What if I told you that the founder of the world’s first university was not a European man from the 1800s but a Muslim woman in the 9th century? Or that the father of algebra was actually an Arab man who introduced one of the bases for modern mathematics a thousand years ago.Â
Here are just some of the facts I learned as I walked through the Islamic Heritage Month Exhibition at Peace Village in the city of Vaughan, Ont.:Â
The truth behind the world’s most groundbreaking discoveries
From various artifacts to a planetarium experience about Islamic discoveries, I was stunned to uncover the origins of the world’s most groundbreaking discoveries in science and technology.
The exhibit wasn’t only a display of various artifacts but an opportunity to be reminded of a part of the world’s forgotten history — the legacy of Islamic heritage. This legacy includes many Muslim scholars who transformed fields like chemistry, astronomy, and even telling the time.Â
The father of modern pharmacyÂ
One of the first showcases of work I saw was of Jabir Ibn Hayyan, also known as the father of modern pharmacy and Arabic chemistry. He was an alchemist from Persia who found several chemical compounds and processes, such as hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, and the process of distillation. All of these compounds and processes are still widely used today by many modern chemists and even students!
The *actual* first man to fly
The Wright brothers might have created the first airplane, but did you know that Abbas Ibn Firnas inspired their model? Abbas Ibn Firnas was the first human to fly. He was a Muslim engineer known as the world’s first pilot who created the world’s first glider in 875 CE, which later inspired the Wright brothers to make the first airplane in 1903.
World’s first robot, but in the year 1206
The father of robotics, who made the world’s first programmable robot, was another Muslim inventor from the 12th century, Ismail al-Jazari. As an inventor, one of the most famous devices he made was the elephant clock, one of the earliest ways of telling time.Â
My Takeaways
The Islamic Heritage Month Exhibition was a call to reimagine history by putting Islam’s contributions to the modern world in perspective. The exhibition kept me hooked until the end, but it also raised one question for me: Why are these contributions not part of our educational curriculums?Â
Why is it that so many people, including myself as a Muslim, had no idea about these significant contributions that, in some cases, laid the foundations for some of the world’s most common advancements? The answer might lie in the colonial narratives that have shaped Western education over time.Â
Outside of Islamic contributions, there are other religions and cultures as well whose contributions to world history are excluded from our curriculums. When history and knowledge are presented restrictively, we often exclude a massive part of human progress that has shaped our world history.Â
From mathematics to science and astronomy, Muslims have always played a massive part in human progress and achievements. Human progress in history can only be understood by acknowledging and including contributions from other cultures and religions.Â
The Islamic Heritage Month Exhibition was not only a powerful way of reviving the forgotten legacy of Islamic contributions. It was also an essential reminder that human progress and achievements are a shared endeavour with no boundaries, led by people from all backgrounds.Â