He used the Chinese invention of the camera obscura (or pinhole camera) to show how light travels in straight lines from the object to form an inverted image on the retina. ![]() Among his many contributions to optics was the first correct explanation of how vision works. ![]() The greatest scientist of the medieval world was a 10th century Arab by the name of Ibn al-Haytham. The timing mechanism is based on a water-filled bucket hidden inside the elephant. It features an Indian elephant, Chinese dragons, a Greek water mechanism, an Egyptian phoenix, and wooden robots in traditional Arabian attire. It was built by al-Jazari, and gives physical form to the concept of multiculturalism. This centrepiece of the exhibition is a three-metre high replica of an early 13th-century water clock and one of the engineering marvels of the medieval world. The 1001 Inventions exhibition at London's Science Museum tells some of the stories of this forgotten age. What the medieval scientists of the Muslim world articulated so brilliantly is that science is universal, the common language of the human race. Arabic texts replaced Greek as the fonts of wisdom, helping to shape the scientific revolution of the Renaissance. New disciplines emerged – algebra, trigonometry and chemistry as well as major advances in medicine, astronomy, engineering and agriculture. Geniuses in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus and Cordoba took on the scholarly works of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, India and China, developing what we would call "modern" science. What is only now becoming clear (to many in the west) is that during the dark ages of medieval Europe, incredible scientific advances were made in the Muslim world. But the means to facilitating scientific advances have always been dictated by culture, political will and economic wealth. T here is no such thing as Islamic science – for science is the most universal of human activities.
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