Introduction

Sciences were among the fields in which Arab scholars excelled and made great contributions, participating in the development of human knowledge. Several western historians and searchers have acknowledged the significant contributions of Arab scientists in many fields, such as medicine, astronomy, mathematics… and their leading role in setting up the foundations of modern science.

In an attempt to present some prominent Muslim figures and their scientific contributions, we thought to realize a bibliography of some Muslim scholars. We endeavoured to present illustrious figures and others who are less famous despite their achievements and contributions to the advancement of science. Our objective is to offer an opportunity to secondary school and university students to recognize these hallmarks of scientific thought in Islamic civilization  and to form a concise idea about their works and contributions in various fields of science.

Muslim scholars were known for their encyclopedic nature and for excelling in various fields of science and knowledge, such philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, medicine… However, we considered it more appropriate to dedicate this bibliography only to some scientists who contributed to the advancement of scientific knowledge in specific fields such as chemistry; medicine, botany, pharmacy, astronomy, mathematics and geometry and to present concise biographies about each scholar and his inventions, achievements, works and contributions, in coherence with facts mentioned in the reference books we rely on to achieve this work.

This book presents concise biographies of 40 Muslim scholars who lived in different epochs –from the 9th century AD to the 15th century AD. Although we dedicate this bibliography only to some scientists who played important roles in the advancement of scientific knowledge, we are aware that more efforts need to be made in the future in order to present other figures that we could not include in this work.

I would like to present my deep thanks and gratitude to Dr. Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, for his precious help in realizing this work. Thanks also go to Dr. Faiq Billal, Director of Science at ISESCO, who adopted this project and suggested it among the Organisation’s scientific programs. 

Halima El Ghrari
Rabat, August 23, 2001