The achievements of Islamic scientists are widely touted in the West today. Many people have pointed out that much of this is trumped-up, with the innovations of dhimmi Jews and Christians living in Islamic societies being touted as achievements of Islam, and with some supposed Islamic achievements simply being fabricated. This article reveals that this fabrication is actually an entire industry, and has fooled reputable authorities all over the West, so avid is today’s establishment Left to make people think well of Islam and not be concerned about jihad and Islamization.
“Forging Islamic science: Fake miniatures depicting Islamic science have found their way into the most august of libraries and history books. How?” by Nir Shafir, Aeon, September 11, 2018 (thanks to the Geller Report):
As I prepared to teach my class ‘Science and Islam’ last spring, I noticed something peculiar about the book I was about to assign to my students. It wasn’t the text – a wonderful translation of a medieval Arabic encyclopaedia – but the cover. Its illustration showed scholars in turbans and medieval Middle Eastern dress, examining the starry sky through telescopes. The miniature purported to be from the premodern Middle East, but something was off.
Besides the colours being a bit too vivid, and the brushstrokes a little too clean, what perturbed me were the telescopes. The telescope was known in the Middle East after Galileo developed it in the 17th century, but almost no illustrations or miniatures ever depicted such an object. When I tracked down the full image, two more figures emerged: one also looking through a telescope, while the other jotted down notes while his hand spun a globe – another instrument that was rarely drawn. The starkest contradiction, however, was the quill in the fourth figure’s hand. Middle Eastern scholars had always used reed pens to write. By now there was no denying it: the cover illustration was a modern-day forgery, masquerading as a medieval illustration.
The fake miniature depicting Muslim astronomers is far from an isolated case. One popular image floating around Facebook and Pinterest has worm-like demons cavorting inside a molar. It claims to illustrate the Ottoman conception of dental cavities, a rendition of which has now entered Oxford’s Bodleian Library as part of its collection on ‘Masterpieces of the non-Western book’. Another shows a physician treating a man with what appears to be smallpox. These contemporary images are in fact not ‘reproductions’ but ‘productions’ and even fakes – made to appeal to a contemporary audience by claiming to depict the science of a distant Islamic past.
From Istanbul’s tourist shops, these works have ventured far afield. They have have found their way into conference posters, education websites, and museum and library collections. The problem goes beyond gullible tourists and the occasional academic being duped: many of those who study and publicly present the history of Islamic science have committed themselves to a similar sort of fakery. There now exist entire museums filled with reimagined objects, fashioned in the past 20 years but intended to represent the venerable scientific traditions of the Islamic world.
The irony is that these fake miniatures and objects are the product of a well-intentioned desire: a desire to integrate Muslims into a global political community through the universal narrative of science. That wish seems all the more pressing in the face of a rising tide of Islamophobia. But what happens when we start fabricating objects for the tales we want to tell? Why do we reject the real material remnants of the Islamic past for their confected counterparts? What exactly is the picture of science in Islam that are we hoping to find? These fakes reveal more than just a preference for fiction over truth. Instead, they point to a larger problem about the expectations that scholars and the public alike saddle upon the Islamic past and its scientific legacy….
Bob Carrillo says
Well… Anything emanating from the tree of fraudulent claims to be a “religion” of any sort, let alone “of peace”, is tainted (fruit of the poisonous tree), and fraudulent in and of itself as well, in my view..
This is a culture of “Grifters”, start to finish, and the world around us is afraid of it, and intimidated by it. This part is beyond my understanding..
The only way to defeat this plague upon humanity, world-wide, is to face it squarely, admit to the reality of what it actually is, and deal with it.
Thus, The Crusades..
Martin says
“This is a culture of “Grifters”, start to finish, and the world around us is afraid of it, and intimidated by it. This part is beyond my understanding.”
I see it here in Brussels (25% Muslim) all the time. The local non-Muslim male majority tends to be cowardly so the Muslims walk all over them, and the police have their hands tied because of government arrest policies which emboldens the male punk Muslims even more. A day after the local Muslims murdered 32 people in two bombings in this city the Minister of the Interior told the Belgians that, “We have to try harder to win [Muslim] hearts back.”
Unbelievable.
Garfield says
Win their hearts back? What a heinous thing to be said.
