Davood-Rahni

Seminal Contributions
of Historical Iranian (Persian) Philosophers, Poets, Physicians and Scientists,
Revisited.

Davood
N. Rahni

New York, U.S.A.

There seem to be an intensifying orchestrated
effort in the west particularly the U.S. to neglect, discount, discredit or
convolute the multifaceted contributions of philosophers, physicians, scientists,
historians and artisans of the past few millennia in south, south-central, south-west
Asia, and north Africa--a vast area now collectively referred to by the
fabricated name, the
Middle East. Some attribute this new wave to post-soviet era and post
September 11 events of creating a crusade against the Islamic World. It
is as if “civilization all began” in the west in the 16th century
and is solely based on Greek philosophy of life in vacuum. While the immense
contributions of the EASTERN world’s citizens (China to North Africa),
currently comprised of two-third of the world population and the profound
impact of their scholarship on the ultimate awakening of Europe and the west, and
the advancement of civilization is documented worldwide, the western distortion
is further exacerbated when new countries, that were formed by the British
mandate after the Ottoman Turk defeat in World War I such as Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait or the UAE join in the exploitative distortion of history. Scattered
tribes hovering around oil and gas fields that have been discovered in the
region in recent decades, finance the publication of seemingly polished
manuscripts that give the whole credit of the accomplishments of the Eastern
peoples to the Arabs or Islamists, and thereby imputing a rich retro-virtual
history to a country such as Saudi Arabia which it never had, as the country never
existed. These nations yearn to stand on an equal cultural footing with their
historical neighbors, namely, Iran,
India, Egypt, Syria,
or China
despite their youth, and lack of such “rich” track records. Notwithstanding
this, however, one should reiterate the mutual respect and admiration for the sovereignty,
identity and integrity of all nations, as long as it in no way infringes upon
others. For instance, the attempt by some Arab ultranationalists, e.g. Saudi Arabia, to rename the Persian
Gulf, a water body named as such 2500 years ago and as recorded by
Herodotus, typifies such irrational and immature behavior.

I am writing in response to a recent article, “Rediscovering
Arabic Science” by Richard Covington
in the Aramco World Magazine, the official public relations piece published
by a tax exempt organization in Houston Texas and sponsored by Saudi Arabia. The article, as do an
intensifying large emerging number of articles in the west during the past
decade, depicts the scientists in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa in the past 2000 years as Arabic. Although this is a dramatic improvement over the
twentieth century during which the citation of the work of such scientists in
the west remained non-existent or convoluted, at best, Covington opts
for a selective citation of Persian scientists, and as the title of his work shows,
Rediscovering Arabic Science, it implies that they are Arabs; this
is far from the truth. Whereas an inclusive nationalism advocacy by any nation,
including the newly established Saudi Arabia is reasonable, such strong
advocacy of nationalism by a lucratively commissioned author should not include
fabrication of a national historical identity for a young nation that emerged
out of the oil exploration of the 20th century, by taking pieces of
history from other historical nations and ethnicities such as the non-Arab Iran
and the Persians, the Egyptians, the Turks, the Syrians, the Indians and the
Central Asians, and collectively insinuating them to be “Arabic.”

Ever since receiving the latest hard copy
issue (May/June 2007) of the World Aramco Magazine (also
available at //www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200703/) , I have appreciatively
read the article Rediscovering Arabic Science, three
times, and cannot help but to applaud the author in his efforts to highlight
some of the finest scholarly works of the distant past in the region. I would, however,
take strong issue with the misguided selection of the article’s title and the implication
throughout that these past scholars were solely Arabs. The article is well
researched, and comprehensively written. It broadly covers the multi-faceted
scientific and technological contributions of learned people from China to Spain made toward the betterment of
life for humanity through almost 1000 years when Islam was the catalyst for
governance and spirituality in this vast region of the world. The article
further spells out eloquently and illustratively the substantive impact
such "Islamic" science has had on western civilization, and
modern science and technology post-Renaissance.

My humble suggestion is for Covington and others like him to
consider submitting the same kind of articles to the mainstream western media
with the right title and due recognition to ethnicities, especially at this taxing
politically charged juncture with the proper title. The aspirations of the 1.3
plus billion ethnically diverse people in the "Muslim" world for
homegrown democracy and socio-cultural and religious reformation are seriously
undermined by hegemonic influences and pre-emptive military interventions. The
predicament of tens of millions of otherwise law abiding and immensely
contributing citizens in the West with ancestry from the south and southwest Asia
or referred to with the fabricated and historically baseless "Middle East" is particularly precarious.

