Page 108 - A Historical Lie: The Stone Age
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A HISTORICAL LIE: THE STONE AGE
He studied the five sense organs in his Makalatun fial-Havas.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) described the treatments for many dis-
eases. His best-known work, Kitab al-Qanun fi at-Tibb, was written in
Arabic and translated into Latin in the 12th century. It was taught
and regarded as a basic textbook in European universities until the
17th century. Much of its medical information still applies today.
Zakaria Qazvini demolished many mistaken ideas regarding
the brain and the heart that, since Aristotle's time, had been consid-
ered accurate. The information he provided about these two organs
is very similar to our present-day knowledge.
Zakaria Qazvini, Hamd Allah Mustawfi Qazvini (1281-1350),
and Ibn Nafs all studied anatomy and formed the foundation of
modern medical science.
Ali ibn Isa wrote a three-volume work on eye diseases, Tazkirat
al-Kahhalin. The first volume is totally devoted to the eye's anatomy
and contains much valuable information. It was later translated into
Latin and German.
Al-Bayruni demonstrated, 600 years before Galileo, that Earth
revolves and also calculated its diameter 700 years before Newton.
Ali Kuscu produced the first map of the Moon, one region of
which is named after him.
Thabit ibn Qurra discovered differential calculus centuries be-
fore Newton.
Al-Battani was the first to discover trigonometry.
Abu'l Vafa was responsible for trigonometry acquiring the
terms secant and cosecant.
Al-Khwarizmi wrote the first book on algebra.
Al-Maghribi discovered the equation known as Pascal's trian-
gle 600 years before Pascal himself.
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