You cannot win trying to appease barbarians who act like monsters. What is IN their hearts? Evil? The things they DO show what they believe and there’s nothing to be gained from pandering to them….how did western people get so crazy, naive, guilt ridden and stupid? western history and culture is being thrown away and traded for packs of wild eyed idiotic brainwashed rapist leeches with sagging pants.
gravenimage says
Appalling.
Jayell says
Trumped-up claims from a trumped-up ‘religion’ concocted in long distant times by a Dark Age psychopathic criminal despot to dupe the credulous masses into supporting his evil political ambitions. Hopefully we’re quite not so credulous in the West these days, so just how far do these fraudsters expect to get with this fatuous garbage?
Lu says
Very far. Actually – all the way up to a complete and utter dhimmification, Look at the three largest countries in Europe: UK, France and Germany. Their leadership is totally islamopandering …
Elisha says
No more fraudulent religion these days than that of secular humanism, peddling its philosophical delusion of Darwinism, which is precisely the reason why the West is in such a mess. Please consider:
https://creation.com/the-creation-answers-book-index
Bee says
Here is the reality to which all need to be informed as the world is in turmoil because of this ideology. Astonishing and riveting videos by two people who relate the historical FACTS regarding the foundation of Islam, the quaran, Mecca, mo etc, if you think you’ve heard it all before, I doubt it, An ex-muslim wahhabi who grew up in Saudi Arabia, now a Christian, and a Dr. Jay Smith discuss very important non-historical facts surrounding this ideology.
Lesson 1 https://youtu.be/xIQxb89gWyE
Martin says
Is there a ancient painting of a Muslim discovering the number zero?
If not there should be – a Turk can take care of that.
Hindu American says
Interesting that you bring up the invention of zero. Hindus invented (rediscovered?) the concept of zero and applied it to abstract and practical arithmetic in fifth century AD. It was usurped by the Arabs via the Persians and transmitted to Europe where it was identified as an “Arabic marvel”. Here’s a link to many other ideas, discoveries and inventions that the Muslims took from India, repackaged them and passed them off as of Arabic origins. In many instances, ancient Hindus were guilty of passing on much of the knowledge to the Arabs and Persians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_influence_on_Islamic_science
Kelly says
Yes, I have read it was the Hindu’s or someone in India who came up with the “number zero” which the moslems say they did…more revisionist history!
gravenimage says
True.
Walter Sieruk says
On the topic of the debate of “Is there science in the Quran ?” From another internet site that warns about Islam with its differnet types of jihad. It also provides the titles a number of books on this subject .One of which has the title of DEBUNKING THE MYTH OF SCIENCE OF THE QURAN . The site is fathfreedom.org
gravenimage says
Yes–good stuff.
j_not_a says
Muzlums love to brag about inventing math. Sheesh, even wiki states that math was being used by the Babylonians and Sumerians way back around 3000 B.C.E. As far as the muzlums claiming zero, well I’m tempted to make a litle retort, bu that’d be too easy.
gravenimage says
+1
Colin Broughton says
Islam like other Civilisations had a sophisticated alchemy, ie magic, and like Christianity had access to Greek learning. But modern empirical science could not develop in Islam. It could and did develop in Christianity, and only there. The reason is Christianity’s unique view of God.
The Qur’an is full of contradictions. One moment Allah is proclaiming peaceful co-existence, the next he wants unremitting hostility towards those who do not accept Islam. This gave rise to the doctrine of voluntarism which contends that Allah is pure will.
As pure will, Allah cannot be confined by any law, These would include laws of nature. Nature cannot be organised by laws. It just is; a brute fact of the will of Allah. It can be radically changed at any moment if he so wills.
This concept meant that the idea that nature, his creation, could be rationally explored as a way of understanding him never crossed the minds of mainstream Muslims. Empirical science required nature to be regular and predictable.
This is in contrast to Christian theology which holds that God is reasonable. While his reason is far beyond human comprehension, since we are made in his image, we have a capacity, albeit very limited, to understand his reasoning.
He is loving where Allah does not love. His creation is good. Because he is loving, while he cannot be bound by his own laws, he allows himself to be so for the sake of his good creation, and because he is reasonable, he can be understood by exploring his good creation, nature.
The Christian concept of God is the reason why modern empirical science arose in Christianity and nowhere else; especially not in Islam,.