I have maintained a conversation with a few of
such organizations and their media (AAAS, NSF, Am. Chem. Soc., Chemical Heritage Foundation, CHF),
encouraging them to consider publishing articles long overdue as exemplified by
Covington’s. For instance, the Chemical Heritage Foundation publishes a
glossy colorful magazine similar to Aramco’s, and prints articles on the
primarily western historical heritage of chemistry and science. CHF magazine’s
spring 2007 issue had an article, Image
of Alchemy, in which it is as if chemistry began in the 17th
century in Europe. CHF published a select
synopsis of my elaborate prose on the subject in their summer 2007 issue as
follows:

I read with enthusiasm your recent article, “The
Image of Alchemy”. The article does an excellent job illustrating the
seminal contributions of alchemists in post-Renaissance Europe.
The word alchemy, as the definite feminine article al-
demonstrates, had its origin in Aramaic, Arabic and Hebrew odysseys in the area
now called Middle East. We must not forget the [multifaceted]
contributions of the people of that region in the millennia before the treasure
troves, that they had safeguarded and expanded, were passed on to Europeans. It
is worth citing, for instance, such Persian scholars as Avicenna, Biruni, Farabi,
Omar Khayam, Rhazes, Algorithm, and Jabir ibn Hayyan.

The avid reader may only review a brief
introduction to Iranian/Persian scientists in this prose. It is hoped that similar
information can also be found on Indian, Syrian, Egyptian or Chinese scientists
elsewhere; and that the same coverage can be extended to scientists of
Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Zoroastrian faiths of the distant past
and before the advent of, or after Islam. Then, western scholars would be obligated to
adhere to a minimum set of internationally accepted standards for generating
manuscripts with complete citations. They should for instance, focus solely on
the Saudi Arabian scholars or Kuwaiti scholars and present them, based on
verifiable referenced facts and merits.

A humble, meritoriously constructive feedback
on the recently cited article titled: Rediscovering
Arabic Science as it appeared in the propaganda Saudi
magazine World Aramco immediately implies an Arab centered theme and
thereby undermines the powerful message the article presents thereafter. It
connotes, as if science did not exist in India
or China, and in the Greek and
the Persian (Iran)
worlds before the "Arab" influence, and if and when science happened
it was all "Arabic". An author of modest historical knowledge of the
region knows better that this is farthest from the truth. If one in our own
communities cannot recognize the specific contributions of our ancestors in
their own right and nationalities, no wonder then, as to why the West, only in
the 20th century along with the oil, reluctantly discovered the
historical importance of the peoples of the regions.

It is indeed true that after the advent of
Islam in the 7th century, Arabic, (as now English) became the
standard language of scholarly endeavors, thanks to the Persian Ebne-SibaWay,
whose tomb is in Shiraz,
who developed a grammar and syntax for Arabic! Nonetheless, as pointed out in the
body of Covington’s article, there is only the slightest likelihood that many
of the scientists of the circa 10th through the 15th
century were "Arab", although they may have, in part, used, Arabic,
the language of governance that led to its use in the science of that era to
record and disseminate their discoveries. In fact, based on Covington’s article
and consistent with the well-documented citations he and others have used, the
unanimous majority of these scientists in the said Islamic era were NOT Arabic;
this is particularly true of “Saudi-“Arabian Peninsula south of the Persian
Gulf. We can hardly count on more than the one hand the scientists from Yemen, Oman,
or the sparsely populated tribal regions that with the discovery of oil in the
20th century gave birth to Saudi
Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait. The few "Arab"
scientists were from today's Iraq,
Syria and Lebanon then
ruled over by the Omayed, Abbasid and later the Ottoman caliphs. While the
majority of such "Islamic" scientists were Persian/Iranian and came from
Central Asia all the way to today's Iran, they mostly wrote their books
in Arabic, the highly syntaxed and orderly structured medium for communication
under the Islamic rulers. It is true that Islam originated in Mecca
and Medina;
nonetheless, one can not deny the many original influences of Christianity,
Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and the Epic of Gilgamesh in its evolution. Going
back to Covington’s otherwise excellently written article, there are many
instances, where the novice reader is at a loss to truly identity the name
or the city of birth of scientists with Jewish, Persian, Indian heritgae, and
not carelessly conclude that most, if not all, were of "Arab"
pedigree from the central Arabian peninsula! Simply put, if today's
scientists of the region, dwindling in
number as they are from the Arab world, and Iran and India write their
scientific contributions in English, this, should in no way, be misconstrued,
now or a 1000 years from now, that they have sworn allegiance to the Americans
or the British.

Again, as pointed out in the Aramco World
article, Baghdad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Constantinople, Damascus, Jondi-shahpour, Bukhara,
Samarghand, Rey, etc. became centers of the learned communities, while Mecca
and Medina and Jerusalem remained traditional places of worship and trade! In
retrospect, many of us would have felt less perturbed, if the title of Covington’s
article was Rediscovering the "Islamic Era", rather than “Arabic Era”
science. One understands the desperate need of the newly established Saudi
Arabians with their abundant influx of oil revenues and the bitter reality of the
Saudi origins of most terrorists as on September 11, to aspire to fabricate a
noble "Arab" identify; however, this should not be so self-centered as
to selectively [mis-] appropriate from other heritages and implicitly call it
their own. It is painfully ironic for “older” nations in the region to witness
the erosion of their stature as they are overlooked by internal and external
establishments. Let us remember that even Egypt
and the rest of the North Africa were NOT
Arabs, but with the advent of Islam became Arabized.

In summary, let us reiterate humanity’s full
confidence in the ultimate triumph of all peoples of the region in making the
world a better place for all with mutual respect. The duly recognized Arab historical
heritage should synergistically co-exist with Turkish, Persian/Iranian, Israeli,
Indian and Greek historical heritages without one seeking exclusive self-glorifications.
Solidarity for justice, leading to peace and
tranquility for all humanity, should be the driving impetus.

