Adnan Rashid – Hidden Treasures of Dubai
AI: Summary ©
The library in Dubai is the largest in the world and located in a small part of the city. The library is part of a group of people in Dubai and is a collection of parchments and possibly other treasures. The importance of the Arabic language in European history and its contribution to the development of the intellectual sector is discussed, along with its importance in modern art. The discussion covers various works of art, including those created by famous Muslim scientists in Spain and the Middle East, as well as printing and original printing of the first Arabic edition ofaysid's elements. The discussion also touches on the origin of the title Acludic and its significance in writing.AI: Transcript ©
Assalamu alaikum, everyone. As you know, I love
books, and I like to promote books, in
particular,
books about the Muslim
civilization.
Today, I'm in a very, very special place.
I had to share this place with you
and its value. Okay. What you see behind
me, it states
treasures
of the library.
What library? What library are we talking about?
The library I'm talking about is in Dubai.
It is one of the best libraries I've
been to in my life for the reasons
you will see, inshallah, in due course. This
library is called Muhammad bin Rashid sheikh Muhammad
bin Rashid library
in Dubai. You must visit this library. People
come to Dubai for all sorts of reasons.
People come here for partying. People come here
for enjoying
a holiday. People come here for business meetings.
People come here for buying property and doing
all sorts of things.
I am trying to invite everyone who comes
to Dubai that you must come and see
these treasures,
and I cannot possibly share all the treasures
with you in one particular
video, but I can quickly explain what this
treasure
actually is. So if you follow me,
the the the person behind the camera is
also very important. He's going to remain anonymous,
but he will explain
as we go along what we are dealing
with here. Okay? This library
has modern books.
It has
an amazing collection of Islamic heritage. What you
see behind me there
are parchments,
Okay. Pages from old Qurans,
okay, dating back to the 2nd century Hijri,
from the time of the imams and Muaddhiteen,
people like Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam al Shafi,
Imam Bukhari.
These Quran pages are actually from their times.
Then we go around there, which we won't.
This time, you will have to come and
see yourself.
There are absolutely
amazing, fascinating,
mind blowing Quran manuscripts,
gold illuminated with excellent beautiful artwork. Okay? But
today, I want to share a very special
section of this particular,
collection of this particular treasure with you. And
what section is that come with me, Joe?
That section is this very part.
Now you may be thinking, why am I
bringing you to this
part and not other parts of the library?
Although every single inch of this library is
worth looking at. It has been beautifully put
together
by very noble people. I don't they don't
want me to mention their names. Okay. They
don't want fame, but the person behind the
camera is is has humbly,
may Allah bless him, has volunteered to come
forward and do this for us. Okay? And
he is part of the the team that
put this library
together. Alhamdulillah. May Allah reward every single person.
But this is a hidden treasure in Dubai.
I cannot emphasize enough how important
this particular collection is for you to come
and look at. Okay? This is why I
promote books. This is why I talk about
the Muslim civilization and its contribution to human
development
in general and the the intellectual development of
European mind in particular.
So we will now look at some of
the European
prints
that come from
Muslim
civilization.
Okay? So
our brother behind the camera, he's going to
very quickly explain what we are looking at
right now. Go ahead.
Okay. So here we have,
we we're trying to show the, importance of
Arabic, the Arabic language, and how the Europeans
studied the Arabic language. So we have,
early Arabic grammar texts. We have books in
Arabic grammar written by Europeans. This is printed
in 16/13. This is printed in 15/92.
And we have other books here from the
17th century, all dealing with Arabic grammar. Just
shows the importance of the Arabic language,
in Europe and how they how much they
studied it. Okay.
So very quickly to summarize, what you saw
there
are books on
the Arabic grammar.
Specifically, the Europeans are very interested in the
Arabic language. They studied the grammar
to be able to study
what will follow right now. So they studied
the Arabic language not because they liked the
Arabic language for no reason or they just
were they were doing it for fun. No.
They actually had a reason to study the
language. And the reason was to study the
sciences
Muslims had left behind and Europeans took these
sciences,
from the Muslims,
mostly coming from Al Andalus, Islamic Spain, and
Sicily, and Baghdad, and Damascus, places like that.
Muslim authors, Muslim Muslim intellectuals, Muslim scientists, Muslim
philosophers
had put together a lot of works in
the Arabic language and the Europeans
in the in the 14th
and 15th and 16th centuries.
They studied these works from the Arabic language,
translated them into Latin. Some translations have done
done earlier, of course, no doubt. But a
lot of this work was actually printed
printed
during the Renaissance period when the European Renaissance
was in full swing. And this is the
time when some of these works were actually
translated
into Latin language from from the Arabic language,
and we will see what we're dealing with
here right now.
