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Category
Disciplines in Natural Sciences
Physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and the sciences of the earth and brain.
Era
Countries (85)
10 figures
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
780 – 850Gave the world algebra and, through his own name, the algorithm.
Al-Razi (Rhazes)
854 – 925Distinguished smallpox from measles and pioneered clinical case records.
Ibn al-Haytham
965 – 1040Founded optics and the experimental method in the Book of Optics.
Al-Biruni
973 – 1048Measured Earth's radius to within 1% and wrote the first comparative anthropology of India.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
980 – 1037Wrote the medical textbook that trained Europe's doctors until 1650.
Su Song
1020 – 1101Built an astronomical clock tower with the first known escapement chain drive.
Shen Kuo
1031 – 1095Described the magnetic compass and deduced geological deep time.
Omar Khayyam
1048 – 1131Solved cubics geometrically, reformed the calendar, wrote the Rubaiyat.
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
1201 – 1274Tusi couple; his planetary models likely reached Copernicus.
Ulugh Beg
1394 – 1449Sultan-astronomer whose star catalogue stood unmatched for two centuries.