Unsung Muslim Heroes in History

By Sally Gobana

Throughout history, there have been many uncelebrated Muslim heroes who have made significant contributions to various fields and have played a crucial role in shaping the world we live in today. While some of these heroes are widely recognized, others remain relatively unrecognized. 

Omar Khayyam  

A Persian, born in Nishapur-a metropolis in Khorasan province, of Persian stock, in 1048 18 May. Khayyam’s boyhood was spent in Nishapur, a leading metropolis in the Seljuk Empire, which had earlier been a major centre of the Zoroastrian religion.

His full name, as it appears in Arabic sources, was Abu’l Fath Omar Ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyam. His gifts were recognized by his early tutors who sent him to study under Imam Muwaffaq Nishaburi, the greatest teacher of the Khorasan region who tutored the children of the highest nobility, and Khayyam developed a friendship with him through the years. Omar Khayyam died at the age of 83 years in his hometown of Nishapur on 4 December 1131, and he is buried in what is now the Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam. 

Khayyam was famous during his life as a mathematician. His mathematical works include:  

1. Commentary on the difficulties concerning the postulates of Euclid’s Elements completed in December 1077. 

2. Treaties on the division of a quadrant of a circle undated but completed before the treaties on Algebra 

3. Treaties on algebra were most likely completed in 1079. 

He furthermore wrote a treaty on the binomial theorem and extracted the nth root of natural numbers which has been lost. 

Khayyam was the first to consider the three distinct cases of acute, obtuse, and right angles for the summit angles of a Khayyam Saccheri quadrilateral. 

Ibn Rushd 

Was born on 14 April 1126 in Cordoba. His family was well-known in the city for their public service, especially in the legal and religious fields. He was probably of Muladi and Berber ancestry. Ibn Rushd’s full, translated Arabic name is Abul-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd.

Sometimes, the nickname Al-Hafid (the grandson) is appended from his grandfather, a famous judge and jurist. His other name was Averroes.  He died on 11 December 1198 (aged 72) in Marrakesh, Almohad caliphate. Averroes was a prolific writer and his works according to Fakhry, covered a greater variety of subjects than those of any of his predecessors in the East, including Philosophy, medicine, jurisprudence or legal and linguistics. Most of his writings were commentaries on or paraphrasings of the works of Aristotle especially the long -often contain his original thoughts.

 According to French author Ernest Renan, Averroes wrote at least 67 original works including 28 works on philosophy,20 on medicine,8 on law,5 on theology and 4 on grammar in addition to his commentaries on most of Aristotle’s works and his commentary on Plato’s The Republic. In the field of medicine, he wrote several treaties. The most famous was Al-kulliyat fi al-tibb (The general principles of medicine) written around 1162, before his appointment at court.  

His other surviving titles include Treacle, The Differences in Temperament, and medicinal herbs. He also wrote summaries of the works of Greek physician Galen (died c. 210) and a commentary on Avicenna’s Urjuzah fi al-tibb (poem on medicine). Other field include Jurisprudence and law, Relation between religion and philosophy, Nature of God, Pre-eternity of the world, politics, Diversity of Islamic law. 

Al-Zahrawi 

He was born in the city of Azahara,8 kilometres northwest of Cordoba, Andalusia. His birth date is not known for sure, however, scholars agree that he was born around 936, the year his birthplace city of Azahara was founded. He lived most of his life in Cordoba. It is also where he studied, taught and practised medicine and surgery until shortly before he died in about 1013, two years after the sacking of Azahara. 

He committed his entire life and genius to the advancement of medicine as a whole and surgery in particular. As a court physician, Zahrawi had access to the most advanced medical knowledge and resources of the time, allowing him to develop new techniques and instruments for surgical procedures. He also specialized in curing disease by cauterization.

He invented several devices used during surgery, for purposes such as inspection of the interior of the urethra and applying and removing foreign bodies from the throat, ear and other body organs. Al-Zahrawi also pioneered neurosurgery and neurological diagnosis. He is known to have performed surgical treatment of head injuries, skull fractures, spinal injuries hydrocephalus, subdural effusions and headache. 

In the field of pharmacology and cosmetics, he pioneered the preparation of medicines by sublimation and distillation. Al-Zahrawi considered cosmetics a branch of medicine, which he called the ‘medicine of beauty’’ (Adwiyat al-Dinah) he deals with perfumes, scented aromatics and incense. Al-Zahrawi was the most frequently cited surgical authority of the Middle Ages.