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Rescue on The Sea | Short Story Rescue on The Sea by Zeenat Iqbal Hussain

RESCUE ON THE SEA
By Zeenat Iqbal Hussain
​
Very little has been written about the ancient coastal people of Lyari – the irrepressible Makranis – who take their name from the Makran coast of Sindh and, Balochistan, which also indicates a common history of the two provinces; the Makran coast constitutes the South-East of Iran and the South-West of Pakistan; a 1,000 km stretch along the Gulf of Oman from RA’s (cape) Al-Kuh, Iran (West of Jask), to the Lasbela District of Pakistan (near Karachi). The Makran coast is on the Arabian Sea, to the North-West of Quetta in Balochistan.

The following is a story of one such coastal village:
Children on bare - back camels, watch the sea, its vastness spanning even beyond the grasp of their eyes. Fishermen on the beach watch the sky, like the city dwellers read their newspapers first thing in the morning. Through the knots of their nets hanging on the line, they seem to predict the weather. This exercise determines whether they should take a boat out or not on the deep sea, for their daily expedition to catch fish. The air is filled with the smell of rancid water that is due to the deposits of oil, resulting in decayed and dead sea-life. Music, which is a part of their lives, plays in the background. The sounds are a fusion of musical cultures from the Middle East, Indo-Pakistan and Africa.

​The shells on the beach look like the abandoned toenails of the old fishermen, and they are more beautiful there, than on the foot. The broken wings, the sand-logged crabs, a woman’s lonely shoe, a rusty toy damaged beyond recognition, the plank or sail from a doomed boat, all lay sprawled on the beach, each with a story behind it, cleansed and sterilized by the salt and iodine in the great hospital of the sea. In the night, the light from the tower was but a spot against the background of the sky and spectacular cliffs.

​The weather beaten villager’s munched dates from the interior while watching holidaymakers trying to teach their children to swim, like fish to water, amidst the shouts and screams of the children who are already submerged in the waters. The steps of the ladies faltered as they approached the sea, clad in shalwar kameezes filled with the wind, the Shalwar Kameez itself a deterrent for swimming.
​The story told here is that of a villager who because of his sharp sense of hearing helped in the rescue of a drowning man. The villager was alone and as he had no family to fend for, hence he had no responsibilities to drain his energy. Somehow he had also preserved his youth, which he owed to mother nature. Religion that usually comes into the house with the presence of a woman was lacking in his and he was quite oblivious of it.

​One evening when it was well after ten and the moon was full with black clouds scudding in ordered masses across the sky, he was still sitting on his wall, all alone. A cool wind suddenly sighed from an unexpected quarter and in its wake was a noise like that from a distant cavalry charge. His razor sharp ears picked up the sound. His brow creased up as his eyes searched the distance. He hobbled to his neighbours house and banged on the door of his traditional mud-hut – the two men, though natural life-guards, knew thoroughly all that was written in the books about rescue on the seas. The coastal blacks were descendants of imported slaves – the fishermen being known as the Meds and the seamen as the Koras – when there was no response; he banged on the door again. A groggy fellow soon appeared. He pointed towards the horizon and mumbled something in the Makranic dialect. The man’s eyes tried to see beyond the direction of the location being pointed at. A boat in trouble, he thought aloud. Without wasting any time they woke the other men.

​A rule of the sea states, that half the purchase price of the vessel of the sea is given to the rescue party. This prize money was quite a temptation, but since it was always dangerous the case required to be argued, all hands knew that the proposed journey was perilous.
​The village women all having gathered on the beach, saw their men disappear, reappear, disappear, reappear and finally disappear into the darkness. They were now a tiny speck in the vast vista of the sea – the ocean that is open to all and merciful to none, that which threatens even when it seems to yield, pitiless always to weakness.

​Many of the Makrani women now worked as domestic servants in Karachi; they were also experts in the art of massaging any mother and child after birth. Their traditional long dresses with hand-woven
Embroidery gave them a distinct ‘folk’ touch, separating them from the typical Karachiites. The skirt-like look, with its wide circumference, and the loose shalwar could be compared to the costumes of the pathan and Kabuli women.

​The men in the rescue boat changed sides, so as not to tip the balance of the boat as the surf sprayed them from head to toe. The taste of salt lingered in their mouths during the voyage. They were not bothered by their appearance. On the contrary, they felt no different from when they started out dry.

