Muslim inventions that shaped the modern world By Olivia Sterns for CNN

London, England (CNN) -- Think of the origins of that
staple of modern life, the cup of coffee, and Italy
often springs to mind.
But in fact, Yemen is where the ubiquitous brew has
its true origins.
Along with the first university, and even the
toothbrush, it is among surprising Muslim inventions
that have shaped the world we live in today.
The origins of these fundamental ideas and objects --
the basis of everything from the bicycle to musical
scales -- are the focus of "1001 Inventions," a book
celebrating "the forgotten" history of 1,000 years of
Muslim heritage.
"There's a hole in our knowledge, we leap frog from
the Renaissance to the Greeks," professor Salim al-
Hassani, Chairman of the Foundation for Science,
Technology and Civilisation, and editor of the book
told CNN.
"1001 Inventions" is now an exhibition at London's
Science Museum. Hassani hopes the exhibition will
highlight the contributions of non-Western cultures --
like the Muslim empire that once covered Spain and
Portugal, Southern Italy and stretched as far as parts
of China -- to present day civilization.
In 9th century Spain, Muslim inventor Abbas ibn
Firnas designed a flying machine -- hundreds of years
before da Vinci drew plans of his own.
Here Hassani shares his top 10 outstanding Muslim
inventions:
1. Surgery
Around the year 1,000, the celebrated doctor Al
Zahrawi published a 1,500 page illustrated
encyclopedia of surgery that was used in Europe as a
medical reference for the next 500 years. Among his
many inventions, Zahrawi discovered the use of
dissolving cat gut to stitch wounds -- beforehand a
second surgery had to be performed to remove
sutures. He also reportedly performed the first
caesarean operation and created the first pair of
forceps.
2. Coffee
Now the Western world's drink du jour, coffee was
first brewed in Yemen around the 9th century. In its
earliest days, coffee helped Sufis stay up during late
nights of devotion. Later brought to Cairo by a group
of students, the coffee buzz soon caught on around
the empire. By the 13th century it reached Turkey,
but not until the 16th century did the beans start
boiling in Europe, brought to Italy by a Venetian
trader.
3. Flying machine
"Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real
attempt to construct a flying machine and fly," said
Hassani. In the 9th century he designed a winged
apparatus, roughly resembling a bird costume. In his
most famous trial near Cordoba in Spain, Firnas flew
upward for a few moments, before falling to the
ground and partially breaking his back. His designs
would undoubtedly have been an inspiration for
famed Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci's
hundreds of years later, said Hassani.
4. University
In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi
founded the first degree-granting university in Fez,
Morocco. Her sister Miriam founded an adjacent
mosque and together the complex became the al-
Qarawiyyin Mosque and University. Still operating
almost 1,200 years later, Hassani says he hopes the
center will remind people that learning is at the core
of the Islamic tradition and that the story of the al-
Firhi sisters will inspire young Muslim women around
the world today.
5. Algebra
The word algebra comes from the title of a Persian
mathematician's famous 9th century treatise "Kitab
al-Jabr Wa l-Mugabala" which translates roughly as
"The Book of Reasoning and Balancing." Built on the
roots of Greek and Hindu systems, the new algebraic
order was a unifying system for rational numbers,
irrational numbers and geometrical magnitudes. The
same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first
to introduce the concept of raising a number to a
power.
6. Optics
"Many of the most important advances in the study
of optics come from the Muslim world," says Hassani.
Around the year 1000 Ibn al-Haitham proved that
humans see objects by light reflecting off of them
and entering the eye, dismissing Euclid and
Ptolemy's theories that light was emitted from the
eye itself. This great Muslim physicist also discovered
the camera obscura phenomenon, which explains
how the eye sees images upright due to the
connection between the optic nerve and the brain.
7. Music
Muslim musicians have had a profound impact on
Europe, dating back to Charlemagne tried to
compete with the music of Baghdad and Cordoba,
according to Hassani. Among many instruments that
arrived in Europe through the Middle East are the
lute and the rahab, an ancestor of the violin. Modern
musical scales are also said to derive from the Arabic
alphabet.
8. Toothbrush
According to Hassani, the Prophet Mohammed
popularized the use of the first toothbrush in around
600. Using a twig from the Meswak tree, he cleaned
his teeth and freshened his breath. Substances
similar to Meswak are used in modern toothpaste.
9. The crank
Many of the basics of modern automatics were first
put to use in the Muslim world, including the
revolutionary crank-connecting rod system. By
converting rotary motion to linear motion, the crank
enables the lifting of heavy objects with relative
ease. This technology, discovered by Al-Jazari in the
12th century, exploded across the globe, leading to
everything from the bicycle to the internal
combustion engine.
10. Hospitals
"Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and
teaching centers, come from 9th century Egypt,"
explained Hassani. The first such medical center was
the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in
Cairo. Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone
who needed it -- a policy based on the Muslim
tradition of caring for all who are sick. From Cairo,
such hospitals spread around the Muslim world.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/29/
muslim.inventions/index.html