Part II. Introduction
of Select Historical Iranian Scientists

With the rapid
advent of science and technology in the west especially the U.S. in the
past one hundred years, there is an alarming trend to overlook, discount and
generalize the historical contributions of other world regions that has served
as pillars of modernity. While this may be done in part to an inadvertent
oversight by some or a sub-conscious ego-centrism by others, it has,
nonetheless, disheartened the modern scientific community in the east and the increasingly
recent “Eastern” immigrants to the West from these regions. In particular, Eastern
scientists and philosophers are clumped together in passing if and when cited
and without acknowledging individuals or their own unique ethno-culture or
nationalities. The contributions of Indians and Chinese and their immediate neighboring
cultures, are regarded as being those of the Asians, whereas those peoples who
have resided from Northern India to the Aral region, Asia Minor, Arabia and
North Africa are included under the modern fabricated Middle East, the Islamic world or simply the Arabs. The truth is that with the advent
of the monotheistic Islamic religion as a socio-political force circa 650 CE, a
vast loose empire under its influence that spanned from the Indus valley to
West Africa, and southern Europe by 1100 CE,
was founded. The fact still remains that many distinct ethnic entities as exemplified
by the Persians and other Iranians with their much older civilizations than those
of their southwesterly Moslem albeit Arabic neighbors continued preserving
their cultural norms and way of life, notwithstanding their conversion to a
modified version of Islam, i.e., Islamic
Shiism. The substantive contributions
of the then converted Moslems of Persian heritage toward the advancement in the
arts, sciences, architecture, logic, mathematics and rhetoric, astronomy,
astrology and cosmology, poetry and literature in such vast Islamic empire, is
irrefutable. In much the same manner as English, particularly after the World War
II, has become the standard language of science and technology worldwide,
Arabic circa 7th to 13th centuries became the language of
scholarship, particularly in the Orient during a time when Europe remained dormant. The shear fact that a Persian intellect,
having adopted Islam and living under a feudal Islamic system of government, writing
in Arabic, does in no way make him an Arab! Adoption of Arabic name prefix (e.g., Al-Kharazmi)
by then Zoroastrians and Jews in Iran, under persuasive pressure of
taxation should not be misconstrued as having become Arabized either.

Anchored on several
millennia of civilization and as manifested in Perspolis, the
distinguished list of historical Persian (Iranian) artists, poets, physicians,
philosophers, architects, artisans, scientists and technologists, is rather
long and encompasses many hundreds throughout the past two millennia. Suffice
it to cite here a few of them alphabetized who are renowned in the west,
despite being labeled erroneously as Islamic or [Arab] by certain
records and as explained earlier. Each name is hypertext tagged with its
comprehensive sources on the Internet, mostly from Wikipedia.

Abhari (1200-1265). He was prolific on logic,
natural philosophy, and metaphysics. He also made
notable contributions to theoretical geometry. His works were translated into
Hebrew and Latin and his influence is evident in Western treatises of late
medieval and Renaissance times.

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Algorithm (Khwarazmi,
780-845)

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Soviet postage stamp commemorating the 1200th anniversary of

Muhammad al‑Khwarizmi in 1983.

Aka as Kharazmi, born in Khorasan Iran, was a Persian scientist, mathematician,
astronomer/astrologer,
and author. He is often cited as "the father of algebra",
which was named after a part of the title of his book, Hisab al-jabr
w'al-muqabala, along with the algorism number system.

Mathematical
historian Gandz gives this opinion of Kharazmi's algebra:

"Al-Khwarizmi's algebra is regarded as the foundation and cornerstone
of the sciences. In a sense, al-Khwarizmi is more entitled to be called
"the father of algebra" than Diophantus
because al-Khwarizmi is the first to teach algebra in an elementary form and
for its own sake, Diophantus is primarily concerned with the theory of
numbers." (1)

Kharazmi
(Algorithm) made major contributions to the fields of algebra, trigonometry,
astronomy/astrology, geography and
cartography.
His systematic and logical approach to solving linear
and quadratic equations gave shape to the discipline
of algebra, a word that is derived from the name of his 830 book on the subject, al-Kitab
al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala or: "The Compendious Book
on Calculation by Completion and Balancing". The book was first translated
into Latin in the 12th century, from which the title and term Algebra derives.
contributions were based on the original research of the
Hindus in Astronomy and
Greek,
and other sources. He appropriated the place-marker symbol of zero,
which originated in India.

When
his work became known in Europe through Latin translations, it made a significant contribution to the
advancement of mathematics in Europe. He also wrote on mechanical devices like the clock, astrolabe,
and sundial.
His other contributions include tables of trigonometric functions, refinements in the
geometric representation of conic
sections, and aspects of the calculus of two errors.

