Famous Scientists

Einstein, Newton, Flemming … these names are well known, and with good reason, as influential and innovative scientists. However, what is less well know, is that they owe a lot to their predecessors.

Who are those early scientists that paved the way? Well, many of them were Muslim scholars who reached amazing heights of knowledge while Europe was in its Dark Ages. Here are just a few of them…

Ibn Sina
Known as Avicenna in the West, was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. He has been described as the father of early modern medicine. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine. Learn more about him here…

Hasan Ibn al-Haytham
Known as Al-Hazen, he was an Arab mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age. Sometimes called “the father of modern optics”, he made significant contributions to the principles of optics and visual perception in particular, his most influential work being his Kitāb al-Manāẓir (كتاب المناظر, “Book of Optics”), written during 1011–1021, which survived in the Latin edition. A polymath, he also wrote on philosophy, theology and medicine.

Ibn al-Haytham was the first to explain that vision occurs when light bounces on an object and then is directed to one’s eyes. He was also an early proponent of the concept that a hypothesis must be proved by experiments based on confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence—hence understanding the scientific method five centuries before Renaissance scientists. Find out more here…

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, formerly Latinized as Algorithmi, was a Persian scholar who produced works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography under the patronage of the Caliph Al-Ma’mun of the Abbasid Caliphate. Around 820 AD he was appointed as the astronomer and head of the library of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

Al-Khwarizmi’s popularizing treatise on algebra (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, ca. 813–833 CE) presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. One of his principal achievements in algebra was his demonstration of how to solve quadratic equations by completing the square, for which he provided geometric justifications. Because he was the first to treat algebra as an independent discipline and introduced the methods of “reduction” and “balancing” (the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation),[9] he has been described as the father or founder of algebra. The term algebra itself comes from the title of his book (specifically the word al-jabr meaning “completion” or “rejoining”). His name gave rise to the terms Algorism and algorithm. His name is also the origin of (Spanish) guarismo and of (Portuguese) algarismo, both meaning digit. Learn More…

A List of Well Known Muslim Scientists

Astronomers

• Sind ibn Ali (?-864)
• Ali Qushji (1403-1474)
• Ahmad Khani (1650-1707)
• Ibrahim al-Fazari (?-777)
• Muhammad al-Fazari (?-796 or 806)
• Al-Khwarizmi, Mathematician (c. 780-c. 850)
• Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi (Albumasar) (787-886 CE)
• Al-Farghani (800/805-870)
• Banū Mūsā (Ben Mousa) (9th century)
• Dīnawarī (815-896)
• Al-Majriti (d. 1008 or 1007 CE)
• Al-Battani (c. 858-929) (Albatenius)
• Al-Farabi (c. 872-c. 950) (Abunaser)
• Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi (903-986)
• Abu Sa’id Gorgani (9th century)
• Kushyar ibn Labban (971-1029)
• Abū Ja’far al-Khāzin (900-971)
• Al-Mahani (8th century)
• Al-Marwazi (9th century)
• Al-Nayrizi (865-922)
• Al-Saghani (d. 990)
• Al-Farghani (9th century)
• Abu Nasr Mansur (970-1036)
• Abū Sahl al-Qūhī (10th century) (Kuhi)
• Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi (940-1000)
• Abū al-Wafā’ al-Būzjānī (940-998)
• Ibn Yunus (950-1009)
• Ibn al-Haytham (965-1040) (Alhacen)
• Bīrūnī (973-1048)
• Avicenna (980-1037) (Ibn Sīnā)
• Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (1029-1087) (Arzachel)
• Omar Khayyám (1048-1131)
• Al-Khazini (fl. 1115-1130)
• Ibn Bajjah (1095-1138) (Avempace)
• Ibn Tufail (1105-1185) (Abubacer)
• Nur Ed-Din Al Betrugi (12th century-1204) (Alpetragius)
• Averroes (1126-1198)
• Al-Jazari (1136-1206)
• Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī (died 1213/4)
• Anvari (1126-1189)
• Mo’ayyeduddin Urdi (died 1566)
• Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201-1274)
• Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236-1311)
• Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (1250-1310)
• Ibn al-Shatir (1304-1375)
• Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī (1320-80)
• Jamshīd al-Kāshī (1380-1429)
• Ulugh Beg (1394-1449)
• Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf (1526-1585)
• Ahmad Nahavandi (8th and 9th centuries)
• Haly Abenragel (10th and 11th century)
• Abolfadl Harawi (10th century)
• Mu’ayyad al-Din al-‘Urdi (1200-1266)

