Quote:
Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
Giving them more Technolgy! It was bad enupgh when we gave them firearms 300 years ago!
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Contrary to the popular myth you're stating, they actually created the first firearms. Hand cannons originated in the Middle East (in Southeastern Arabia) by members of the Islamic faith, hundreds of years before the Europeans even discovered gunpowder or knew anything about China and India. They were also the first to actually use them, successfully, might I add, against the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut.
Islamic inventions also include to name a few:
*explosive gunpowder
*multi-barreled/rapid-firing guns
*torpedoes (from Hasan al-Rammah, circa 1275)
*gunpowder cartridges
*matchlock muskets (Ottoman Empire was using them long before the Europeans got their hands on them, as early as the 1430s; the Janissary Corps was anyway).
*rocket artillery
*the compass rose
*compass dials (Abu al-Shatir, 1320s)
*Xebec and Polacca sailing vessels (those things that made the Barbary Corsairs so successful, that were used from the 1500s to the 1800s by nations the world over)
*programmable analog computers (from 1206, by Al-Jazari)
*thermometers (Avicenna)
*magnifying glasses (al-Haytham, 1021)
*modern optics (really, this entire field was pioneered by Islamic scientists; al-Haytham again was responsible for contributing the most to it)
*celestial globes (Ali Kashmiri, 1589)
*mechanical astronomical clocks (1559, Taqi al-Din)
*pigeon airmail system (al-Aziz, 975)
*the modern scientific method and experimental science (al-Haytham again; was really the first scientist because he required that his students provide empirical evidence for their scientific claims, and defined qualitative and quantitative observations)
*graph paper and mathematical grids (900s AD; originally used for mapping out the positions of the stars and planets)
*principle of bookbinding (from the 1100s; originated in Morocco that was controlled by the Moors)
*cryptanalysis (800s AD, al-Kindi)
*surgery instruments and methods that we still use today (most of which came from Abu al-Zahrawi)
*petrol (from crude oil extracts)
*distilled and purified water (Ahmad Hassan wrote in the 8th century how to also distill salt water and purify it so that one might drink it without suffering the typical effects of dehydration)
*a vaccination against smallpox (hundreds of years before Jenner's "discovery" in Europe, Saeid-Alhazred of the Ottoman Empire gave children in what is now Syria and parts of Turkey cowpox to protect them against the disease)
*modern coffee (they imported it from India, which they then passed along to Mediterranean crusaders)
*kerosene lamps (from the 800s AD, by Muhammad al-Razi)
*sweet and potent toothpaste (a change from the bitter ones all other civilizations had produced before; by a fellow known only as "Ziryab")
*deodorants and the perfume industry (again, thank Ziryab for this)
*public hospitals and mental institutions
*quarantines for times of widespread infectious diseases
*pharmacies (and apothecaries)
*the on/off switch (for the running water geared mechanisms which they had during the 900s AD)
*the steam turbine (from the mid 16th century, which was the first that could actually be used for practical applications)
*cancer therapy and anti-cancer medications (see
The Cannon of Medicine, from 1205, by Avicenna)
*cough medicine
*adhesive bandages
*alcohol used to clean injuries of infection