​Suddenly, a dark object was thrown at them on the crest of a wave. It was a man. They held on to the poor fellow and eventually succeeded in dragging him aboard. Nobody felt sorry that this time, there was no prize. They rowed back to their village.

​Couples fought with each other to offer hospitality to this half dead man; and they almost came to blows in their struggle for this visa to heaven.
​They fetched a doctor from a nearby village, while the women sat all around him wearing their beads. The doctor was a Karachiite who had been sent to the village to serve them. The doctor prompted the man to speak. The man said, “Mahganj” very faintly. Repeated attempts, received the same response. The diagnosis stated that he was a victim of a traumatic shock and was suffering from amnesia, which meant a loss of memory, if only temporarily.

​The Priest, who was also a member of the village council, was also summoned, as was the case in other similar incidents. “What’s going on here?” he asked one of the ladies. “A miracle” said all the ladies together. The Makrani women are predominantly Muslim.

​The Priest was briefed about the rescue and what followed. Being
an elderly fellow, he recalled that a girl by the name of ‘Mahganj’ had been registered in the mosque some eighteen years ago.

​Now, it was easy to put two and two together. The man they found was associated with Mahganj and was discovered as belonging to the same village as her’s. He was also supposed to marry her.

​Mahganj was the granddaughter of the village tailor. Thus it was decided that the man be taken back to the same village that he originated from. Similar surroundings would help to revive his memory, it was hoped.

​A therapist was hired from the city and surely, slowly though, his memory came back in bits and pieces. Mahganj’s presence always evoked a response in the man, so strong was the bond of love. His memory did eventually return, which in turn led to their marriage. They led a happy maried life.

تفہیم القرآن

سورۃ نمبر 10 يونس
آیت نمبر 21

تفسیر:
سورة یُوْنُس 29
یہ پھر اسی قحط کی طرف اشارہ ہے جس کا ذکر آیات ١١ – ١٢ میں گزر چکا ہے۔ مطلب یہ ہے کہ تم نشانی آخر کس منہ سے مانگتے ہو۔ ابھی جو قحط تم پر گزرا ہے اس میں تم اپنے ان معبودوں سے مایوس ہوگئے تھے جنہیں تم نے اللہ کے ہاں اپنا سفارشی ٹھیرا رکھا تھا اور جن کے متعلق کہا کرتے تھے کہ فلاں آستانے کی نیاز تو تیر بہدف ہے۔ اور فلاں درگاہ پر چڑھاوا چڑھانے کی دیر ہے کہ مراد بر آتی ہے۔ تم نے دیکھ لیا کہ ان نام نہاد خداؤں کے ہاتھ میں کچھ نہیں ہے اور سارے اختیارات کا مالک صرف اللہ ہے۔ اسی وجہ سے تو آخرکار تم اللہ ہی سے دعائیں مانگنے لگے تھے۔ کیا یہ کافی نشانی نہ تھی کہ تمہیں اس تعلیم کے برحق ہونے کا یقین آجاتا جو محمد ﷺ تم کو دے رہے ہیں ؟ مگر اس نشانی کو دیکھ کر تم نے کیا کیا ؟ جونہی کہ قحط دور ہوا اور باران رحمت نے تمہاری مصیبت کا خاتمہ کردیا، تم نے اس بلا کے آنے اور پھر اس کے دور ہونے کے متعلق ہزار قسم کی توجیہیں اور تاویلیں (چالبازیاں) کرنی شروع کردیں تاکہ توحید کے ماننے سے بچ سکو اور اپنے شرک پر جمے رہ سکو۔ اب جن لوگوں نے اپنے ضمیر کو اس درجہ خراب کرلیا ہو انہیں آخر کونسی نشانی دکھائی جائے اور اس کے دکھانے سے حاصل کیا ہے ؟
سورة یُوْنُس 30
اللہ کی چال سے مراد یہ ہے کہ اگر تم حقیقت کو نہیں مانتے اور اس کے مطابق اپنا رویہ درست نہیں کرتے تو وہ تمہیں اسی باغیانہ روش پر چلتے رہنے کی چھوٹ دے دے گا، تم کو جیتے جی اپنے رزق اور اپنی نعمتوں سے نوازتا رہے گا جس سے تمہارا نشہ زندگانی یونہی تمہیں مست کیے رکھے گا، اور اس مستی کے دوران جو کچھ تم کرو گے وہ سب اللہ کے فرشتے خاموشی کے ساتھ بیٹھے لکھتے رہیں گے، حتی کہ اچانک موت کا پیغام آجائے گا اور تم اپنے کرتوتوں کا حساب دینے کے لیے دھر لیے جاؤ گے۔

