IN a diwaniya gathering, some members asked an experienced friend to explain the meaning of “mixed feelings.” He gave them an example: imagine someone who deeply dislikes his boss. One day, the boss asks to borrow his new car for a short test drive. The boss takes the car and doesn’t return on time. Eventually, the person gets a call from the police saying the car was involved in a traffic accident.
At that moment, the person had mixed feelings. On one hand, he hopes his car isn’t damaged, and on the other hand, he secretly hopes the boss was badly hurt. These same mixed feelings have long plagued many, if not all, fundamentalists and others for hundreds of years when it comes to their views on the great scientists of the Islamic State, such as Ibn Sina, al-Razi, al-Farabi, Ibn al-Haytham, al-Kindi, Ibn Rushd, and others. Unlike many religious scholars of their time, these scientists represented the enlightened, progressive face of Islamic civilization. For generations, they have stood as symbols of what can be achieved when freedom of thought, research, and expression is allowed to flourish. They are a lasting source of pride and a reminder of the heights a society can reach when it embraces knowledge and innovation.
Of course, these people stand in stark contrast to many clerics or traditional scholars. On one hand, they embody the noble face of Islamic history, having served for decades as a source of pride and a shining example of what can be achieved when a society values freedom in work, research, action, and speech. However, on the other hand, these same scholars have long been viewed with suspicion and mixed feelings by fundamentalists due to their progressive stances, views on religious doctrine, their insistence on working in an environment of freedom, and their opposition to rigid stereotypes. Almost all of them have been declared as infidels.
The tragic fate of most of these scholars was a heinous murder. Despite their great contributions to human civilization, their intellectual and scientific works were destroyed, lost, or burned. The contradictory attitudes toward them, ranging from admiration, respect, and appreciation to contempt, excommunication, and even murder, serve as a stark example of the mixed feelings. Regrettably, fundamentalist forces have succeeded in erasing most of these scholars’ biographies from curricula and textbooks in many Arab and some Islamic countries. The practice of naming schools, universities, institutes, and streets after them has completely ceased. This disregard has sometimes extended to dismissing the contributions of women in science.
A prime example of this is the story of the scientist Maryam al-Ijliya, also known as Mariam al-Asturlabi, who is credited with inventing the astrolabe. She was a Syrian woman from Aleppo who lived in the 10th century AD, which marked the Islamic Golden Era of the Middle Ages. Maryam al-Asturlabi was known for her exceptional skill in designing and manufacturing astrolabes, which are complex astronomical instruments used for navigation and timekeeping. She was the daughter of al-Ujaili, a renowned astrolabe maker, and likely learned the craft from her father, eventually mastering it. Sayf al-Dawla, the ruler of Aleppo, was the first to acknowledge her expertise and offered her a position at Court.
Maryam al-Asturlabi is one of the few female Muslim scientists and craftsmen whose work made great contributions to the advancement of astronomical knowledge and the development of scientific instruments in the Islamic world. Her contributions remain an important part of the history of Islamic astronomy and instrument-making.
The claim circulating in a WhatsApp clip that NASA installed a statue of Maryam al-Asturlabi in front of its headquarters in recognition of her achievements is completely false. Despite the high-quality production of the clip, which showed a statue of Maryam in front of the building, the information is misleading. It is unclear who benefits from spreading such false stories. NASA does not place statues of historical figures outside its facilities, though it does acknowledge the contributions of Maryam and others to astronomy and space sciences. However, this recognition does not translate into the installation of a statue in front of NASA’s headquarters.
By Ahmad alsarraf
email: [email protected]
