Contributions of Muslim Scientists to Biology

From about the 8th to the 13th century CE, often called the Golden Age of Islamic science, cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Damascus, Cairo and Cordoba were great centres of learning. Scholars translated Greek, Persian and Indian books into Arabic and then added their own observations and experiments. Many of their books were later translated into Latin and used in European universities for hundreds of years.

1. Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 721–815 CE)

Field: chemistry, plants and animals · Worked in: Kufa, Iraq · Known in Europe as: Geber

• Called the father of chemistry because he made experiments the centre of chemistry.
• Described laboratory methods such as distillation, crystallisation and evaporation, which are still used in biology and chemistry labs.
• Credited with books about plants (Kitab al-Nabatat) and animals (Kitab al-Hayawan).

2. Abdul Malik Asmai (c. 740–828 CE)

Field: zoology · Worked in: Basra and Baghdad, Iraq (at the court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid)

• Regarded as the first Muslim zoologist.
• Wrote separate books describing animals in detail: Al-Khail (the horse), Al-Ibil (the camel), Al-Shat (the sheep) and Al-Wahoosh (wild animals).
• His book Khalq al-Insan described the parts of the human body and their names.

3. Al-Jahiz (c. 776–869 CE)

Full name: Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr · Field: zoology · Worked in: Basra and Baghdad, Iraq

• Wrote Kitab al-Hayawan (The Book of Animals), a large work in seven volumes describing more than 350 kinds of animals.
• Explained that animals depend on each other for food: small animals are eaten by bigger ones, which are eaten by even bigger ones. Today we call this a food chain.
• Wrote about how the surroundings (environment) affect animals, and about animal behaviour, such as the way ants store food.

4. Al-Dinawari (c. 828–896 CE)

Full name: Abu Hanifa Ahmad ibn Dawud al-Dinawari · Field: botany · From: Dinawar, Iran

• Regarded as the founder of Arabic botany.
• His Kitab al-Nabat (The Book of Plants) described hundreds of plants.
• Described the stages of plant life (sprouting, growth, flowering and fruiting) and how people used plants.

5. Al-Razi (Rhazes) (c. 865–925 CE)

Full name: Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi · Field: medicine · Worked in: Rayy (Iran) and Baghdad, where he headed hospitals

• Wrote Kitab al-Judari wa al-Hasbah, the first book to clearly tell apart smallpox and measles, two diseases with similar rashes.
• His huge medical encyclopedia, Al-Hawi (The Comprehensive Book), was put together from his notes after his death.
• Recorded each patient's signs of illness and progress carefully: the basis of modern clinical observation.
• A famous story says that, to choose a healthy place for a new hospital in Baghdad, he hung pieces of meat in different areas and picked the place where the meat rotted the slowest.

6. Al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) (936–1013 CE)

Full name: Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas al-Zahrawi · Field: surgery · Worked in: Cordoba, Spain

• Called the father of modern surgery.
• Wrote Kitab al-Tasrif, a medical encyclopedia in 30 volumes. Its surgery section describes and draws more than 200 surgical instruments, many still used in similar forms, such as forceps and scalpels.
• Gave the earliest known description of haemophilia, an inherited disease in which blood does not clot properly.
• Credited with using catgut (thread made from animal gut) for internal stitches, because the body can absorb it.

7. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (c. 965–1040 CE)

Full name: Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham · Field: optics and vision · Worked in: Basra and Cairo, Egypt

• Called the father of optics. Wrote Kitab al-Manazir (The Book of Optics) in seven volumes.
• Showed that we see because light from objects enters the eye. Many earlier scholars thought the eye sent out rays.
• Described the parts of the eye, such as the cornea and lens, and how they work.
• Studied the pinhole camera (camera obscura) and insisted that ideas must be tested by experiment, an important step towards the scientific method.

8. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980–1037 CE)

Full name: Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina · Field: medicine and philosophy · Born: near Bukhara (Uzbekistan); died: Hamadan (Iran)

• Wrote Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine) in five books. It was used as a medical textbook in Europe until about the 1600s.
• Explained that some diseases, such as tuberculosis, are contagious (spread from person to person).
• Gave rules for testing new medicines, for example testing a medicine on the disease it is meant to treat and checking that the effect is repeated.
• Also wrote Kitab al-Shifa (The Book of Healing), an encyclopedia of science and philosophy.

9. Ibn al-Baitar (c. 1197–1248 CE)

Field: botany and pharmacy · Born: Malaga, Spain; worked in: Cairo, as chief herbalist to the Sultan

• Travelled across North Africa, Anatolia and Syria to collect and study plants.
• His Kitab al-Jami described about 1,400 plants, foods and medicines, including around 300 not described before.
• Recorded how to prepare and use each medicine: an early form of pharmacology.

10. Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288 CE)

Full name: Ala al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abi Hazm al-Qurashi · Field: physiology · Born: near Damascus; worked in: Cairo, as head of a hospital

• Gave the first known description of pulmonary circulation (around 1242): blood goes from the right side of the heart to the lungs, mixes with air, and returns to the left side of the heart.
• Showed that there are no hidden pores in the wall (septum) between the two sides of the heart, correcting the Greek doctor Galen.
• Suggested that the heart muscle gets its own blood supply through its own vessels (today called the coronary arteries).
• In Europe, the full circulation of blood was described by William Harvey in 1628, almost 400 years later.

Summary table