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Alhazen (965-1040). He was born in Basra, then part of Buwayhid Persia
(Iran).
He was summoned to Egypt
by the mercurial caliph
Hakim to regulate the flooding of the
Nile. During this
time he wrote scores of important mathematical treatises. Alhazen was a pioneer
in optics, engineering
and astronomy.
According to Giambattista della Porta, he first
explained the apparent increase in the size of the moon and sun near the
horizon, although Roger Bacon gives the credit of this discovery to Ptolemy. He
taught that vision does not result from the emission of rays from the eye, and
wrote on the refraction of light, especially on atmospheric refraction.

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Avicenna (in Persian, Abu Ali SINA (980 - 1037)
was a Persian physician,
philosopher,
and scientist.
He was the author
of 450 books on a wide range of subjects. Many of these concentrated on philosophy
and medicine.
He is considered by many to be "the father of modern medicine". George
Sarton called Ibn Sina "the most famous scientist of all races,
places, and times." His most famous works are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, also known as the Qanun.

id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="Avicenna's work was so influential that he is even commemorated here in this Polish stamp"
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Avicenna's work was so influential that he is even

commemorated here in this Polish stamp

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Biruni
(Biruni, Alberuni) ; (973 -1048)
was a Persian mathematician,
astronomer,
physicist,
scholar, encyclopedist,
philosopher,
astrologer,
traveller,
historian,
pharmacist
and teacher,
of Central
Asian origin then part of the Persian Empire, who contributed greatly to
the fields of mathematics, philosophy,
medicine and
science. He
wrote his books mainly in Persian
(his native tongue) and Arabic (the language of science and commerce then)
but also in Hebrew, Greek, Sanskrit and Western Aramaic.

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Farabi also known in the West
as Alpharabus, Alfarabi, (870–950 CE) was a
Persian
philosopher and scientist and one of the greatest scientists and philosophers
of his time.

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Al-Farabi's face appears on the currency of Kazakhstan

Farabi
made notable contributions to the fields of mathematics,
philosophy,
medicine and
even music. As a philosopher
and Neo-Platonist
he wrote rich commentary on Aristotle's work. He is also credited for categorizing logic into two
separate groups, the first one being idea and the second being proof. Farabi wrote
books on sociology
and a notable book on music
titled Kitab al-Musiqa (The Book of Music). He played
and invented a varied number of musical instruments and his pure Arabian tone system is still used in Arab music
(Touma 1996, p.170). Farabi is also famous for his demonstration of the
existence of void in
physics.

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Ferdowsi (935–1020)
is a highly revered Persian poet. He was the “Homer” author of the Shāhnāma,
the national
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Ferdowsi was
born in the Iranian province
of Khorasan,
in a village near Tus (Baj). His father was a wealthy land owner. His great
epic, the Shāhnāma
("The Epic of Kings"), to which he devoted more than 35 years, was
originally composed for presentation to the Samanid princes
of Khorasan, who were the chief instigators of the revival of Iranian cultural
traditions after the Arab conquest of the seventh century.

After 30
years of hard work, he finished the book and two or three years after that,
Ferdowsi went to Ghazni,
the Ghaznavid capital, to present it to the King. There are various stories in
medieval texts describing the lack of interest shown by the new king, Sultan Mahmud
of Ghaznavi, in Ferdowsi and his lifework. According to historians, Mahmud
had promised Ferdowsi a dinar for every distich written in the Shahnameh
(60,000 dinars), but later retracted and presented him with dirhams (20,000
dirhams), which were at that time much less valuable than dinars (every 100
dirhams worth 1 dinar). Ferdowsi rejected the money and, by some accounts, he
gave it to a poor man who sold wine. Wandering for a time in Sistan and Mazandaran,
he eventually returned to Tus, heartbroken and enraged.

He had left
behind a poem for the King, stuck to the wall of the room he had worked in for
all those years. It was a long and angry poem, more like a curse, and ended
with the words:

"Heaven's
vengeance will not forget. Shrink tyrant from my words of fire, and tremble at
a poet's ire."

His
masterpiece, the Shāhnāma, is the most popular and influential of the Iranian and Afghan national
epics. The Shāhnāma, or the "Book of Kings," consists of
the translation of an even older Pahlavi (Middle
Persian) work. It has remained exceptionally popular among Persians for
over a thousand years. It tells the history of old Persia before the Arab conquest of
the region. This tale, all written in poetic form and in Darī
Persian, starts 7,000 years ago, narrating the story of old Persian Kings
and their exploits.

According to popular legend, Ferdowsi was commissioned by Sultan Mahmud
of Ghazni to write a book about his valour and conquests. However, the
poet, though dedicating the book to the King for an agreed fee of 30 camels
loaded with gold coins, decided to tell the story of the Kings that had made
the land of Persia into an Empire throughout the
ages. This task was to take the poet some thirty years or more, during which he
included the verse: ... I suffered during these past thirty years,
nonetheless, I have revived the Iranian psyche with the Persian language; I
shall never die since as I have spread
the seeds of this [Persian] language forever ... ______________________________________________________________________________

Geber
(Jabir Ibn Hayyan) (c.721-815),
born in Tus (Iran). Known as The
Father of Chemistry, because he was the first to scientifically systemize chemistry.