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ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE AND ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO MEDIEVAL EUROPE AND RENAISSANCE:

Hasnain Asad, BS International Relations, BUITEMS

During the High Middle Ages, the Islamic World was an important contributor to the global cultural scene,innovation and supplying information and ideas to Europe, via Al Andalus,Sicily and the Crusader Kingdoms in the Levant. These included Latin translations of the Greek Classics and of Arabic texts in astronomy, mathematics, science, and medicine. Translation of Arabic philosophical texts into Latin "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world", with a particularly strong influence of Muslim philosophers being felt in natural philosophy, psychology and metaphysics. Other contributions included technological and scientific innovations via the Silk Road, including Chinese inventions such as paper, compass and gunpowder.
The Islamic world also influenced other aspects of medieval European culture, partly by original innovations made during the Islamic Golden Age, including various fields such as the arts, agriculture, alchemy, music, pottery, etc.
Many Arabic loanwords in Western European languages, including English, mostly via Old French, date from this period. This includes traditional star names such as Aldeberan, scientific terms like alchemy, algebra, algoritham, etc. and names of commodities such as sugar, camphor, cotton, coffee, etc,
POINTS OF CONTACT:
Europe and the Islamic lands had multiple points of contact during the Middle Ages. The main points of transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe lay in Sicily and in Spain, particularly in Toledo (with Gerard of Cremone,
1114–1187, following the conquest of the city by Spanish Christians in 1085). In Sicily, following the Islamic conquest of the island in 965 and its reconquest by the Normans in 1091, a syncretistic Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture developed, exemplified by rulers such as King Roger , who had Islamic soldiers, poets and scientists at his court. The Moroccan Mohammed al-Idrisi wrote The Book of Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands or Tabula

Rogeriana, one of the greatest geographical treatises of the Middle Ages, for Roger.
The Crusaders also intensified exchanges between Europe and the Levant, with the Italian maritime republics taking a major role in these exchanges. In the Levant, in such cities as Antioch, Arab and Latin cultures intermixed intensively.
During the 11th and 12th centuries, many Christian scholars traveled to Muslim lands to learn sciences. Notable examples include Leonardo Fibonacci (c. 1170 –c. 1250), Adelard of Bath (c. 1080–c. 1152) and Constantine the African
(1017–1087). From the 11th to the 14th centuries, numerous European students attended Muslim centers of higher learning (which the author calls "universities") to study medicine, philosophy, mathematics, cosmography and other subjects.
PHILOSOPHIES:
In the Middle East, many classical Greek texts, especially the works of Aristotle, were translated into Syriac during the 6th and 7th centuries by Nestorian, Melikte or Jacobite monks living in Palestine, or by Greek exiles from Athens or Edessa who visited Islamic centres of higher learning. The Islamic world then kept, translated, and developed many of these texts, especially in centers of learning such as Baghdad, where a "House of Wisdom " with thousands of manuscripts existed as early as 832. These texts were in turn translated into Latin by scholars such as Michael Scott (who made translations of Historia Animalium and On the Soul as well as of Averroes's commentaries) during the Middle Ages. Eastern Christians played an important role in exploiting this knowledge, especially through the Christian Aristotelian School of Baghdad in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Later Latin translations of these texts originated in multiple places. Toledo, Spain (with Gerard of Cremona's Almagest) and Sicily became the main points of transmission of knowledge from the Islamic world to Europe.Burgundino of Pisa (died 1193) discovered lost texts of Aristotle in Antioch and translated them into Latin.
From Islamic Spain, the Arabic philosophical literature was translated into Hebrew, Latin, and Ladino. The Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, Muslim sociologist-historian Ibn Khaldun, Carthaginian citizen Constantine

