Today marks the number “THIRTY” in the series of my write ups on the contributions of muslim scholars to the development of modern science. It remains a challenge to the muslims the world over that despite the contributions of the early muslim scholars to the development of modern science their names are hardly mentioned.
HIS BIOGRAPHY:
His full name is Abu Ḥanifah Ahmad ibn Dawud Dinawari. He was born in the region of Dinawar, halfway between Hamadan and Kermanshah in modern-day western Iran. He was born in 815 CE. and died in 896 CE. He is a muslim Polymath, an Astronomer, an Agriculturist, a Botanist, a Metallurgist, a Geographer, a Mathematician, and a Historian.
HIS CONTRIBUTIONS:
He is the author of about fifteen works in
Mathematics Natural and Social sciences; such as:
1. Kitab al-jabr wa’l-muqabalah (“Book of
Algebra “) 2. Kitab al-nabat (“Book of Plants”)
3. Kitab al-kusuf (“Book of Solar Eclipses “)
4. Kitab al-radd ala rasad al-Isfahani (“Refutation of al-Isfahani’s Astronomical Observations”) 5. Kitab al-hisab (“Book of Arithmetic”) 6. Bahth fi hisab al-Hind (“Analysis of Indian Arithmetic”). 7. Kitab al-jam’ wa’l-tafriq (“Book of Arithmetic”). 8. Kitab al-qibla wa’l-zawal (“Book of Astral Orientations”) 9. Kitab al-anwâ’ (“Book of Weather”) and 10. Islah al-mantiq (“Improvement of Speech”).
Social sciences and humanities:
1. Kitab al-akhbar al-tiwal (“General History”)
2. Kitab al-kabir (“Grand Book” in history of sciences). 3. Kitab al-fisâha (“Book of Rhetorics”) 4. Kitab al-buldan (“Book of Geography “). 5. Kitab al-shi’r wa’l-shu’ara (“Book of Poetry and Poets”) and 5 . Ansab al-Akrad (“Ancestry of the nomads”).
On Botany: Al-Dinawari is considered the founder of Arabic botany for his Kitab al-Nabat (Book of Plants), which consisted of six volumes. Only the third and fifth volumes have survived, though the sixth volume has partly been reconstructed based on citations from later works. In the surviving portions of his works, 637 plants are described from the letters sin to ya . He describes the phases of plant growth and the production of flowers and fruit.
On Astronomy and Meteorology Parts of al-Dinawari’s Book of Plants deals with the applications of Meteorology to agriculture . It describes the Astronomical and Meteorological character of the sky, the planets and constellations , the sun and moon , the lunar phases indicating seasons and rain, the anwa ( heavenly bodies of rain), and atmospheric phenomena such as winds, thunder, lightning, snow, floods, valleys, rivers, lakes, wells and other sources of water.
May Allah guide us!
(Reviewed but originally 16/6/2017)
Dauda can be reached at nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com and
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