous, wayward conceits of "The Arabian Nights." They're detectable as well in the parodic chivalry of Don Quixote and in Calvino's postmodern children's fable "Marcovaldo."

E is for equestrian

Although the ancestors of Mr. Ed and Secretariat probably originated in Central Asia (with the "Heavenly Horses" of the King of Ferghana), our equine friends were first bred for speed in the desert sands of the Empty Quarter. Arab historian al-Kelbi (c. 786) traced the Arabian to the pedigreed horses of Bax, great-great-great grandson of Noah. The conquest of the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Spain was due in no small part to the aptly named beast (and the indefatigable camel), mount of choice for the tribesmen who swept all in their path. The descendents of these terrible swift steeds were brought to the New World by the Conquistadors, to devastating effect, particularly in ancient Peru where the Incas mistook the horsemen for gods. (By the time they learned the truth it was too late.) Appropriately enough, the largest and most successful stable today belongs to Sheikh Maktoum of Dubai.

F is for Fitzgerald

Edward, translator of that beloved chestnut of yore, "The Rub?iy?t of Omar Khayy?m" (a jug of wine, a loaf of bread -- and thou). My concern here, of course, is not with Fitzgerald, nice duffer though he was, but with Khayy?m himself (1048-1131) -- gifted physician, Persian bard and geometer extraordinaire. In his seminal "Algebra" he attempted a fusion of algebraic and geometric methods, discussing the solution of cubic equations by geometric means, anticipating analytical geometry. (Descartes took up this thread 500 years later, though it's unlikely he knew Khayy?m's work.) Khayy?m also dabbled in astronomy, his lunar calculations leading him to reform the calendar in 1079 (there are references to this throughout the Rub?iy?t). Furthermore, Islamic astronomers invented the pendulum, improved upon the sundial, prognosticated the existence of sunspots and studied eclipses and comets. And al-Biruni calculated the length of the solar year to within 24 seconds and discussed the earth's rotation on its axis -- 500 years before Galileo. Arabian and Islamic astronomers also constructed the first observatories, in Toledo, Cordoba, Baghdad and Cairo.

G is for guitar

If the Moors had known they would be responsible for the spectacle of Mick Jagger shaking his scrawny ass onstage into his late 50s, they might have thought twice about schlepping the early prototypes of the instruments that make up the typical rock band to Spain and Southern Italy. Percussion in the form of cymbals and timpani, bowed instruments, the lute (from "al-ud," the wood; see "The Buena Vista Social Club" for more), the Spanish guitar (or guitarra morisca as it was originally called 800 years ago), the zither (brought west from Greece), the dulcimer began keeping the neighbors awake as early as the 9th century. There's also that unique Near Eastern sound and rhythm, which, aside from early Spanish music, made itself felt in 18th- century classical music, most famously in Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio." (Turkish things were so "in" then. Witness all those wonderfully exotic 18th-century Venetian scenes by Longhi and Reynolds' costumed, turbaned toffs.) Miles Davis accented the "Oriental," Near Eastern strain in his "Sketches of Spain." The godfather of world music, Davis incorporated Middle Eastern elements into his fusion of jazz and rock in the late ླྀs and ྂs. Nowadays nobody thinks twice about such hybridization.

H is for "Havi"

Expanding on the legacy of the Greek physician and philosopher Galen was Rhazes (c. 865-c. 930), the greatest doctor of the Middle Ages. His extensive medical treatise in nine volumes, "Havi" ("The Virtuous Life"), was used as a textbook in the Sorbonne as late as 1395. In addition to case studies and clinical reports that still have anecdotal interest, Rhazes also wrote a celebrated monograph on smallpox. (Knock wood.)