Biologists, Neuroscientists, and Psychologists

• Aziz Sancar, Turkish biochemist, the first Muslim biologist awarded the Nobel Prize
• Ahmad-Reza Dehpour (1948- ), Iranian pharmacologist
• Ibn Sirin (654-728), author of work on dreams and dream interpretation[1]
• Al-Kindi (Alkindus), pioneer of psychotherapy and music therapy[2]
• Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, pioneer of psychiatry, clinical psychiatry and clinical psychology[3]
• Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, pioneer of mental health,[4] medical psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive therapy, psychophysiology and psychosomatic medicine[5]
• Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), pioneer of social psychology and consciousness studies[6]
• Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi (Haly Abbas), pioneer of neuroanatomy, neurobiology and neurophysiology[6]
• Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis), pioneer of neurosurgery[7]
• Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), founder of experimental psychology, psychophysics, phenomenology and visual perception[8]
• Al-Biruni, pioneer of reaction time[9]
• Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā), pioneer of neuropsychiatry,[10] thought experiment, self-awareness and self-consciousness[11]
• Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), pioneer of neurology and neuropharmacology[7]
• Syed Ziaur Rahman, pioneer of Environmental Pharmacovigilance
• Averroes, pioneer of Parkinson’s disease[7]
• Ibn Tufail, pioneer of tabula rasa and nature versus nurture[12]
• Mohammad Samir Hossain, theorist,[13] author and one of the few Muslim scientists[14] in the field of death anxiety research[15][16]

Chemists and Alchemists

• Khalid ibn Yazid (died 704) (Calid)
• Jafar al-Sadiq (702-765)
• Jābir ibn Hayyān (721-815) (Geber), father of chemistry[17][18][19]
• Abbas Ibn Firnas (810-887) (Armen Firman)
• Al-Kindi (801-873) (Alkindus)
• Al-Majriti (fl. 1007-1008)
• Ibn Miskawayh (932-1030)
• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973-1048)
• Avicenna (980-1037)
• Al-Khazini (fl. 1115-1130)
• Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201-1274)
• Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)
• Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (1897-1994)
• Al-Khwārizmī (780-850), algebra, mathematics
• Ahmed H. Zewail (1946-2016), Egyptian Chemist and 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry[20]
• Abbas Shafiee (1937-2016)
• Mostafa El-Sayed (1933- )
• Abdul Qadeer Khan (1936- )
• Atta ur Rahman
• Omar M. Yaghi (1965- )
• Sara Akbar

Economists and social scientists

• Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man (699–767), Islamic jurisprudence scholar
• Abu Yusuf (731–798), Islamic jurisprudence scholar
• Al-Saghani (d. 990), one of the earliest historians of science[21]
• Shams al-Mo’ali Abol-hasan Ghaboos ibn Wushmgir (Qabus) (d. 1012), economist
• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048), considered the “first anthropologist”[22] and father of Indology[23]
• Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) (980–1037), economist
• Ibn Miskawayh (b. 1030), economist
• Al-Ghazali (Algazel) (1058–1111), economist
• Al-Mawardi (1075–1158), economist
• Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (Tusi) (1201–1274), economist
• Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288), sociologist
• Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), economist
• Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), forerunner of social sciences[24] such as demography,[25] cultural history,[26] historiography,[27] philosophy of history,[28] sociology[25][28] and economics[29][30]
• Al-Maqrizi (1364–1442), economist
• Akhtar Hameed Khan, Pakistani social scientist; pioneer of microcredit
• Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize winner Bangladeshi economist; pioneer of microfinance
• Shah Abdul Hannan, pioneer of Islamic banking in South Asia
• Mahbub ul Haq, Pakistani economist; developer of Human Development Index and founder of Human Development Report[31][32]

Geographers and earth scientists

• Al-Masudi, the “Herodotus of the Arabs”, and pioneer of historical geography[33]
• Al-Kindi, pioneer of environmental science[34]
• Ibn Al-Jazzar
• Al-Tamimi
• Al-Masihi
• Ali ibn Ridwan
• Muhammad al-Idrisi, also a cartographer
• Ahmad ibn Fadlan
• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, father of geodesy,[22][25] considered the first geologist and “first anthropologist”[22]
• Avicenna
• Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi
• Averroes
• Ibn al-Nafis
• Ibn Jubayr
• Ibn Battuta
• Ibn Khaldun
• Piri Reis
• Evliya Çelebi