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"The
first essential in chemistry," he declared, "is that you should
perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not
practical work nor makes experiments will never attain the least degree of
mastery." He made noteworthy advances in both the theory and practice of
chemistry.

id="_x0000_i1032" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="15th century European portrait of "Geber", Codici Ashburnhamiani 1166, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence"
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15th century European portrait of "Geber", Codici Ashburnhamiani
1166,

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence

His
books strongly influenced European alchemists and justified their search for the
philosopher's stone. He is credited with the
invention of many types of now-basic chemical laboratory equipment, and with
the discovery and description of many now-commonplace chemical substances and
processes — such as the hydrochloric and nitric acids, distillation,
and crystallization — that have become the foundation of
modern chemistry and chemical engineering. He was a prominent
student of Jafar Sadiq.

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Geber
(Jabir) wrote more than one hundred treatises on various subjects, of which 22
are about alchemy.
Firmly grounded on experimental observation, his books systematized the
knowledge about the fundamental chemical processes of the alchemists — such as crystallization,
distillation,
calcination,
sublimation and evaporation
— thus making a great step in the evolution of chemistry from an occultist art
to a scientific discipline. In particular, Jabir emphasized that definite
quantities of various substances are involved in a chemical reaction, thus
anticipating by almost a thousand years the principles of quantitative
chemistry and the law of definite proportions.

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Hafez (1310-1389) was a Persian mystic and poet, born in He was
born sometime between the years 1310 and 1337
in Shiraz,
Persia
(Iran), son of a
certain Baha-ud-Din. His lyrical poems, ghazals are noted
for their beauty and bring to fruition the love, mysticism, and early Sufi themes that had
long pervaded Persian poetry. Moreover, his poetry possessed
elements of modern surrealism.[1] id="_x0000_i1034" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:150pt;height:207pt'>
o:title=""/>
Divan
of Hafez, (Reprinted 1969) ______________________________________________________________________________________

Hallaj, Mansur aka Hallaj (858 - 922) was a Persian mystic,
writer and teacher of Sufism.

Hallaj's
grandfather may have been a Zoroastrian. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'an and
would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.
Hallaj would later marry and make a pilgrimage to Mecca. After his trip
to the holy city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way.
He traveled as far as India
and Central Asia gaining many followers, many of whom accompanied him on his
second and third trips to Mecca.
After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid capital
of Baghdad.

His
writings are very important not only to Sufis, but to all Muslims. Many Thelemites also
make use of his teachings, especially in terms of his identification as God - a
central gnostic
principle. His example is seen by some as one that should be emulated, especially
his calm demeanor in the face of torture and his forgiving of his tormentors.
Many honor him as an adept that came to realize the inherent divine nature of
all men and women. Others continue to see him as a heretic.

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Harawi (Abu Mansur Muwaffak ibn Ali)
was a 10th
century Persian
physician.

He was apparently the first to think
of compiling a treatise on Materia Medica in Persian

He wrote the Book of the Remedies
(Kitab al-abnyia 'an Haqa'iq al-adwiya), which is the oldest prose work
in modern Persian. It deals with 585 remedies (of which 466 are derived from
plants, 75 from minerals, 44 from animals), classified into four groups
according to their actions. Harawi distinguished between sodium
carbonate and potassium carbonate, and seems to have had some
knowledge about arsenious oxide, cupric
oxide, silicic acid, and antimony; he
knew the toxilogical
effects of copper
and lead compounds,
the depilatory virtue of quicklime, the composition of plaster
of Paris and its surgical use.

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Kashi (1380–1429) aka Ghiyaseddin
Jamsheed Kashani was a Persian astronomer and mathematician.
His name also appears as al-Kashi. He was born in Kashan, Iran.

Called
as the second Ptolemy by a contemporary historian of his time, Kashi's compendium
of the Science of Astronomy written in 1410 – 1411.

Kashi
produced his treatise Risala al-Muhitiya (Treatise on the
Circumference) in July
1424, a work in
which he calculated 2π to nine sexagesimal (base 60)
places and translated this into sixteen decimal (base 10) places.
This was an achievement far beyond anything which had been obtained before by
the Greeks,
Chinese
or Indians,
let alone the Arabs. It would be almost 200 years before van Ceulen
would surpass Kashi's accuracy with 20 decimal places.[2]

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Rhazes (Razi)

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Rhazes-Treating a Patient

Born
in Rayy,
Iran in the year
251AH/865CE.; died in Rayy,
Iran, 313/925), was
a versatile Persian
Philosopher
(hakim), who made fundamental and lasting contributions to the fields of
medicine, chemistry (alchemy) and philosophy.
He is also known as Al-Razi, Ar-Razi, and Ibn Zakaria
(Zakariya).

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Razi
had no organized system of philosophy, but compared to his time he must be reckoned
as the most vigorous and liberal thinker in Islam and perhaps in the whole
history of human thought. He was a pure rationalist,
extremely confident in the power of reason, free from every kind of prejudice,
and very daring in the expression of his ideas without reserve. He believed in
man, in progress, and in God the Wise, but in no religion whatever. He is
credited with, among other things, the discovery of sulfuric
acid, the "work horse" of modern chemistry and chemical
engineering; and also of ethanol (in addition to its refinement) and its use in medicine.

