“1001 Inventions” exhibition in Washington pays tribute to great scientists and scholars from C Asia

Titled "1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World," the exhibitions showcases the inventions made in Muslim civilization for a thousand years from the 7th to the 17th centuries, Silk Road Newsline reports.

"A famous observatory built in the 1420s by the astronomer Ulugh Bek in Uzbekistan had a sextant set into a trench more than 3 stores deep to protect in from earthquakes," says one of the exhibits on astronomy highlighting the fact that Ulugh Bek Observatory "had a sextant with a radius of over 40 meters - the world's largest at the time - to help make accurate measurements of the altitude of stars."

The discoveries made by the great Central Asian thinker Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who authored the first book on algebra and whose name the word algorithm is derived, are showcased in the sections of the exhibition covering the history of astronomy and mathematics.

"In the early 9th centiry, al-Khwarizmi constructed tables that could help complete missing values in astronomical tables that define the locations of stars," says the exhibition adding that "the word algebra comes from the title of the book Al-Jabr wal Muqabalah by the scholar al-Khwarizmi. He put algebra on a secure footing in the early 9th century."

Visitors of the exhibition can learn about al-Biruni, another great Central Asian scientist, who wrote 200 books.

"Al-Biruni developed a trigonometric equation to predict the circumference of the Earth defined in the first half of the 11th century," says the exhibition stressing that Al-Biruni arrived "at a number very close to the accepted value today."

Discoveries made by the legendary Central Asian scholar Abu Ali ibn-Sina are highlighted in a section covering the history of medicine.

"Today's treatment for fractures is remarkably similar to the approach recommended by the famous Ibn Sina," says the exhibition. "Known in the West as Avicenna, he built on knowledge from ancient civilizations in his influential work. He wrote hundreds of books in his lifetime, of which 40 were on medical topics."

Visitors of the exhibition can also learn about the legendary Silk Road that linked the East with the West and facilitated major discoveries and scientific exchanges. "The English words caravan, along with words bazaar, traffic and tariff are a legacy of hundreds of years of interchange between Europeans and Arab-speaking traders," the section on the Silk Road says.

1001 Inventions is a global educational initiative that promotes awareness of scientific and cultural achievements from the 'Golden Age' of Muslim civilization and how those contributions helped build the foundations of our modern world. This period lasted approximately 1000 years from the 7th century onwards. The 1001 Inventions global touring exhibition and the educational products that accompany the exhibition all highlight the scientific and technological achievements made by men and women, of different faiths and cultures, who lived in or were connected with broader Muslim civilization.

The exhibition includes over 60 interactive, sensory and static exhibits showing discoveries made by Islamic scholars in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, chemistry, geography, mechanics and many other sciences.

Following blockbuster runs in London, Istanbul, New York and Los Angeles, the exhibition will remain open in Washington for six months until February 2013.

According to Paul Taylor, Director of the Asian History Program at another venerated Washington research center, the Smithsonian Institution, his department is considering adding works of great Central Asian thinkers to the Smithsonian Digital Editions that publishes important source materials with scholarly interpretations.

"Our system of publishing source materials, the papers and artistic works and so on, the source materials, I mean collections but it can mean archives or materials that have not been translated before and having them side by side original and translation online. That system of publishing source materials is a very good system when applied to the many intellectual figures of Central Asia who have had a big influence," Taylor told Silk Road Newsline in an interview.

"This also raises the question not just of how we present them in terms of public museums and working with our colleagues for their presentations, but also the inspiration that they provide for us and the chance when we can read in translation, which is the only way most of us, including myself, can read - the works of these thinkers and scientists, how they present us with a view of the world that is very appealing and very consistent with what we are seeing around us in Central Asia today as well and opportunity to try to always explore and always, whatever our current limitations of technology or our society or people around us or whatever difficulties we have, to constantly be exploring and overcoming any of those difficulties to leap intellectually further than we originally thought we could," Taylor said.