Elisha says
Correct. God told us that His Creation is good, and thus, worth studying, as opposed to Eastern and Gnostic beliefs that matter “is an illusion” and matter “is evil”. SEcular humanists peddle the philosophical delusion of Darwinism, which is destroyed by real science:
https://creation.com/the-creation-answers-book-index
God bless.
gravenimage says
Great posts.
Terry Gain says
Why is it important to tell the truth about Islam? The truth shall set you free and the lies of this conquest ideology will enslave you. The desire to quell so-called Islamophobia is moronic. Tell the truth and let the people decide. These lies about Islamic science will make intelligent people less trusting of Islam and Muslims once the truth is known.
gravenimage says
Spot on, Terry.
Bee says
Here’s the riveting truth, https://youtu.be/xIQxb89gWyE
Bev says
This is rich coming from an ideology that believes evil Ginns are the cause of epilepsy.
CogitoErgoSum says
Even richer is that descriptions of Muhammad having one of his “revelations” are quite similar to those of a person having an epileptic seizure.
CogitoErgoSum says
The Christian concept of God is one of a Being who loves all that has been created. The Christian God does not love some and hate others. That is a constant. Furthermore, Christians believe in a reliable and trustworthy God who is the perfect truth and does not lie. If the truth is a part of God, finding the truth is not something to be feared but to be sought after. If you believe that your god sometimes plays tricks on you and sometimes changes his mind, there is no absolute truth and trying to find it is a waste of time. Everything in your life begins to revolve around “inshalla,” if Allah wills it … and as for what Allah wills, only Allah knows.
Science in Islam will always be held back by Islam’s view of an unknowable god who discourages asking questions and, even if he should answer, could possibly give you an answer that is true today but false tomorrow. Of the most importance to Allah is whether you love him and not whether he loves you. You are Allah’s slave who can be treated any way that pleases Allah at the moment … based upon his whims. No science of man can ever understand the ways of Allah … so why try. Best to spend your time in prayer.
The Istanbulian says
The only thing islam invented was itself and even that was stolen from what came before.
StellaSaidSo says
+1
FYI says
One day muhammed was sitting under a Gharqad tree{“the Tree of the Jews”,because of course Trees have religious beliefs….}when first a pineapple and then a coconut fell out of it.
muhammed pondered :what could possibly cause such an event?
How could one even begin to understand it?
He finally understood when… a Jewish Physicist fell out of the Gharqad Tree{“the tree of the Jews” as Jews like to live in Gharqad trees….}
It was then that islam discovered Science all on its own with absolutely no input from infidels like Newton or Galileo …and definitely not any Jews
And that,folks, is a true story*
*well it’s “true” in the same way that it is “true” muhammed split the moon in half..
Of course it’s not a true story!it’s obviously made-up!….like muhammed splitting the moon in half..or the mountain walking to muhammed….
Buck Tucker says
Islamic science was simply that they had the manuscripts of the ancient greeks. The church banned these manuscripts. Islam itself made no discoveries, their names for the stars remain in use today in science and that is about it. Once the christians reclaimed Spain they re-obtained these lost greek manuscripts and the scientific revolution began with its basis being Greek sciences. We know the dates of these works are from the 3rd and 4th century bc but western europeans did not have access to them until the 16th century. That is why the time between is known as the dark ages. You can give credit to the eastern cultures for preserving the manuscripts but that is the full acomplishment of islamic science, the preservation of someone elses work.
Lu says
Exactly my take … preserving the manuscripts for some reason not exactly obvious from the Quaranic and Sharia perspective – but preserved anyway.
libertyORdeath says
Just as today, there have always been Muslims who have the ability to see the world around them and reject the most outlandish claims of islam.
Why would a devout Muslim need to observe the stars when allah has already explained the cosmos perfectly?
Sahih al-Bukhari 3198—Abu Qatada mentioning Allah’s saying: “And indeed We have adorned the nearest heaven with lamps . . .” (v. 67:5) said, “The creation of these stars is for three purposes, and they are: 1) as decoration of the nearest heaven, 2) as missiles to hit the devils, and 3) as signs to guide travelers. So, if anybody tries to find a different interpretation, he is mistaken and just wastes his efforts and troubles himself with what is beyond his limited knowledge.”
Remember too that islam acquired all of its knowledge of science thru contact and conquest of neighbouring civilizations. Should we really praise them for not destroying 100% of what they came across?
