1001 Inventions, Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
This is a delightful and thought-provoking exhibition, but it's also a troubling one. Its purpose is to raise awareness of a 'golden age' of Muslim science, technology and culture between 600 and 1600 CE (Common Era).
Its method is to link the present to this past in order to generate a greater understanding of Muslim contributions to contemporary science and technology worldwide, and thereby to inspire young people from Muslim and other backgrounds to find career role models in science and engineering.
It seeks to do this by bridging science, industry and art, promoting the idea that 'scientific and technical endeavour is a constructive alternative to religious isolationism and extremism'.
Along with all this is a strong corrective subtext, showing that the period between the collapse of the Roman empire and the Renaissance, which we may have thought of as a dark age for
science and technology, in fact had a strong light of invention shining in the east.
The exhibition is housed on the top floor of one of the many buildings of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester (MSIM) and it will go on tour in early June. It is a mix of cases and panels with mechanical and electronic interactives, plus reconstructions and videos. There are no traditional objects but it's an exhibition that offers a history, and presents a position, to the obvious delight of children and adults.
The real pleasure is in wandering serendipitously through the space and finding out about some wonderful things such as Al Jazeri's water-powered clock or the origins and use of the alembic (a distilling device, a version of which is still in action today). We find out how the prophet Muhammad cleaned his teeth before prayer and about the origins of the camera.
The visitor discovers a very long list of things: coffee, chess, cheese, glass, public baths, code breaking and cryptography, maps, the pointed arch, water management, the reciprocating pump, human flight, dam building and so on.
But as I circulated, a nagging voice began to rise at the back of my mind. I discovered vaccination for smallpox is a Turkish invention. Vaccination, cowpox and smallpox? I thought that was Edward Jenner in 1796. And that the dome of St Paul's is heavily influenced by Muslim architecture.
But surely Wren (who certainly speaks about 'Saracen style' when looking at the origins of the Gothic) was more influenced by Vitruvius and the Pantheon? And cheese? I find this was 'discovered' by an Arabian man on a desert trip.
In its title, the word 'invention' suggests that all of the things in the exhibition were invented in the Muslim world, which is plainly not the case. Given the aim of the exhibition is to show how much was happening in the Muslim world in a period of European quiescence, there is an unhappy link between invention, innovation, adaptive re-use and continuation of existing practices. Although the accompanying book makes this clearer, the distinctions are not sharply drawn in the show.
Is it really credible to say 'We can thank a 9th-century man with the nickname "the blackbird" for introducing the concept of the three-course meal to Europe'? And what of the Muslim aviator Abbas ibn Firnas? Abbas ibn Firnas, a Cordoban, 'flew a number of times over desert regions…' and his first flight involved the use of a 'loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts…' The fact that he did not die means he made 'one of the first parachute jumps'.
The desire to paint a picture of vibrant intellectual and practical activity in Islam is undercut somewhat by some of these claims, which is a pity because in areas such as mathematics and astronomy really significant advances were made. But because the exhibition is looking mostly forwards from its chosen period, it rarely acknowledges the antecedents to Muslim culture.
Does this matter? If you want to create an exhibition that celebrates science and technology in Islam, 1001 Inventions does the job well enough. But when you put that exhibition in a science and technology museum then surely there's an intellectual duty to provide context and offer explanations of causation?
The section on soap and washing omits any mention of its ancient origins, and suggests that soap was introduced to Europe by the Crusaders, though Pliny mentions its production. Shouldn't we know that the earliest cataract surgery is recorded in Sanskrit manuscripts from the 5th century BC and that its Muslim practioners were carrying on an ancient practice? Or that the Egyptians used a water clock? Or the Romans the waterwheel?
Should a museum offer a representation and a celebration, like 1001 Inventions, or should it offer something more - depth, context and scholarship? The exhibition is certainly engaging and it does present a picture of science in the Muslim world.
But the wider view, that Islamic science is actually part of the continuum between the ancient world, the Renaissance and the modern world is actually more powerful. And the overt political intent of the exhibition surely deserves it too.
Explaining the broad reach of human activity and its trans-national and trans-cultural process is surely the most effective riposte to the narrowness of 'religious isolationism and extremism'.
Stephen Feber is a consultant
Project data
Sponsors: Home Office, Foreign Office, Department for Trade and Industry, Bin Hamouda Group (Abu Dhabi), International Holdings Group (Dubai)
Exhibition design: Haley Sharpe Design
Exhibition ends at MSIM: 4 June
This is a delightful and thought-provoking exhibition, but it's also a troubling one. Its purpose is to raise awareness of a 'golden age' of Muslim science, technology and culture between 600 and 1600 CE (Common Era).