Razi
was a prolific writer, writing 184 books and articles in several fields of
science. According to historian Ibn an-Nadim, Razi distinguished himself as the best
physician of his time who had fully absorbed Greek
medical learning. He traveled in many lands and rendered service to many
princes and rulers. As a medical educator, he attracted many students of all
levels. He was said to be compassionate, kind, upright, and devoted to the
service of his patients, whether rich or poor. The Razi Institute near Tehran, Iran was named after
him (of course around one thousand years later). Razi Day (Pharmacy
Day) is commemorated in Iran
every August
27 in Iran
and a few other countries in its neighborhood.

In
Persian,
Razi means "from the city of Rayy
(also spelled RAY, REY, or RAI, old Persian RAGHA, Latin RHAGAE, formerly one
of the great cities of World)" near south Tehran, Iran, where he was born
and (like Avicenna)
did much of his work. Ray was the major central city of Iran until the Mongols conquer of the 13th
century, when it was gradually replaced with Tehran.

Razi is credited with his seminal work on Smallpox vs.
measles, allergies and fever, Alchemy: The Transmutation of Metals at the time.
As chief physician at the Baghdad hospital Razi formulated the first known description
of smallpox:

"Smallpox appears when the blood boils and infected so that extra
vapors may be driven out to turn childhood blood, which looks like wet
extracts, into youth blood, which looks like ripe wine. Essentially, smallpox
is like the bubbles found in wine at this time ... this disease might also be
present apart from such times. The best thing to do at such times is to avoid
it, that is, when the disease is seen to become epidemic."

This
is acknowledged by the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911),
which states: "The most trustworthy statements as to the early existence
of the disease are found in an account by the 9th-century Arabian physician
Rhazes, by whom its symptoms were clearly described, its pathology explained by
a humoral or fermentation theory, and directions given for its
treatment.". Written by Razi, the al-Judari wa al-Hasbah was the
first book on smallpox, and was translated over a dozen times into Latin and other
European languages. Its lack of dogmatism and its Hippocratic
reliance on clinical observation show Razi's medical methods:

"The eruption of the smallpox is preceded by a continued fever, pain
in the back, itching in the nose and terrors in the sleep. These are the more
peculiar symptoms of its approach, especially a pain in the back with fever;
then also a pricking which the patient feels all over his body; a fullness of
the face, which at times comes and goes; an inflamed color, and vehement
redness in both cheeks; a redness of both the eyes, heaviness of the whole
body; great uneasiness, the symptoms of which are stretching and yawning; a
pain in the throat and chest, with slight difficulty in breathing and cough; a
dryness of the breath, thick spittle and hoarseness of the voice; pain and
heaviness of the head; inquietude, nausea and anxiety; (with this difference
that the inquietude, nausea and anxiety are more frequent in the measles than
in the smallpox; while on the other hand, the pain in the back is more peculiar
to the smallpox than to the measles) heat of the whole body; an inflamed colon,
and shining redness, especially an intense redness of the gums."

Razi’s major books are The Secret (Al-Asrar), Secret of
Secrets (Sirr Al-asrar), Books on
alchemy, Philosophy: On
existence, Metaphysics

Some of Razi’s quotes are:

"Let your first thought be to strengthen the natural vitality."

"Truth in medicine is an unattainable goal, and the art as described
in books is far beneath the knowledge of an experienced and thoughtful
physician."

Asked
if a philosopher can follow a prophetically revealed religion, al-Razi openly
retorts:

"How can anyone think philosophically while committed to those old
wives' tales, founded on contradictions, obdurate ignorance, and dogmatism?"

"Gentility
of character, and nicety and purity of mind, is found in those who are capable
of thinking deeply about abstruse matters and scientific minutiae."

"Man
should hasten to protect himself from love before succumbing and wean his soul
from it if he falls."

"The
self-admirer, generally, should not glorify himself nor be so conceited that he
elevates himself above his counterparts. Neither should he belittle himself to
the extent that he becomes inferior to his counterparts or to those who are
inferior both to him and to his counterparts in the sight of others. If he
follows this advice, he will be free of self-admiration and feelings of
inferiority, and people would call him the one who truly knows himself."

______________________________________________________________________________

Omar Khayyám

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Tomb of Omar Khayyám, Neishapur,
Iran.

The
Man known in English as the poet Omar Khayyám (1048 -1123) was born in Nishapur in Khorasan, Persia
(Iran), and named Ghiyath
al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami (al-Khayyami
means "the tentmaker").

Omar Khayyam the
mathematician

He
was famous during his lifetime as a mathematician
and astronomer
who calculated how to correct the Persian
calendar. On March 15, 1079, Sultan Jalal al-Din Malekshah Saljuqi (1072-1092) put
Omar's corrected calendar into effect, as in Europe Julius
Caesar had done in 46 B.C. with the corrections of Sosigenes,
and as Pope Gregory XIII would do in February 1552 with Aloysius
Lilius' corrected calendar (although Britain
would not switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1751, and Russia would not
switch until 1918).

He
is also well known for inventing the method of solving cubic
equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle.