the African who translated Greek medical texts, and Al-Khwarizmi's collation of mathematical techniques were important figures of the Golden Age.
Avicennism and Averroism are terms for the revival of the Periphetic school in medieval Europe due to the influence of Avicenna and Averroes, respectively. Avicenna was an important commentator on the works of Aristotle, modifying it with his own original thinking in some areas, notably logic. The main significance of Latin Avicennism lies in the interpretation of Avicennian doctrines such as the nature of the soul and his existence-essence distinction, along with the debates and censures that they raised in scholastic Europe.
This was particularly the case in Paris, where so-called Arabic culture was proscribed in 1210, though the influence of his psychology and theory of knowledge upon Wiliam of Auvergne and Albertus Magnus have been noted.
The effects of Avicennism were later submerged by the much more influential Averoissam, the Aristotelianism of Averroes, one of the most influential Muslim philosophers in the West.Averroes disagreed with Avicenna's interpretations of Aristotle in areas such as the unity of the intellect, and it was his interpretation of Aristotle which had the most influence in medieval Europe. Dante Alighieri argues along Averroist lines for a secularist theory of the state in De Monarchia.Averroes also developed the concept of "existence proceeds Georege Meksiddes (1989) has suggested that two particular aspects of Renaissance humanism have their roots in the medieval Islamic world, the "art of dictation, called in Latin, ars dictaminis," and "the humanist attitude toward classical language". He notes that dictation was a necessary part of Arabic scholarship (where the vowel sounds need to be added correctly based on the spoken word), and argues that the medieval Italian use of the term "ars dictaminis" makes best sense in this context. He also believes that the medieval humanist favouring of classical Latin over medieval Latin makes most sense in the context of a reaction to Arabic scholarship, with its study of the classical Arabic of the Koran in preference to medieval Arabic.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
During the Islamic Golden Age, certain advances were made in scientific fields, notably in mathematics and astronomy (algebra, spherical trigonometry), and in chemistry, etc. which were later also transmitted to the West.

Stefan of Pise translated into Latin around 1127 an Arab manual of medical theory. The method of algorithm for performing arithmetic with the
Hindu-Arabic numerical system was developed by the Persian-al-Khuarzmi in the 9th century, and introduced in Europe by Leonardo Fibonacci (1170–1250). A translation by Robert of Chester of the Algebra by al-Kharizmi is known as early as 1145. Ibn-al-Hythem (Alhazen, 980–1037) compiled treatises on optical sciences, which were used as references by Newton and Descartes. Medical sciences were also highly developed in Islam as testified by the Crusaders, who relied on Arab doctors on numerous occasions. Joinville reports he was saved in 1250 by a "Saracen" doctor.
Contributing to the growth of European science was the major search by European scholars such as Gerard of Cremona for new learning. These scholars were interested in ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts (notably the Alamagest) which were not obtainable in Latin in Western Europe, but which had survived and been translated into Arabic in the Muslim world. Gerard was said to have made his way to Toledo in Spain and learnt Arabic specifically because of his "love of the Almagest". While there he took advantage of the "abundance of books in Arabic on every subject". Islamic Spain and Sicily were particularly productive areas because of the proximity of multi-lingual scholars. These scholars translated many scientific and philosophical texts from Arabic into Latin. Gerard personally translated 87 books from Arabic into Latin, including the Almagest, and also Mohammed al Musa Al khuarzmi's On Algebra and Almucabala, Jabir Ibn Alfah's Elementa astronomica,al-Kindi's On Optics, Ahmed Ibn Mohammed’s On Elements of Astronomy on the Celestial Motions, al-Farabi’s On the Classification of the Sciences, the chemical and medical works of Rhaze’s the works of Thabit Ibn Qurra and Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, and the works of Arzachel, Jabir ibn Aflah, the Banu Musa, Abu Kamil, Abu Al Qasim (Abulcasis), and Ibn al-Haytham (including the Book of Optics).
Western alchemy was directly dependent upon Arabic sources. Latin translations of Arabic alchemical works such as those attributed to Khalid Ibn Yazid (Latin: Calid), Jabbir Ibn Ayyan (Latin: Geber), Abubaker Al Razi (Latin: Rhazes) and Ibn Umayal (Latin: Senior Zadith) were standard texts for European alchemists. Some important texts translated from the Arabic include the Book on the Composition of Alchemy attributed to Khalid ibn