Its method is to link the present to this past in order to generate a greater understanding of Muslim contributions to contemporary science and technology worldwide, and thereby to inspire young people from Muslim and other backgrounds to find career role models in science and engineering.
It seeks to do this by bridging science, industry and art, promoting the idea that 'scientific and technical endeavour is a constructive alternative to religious isolationism and extremism'.
Along with all this is a strong corrective subtext, showing that the period between the collapse of the Roman empire and the Renaissance, which we may have thought of as a dark age for
science and technology, in fact had a strong light of invention shining in the east.
The exhibition is housed on the top floor of one of the many buildings of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester (MSIM) and it will go on tour in early June. It is a mix of cases and panels with mechanical and electronic interactives, plus reconstructions and videos. There are no traditional objects but it's an exhibition that offers a history, and presents a position, to the obvious delight of children and adults.
The real pleasure is in wandering serendipitously through the space and finding out about some wonderful things such as Al Jazeri's water-powered clock or the origins and use of the alembic (a distilling device, a version of which is still in action today). We find out how the prophet Muhammad cleaned his teeth before prayer and about the origins of the camera.
The visitor discovers a very long list of things: coffee, chess, cheese, glass, public baths, code breaking and cryptography, maps, the pointed arch, water management, the reciprocating pump, human flight, dam building and so on.
But as I circulated, a nagging voice began to rise at the back of my mind. I discovered vaccination for smallpox is a Turkish invention. Vaccination, cowpox and smallpox? I thought that was Edward Jenner in 1796. And that the dome of St Paul's is heavily influenced by Muslim architecture.
But surely Wren (who certainly speaks about 'Saracen style' when looking at the origins of the Gothic) was more influenced by Vitruvius and the Pantheon? And cheese? I find this was 'discovered' by an Arabian man on a desert trip.
In its title, the word 'invention' suggests that all of the things in the exhibition were invented in the Muslim world, which is plainly not the case. Given the aim of the exhibition is to show how much was happening in the Muslim world in a period of European quiescence, there is an unhappy link between invention, innovation, adaptive re-use and continuation of existing practices. Although the accompanying book makes this clearer, the distinctions are not sharply drawn in the show.
Is it really credible to say 'We can thank a 9th-century man with the nickname "the blackbird" for introducing the concept of the three-course meal to Europe'? And what of the Muslim aviator Abbas ibn Firnas? Abbas ibn Firnas, a Cordoban, 'flew a number of times over desert regions…' and his first flight involved the use of a 'loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts…' The fact that he did not die means he made 'one of the first parachute jumps'.
The desire to paint a picture of vibrant intellectual and practical activity in Islam is undercut somewhat by some of these claims, which is a pity because in areas such as mathematics and astronomy really significant advances were made. But because the exhibition is looking mostly forwards from its chosen period, it rarely acknowledges the antecedents to Muslim culture.
Does this matter? If you want to create an exhibition that celebrates science and technology in Islam, 1001 Inventions does the job well enough. But when you put that exhibition in a science and technology museum then surely there's an intellectual duty to provide context and offer explanations of causation?
The section on soap and washing omits any mention of its ancient origins, and suggests that soap was introduced to Europe by the Crusaders, though Pliny mentions its production. Shouldn't we know that the earliest cataract surgery is recorded in Sanskrit manuscripts from the 5th century BC and that its Muslim practioners were carrying on an ancient practice? Or that the Egyptians used a water clock? Or the Romans the waterwheel?
Should a museum offer a representation and a celebration, like 1001 Inventions, or should it offer something more - depth, context and scholarship? The exhibition is certainly engaging and it does present a picture of science in the Muslim world.
But the wider view, that Islamic science is actually part of the continuum between the ancient world, the Renaissance and the modern world is actually more powerful. And the overt political intent of the exhibition surely deserves it too.
Explaining the broad reach of human activity and its trans-national and trans-cultural process is surely the most effective riposte to the narrowness of 'religious isolationism and extremism'.
Stephen Feber is a consultant
Project data
Sponsors: Home Office, Foreign Office, Department for Trade and Industry, Bin Hamouda Group (Abu Dhabi), International Holdings Group (Dubai)
Exhibition design: Haley Sharpe Design
Exhibition ends at MSIM: 4 June