KWJ says
The manuscripts were not lost. The Arabs didn’t preserve them. What they did is pass them around their huge caliphate. When Caliph Al-Ma’moun was in Baghdad (Abbasids) they were going back and forth with the Byzantines in skirmishes. As part of a peace treaty he demanded that the Byzantines send their manuscripts of knowledge. Al-Ma’moun had built the House of Wisdom where he had Persian, Greek or whomever scholars come there. Ibn Ishaq translated Greek works into Arabic. Unfortunately, when the Mongols sacked Baghdad the House is Wisdom was destroyed along much infrastructure.
The Greeks did not have a Dark Ages then. They suffered under the Ottomans. It was good the Arabs passed it around. They even brought chess to Spain which was via the Chinese then Persians despite that they weren’t supposed to play games.
Much great science was done at the Library of Alexandria by Greeks who went there. 300-100 BC. Math, Erosthenes figured out the circumference if the earth…Carl Sagan talks about in his Cosmos series. Funny how the Arabs leave out these points. They also act like a religion has anything to do with a person’s intelligence. I didn’t learn Christian Thomas Edison but American Thomas Edison. It’s where people are from and schooled.
The European Dark Ages wasn’t about things disappearing but rather productivity was low…less writing, less art…a malaise and weariness filled the air.
That’s what I’ve learned from Iranian and other sources. The Arab Muslims try too hard on this matter. They seem to have some inferiority complex or they desperately try to boost up Islam. I looked up their notable scientists back then-from Baghdad or Persia like six of the Hadith writers. Most young Muslims I talk to online can’t name them. Who knows what they learn in school over there.
gravenimage says
Actually, the “House of Wisdom” was first gutted by more pious Muslims coming into power. Those “Golden Ages” seldom lasted long in Islam–usually just the lifetime of one lax ruler or another.
TheStranger says
I’ve heard of this as well. Still, if it’s weren’t for that preservation where would the European Christians be today?
Hugh Fitzgerald says
Stuart Cary Welch, thou shouldst be living at this hour.
This is the most fascinating article i have read at Jihad Watch. The Mystery of the Quill Pen. And what good fortune that the cover illustration came to the attention of those who sensed something was wrong.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
The author, Nir Shafir, goes on to write: “The irony is that these fake miniatures and objects are the product of a well-intentioned desire: a desire to integrate Muslims into a global political community through the universal narrative of science. That wish seems all the more pressing in the face of a rising tide of Islamophobia.”
He’s much too kind to these falsifiers. They are no different than those photographers who inserted an image of Stalin standing beside good old Lenin. These fakes are not “the product of a well-intentioned desire to integrate Muslims etc.” — it’s a sinister intention, to ascribe to Muslims scientific advances that they did not make, to impress both themselves (their self-esteem so battered by the dismal truth) and credulous Unbelievers.
As for Shafir’s mention ofthis “rising tide of Islamophobia,” there is a rising tide, alright, in the use of that tendentious term “Islamophobia” but no increase at all in the “baseless hatred of Islam,” Perhaps Nir Shafir would like to reconsider that word. There is a rise in the number of islamocritics, those people who decided to read the Qur’an and some of the Hadith, to study what they could of 1,400 years of Islamic history, and to consider the observable behavior of Muslims today in light of those texts and that history.
Elisha says
Hugh, in light of the philosophical delusion of Darwinism that gave rise to the secular humanist horrors of Lenin, Stalin and friends, please consider:
https://creation.com/the-creation-answers-book-index
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. – Hosea 4:6
gravenimage says
Fine posts, Hugh.
gravenimage says
This is an attempt, as noted, to rewrite history in order to advance the bloody (and very unscientific) cause of Islam.
abad says
Scientific Islam is an oxymoron. There is nothing scientific in the Quran.
libertyORdeath says
Exactly!
Lydia Church says
Aha!
I knew something was very suspect with that whole ‘scientific advancements’ thing!
gravenimage says
Fake miniatures depicting Islamic science are now found in the most august of libraries, museums, and history books
Besides the colours being a bit too vivid, and the brushstrokes a little too clean, what perturbed me were the telescopes…
………………………
There’s something even more glaring than the telescopes, and that has to do with that globe.
It is not just that this is a globe–they did exist prior to the discovery of the New World, but were rare and necessarily inaccurate. But the globe in this miniature not only has a largely accurate depiction of North and South America–something that did not exist until centuries after Columbus’ discoveries–but it has also shows *Antarctica*, a land mass that was not discovered until the early 19th century.