Here we have, Jabir bin Hayyan. So this
is the first Latin translation of Jabir ibn
Hayyan's works on chemistry.
We have here an early edition of, Ibn
Sina's Kanor, his canon of medicine. Okay. Very
quickly, sir. We want to explain what this
is. Okay. Jahabir bin Hayyan
was,
one of the pioneers of chemistry or alchemy,
and the Europeans had
taken
knowledge of chemistry
from,
Jabir bin Hayyan, who was also known as,
known as Al Jabir. Okay? And Robert of
Ketan was,
a 12th century,
scholar who knew the Arabic language. He translated
Jabir's works
from the Arabic language into Latin, and he
actually states in his preface that I am
I'm doing these translations
because I actually feel sorry for my brother
in in Europe. Europe, they don't know this
knowledge. So I'm trying to translate this knowledge
for them so that they can study it
to better themselves. So we have Al Qanun
of,
which was a compendium of medical practices
or medical advice
and, other things to do with medicine.
This is a very important work, again, very
popular during the renaissance period and this was
published in 1562,
this particular Addition. Volume addition in Latin
coming forward, Sheikh.
Here we have, Ibn al Haytham's Kitab al
Manavar, which is his book on optics.
This is a very important book actually because
it was,
and it was lost. The Arabic text for
this was lost, and,
it was saved by this Latin translation.
Wow. Amazingly.
So what our beloved Sheikh has explained here
that this
work was lost
and it was only
saved by the Muslims
in the Arabic language and then a Latin
translation was made. No. The Arabic was lost
and saved by the Europeans in this Latin
translation. Okay. So the Arabic was lost, and
this translation was made. And this is how
we found the work on geometry
as this is Euclid. Optics. Optics. Optics. Sorry.
Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
Optics. Right? So Euclid, we're gonna see in
a minute. Yeah.
This is Al Zahrawi's famous book on surgery.
This is the first fully illustrated edition from
1532.
It shows the instruments in surgery, and,
a lot of his the instruments that he
invented were are still in use today.
So this is Abu Qasem Abdulharavi,
a Spanish,
medical practitioner who was a surgeon. He invented
or pioneered some of these,
surgical instruments. And you can see a European
print, a European print made in Europe, published
in Europe,
and this is the work of Muslim scientists
from Spain. And these instruments, some of them
are still in use. And
many of these instruments, you can see there,
were used for as late as the 19th
century. Up to the 19th century, these instruments
were still in use until they were updated,
and some of them are still actually being
used to this day. So this is Abu
Qasim Abdul Harawi. And this this particular
edition was published in 1532
in Strasbourg.
Strasbourg is basically Germany. Right? So it was
published in Germany. And what do we have
there, Shay?
Here we have,
Ibn Rushd's commentary on Aristotle.
Wow. Okay. So Ibn Rushd was,
a scholar from Spain again. Okay. He was
alive in the 12th century. Okay. And he
was the of Kartava. He was also a
philosopher. He had translated,
Aristotle's works and had written commentaries in Arabic
on the works of Aristotle.
And many of the the works that were
lost were found through the commentaries of Ibn
Rushd by the Europeans. As you can see,
this particular volume was printed in Europe
in Latin in 1495,
1495 to 1496
in Venice. So
what is the pointer? The point is that
the Europeans as late as the 15th century
and the 16th century, they are still benefiting
from the Muslim heritage produced in places like
Baghdad, Damascus, and later on in, Cordoba. Okay?
This legacy
actually influenced the European mind
as late as the renaissance period and even
later than that as we will see very
quickly in due course. What do we have
next year? We have al Majest.
Al Majest by Ptolemy.
So Ptolemy basically was,
you know, a cartographer.
Okay? He was a geographer as well. And
this is Al Majest,
very, very important book, which was published in
Venice in 14/96.
So this work was also produced in Arabic
and Al Majest is the Arabic name of
the book which was kept in this particular
case. Although
this particular volume was,
produced from a Greek,
the Greek Text. From the Greek text, from
the original Greek text, but the name, al
majest,
is Arabic. And that was kept right. What
do we have next? Here we have Jabir
ibn Affleck, who is also from Andalusia.
And this is him correcting the views of
Ptolemy in
Book was called.
So there was this propaganda
that Muslims were just plagiarizers. They just took
from the Greeks and the Romans, and they
just put those works forward in the Arabic
language and didn't make any,
corrections or any of the original,
contributions. But this is an evidence,
Okay? Looking at you in your face telling
you, no. That's not true. That story or
that propaganda is not true. Muslims actually took
knowledge from the Greeks
and their predecessors
and corrected corrected them on many things and
produced their own original works. And this is
one of those examples.