Mathematicians

• Masatoshi Gündüz Ikeda (1926 Tokyo–2003 Ankara)
• Cahit Arf (1910 Selanik (Thessaloniki)–1997 Istanbul)
• Ali Qushji
• Al-Hajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Matar
• Khalid ibn Yazid (Calid)
• Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (Algorismi), father of algebra[35] and algorithms[36]
• ‘Abd al-Hamīd ibn Turk
• Abū al-Hasan ibn Alī al-Qalasādī (1412–1482), pioneer of symbolic algebra[37]
• Abū Kāmil Shujā ibn Aslam
• Al-Abbās ibn Said al-Jawharī
• Al-Kindi (Alkindus)
• Banū Mūsā (Ben Mousa)
• Al-Khwarizmi
• Al-Mahani
• Ahmed ibn Yusuf
• Al-Majriti
• Al-Battani (Albatenius)
• Al-Farabi (Abunaser)
• Al-Nayrizi
• Abū Ja’far al-Khāzin
• Brethren of Purity
• Abu’l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi
• Al-Saghani
• Abū Sahl al-Qūhī
• Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi
• Abū al-Wafā’ al-Būzjānī
• Ibn Sahl
• Al-Sijzi
• Ibn Yunus
• Abu Nasr Mansur
• Kushyar ibn Labban
• Al-Karaji
• Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen/Alhazen)
• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī
• Ibn Tahir al-Baghdadi
• Al-Nasawi
• Al-Jayyani
• Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel)
• Al-Mu’taman ibn Hud
• Omar Khayyám
• Al-Khazini
• Ibn Bajjah (Avempace)
• Al-Ghazali (Algazel)
• Al-Marrakushi
• Al-Samawal
• Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
• Ibn Seena (Avicenna)
• Hunayn ibn Ishaq
• Ibn al-Banna’
• Ibn al-Shatir
• Ja’far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi (Albumasar)
• Jamshīd al-Kāshī
• Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī
• Muḥyi al-Dīn al-Maghribī
• Mo’ayyeduddin Urdi
• Muhammad Baqir Yazdi
• Nasir al-Din al-Tusi – 13th century Persian mathematician and philosopher
• Qāḍī Zāda al-Rūmī
• Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi
• Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī
• Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī
• Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf
• Ulugh Beg
• Al-Samawal al-Maghribi (1130–1180)

Philosophers

• Al-Kindi
• Averroes
• Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi
• Al-Farabi
• Avicenna
• Ibn Arabi
• Rumi
• Jami
• Ibn Khaldun
• Mir Damad
• Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
• Muhammad Iqbal
• Quassim Cassam
• Allama Muhammad Iqbal

Physicians and surgeons

• Mimar Sinan (1489-1588), also known as Koca Mi’mâr Sinân Âğâ
• Jafar al-Sadiq, 8th century
• Banū Mūsā (Ben Mousa), 9th century
• Ja’far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir
• Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir
• Al-Hasan ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir
• Abbas Ibn Firnas (Armen Firman), 9th century
• Al-Saghani (d. 990)
• Abū Sahl al-Qūhī (Kuhi), 10th century
• Ibn Sahl, 10th century
• Ibn Yunus, 10th century
• Al-Karaji, 10th century
• Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), 11th century Iraqi scientist, father of optics,[38] and experimental physics,[39] considered the “first scientist”[40]
• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, 11th century, pioneer of experimental mechanics[41]
• Ibn Sīnā/Seena (Avicenna), 11th century
• Al-Khazini, 12th century
• Ibn Bajjah (Avempace), 12th century
• Hibat Allah Abu’l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi (Nathanel), 12th century
• Ibn Rushd/Rooshd (Averroes), 12th century Andalusian mathematician, philosopher and medical expert
• Al-Jazari, 13th century civil engineer,
• Nasir al-Din Tusi, 13th century
• Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, 13th century
• Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī, 13th century
• Ibn al-Shatir, 14th century
• Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma’ruf, 16th century
• Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi, 17th century
• Lagari Hasan Çelebi, 17th century
• Sake Dean Mahomet, 18th century
• Abdus Salam, 20th century Pakistani physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in 1979
• Fazlur Khan, 20th century Bangladeshi Structural Engineer
• Mahmoud Hessaby, 20th century Iranian physicist
• Ali Javan, 20th century Iranian physicist
• B. J. Habibie, 20th century Indonesian aerospace engineer and president
• Abdul Kalam, Indian aeronautical engineer, nuclear scientist and the 11th President of India
• Mehran Kardar, Iranian theoretical physicist
• Munir Nayfeh Palestinian-American particle physicist
• Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistani metallurgist and nuclear scientist
• Riazuddin, Pakistani theoretical physicist
• Samar Mubarakmand, Pakistani nuclear scientist known for his research in gamma spectroscopy and experimental development of the linear accelerator
• Shahid Hussain Bokhari, Pakistani researcher in the field of parallel and distributed computing
• Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, Pakistani nuclear engineer and nuclear physicist
• Ali Musharafa, Egyptian nuclear physicist
• Sameera Moussa, Egyptian nuclear physicist
• Munir Ahmed Khan, Pakistani nuclear scientist
• Kerim Kerimov, founder of Soviet space program, a lead architect behind first human spaceflight (Vostok 1), and the lead architect of the first space stations (Salyut and Mir)[42][43]
• Farouk El-Baz, NASA scientist involved in the first Moon landings with the Apollo program[44]
• Cumrun Vafa, Iranian theoretical physicist and string theorist
• Jamal Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi mathematical physicist and cosmologist