Welcome to For All Humans and 10 Facts You Might Not Know About Muslims’ Thirst for Knowledge and the Quest for Information and Inventions in the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization, from the 7th to the 17th centuries.

Did you know that the first schools were established in mosques as early as 622 CE? By the late 9th century, almost every mosque had an elementary school for boys and girls. By the 15th century, the Ottomans revolutionized education by setting up learning centers called “kuliye,” a term derived from the Arabic word kul (meaning “all”). Each complex had a mosque, school, hospital, and dining area. A kuliye was managed by a charitable foundation and based on the earliest form of the mosque, which served not only as a place of prayer but also for education, dining, and as a hostel for the poor.
In Europe, under Muslim civilization, there was a thriving network of educational institutions. S.P. Scott, an American scholar, shares what the writer and geographer Ibn Hawkel describes about Palermo, Italy, in the 10th century: the city had around 300 mosques that also served as schools. The University of Belém in Palermo rivaled top universities in Spain at the time, attracting scholars such as Ibn Hamdis, a Sicilian Arab poet whose works are preserved in the Vatican Library in Rome and the Asiatic Museum in St. Petersburg.
Education in Muslim civilization was free, with some students provided books, pocket money, and accommodation. To support education, charitable funds called “orkaf” were established, covering costs like teachers’ salaries and students’ meals. At the University of Mustansiriya in Iraq, founded in 1234 CE by Caliph al-Mustansir, pens, paper, lamps, and oil were provided, as well as medical care and financial aid in addition to free tuition.
Women also played prominent roles in education. Fatima al-Fihri, an Arab Muslim woman, founded the University of Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco, in 859 CE, recognized by UNESCO and Guinness World Records as the oldest existing educational institution. This pursuit of advanced education among Muslim scholars spread universities and sparked a revival of learning across Europe. Another example is Lubna of Cordoba, a 10th-century Andalusian intellectual and mathematician known for her expertise in grammar, poetry, mathematics, and other sciences, amassing a library of over half a million books. Additionally, Maryam al-Asturlabi, a 10th-century Syrian astronomer, was skilled in crafting astrolabes, a tool crucial to astronomical studies and navigation, which eventually led to the birth of modern astronomy.
Muslim contributions to astronomy were remarkable. In the same century, Abbas Ibn Firnas created a glass planetarium showing images of stars and planets, while observatories were established in cities like Baghdad, Persia, Samarkand, and Istanbul. Muslims were also pioneers in optics and vision studies. Ibn al-Haytham, born in Iraq in 965 CE, is known as the “father of modern optics” for his contributions to understanding light and vision, culminating in his Book of Optics (1011–1021). His experiments with a pinhole camera led to the invention of the camera obscura, a forerunner to the modern camera.
The term algebra stems from the Arabic al-jabr, meaning “restoration of broken parts.” It traces back to the mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, who is also known as the “father of algebra.” His book, Hisab al-jabr wal-muqabala, offered solutions for land distribution, inheritance rules, and salary calculations. Al-Khwarizmi’s work also popularized the Arabic numerals we use today, which replaced the less practical Roman numerals in Europe.
Muslim contributions to medicine and surgery also significantly impacted Europe. Al-Zahrawi, also known as Abulcasis in the West, was an Andalusian physician and the “father of surgery.” His 30-volume encyclopedia, particularly the surgery chapter, was translated into Latin in the 12th century and became the standard medical text in Europe for 500 years. Among his many achievements, Al-Zahrawi was the first to identify the hereditary nature of hemophilia, describe an abdominal pregnancy, and use dissolving catgut to stitch wounds. He reportedly performed the first caesarean section and invented surgical forceps.
Muslims celebrated diversity in their inventions. Al-Jazari’s 800-year-old automatic elephant clock is a testament to this, combining Greek water-raising technology, an Indian elephant, an Egyptian phoenix, Arabian figures, and Chinese dragons to celebrate global diversity.
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