Omar Khayyam the
astronomer

In
1073, the
Malik-Shah, ruler of Esfahan, invited Khayyám
to build and work with an observatory, along with various other distinguished
scientists. Eventually, Khayyám very accurately (correct to within six decimal
places) measured the length of the year as 365.24219858156 days.

He
was famous in Persian
and Arab world for
his astronomical observations. He built a (now lost) map of stars in the sky.

Omar Khayyam and Islam style='width:162.75pt;height:183pt'>
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The
philosophy of Omar Khayyam was quite different from official Islamic dogmas. He
agreed with the existence of God but objected to the notion that every
particular event and phenomenon was the result of divine intervention. Instead
he supported the view that laws of nature explained all particular phenomena of
observed life. Religious officials asked him many times to explain his
different views about Islam. Khayyam eventually made a hajj [pilgrimage] to Mecca in order to
prove he was a faithful follower of the religion.

Omar Khayyam the
writer and poet

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Hollywood
depiction of Omar Khayyam.

Omar
Khayyám is famous today not for his scientific accomplishments, but for his
literary works. He is believed to have written about a thousand four-line
verses. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the
English translations by Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883).

Other
people have also published translations of some of the rubáiyát (rubáiyát
means "quatrains"), but Fitzgerald's are the best known. Translations
also exist in languages other than English.

See
major article: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

______________________________________________________________________________ Rumi (Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī) (1207– 1273), was a 13th
century Persian poet, jurist, and theologian. His name literally means "Majesty of
Religion", Jalal means "majesty" and Din
means "religion".

Rumi's
importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. Throughout
the centuries he has had a significant influence on Persian as well as Urdu
and Turkish literatures. His poems, almost all
written in Persian, are widely read in the Persian speaking countries of Iran, Afghanistan
and Tajikistan
and have been widely translated into many of the world's languages in various
formats.

After Rumi's
death, his followers founded the Mevlevi
Order, better known as the "Whirling Dervishes", who believe in
performing their worship
in the form of dance and music ceremony called the sema.

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It was his
meeting with the dervish Shams Tabrizi in the late fall of 1244 that changed
his life completely. Shams had traveled throughout the Middle
East searching and praying for someone who could "endure my
company". A voice came, "What will you give in return?" "My
head!" "The one you seek is Jelaluddin of Konya." On the night
of December
5, 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door.
He went out, never to be seen again. It is believed that he was murdered with
the connivance of Rumi's son, Allaedin; if so, Shams indeed gave his head for
the privilege of mystical friendship.

Rumi's love
and his bereavement for the death of Shams found their expression in an
outpouring of music, dance and lyric poems, Divani Shamsi Tabrizi. He himself went out
searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus. There, he realized:

Why should I seek? I am the same as

He. His essence speaks through me.

I have been looking for myself![8]

For more than
ten years after meeting Shams, Mawlana had been spontaneously composing ghazals, and these
had been collected in the Divan-i Kabir. Rumi found another companion in
Saladin Zarkub, the goldsmith. After Saladin's death, Rumi's scribe and
favorite student Husam Chelebi assumed the role. One day, the two of them were
wandering through the Meram vineyards outside of Konya when Husam described an idea he had to
Rumi: "If you were to write a book like the Ilahiname of Sanai or the
Mantik'ut-Tayr'i of Attar it would become the companion of many troubadours.
They would fill their hearts from your work and compose music to accompany
it."

Rumi smiled
and took out a piece of paper on which were written the opening eighteen lines
of his Masnavi, beginning with:

Listen
to the reed and the tale it tells,

How
it sings of separation...

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In December
1273, Rumi fell ill; he predicted his own death and composed the well-known
ghazal, which begins with the verse:

How doest thou know what sort of king I have
within me as companion?

Do not cast thy glance upon my golden face,
for I have iron legs.
[10]

His epitaph
reads:

"When we are dead, seek not our tomb in
the earth, but find it in the hearts of humanity.

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Rumi
in Pensive Mood

______________________________________________________________________________

Saadi (1184
– 1283)
is one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is recognized not only for the
quality of his writing, but also for the depth and breath of his social
thought.

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The unsettled
conditions following the Mongol invasion of Persia led him to
wander abroad through Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia and perhaps Spain. He also refers in his work
to travels in India and Central Asia. Saadi is very much like Marco Polo
who traveled in the region from 1271 to 1294. There is a difference, however,
between the two. While Marco Polo gravitated to the potentates and the good
life, Saadi mingled with the ordinary survivors of the Mongol holocaust. He sat
in remote teahouses late into the night and exchanged views with merchants,
farmers, preachers, wayfarers, thieves, and Sufi mendicants. For twenty years
or more, he continued the same schedule of preaching, advising, learning,
honing his sermons, and polishing them into gems illuminating the wisdom and
foibles of his people.

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Wisdom of Saadi

Saadi is best
known works are Bostan
("The Orchard") in 1257 and Gulistan ("The Rose Garden") in
1258. Bostan is entirely in verse (epic metre) and consists of stories
aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice,
liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behavior of
dervishes and their ecstatic practices. Golestan is mainly in prose and
contains stories and personal anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a
variety of short poems, containing aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections.
Saadi demonstrates a profound awareness of the absurdity of human existence.
The fate of those who depend on the changeable moods of kings is contrasted
with the freedom of the dervishes.