Yazid and translated by Robert of Chester in 1144,the Book of Seventy attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan and translated by Gerard of Cremona (before 1187), Abu Bakr al-Razi's Liber secretorum Bubacaris,and Ibn Umayl's Tabula chemica.
Many texts were also translated from anonymous Arabic sources and then falsely attributed to various authors, as for example the On Alums and Salt, an 11th- or 12th-century text attributed in some manuscripts to Hermes Trismegistus or Abu Bakr al-Razi. Other texts were directly written in Latin but still attributed to Arabic authors, such as the influential Summa perfectionis ("The Sum of Perfection") and other 13th-/14th-century works by
pseudo-Geber.Although these were original and often innovative texts, their anonymous authors probably knew Arabic and were still intimately familiar with Arabic sources.
Several technical Arabic words from Arabic alchemical works, such as alkali, found their way into European languages and became part of scientific vocabulary.
The translation of Al-Khuarzmi's work greatly influenced mathematics in Europe. As Professor Victor J. Katz writes: "Most early algebra works in Europe in fact recognized that the first algebra works in that continent were translations of the work of al-Khwärizmï and other Islamic authors. There was also some awareness that much of plane and spherical trigonometry could be attributed to Islamic authors".The words algoritham, deriving from
Al-Khwarizmi's Latinized name Algorismi, and algebra, deriving from the title of his AD 820 book Hisab al-jabr w’al-muqabala, Kitab al-Jabr
wa-l-Muqabala are themselves Arabic loanwords. This and other Arabic astronomical and mathematical works, such as those by al-Battani and

Muhammed al Fazari's Great Sindhind (based on the Surriya Siddhanta and the works of Brhamagupta).were translated into Latin during the 12th century
Al-Khizini's Zig as-Sanjari (1115–1116) was translated into Greek by Gregory Chionides in the 13th century and was studied in the Byzantine empire. The astronomical modifications to the Ptolemaic model made by al-Battani and Averroes led to non-Ptolemaic models produced by Urdi lemma, Tusi-couple and Ibn Al Shattir, which were later adapted into the Copernican heliocentric model. Abu Al Rayyan’s Ta'rikh al-Hind and Kitab al-qanun al-Mas’udi were translated into Latin as Indica and Canon Mas’udicus respectively.
Fibonacci presented the first complete European account of Arabic numerals and the Hindu-Arabic numeral systems in his Liber Abacci (1202).
Al-Jayyani's The book of unknown arcs of a sphere (a treatise on spherical trigonometry) had a "strong influence on European mathematics".Regiomantus' On Triangles (c. 1463) certainly took his material on spherical trigonometry (without acknowledgment) from Arab sources.
Much of the material was taken from the 12th-century work of Jabir ibn Aflah, as noted in the 16th century by Gerolamo Cardano.
A short verse used by Fulbert of Charters (952-970 –1028) to help remember some of the brightest stars in the sky gives us the earliest known use of Arabic loanwords in a Latin text: "Aldabaren stands out in Ta**us, Menke and Rigel in Gemini, and Frons and bright Calbalazet in Leo. Scorpio, you have Galbalagarab; and you, Capricorn, Deneb. You, Batanalahut, are alone enough for Pisces."One of the most important medical works to be translated was Aviceena's The Cannon of Medicine (1025), which was translated into Latin and then disseminated in manuscript and printed form throughout Europe. It remained a standard medical textbook in Europe until the early modern

period, and during the 15th and 16th centuries alone, The Canon of Medicine was published more than thirty-five times.Avicenna noted the contagious nature of some infectious diseases (which he attributed to "traces" left in the air by a sick person), and discussed how to effectively test new medicines.He also wrote The book of Healing, a more general encyclopedia of science and philosophy, which became another popular textbook in Europe. Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi wrote the Comprehensive Book of Medicine, with its careful description of and distinction between measles and smallpox, which was also influential in Europe. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi wrote Kitab Al Tasrif, an encyclopedia of medicine which was particularly famed for its section on surgery. It included descriptions and diagrams of over 200 surgical instruments, many of which he developed. The surgery section was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century, and used in European medical schools for centuries, still being reprinted in the 1770s.
Other medical Arabic works translated into Latin during the medieval period include the works of Razi and Avicenna (including The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine),and Ali-ibn-Abbas-al-Masuji’s medical encyclopedia, The Complete Book of the Medical Art. Mark of Toledo in the early 13th century translated the Quran as well as various medical works.
Agriculture and Textiles
Various fruits and vegetables were introduced to Europe in this period via the Middle East and North Africa, some from as far as China and India, including the artichoke, spinach, and aubergine.
Arts

Islamic decorative arts were highly valued imports to Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Largely because of accidents of survival, most surviving examples are those that were in the possession of the church. In the early period textiles were especially important, used for church vestments, shrouds, hangings and clothing for the elite. Islamic poultry of everyday quality was still preferred to European wares. Because decoration was mostly ornamental, or small hunting scenes and the like, and inscriptions were not understood, Islamic objects did not offend Christian sensibilities. Medieval art in Sicily is interesting stylistically because of the mixture of Norman, Arab and Byzantine influences in areas such as mosaics and metal inlays, sculpture, and
bronze-working.

