Professor Salim Al-Hassani*

Table of contents

1. Opening statement by Michaël Privot
2. Introduction
3. Great testimonies
4. To overcome historical amnesia
5. Pioneers from Muslim heritage
6. Various instances of invention
7. A film for illustration
8. Concluding remarks
9. Epilogue

Note of the editor

This presentation was given on 15th September 2003 as keynote lecture by Professor Salim Al-Hassani at the European Union Parliament in Brussels (14-15 September 2003). The meeting was organised by the European Youth Forum, FEMYSO and MEP Roy Perry in co-operation with MEPs Glyn Ford, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Luisa Morgantini and Alima Boumediene-Thiery. The present version was revised and updated by the editorial board of www.MuslimHeritage.com.

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1. Opening statement by Michaël Privot

It is a pleasure for me to introduce to you Professor Salim Al-Hassani, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Institute of Science and Technology at the University of Manchester. He received a number of awards for the high quality of his research and relevance of his work. For several years, he started a huge work with 30 researchers with the aim to remove from amnesia the wonderful contribution of Muslim heritage in science, technology, medicine and other fields. Based on his effort for clarification and research, Professor Al-Hassani actively participates to deconstruct what Alain de Libéra says in an article published in Le Monde Diplomatiqueas “the rejection of the Arab and the Muslim” which is, and I quote him, “something that took place and is so deeply rooted in our mentalities that European identity was built upon it and that all its future obscurantism was only a consequence of the prime decision [1].”

As early as the Renaissance, European identity was partly based upon the rejection of the other, the Arab and the Muslim, sometimes leading to the negation of the influence of other civilisations, particularly the Muslim and Arab. Maybe we are not there yet, but tremendous efforts still have to be made because you do not change in just a few decades the ideological basis upon which you can think, conceive, imagine and dream of a certain civilisation. The road is still quite long but work like the one we are going to hear about is key factor in the evolution process of improving perceptions and in building blocks for the creation of a Europe at peace with itself, reconciled with its past and heritage; a Europe wealthy of diversities in what is most stimulating and respectful of the other in his/her difference, and with a view to the universality of its references. I am faced with a knowledgeable audience to whom I am honoured to present Professor Al-Hassani.

The keynote lecture of Professor Salim Al-Hassani (transcribed from audio records)

2. Introduction

It is a great pleasure to be here Ladies and Gentlemen. It is not very often in one’s life to have the opportunity to address such an audience. What I have heard so far was politically charged statements. I am not a political creature, I have been raised as an engineer, an academician who recently became interested in the history of science and technology, with particular interest in what I have named as ‘1000 years of missing history’ . What do I mean by missing history? History cannot be missing. What I really mean is the history missing from our minds, from our normal day-to-day conversation, from our text books in schools, from our media, from the newspapers and from our various novels and magazines; a 1000 years amnesia. However, this history does exist, albeit hidden, in old history books and library archives. What I intend to do now is give a heart to heart presentation with no written lecture hoping to get inspiration from the audience. I can see that there are a mixture of highly intelligent people who obviously did not reach to this stage of their life without having used their inquisitive mind and seeking of knowledge and a role in society. People of wisdom say if you talk from your heart, it will go to the other’s heart and this is my approach today.

3. Great testimonies

I believe that the most recent champion of multiculturalism is Prince Charles of the United Kingdom. I have attended a lecture in Oxford on “Islam and the West” a few years ago [27 October 1993] when he had this to say:

“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilisation owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure which I think stems from the straight jacket of history which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world from Central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished but because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society and system of belief, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”.

Now, a search through the internet, reveals a spectacular speech made by a well-known American lady, Mrs Fiorina Carly. She is [from 1999 to 2005] the Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company. Two weeks after the event of 11 September, she delivered a long speech from which I have extracted:

“There was once a civilisation, that was the greatest in the world, it was able to create a continental super State that stretched from ocean to ocean and from northern climbs to tropics and deserts, within its domain lived hundreds of millions of people of different creeds and ethnic origins. One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilisation’s commerce extended from Latin-America to China and everywhere in between and this civilisation was driven more than anything by invention. Its architects designed buildings that define gravity, its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms and enabled the building of computers and the creation of inscription. Its doctors examined the human body and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars and paved the way for space travels and explorations. Its writers created thousands of stories, stories of courage, romance and magic. Its poets wrote of love when others before them were too steeped to think of such things. When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilisation thrived on them and kept them alive when censures threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilisations, this civilisation kept the knowledge alive and passed it on to others. While north and western civilisations shared many of these traits, this civilisation I am talking about, the Islamic world from 800-1600 which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent. Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilisation, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. Sufi poet philosophers like Rumi challenged the whole notion of self and truth. Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership and perhaps we can learn a lesson from his example. It was leadership-based on meritocracy and not inheritance; it was a leadership that harnessed the full capabilities of very diverse populations that included Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions. This kind of enlightened leadership that nurtured culture, sustainability and diversity led to 800 years of inventions and prosperity”.

4. To overcome historical amnesia

The subject I want to talk about today is the period 680-1680, generally called the Dark Ages. We are repeatedly told, against our curiosity and logical thinking, that history had taken a negative turn in the 6th century. After the Greeks and the Romans, all knowledge, science and technology disappeared. The world went into a dark and obscure period age. We are also told that suddenly and somehow miraculously, the Renaissance in the 16th century raised out of ashes. This is very strange. Because, first of all, it assumes history to be discontinuous. We are told that Europe lived in darkness. People who expressed any liberal idea, any scientific innovation, would be burnt at the stake. We were taught that our present ideas originally stemmed from people like Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy, Archimedes. These became household names. Yet, we know nothing of what happened during the ensuing 1000 years until the emergence of the names of Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, William Harvey, and so on. About a thousand years missing from the history of humanity, because this subject has not been taught only in Europe but has been copied by other nations in the world. Even the Muslim world copied this concept.

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