"The Book of Healing," by the Persian physician and philosopher Avicenna (980-1037), is a masterwork on hygiene and therapeutics that was used as a reference well into the 16th century. With Averroes (1126-1198), the Andalusian physician and philosopher, Arabian medicine attained its peak. Muslim surgeons in the 11th century knew how to treat cataracts and internal hemorrhaging, and they pioneered the usage of anesthetics, which they derived from herbs. Arabian hospitals anticipated our modern ones in combining teaching facilities and libraries, and in offering specializations such as internal medicine, opthamology, orthopedics and pharmacology (on the last, Ibn al-Bayter, who died in 1248, described 1,400 different medicines of vegetable and mineral origin alone). They also set standards for cleanliness and hygiene that in the West shamefully weren't met till the 19th century.

[IlyaFurman]

I is for Ibn Khaldun of Tunis (1332-1406)

He invented the scientific study of history (and, indirectly it could be argued, sociology) centuries before the French Enlightenment, Hegel, Weber and Braudel. His "Muqaddimah" ("The Prolegomena"), the introduction to a general survey of Islamic history with a specific focus on North Africa, was begun in 1377 and updated several times to account for sociopolitical changes. In it, he attempts to order the raw material and outward phenomena of history under basic principles.

"Wise and ignorant are at one in appreciating history, since in its external aspect it is no more than narratives telling us how circumstances revolutionize the affairs of men, but in its internal aspect it involves an accurate perception of the causes and origins of phenomena. For this reason it is based on and deeply rooted in philosophy, worthy to be reckoned among its branches.

"Human society in its various manifestations shows certain inherent features by which all narratives must be controlled ... The historian who relies solely upon tradition and who has no thorough understanding of the principles governing the normal course of events, the fundamental rules of the art of government, the nature of civilization and the characteristics of human society is seldom secure against straying from the highway of truth ... All traditional narratives must invariably be referred back to general principles and controlled by reference to fundamental rules."

Of Olympian detachment, Ibn Khaldun was less prone than most historians, then and now, to fiddle the books and force facts to fit preconceived theories. He saw that the course of history is governed by the balance of two forces, which for him were the nomadic and the settled life. He identified history with civilization and, having established this theory, expounded in minute detail upon civilization in all its religious, administrative, economic, artistic and scientific layers.

Ibn Khaldun briefly made headlines in the early 1980s, when President Reagan quoted him in a speech. His name mystified the White House press corps, driving them to their encyclopedias to bone up on this Ibn guy; within hours they were speaking knowledgeably of him. As an undergraduate at the time, I was taking a yearlong seminar entitled "Oriental Humanities." One of our assigned texts in the Arabian section was "Muqqadimah."

Professor Meskill, an old China hand, informed us of the Great Communicator's "erudition." We all had a good laugh.

J is for jihad

This word, which has been misinterpreted as "religious war" but really means "an effort" or "striving," is one of many Arabic words that have entered the English language. Besides mullah and ayatollah, which have also acquired pejorative connotations, a partial list of Arabic words or derivatives thereof includes: alcohol, orange, coffee, sofa, caravan, tariff (from Tarifa -- the village through which the Moors invaded Spain, near Gibraltar), citrus, lemon, alembic, algebra, chess, sugar, cataract, magazine, seraphim, arsenal (also the name of a London soccer club, Osama bin Laden's favorite, appropriately enough), apricot, sandal, Satan (from "Shaitan," the Evil One), rice (from "al-ruzz"), sherbet and sorbet, talisman, artichoke, rack (from "arrack," perspiration, also the name of the fiery spirit, raqi; wrack your brains on that one), almanac, alcove, albatross (from "al-kadas," which the Portuguese corrupted into "alcatraz"; now what would the author of "Kubla Khan" make of that?), castle (from "alcazar"), albacore, Abyssinia, ginger, ghoul, zircon (from which we derive "jargon," one being a mixture of stones, the other of tongues), banana (from "banan," finger or toes), nadir, zenith, cipher, zero and monsoon (from "mausim," or season).