Writing
The Arabic Kufic script was often imitated for decorative effect in the West during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to produce what is known as pseudo-Kufic: "Imitations of Arabic in European art are often described as pseudo-Kufic, borrowing the term for an Arabic script that emphasizes straight and angular strokes, and is most commonly used in Islamic architectural decoration". Numerous cases of pseudo-Kufic are known from European art from around the 10th to the 15th century; usually the characters are meaningless, though sometimes a text has been copied. Pseudo-Kufic would be used as writing or as decorative elements in textiles, religious halos or frames. Many are visible in the paintings of Giotto. The exact reason for the incorporation of pseudo-Kufic in early Renaissance painting is unclear. It seems that Westerners mistakenly associated 13th- and 14th-century
Middle-Eastern scripts as being identical with the scripts current during Jesus's time, and thus found natural to represent early Christians in association with them:"In Renaissance art, pseudo-Kufic script was used to

decorate the costumes of Old Testament heroes like David".Another reason might be that artist wished to express a cultural universality for the Christian faith, by blending together various written languages, at a time when the church had strong international ambitions.
Carpets
Carpets of Middle-Eastern origin, either from the Ottoman Empire, the Levant or the Mamluk state of Egypt or Northern Africa, were a significant sign of wealth and luxury in Europe, as demonstrated by their frequent occurrence as important decorative features in paintings from the 13th century and continuing into the Baroque period. Such carpets, together with
Pseudo-Kufic script offer an interesting example of the integration of Eastern elements into European painting, most particularly those depicting religious subjects.
Music
A number of musical instruments used in European music were influenced by Arabic musical instruments instruments, including the rebec (an ancestor of the violin) from the rebab and the naker from naqareh.The oud is cited as one of several precursors to the modern guitar.Some scholars believe that the troubadours may have had Arabian origins, with Magda Bogin stating that the Arab poetic and musical tradition was one of several influences on European "courtly love poetry".Evariste Levi-Provencal and other scholars stated that three lines of a poem by William of Aquitaine were in some form of Arabic, indicating a potential Andalusian origin for his works. The scholars attempted to translate the lines in question and produced various different translations; the medievalist Istvan Frank contended that the lines were not

Arabic at all, but instead the result of the rewriting of the original by a later scribe.
The theory that the troubadour tradition was created by William after his experiences with Moorish arts while fighting with the Reconquista in Spain has been championed by Ramon Manandez Pidal and Idries Shah, though George T. Beech states that there is only one documented battle that William fought in Spain, and it occurred towards the end of his life. However, Beech adds that William and his father did have Spanish individuals within their extended family, and that while there is no evidence he himself knew Arabic, he may have been friendly with some European Christians who could speak the language.Others state that the notion that William created the concept of troubadours is itself incorrect, and that his "songs represent not the beginnings of a tradition but summits of achievement in that tradition."
Technology
A number of technologies in the Islamic world were adopted in European medieval technology. These included various crops; various astronomical instruments, including the Greek astrolabe which Arab astronomers developed and refined into such instruments as the Quadrans Vetus, a universal horary quadrant which could be used for any latitude,and the Saphaea, a universal astrolabe invented by Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Zaarqali;the astronomical sextant; various surgical instruments, including refinements on older forms and completely new inventions;and advanced gearing in waterclocks and automata.Distillation was known to the Greeks and Romans, but was rediscovered in medieval Europe through the Arabs.The word alcohol (to describe the liquid produced by distillation) comes from Arabic al-kuhl.
The word alembic (via the Greek Ambix) comes from Arabic al-anbiq. Islamic