For Western
students, Bostan and Golestan have a special attraction; but
Saadi is also remembered as a great panegyricist
and lyricist, the author of a number of masterly general odes portraying human
experience, and also of particular odes such as the lament on the fall of Baghdad after the
Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics are to be found in Ghazaliyat
("Lyrics") and his odes in Qasa'id ("Odes"). He is
also known for a number of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human
kindness and cynicism, humor, and resignation displayed in Saadi's works, together
with a tendency to avoid the hard dilemma, make him, to many, the most typical
and lovable writer in the world of Iranian culture.

One of his
more famous quotes is, "Whatever is produced in haste goes easily to
waste." Another famous poem of his, focusing on the kindness of
mankind, has graced the entrance to the Hall of Nations of the UN building in New York with
this call for breaking all barriers:

بني آدم اعضاي يكديگرند، که در
آفرينش ز يك گوهرند

چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار، دگر
عضوها را نماند قرار

تو کزمحنت دیگران بی غمی، نشاید که
نامت نهند آدمی

"Of one Essence is the human
race,

Thusly has Creation put the Base;

'

One Limb impacted is sufficient,

For all Others to feel the Mace."

______________________________________________________________________________ Shams (1248-????) was an Iranian
Sufi mystic born
in the city of Tabriz
in Iranian Azerbaijan. He is responsible for
initiating Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī,
usually known as Rumi in the West, into Islamic mysticism, and is immortalized
by Rumi's poetry collection Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-i ("The
Works of Shams of Tabriz"). Shams lived together with Rumi in Konya, in present-day
Turkey, for
several years, and is also known to have traveled to Damascus in
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After several
years with Rumi, Shams vanished from the pages of history quite suddenly. It is
not known what became of him after his departure from Rumi, and there are
several locations that lay claim to his gravesite. As the years passed, Rumi
attributed more and more of his own poetry to Shams as a sign of love for his
departed friend and master. Indeed, it quickly becomes clear in reading Rumi
that Shams was elevated to a symbol of God's love for humankind,
and that Shams was a sun ("Shams" is Arabic for
"sun") shining the Light of God on Rumi.

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Shams
Tabrizi in a circa 1503 copy of his disciple Rumi's poem, the "Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-i"

______________________________________________________________________________

Tusi
(Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Tusi) was a 13th century Persian
of the Shi'a
Twelver Islamic belief, born
in Tus, Khorasan, Iran. He is known as a philosopher,
mathematician,
astronomer,
theologian, physician, and
a prolific writer, i.e., he was a polymath.

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Tusi’s
Commemorative Stamp from Iran
(mid-20th century)

K. N. Toosi University of
Technology in Iran
is named after him.

Nasir
al-Din Tusi was born in Tus
in the year 1201 and began his studies at an early age. In Tus he studied
Arabic, the Qur'an,
Hadith, Shi'a
jurisprudence, logic, philosophy, mathematics, medicine and astronomy.[1]
At a young age he moved to Nishapur to study philosophy under Farid al-Din Damad and
mathematics under Muhammad Hasib.[2]

As
the armies of Genghis Khan swept his homeland, he fled to join the Ismailis and
made his most important contributions in science during this time when he was
moving from one stronghold to another. He finally joined Hulagu Khan's
ranks, after the invasion of the Alamut castle by the Hashshashin
Mongol forces.

Tusi’s Scholarly Achievements

Tusi
made very accurate tables of planetary movements as depicted in his book Zij-i
ilkhani (the Ilkhanic Tables). This book contains astronomical
tables for calculating the positions of the planets and the names of the stars.
His model for the planetary system is believed to be the most advanced of his
time, and was used extensively until the development of the heliocentric model
in the time of Copernicus. Between Ptolemy and Copernicus,
he is considered by many to be one of the most eminent astronomers of his time.
He was perhaps the first to treat trigonometry
as a separate mathematical discipline, and in his Treatise
on the Quadrilateral he was the first to list the six distinct cases of a
right triangle in spherical trigonometry.

For
his planetary models, he invented a geometrical technique called a Tusi-couple,
which generates linear motion from the sum of two circular motions. He also
calculated the value for the annual precession of the equinoxes and
contributed to the construction and usage of some astronomical instruments
including the astrolabe.
He gave the first extensive exposition of spherical trigonometry. A 60-km diameter
lunar crater
located on the southern hemisphere of the moon is named after him
as "Nasireddin". He also wrote extensively on
biology and is one of the early pioneers of a kind of evolutionism
in scientific thought.[3]

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A Treatise on
Astrolabe by al-Tusi, Isfahan
1505

About the author: Davood N. Rahni lives in New York where he serves as a professor of
chemistry and maintains adjunct professorships in environmental law and
dermatology. In tandem with his prolific scientific publications, he has also
endeavored to produce a substantial number of articles that deal with history
and culture of Iran,
the integration of Iranian-Americans in American life and the challenges they
face, and current affairs. His latest book, Bioimaging
in Neurodegeneration, will soon follow by the next book, FROM NATANZ TO NEW YORK: The
Odyssey of an Ordinary Iranian (Persian) Wanderer.