I can see these fakes fooling the tourists or the Turks, but Western libraries and museums? Really, there is *no excuse* for this. It is all about really, really wanting Islam to be civilized, which it rarely was. What gullible tools.
Good for Nir Shafir for exposing this hoax.
Lu says
Bingo, GI – the Antarctica thing made may day! Great to see you commenting here, always pleasure to read your erudite views …
gravenimage says
Thank you so much for your kind words, Lu.
Avenger says
Phony people, phony history and a phony religion.
Jay says
What’s not fake about the “devout” moslem is that they lie like carpets. I suppose they invented the airplane, the Space Shuttle and have already been to Mars and back? They just lie, and lie, and lie.
Peter WF says
When are they going to claim that muzzies landed on the moon?
Ade Fegan says
fake news ! 🙂
Linda Goudsmit says
This is what historical revisionism looks like. In true Orwellian fashion the facts of history are erased not only from history books, they are erased from art books, archaeology books, science books etc to provide consistency to the lies being told. It is the operating principle of the echo chamber – when the media outlets colluded to misrepresent Obama’s egregious Iran deal the unsuspecting public heard the same disinformation from multiple sources. The liars are not stupid – they understand that if you tell a lie often enough it is perceived as the truth. The problem is it is still a lie no matter who believes it!
WPM says
He who does not remember history will be force to repeat it. Islam lies about everything to advance the lie Islam can bring about a peaceful productive world. Everything from the reason Europe had the crusades, to Islamic ” science” to a book of contradictory non-sense the “Koran”. A religion founded by a backward, slaving ,child molesting, raping ,murdering warlord, painted as a wise, kind , ruler of a peaceful people ,social advance asset to all people they encounter in there “immigration ” to the West in the 10 century in the rewrite of history. In the propaganda department compared to Mohammad ,Stalin was a piker .
gottschalk says
I’m sure Dr. Shafir is thrilled that you’ve co-opted his work to score some cheap rhetorical points. All in a day’s work, I guess. Gotta keep the masses a-feared.
gravenimage says
I see we have some idiot here implying that if we don’t want to live under the horrors of Shari’ah law that we must be “Islamophobes”. Bad dhimmis…
William Anderson says
I must be missing something.
If the telescope was invented around 1608 by Hans Sheppershey, then Muslim astronomers could have easily had telescopes from 1608 onward, ie through most of the 17th century. Except for the quill vs a reed drawing instrument, this Muslim drawing may well have been from 17th century. And could the Muslims not be aware of quills – they aren’t that impressive an invention or difficult to make.
That said, I can’t find any evidence that suggests that Muslims invented the telescope. That appears to be by the Dutch.
gravenimage says
Noter also the globe. The piece above is *not* from the 17th century.
alex Reid says
There are quotations from an ARAB scientist around the time Bagdad fell to Islam, Al – Razi. A most eminent scientist of his time, (turn of the 10th-11th. Centuries). He adamantly refused to convert to Islam, instead paying the jizyah tax. [50 – 90%+ of your wealth each year]. His quotes are on wikiislam.net, under the section, ‘quotes on Islam by famous non-Muslims’. The list is most comprehensive, right across the centuries. On youtube.com there are video clips that absolutely demolish the Muslims’ claims of great scientific works. The only reason there was any advancement was that Islam conquered new lands. Apologist clips also abound on youtube. They are disgusting.What makes it worse some are made in the UK & US using Western presenters. Just look at the state of Islamic Universities. NO Arab Unis are in the World’s Top 500. In over a 100years only 2 & a half Nobel Prizes in the Sciences to Muslims. Reason, they were at western Unis. The half was a Pakistani, in Physics, who was working in partnership with a Jew at a top Uni in the USA. The Jews have been awarded something like 23-25% of Nobels in the Sciences. In the entire Islamic world, there are about 300Universities. In the USA, alone, 3,000! It is simple plagiarism & revisionism by the Muslims. Accuse them of this & they spout out, “Racist! Racism! etc”. They tried this with their world Tour: 1001 Inventions of the Golden Age of Islam. This actually uses the Oscar-winning actor, Ben Kingsley! They have now revised it slightly, saying things like…..’ worked in this area looking at light.’ or for this clock device…..’used a water clock’. Actually one of these Islamic clocks was FOUND in an Ancient Egyptian Pyramid! It is vile what they do!
gravenimage says
Spot on.