examples of complex water clocks and automata are believed to have strongly influenced the European craftsmen who produced the first mechanical clocks in the 13th century.
The importation of both the ancient and new technology from the Middle East and the Orient to Renaissance Europe represented “one of the largest technology transfers in world history.”
In an influential 1974 paper, historian Andrew Watson suggested that there had been an Arab Agricultural Revoliution between 700 and 1100, which had diffused a large number of crops and technologies from Spain into medieval Europe, where farming was mostly restricted to wheat strains obtained much earlier via central Asia. Watson listed eighteen crops, including sorghum from Africa, citrus fruits from China, and numerous crops from India such as mangos, rice, cotton and sugar cane, which were distributed throughout Islamic lands that, according to Watson, had previously not grown them.
Watson argued that these introductions, along with an increased mechanization of agriculture, led to major changes in economy, population distribution, vegetation cover, agricultural production and income, population levels, urban growth, the distribution of the labour force, linked industries, cooking, diet and clothing in the Islamic world. Also transmitted via Muslim influence, a silk industry flourished, flax was cultivated and linen exported, and esparto grass, which grew wild in the more arid parts, was collected and turned into various articles. However Michael Decker has challenged significant parts of Watson's thesis, including whether all these crops were introduced to Europe during this period. Decker used literary and archaeological evidence to suggest that four of the listed crops (i.e. durum wheat, Asiatic rice, sorghum and cotton) were common centuries before the Islamic period, that the crops which were new were not as important as

Watson had suggested, and generally arguing that Islamic agricultural practices in areas such as irrigation were more of an evolution from those of the ancient world than the revolution suggested by Watson.
The production of sugar from Sugar cane,water clocks, pulp and paper, silk, and various advances in making perfume, were transferred from the Islamic world to medieval Europe. Fulling mills and advances in mill technology may have also been transmitted from the Islamic world to medieval Europe, along with the large-scale use of inventions like the suction pump, noria and chain pumps for irrigation purposes. According to Watson, "The Islamic contribution was less in the invention of new devices than in the application on a much wider scale of devices which in pre-Islamic times had been used only over limited areas and to a limited extent."These innovations made it possible for some industrial operations that were previously served by manual labour or draught animals to be driven by machinery in medieval Europe.
The spinning wheel was invented in the Islamic world by 1030. It later spread to China by 1090, and then spread from the Islamic world to Europe and India by the 13th century.The spinning wheel was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It was a precursor to the spinny jenny, which was widely used during the Industrial Revolution. The spinning jenny was essentially an adaptation of the spinning wheel.
Coinage
While the earliest coins were minted and widely circulated in Europe, and Ancient Rome, Islamic coinage had some influence on medieval European minting. The 8th-century English king Offa of Mercia minted a near-copy of Abbasid dinars struck in 774 by Caliph Al-Mansur with "Offa Rex" centered on

the reverse.The moneyer visibly had little understanding of Arabic, as the Arabic text contains a number of errors.
In Sicily, Malta and Southern Italy from about 913 tari gold coins of Islamic origin were minted in great number by the Normans, Hohentasfeus and the early Angevines rulers.When the Normans invaded Sicily in the 12th century, they issued tarì coins bearing legends in Arabic and Latin.The tarìs were so widespread that imitations were made in southern Italy (Amalfi and Salerno) which only used illegible "pseudo-Kufic" imitations of Arabic.
According to Janet Abu-Lughood:

The preferred currency for international transactions before the 13th century, in Europe as well as the Middle East and even India, were the gold coins struck by Byzantium and then Egypt. It was not until after the 13th century that some Italian cities (Florence and Genoa) began to mint their own gold coins, but these were used to supplement rather than supplant the Middle Eastern coins already in circulation.
Literature
It was first suggested by Miguel Asin Palacios in 1919 that Dante's Divine Comedy, considered the greatest epic of Italian literature, derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter directly or indirectly from Arabic works on Islamic eschatology, such as the Hadith and the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi. The Kitab al Miraj, concerning Mohammed's ascension to Heaven, was translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before 1221 as The Book of Muhammad's Ladder. Dante was certainly aware of Muslim philosophy, naming Avicenna and Averroes last in his list of non-Christian philosophers in Limbo, alongside the great Greek and Latin philosophers. How strong the

similarities are to Kitab al-Miraj remains a matter of scholarly debate however, with no clear evidence that Dante was in fact influenced.
CONCLUSION:
The Islamic Golden Age has influenced the European Renaissance in many ways throughout different time periods. At the peak of Dark Ages of Europe the Islamic civilization was flourishing in science and culture with big educational and research hubs like Baghdad and Damascus.