K is for kebab

Next time you're munching on a Nathans, or, in my case, disputing the nutritional value of chorizo with the missus, you have the Moor to thank. Cured meats and sausages and the humble kebab, usually lamb or beef (never pork), were among the culinary delights that came to Europe via Islamic Spain. Likewise the hotter spices and spicier condiments. The Moors were also the first to crystallize sugar (which they also brought to Europe).

L is for latte

As you sip one of those wimpy, froufrou confections in Starbucks, think about this: Arabica. Yes, the humble coffee bean. First cultivated and brewed as rocket fuel by Yemeni tribesman way back when -- though it's disputed whether the beans were transplanted from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to the Arabian Peninsula or whether it was the other way around. As an afterthought, we might not now have this plague of Starbucks and chi-chi cafes were it not for the Ottoman Turks, the Viennese getting the clever idea of the coffeehouse from them in the late 17th century

[IlyaFurman]

M is for mosque

Funny, thinking about what Oriana Fallaci said earlier, the architectural flourish commonly attributed to the Moors, the curved arch, was actually copied from the Visigoths in Spain. Byzantine art and architecture, above all the Hagia Sophia in what was then Constantinople, had a profound influence on Islamic builders and artisans. However, it's the humble church steeple (via the mighty cathedral tower) that has an Islamic antecedent, the minaret.

N is for navigation

Without Arabian improvements upon the compass, the astrolabe, nautical maps and seaworthy lanterns, Magellan, Cabot, Vasco da Gama, Columbus, et al., might have had trouble pulling anchor and leaving port. The Arabs also pioneered the usage of hydraulic presses and water clocks, which tracked the passage of time and phases of the moon.

O is for optics

The concept of camera obscura, which is indispensable to the later development of photography, was first suggested in "The Treatise on Optics," by Hassan Ali Aitan (963-1009).

P is for paradise

Consider the varieties of roses -- the damask and the gallica, to name the two most common --brought to Europe through Spain and Southern Italy by the Moor. Perhaps a rose is a rose is a rose, but what signifies here is where they're planted, and to Islamic sages and poets, gardens were symbolic of the paradise to come, a "blue green" paradise, blue for water, naturally, and green for greenery. The word "paradise" is of Persian origin ("paradaeza"); it literally means garden. Paradise as a garden or pleasure ground with swaying houris (heavenly handmaidens), the one that's promised to good male Muslims, figures heavily in the Quran, in contrast to Genesis where the Garden of Eden is a paradise lost. (And there are no houris in the Old Testament and definitely none in the New; is it any wonder Islam won so many converts?)

Q is for Qasim

Can you name the mystical Sufi poet who inspired Spiritual Girl Madonna to whirl like a dervish in "Speed of Light"? The one who is beloved by Demi Moore, quoted by Deepak Chopra and read by New Age ninnies from Beverly Hills to Notting Hill? (None of this, incidentally, should be held against him.) A Persian of Greek descent, who's up there in the Persian pantheon with Attar, Firdausi, Hafiz, Khayyam and Sadi? OK, OK, you know already: It's Jalad'din , but actually before him there was another, more carnal Rumi. Ibn al-Rumi (836-896) was an expansive, unforgettable, larger than life figure, Walt Whitman and Dylan Thomas rolled into one. He was magnificently ugly, unkempt and unwashed, pugnacious and ferociously sarcastic ("Those who kiss ass shouldn't complain of wind"), promiscuous, gluttonous, bibulous, blasphemous and irredeemably bohemian -- and he wondered why he couldn't get a position at court. And Qasim, you ask? He was the Caliph's vizier, who, fearful of the poet's wicked tongue, graciously poisoned him at supper. Rumi, though, had the last laugh. Upon quaffing the fatal potion and having a good burp, Rumi rose to leave. Qasim asked where he was off to, and Rumi replied he was going where the vizier had sent him. "In that case, convey my greetings to my father," Qasim said, thinking himself very witty. "I am not going to the fires of hell," Rumi replied. (Well, I needed something for Q.)

