The history of the “Outer Space Treaty”, which regulates the activities of the countries of the world in the field of exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other bodies, dates to 1967.

Although America and Russia planted their flags on the surface of the moon, the treaty states that we all own the moon, so we must know something about it.

We only see one side of the moon, and the other, which we call the dark, is seen only by astronauts.

Unlike the Earth, the Moon has no atmosphere, and as a result there is no wind, rain, or earthquake there. Therefore, its terrain remained stable and unchanged, and scientists infer its regions with the great craters, which are found all over its surface, which resulted from previous collisions with asteroids and comets.

In order to facilitate the knowledge of the geography of the lunar surface, the Italian Giovanni Riccioli (1598-1671), a Catholic priest and astronomer, and who made valuable scientific research, named those crates after a number of scientific, and this tradition has continued until today, where the International Astronomical Union performs this task. It recently named three craters after Chinese scientists.

By reviewing the names of the approximately 1,600 scientists, whose names were given to the craters of the moon, we note the few names of women among them, with a noticeable increase in the names of Arab and Muslim scholars, but unfortunately 99% of our peoples have not heard of them before, such as the famous astronomer Abu al-Fadl bin Marwan, and Abu al-Fida, the ruler of Hama.

Among them, the eminent geographer and astronomer, Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, the astronomer, as they are not mentioned in almost all the curricula of schools, libraries, and the role of science and research, although they are few.

No attention has been paid to knowing who are Al-Biruni, Ibn Rushd, Al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Al-Haytham, and the famous astronomer Omar Khayyam, being a great mathematician who contributed to the development of one of the most accurate calendars.

Among the other famous names, whose name was given to a large crater, is the Caliph Al-Ma’mun whose era is considered the most glorious in the history of the civilization of Dar al-Islam, and the most open to the creative non-Muslim, and this may be seen by some as a sin.

Al-Ma’mun was a lover of science and literature, a poet and a writer, and scholars did not leave his council, and he was the reason behind the emergence of a thriving literary and scientific movement, and a great intellectual renaissance whose echoes extended from Baghdad to the world.

He is the one who collected the heritage of ancient Greece, hired translators to translate their books into Arabic, established a scientific complex in Baghdad, two observatories to monitor the planets, and ordered the drawing of a large geographical map of the world.

He also encouraged translation, and his learners transferred science, arts, literature and philosophy into Arabic, benefiting from it and developing it, and among them is Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, the brilliant physician.

They also translated the books of Aristotle and Plato into Arabic. The physician Yohanna bin Masawayh was supervising the Beit Al-Hekmah (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad, and he wrote in Syriac and Arabic, and he was proficient in Greek and wrote many books.

Al-Ma’mun was the one who ordered the copying of Al-Khwarizmi’s book on algebra, rendering a great scientific service to humanity. He also hired Nestorian, Sabian, Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars and translators to provide the library of the House of Wisdom with precious manuscripts and commissioned them to translate all the antiquities of Greece, which Western scholars later transmitted from Arabic.

Insisting on ignoring the real scholars of the nation, not the scholars of religious books, is really shameful and a cause for confusion. How could a group of people with limited intelligence and knowledge convince the authorities of most Arab and Islamic countries to forget these scholars, obliterate their paths, and ignore their achievements, while the civilized world is proud of them, and give their names to the stars, planets and galaxies of the universe, to the craters of the moon, and to buildings, laboratories, universities, institutes and libraries.

We are extremely ungrateful and the reason for this is that these real scientists were considered by the false scientists as heretics, or because some of them were non-Muslims.

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By Ahmad alsarraf