What if I told you that Islam once produced the world's most scientifically advanced and intellectually productive civilization?

It's true, and you'll probably hear more about it, this being 2015, the United Nations International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies, in which Islamic science will be showcased.

Many Americans might find far-fetched the idea that Islam spawned the most advanced and sophisticated civilization of its time - especially now that some Islamic sects slaughter thousands of innocents in their bloody campaign to spread tyrannical Sharia law.

Yet Islam's Golden Age, extending from the 7th century to the 13th century, flourished while Europe and Christendom wallowed in the Dark Ages. Western society was considered a backwater, if considered at all.

Islam generated impressive advances in medicine, chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, optics and philosophy. It created cities, observatories and libraries, and it engaged in far-flung commerce well before Christopher Columbus set sail.

Credit Islamic genius for the magnetic compass and navigational innovation, for algebra and the refinement of the numbering system that originated in India, for papermaking and the scientific method. While Greek and Roman learning faded in the medieval West, Islamic scholars were preserving and enlarging it - long before the European Renaissance or Age of Enlightenment.

All this and more will be spotlighted during the International Year, which will open Jan. 19 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris and will aim to raise awareness of light science and its importance to mankind.

And by doing that, it necessarily will have to highlight Islamic achievements. For example, the opening event will focus on the multiple accomplishments of the 11th century polymath Ibn al-Haytham in optics, mathematics and astronomy. The Golden Age will get more attention Sept. 14 during a conference on its impact on "knowledge-based society."
 

To read more, click here. 

Daughter of Mohammed al-Fihri, Fatima al-Fihri, also called Umm al Banine, 'Mother of the Boys', is known for creating the oldest academic degree-granting university in existence today, the University of Qarawiyyin.

Fatima and her family were among several families who moved from Tunisia to Morocco during the reign of the Moroccan King Idris II.

After her father and her brothers died, she and her sister Mariam inherited a large fortune. Both women wanted to devote their money to pious work that would benefit the community in order to receive the blessings of God. To this end, Fatima built the Al Qarawiyyin mosque, while Mariam built the Al-Andalus mosque. In 859, from the 10th to the 12th century, the Al Qarawiyyin mosque developed into a university which became an important centre of education, and one of the first Islamic and  most prestigious universities in the world.

Fatima Al-Fihri was a visionary lady who lived her life  for the sake of her community's improvement.  She was from a prestigious family and had inherited a fortune from her father. As a young, wealthy and well educated woman, her interest was neither in shoes or handbags, nor in any celebrity lifestyle, neither to woo any  man for marriage. Not any of the shallow stereotypes that are usually associated with young women, could be attributed to this lady of great depth, whose vision was cultivated and allowed to grow because of the encouragement from the  Islamic society in which she lived. Her vision did not remain a dream but, rather, was accomplished, and the results can still be seen today.
 

To read more, click here.