Once we Muslims were great, can we be great again?

1. Once we were great, can
we be great again?
Prof. Dr. Omar bin Yaakob
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

2. A
Khulafa’
Arrashidin
610M 634M 661M 132H/749M 656H/1258M 1924M
2014
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
632M 756H/1517M
Era Nabawi
Ummayyads
Abbassids
Era Uthmani
Present

3. Abbassids I ( 750 AD-1258 AD)
Abbassids II (1261AD-1517AD

4. Ottomans (1326-1924 A.D.)

5. Muslim Naval Power
 At one point, the Ottomans were controlling the whole of the
Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, The Black Sea, and some
portions of the Indian Ocean, keeping check over the
Portuguese exploits.
 Forward Naval bases in Suez, Basra and on the Danube in
Hungary.
 Sultanate of Acheh in North Sumatra regarded itself as a
vassal of the Ottoman Empire and to underscore this link,
Sultan Suleyman and Selim II sent cannons and gun-making
expertise to Acheh to help them in their fights against the
Portuguese.
 Used to attack the Portuguese colony in Malacca in 1568 and
again in 1570 and 1573.
Omar Bin Yaakob, Mohamad Pauzi Abdul Ghani, Faizul Amri Adnan ,
A Review of Muslim Maritime Tradition, Perintis , Volume 3, No. 2, 1-15.

6. Muslim Naval Power
Zheng He (Cheng Ho) from 1405 to 1433.
“His armada of giant junks was several times bigger than any
of the fleets Columbus commanded nearly a century later. And
his ships were five times longer than those of the celebrated
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. With more than 300
ocean-going vessels and a crew of nearly 30,000 men, Zheng
He helped transform China into the region's, and perhaps the
world's, 15th century superpower”.

7. Zheng He’s Voyages
(1405-1433)

8. Records and Maps

9. Don’t forget.. Once we were rulers of the world!

10. Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
(981 – 1037) Persian
Medicine, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy

11. Ibn Sina (contd.)
• Books
– Al Qanun fi al- Tibb
– Kitab al Shifa
(philosophical)
……and many more
Ibn Sina… most influential in
the field of medicine for about
600 yrs…

12. Zakariya Razi (Rhazes)
(864 – 930), Persian
Medicine, ophthalmology, chemistry, astronomy

13. Zakariya Razi (contd.)
• Author of more than 200 books
– Al-Hawi (20 volumes) - the most extensive
ever written by a medical man
▫ a collection of Greek-Syrian-Islamic medical
knowledge,
▫ Used extensively in the West until 16th
century
– Kitab al-Mansoori
– Al-Judari wal Hasabah [smallpox and measles]…
Al Razi’s Medicine expertise is only comparable to Ibn Sina…
&
His expertise in Chemistry is only comparable to Jabir Ibn Haiyyan

14. Ibn al-Nafis Dimashqi
(1213-1288)
Anatomy, expert on Shafi'i School of Jurisprudence

15. Ibn al-Nafis (contd.)
• Discovered the Pulmonary
circulation nearly 350 years
before Sir William Harvey (yr
1616) of England
• first to describe the constitution
of lungs, Bronchi, and the
coronary arteries
• Purification of blood in the
lungs where it was refined in
contact with the air inhaled
from the outer atmosphere

16. Abu-Raihan Biruni
(973 – 1048), Persian
Medicine, Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics

17. Biruni (contd.)
• More than 146 Books of 20 different
subjects
– al-Qanun al-Masudi (astronomical
encyclopedia)
– al-Tafhim-li-Awail Sina'at at-Tanjim
(Astrology)
– Kitab-al-Hind
– Kitab al-Jamahir (Geology)
“One of the very greatest scientists of Islam, and, all
considered, one of the greatest of all times”
– George Sarton 1/707.

18. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)
(965-1040), Basra, Iraq
Physics, optics, mathematics

19. al-Haytham (contd.)
• Father of modern optics
• Discovered the laws of refraction… 600
years before W. Snell (Snell’s Law of
Refraction)
• Introduced atmospheric refraction
• First record of using glass lens for
magnification

20. Ibn al Haytham - The First Scientist - Alhazen Biography
• Known in the West as Alhazen, Alhacen, or
Alhazeni, Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-
Haytham was the first person to test hypotheses
with verifiable experiments, developing the
scientific method more than 200 years
before European scholars learned of it—by
reading his books.
A devout Muslim, Ibn al-Haitham believed that human beings are
flawed and only God is perfect. To discover the truth about
nature, Ibn a-Haitham reasoned, one had to eliminate human
opinion and allow the universe to speak for itself through
physical experiments.

21. Ibn al Haytham - The First Scientist - Alhazen Biography

22. Where are we now?

23. Current Capability
Country
Submarine
Carriers
Destroyers
Frigates
Corvettes
Fast Attack
Craft
Mines
Warfare Ship
Patrol Craft
Amphibious
Support
Turkey 20 - - 18 6 33 23 - - 4
Pakistan 8 - 11 42 - 44 15 34 - -
Indonesia 2 - - 16 16 17 11 10 6 15
Malaysia 2 - - 3 6 13 4 11 - 5
Israel 25 - - - 15 97 - 201 22 2
Greece 2 - 3 13 5 25 18 2 2 2
India 89 7 37 47 88 91 89 64 88 100
Singapore 4 - - - 6 12 4 6 4 3

24. Muslim Shipping Power
Rank Country No. of vessels
Total thousands dwt tonnage
(DWT)
1 Greece 3084 170181
2 Japan 3330 147507
3 Germany 2964 85043
4 China 3184 70390
5 Norway 1810 48697
6 United States 1766 48261
7 Hong Kong 689 45053
8 Rep of Korea 1041 32287
9 United Kingdom 855 26757
10 Singapore 794 25723
11 Taiwan 574 24858
12 Denmark 781 21878
13 Russia 2203 18106
14 Italy 739 15962
15 India 456 14817
16 Switzerland 370 12501
17 Belgium 226 12490

25. Muslim Shipping Power
Rank Country No. of vessels
Total thousands dwt tonnage
(DWT)
18 Saudi Arabia 150 11861
19 Turkey 874 10927
20 Iran 184 9994
21 Netherlands 739 8745
22 United Arab Emirates 366 6919
23 Indonesia 793 6684
24 Malaysia 739 6657
25 Sweden 346 6418
26 Cyprus 222 6153
27 France 309 5965
28 Canada 340 5945
29 Brazil 151 4875
30 Kuwait 68 4783
World total
34822 978557

26. Where we are in 2012
[December 2012 Statistics]
57 OIC States
• 22.5% of the total world
population or 1.613 billion
South Korea
• 51 million
• GDP is USD 1.5 Trillion
• 5.4% of GDP
• GDP is USD 9980 Billion
• GERD - 0.81% for 57 OIC
countries
• 22 are OIC member states • Top 5 most developed
are among the 50 least
developed

27. R & D Intensity of OIC States vs the World
R & D Intensity (%)

28. "during the heyday of islam, the muslims were not only a
dominant political and military force but were also leaders in
learning and research…..the world was totally under its sway and
superiority of muslim thought, philosophy and culture was
universally acknowledged…. the wheel has since turned a full circle
and today the muslims themselves have come to believe that all
knowledge and culture belongs to the west and that the rest of
mankind can live only on the crumbs of western philosophy and
science and can progress only if it follows in the footsteps of the
west”
Inaugural address of Abul A’la Maududi entitled “The Nature of Islamic
Research” at the Islamic Research Academy, Karachi on September 23
1963.
28
The Benchmark –
Where we should be

29. Jazakumullahu khair..