R is for religious tolerance and racial equality

Yes, hard as that might be for some to believe, Islam was the first major religion, certainly the first monotheistic one, to practice religious tolerance. Not that Muslim tribesmen didn't put to the sword those who refused to convert -- they committed their fair share of well-documented massacres early on -- but military success came so swiftly to them and on such a vast scale, that they found themselves burdened with an empire, and needed all the help they could get from their cleverer subjects to run it. They were, after all, warriors, not administrators. As rulers they were lenient, even generous (unlike the Germanic tribes that ravaged the late Roman Empire). Besides, Jews and Christians were "People of the Book" -- Islam borrowed much from its elders; Abraham, Moses and Christ are recognized prophets in the Koran -- and as long as they paid their tithe to the Caliph and kept out of trouble, they were free to do as they wished (the Zoroastrians in Persia were treated in similar fashion). "Holy Toledo," the meeting point of the three great religions, became a model of religious tolerance and harmony -- an idyll that ended when the Christian kings of the north recaptured it in 1085. (Until the rise of Holland in the 17th century, if you were Jewish it was generally better for your overall health and well- being to live in Muslim lands such as North Africa, the Levant or Turkey than almost anywhere in Christendom, particularly those places where Catholicism prevailed. French missionaries are to blame for introducing the virus of anti-Semitism to the Middle East in the 19th century.) Of the three great thinkers who flourished under Islamic rule, one was non-Muslim, Maimonides of Cordoba (1135-1204), author of "The Guide for the Perplexed," who was Jewish. Like Avicenna and his fellow Cordoban, Averroes, Maimonides attempted to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with religious belief. He died in Alexandria, where he founded the great synagogue.

Regarding race, Islam is colorblind, which came as a surprise to Malcolm X on his pilgrimage to Mecca, where he found himself worshipping alongside blond-haired, blue-eyed white devils. Unlike Christianity, which justified racial slavery (blacks were inferior, less than human and so forth) by citing Ham in the Old Testament, Islam emphasized the equality of man before the eyes of God, whether black or white, rich or poor, man or woman. But, as we all know, what is preached isn't necessarily what is practiced. The cruel irony of Malcolm X's revelation, which challenged his ideas and changed the course of his life, was that he had it in a country that didn't abolish slavery until 1973. (Slavery exists today, despite claims to the contrary, in Mauritania and in the Sudan, both Muslim nations, the latter a fundamentalist state that has prosecuted a genocidal war against its southern, African half for more than 20 years. None of this, of course, was brought up at the United Nations conference on slavery in September.) And although the British, Dutch and Portuguese dominated the Atlantic slave trade in Caryl Philips' "Atlantic Sound," the Arabs held a firm whip hand in East Africa, built entire ports and cities devoted solely to that very profitable end, and played a significant role as middlemen throughout the continent. Still, it is good to know that Islam is colorblind.

S is for shatranj

Although modern chess originated in Northern India in the 7th century A.D., where it was called chaturanga, it was introduced to Spain and Sicily a century later by Moorish invaders and Saracen traders. Shatranj, which means "king's game" (shah tranj), differs slightly from the game we know today, in that instead of a queen there was a firzan, and in place of the bishop there was a fil (of course). The game was slower, with pawns allowed to advance but one square in the opening and no castling allowed. Victory came from checkmate (from the Persian, "Shah mat," the King is lost or helpless), stalemate or a "bare king" (the king alone, like Richard III at Bosworth Field). Some caliphs played "living chess" -- human pieces, slaves or prisoners -- the downside for the participants being possible decapitation if one was captured. As depicted by the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine -- in real life infamous for the Sack of Baghdad in which a million people died - - was fond of this pastime.

[IlyaFurman]

T is for turban

Let's face it, the turban, the burnoose, that wild and crazy Arafat thingy the college kids love to wear, whatever you wish to call it, is a brilliant fashion accessory. Imagine Edith Sitwell, Audrey Hepburn or David Hume without theirs; you can't, can you? With a little bit of water moistened about the inside you have a portable air conditioner. The turban was an early instance of form following function, though I have a feeling Sitwell, Hepburn and Hume were unaware of all this. Speaking of turbans, you need the right setting for one, too, something out of an odalisque by Ingres or Matisse: muslin, damask, chintz to cover sofas and pillows -- Moorish appurtenances on which to seat your little keester and to rest your weary head -- while being fanned by eunuchs, of course.

U is for university

The concept of the university originated with the madrassas, which were centers devoted to religious instruction, as they are in considerably less cosmopolitan forms in Muslim nations today. The first madrassas in Spain, in Malaga, Zaragoza and Cordoba, which later evolved into universities, started in the 11th century. The foundation of Damascus University dates back to the 8th century.

V is for venetian glass

Venetian glass blowers, famed for their miraculously intricate and delicate creations, learned their secrets from the Arabs (and went on to monopolize the glass trade for centuries). Islamic artisans and craftsmen, renowned for their ceramics, armory and masonry, made a deep impression on their Spanish, French and Italian counterparts. One could easily compose an alphabet of objects, decorative and otherwise, from Aubusson tapestries to the engravings on Zildjian cymbals, that bear traces of Arabic and Islamic design and calligraphy.

W is for watermelon

This is just one of the many crops the Arabs introduced to the West. Others include artichokes, rice, cotton, asparagus, oranges (from "naranj"), lemons, limes, figs, dates, spinach and eggplants. Arab methods of irrigation, which made the desert bloom, are still utilized today in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, as are the wells and aqueducts they built.

X is for Xenophon

Have you heard of him? Friend of Socrates and Plato, guest at the Symposium, author of a treatise on horses (the Hippike), Xenophon, in truth, was a bit of bore. Nevertheless, we're better off for knowing him because of the company he kept. Aristotle was a special favorite of Islamic scholars and thinkers such as Avicenna and Averroes, particularly for his "Ethics." Much of what remains of the Greek classics was salvaged, translated -- into classical Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, Persian and vernacular languages such as Castillian -- and interpreted under the aegis of the Arabs, with non-Muslims, anonymous scribes and great thinkers alike playing their parts (Maimonides comes to mind). Contrary to popular belief, it was Christian fanatics who sacked the Great Library of Alexandria (they followed up with a pogrom), decades before Muhammad was born.

Y is for the yearning one (el taleb)

Like Scotsmen and their kilts, there's more going on under those burqas than you might think. El taleb, or "the yearning one," is one of the 46 different kinds of vulvae described in the ninth chapter of the Arabian equivalent of "The Kama Sutra," "The Perfumed Garden of the Shaykh Nefzawi," translated by my favorite roaming Brit (a very short list, that), the randy Sir Richard Burton. "This vagina is met with in a few women only. With some it is natural; with others it becomes what it is by long abstinence. It is burning for a member, and having got one in its embrace, it refuses to part with it until its fire is completely extinguished"; talk about vagina monologues. (Note, fair ladies, there's a similar chapter on male equipment.) Other chapters deal with the act of generation, with praiseworthy men and women, with contemptible men and women, with positions other than the missionary (mullah position, anyone?), with arousal techniques, with impotence and sterility, with pregnancy, and so on and so forth. In contrast to the early Christians, the Arabs had a refreshing view of sex -- it was for pleasure, too, not just procreation.

Z is for zero

From "zefira," or cipher. Nought, nothing, nil. What a concept. Carried over from India to the West by the Arabs. Less than zero? Well, you're getting into negative numbers there ...

George Rafael has written extensively on literature and the

arts.
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[IlyaFurman]

This discussion can go both ways, depends on your sources, but historically ask any university for the real truth about arab achievments.

And this article is not bais, it says the arabs didnt invent the concept of zero, infact the carried it over from India.