Jabir then Afla. Okay. It was Andalusian Spanish.
This particular volume was published in Nuremberg in
Germany
in 15/34,
Allahu Akbar. So Germans
are studying
Muslim
corrections
of Ptolemy
and, basically on some of his theories,
Muslim a Muslim's commentary on Ptolemy's,
theories and making corrections on him in 15/34.
Okay. What do we have here very quickly?
Here we have Abu Ma'Sharad Al Balahi, his
book on astrology and astronomy.
Wow. So this is published in 14/89.
You know, printing was
invented, as they say, in 14/55.
The first book
printed
was done in 1455
and that was the Gothenburg Bible. Okay. This
is 1489.
This is very early. You can say within
30 years of printing being,
you know,
invented,
We have Abu
Marshall Balkhi's book published,
you know, in Augsburg,
which is again Germany in 14/89.
And this is on astrology and astronomy.
Okay.
So why are we showing you this? We're
showing you this so that you understand that
Muslim
contribution.
Muslim
role in the development of the European mind,
in particular during the renaissance period, is very
much undermined
and downplayed.
And when you look at the actual magnitude
of the work Muslims contributed and how the
Europeans were translating these works into their own
languages and benefiting from them is absolutely mind
blowing. You know, it's it's so amazing. We
have another item here. Here we have the
first Arabic edition of Euclid's elements,
and this was printed in Rome in 1594.
So this is Euclid I mentioned earlier mistakenly
when we were talking
about,
his optics. This is Euclid. Euclid is called
Aclidus
in the Arabic language, and he produced works
on geometry in particular. And this is again
a print from 1594
room.
This particular Arabic text you're looking at right
now on geometry
was published,
in Arabic in the original language, in Rome,
in Italy, in 15/94,
when again, the Renaissance, the European Renaissance was
in full swing or it had reached its
peak already. So this
is not just something to brush away or
brush aside and say, no. No. No. This
is just, you know, a normal thing.
No. You can see the magnitude we're dealing
with. We're dealing with geometry. We're dealing with
surgery. We're dealing with optics. We're dealing with
chemistry. We're dealing with philosophy.
What more do you need? This is what
the Muslims produced. This is the Islamic civilization.
Okay. Apart from our theology, our morals, our
ethics,
okay,
and
our Qurans and Hadith and poetry and literature
otherwise,
Look at this stuff.
This has been ignored and neglected.
Euclid was a Euclid was a Greek text.
So, the original Greek was lost and it
was only saved by the Arabs Yeah. In
the Arabic.
So if it wasn't for the Arabic translations,
it would be a lost text. Absolutely. I
I didn't mean to say the Euclid was
an Arab. No. The work was saved by
the Arabs, the Muslims in the Arabic language,
and this is why the Europeans were able
to publish it in the Arabic language. Okay?
So Euclid clearly is a Greek name. Okay?
Aclides in Arabic language as it was called.
There you go. This is the first Arabic
edition of Ibn Sina's, again,
which is his kind of medicine. So the
first Arabic edition of Ibn Sina, again, theologically
problematic. No doubt. No doubt he was theologically
problematic. Many Muslim ulama didn't like him for
his theological views because he took Aristotle as
his authority, in some cases, over the Islamic
ideals. Right? But his work on medicine
was produced
and it was celebrated,
published,
studied,
and implemented throughout Europe for centuries.
Here we have 1593
published in Rome in Arabic.
And I asked our brother, our sheikh behind
the camera, that why were they publishing in
Arabic
in Europe? And he answered, and you can
tell us why. Maybe you can tell us
why. Well, there were scholars in in Europe
that were studying the original text in Arabic
because, you know, the the, it's the original
language. So,
the translation,
even though, I mean, the translation didn't probably
didn't do justice to the Arabic text. And
also because some of these texts were also
imported to the exported to the Muslim world
because printing was,
was still banned in the Muslim world.
And and and hence the study of the
the Arabic grammar. As we started in the
very beginning showing you those books on the
Arabic grammar, You may be thinking why are
the Europeans studying the Arabic grammar? They were
studying the Arabic grammar so that they can
decipher all this knowledge and actually understand it
and appreciate it. Right? Okay. What do we
have there?
Here we have Yohannat and Masaweed. These are
3 texts, by him translated from Arabic into
Latin
in 1544.
Okay. This is Paris 1544.
So we have we have Leiden. We have
Venice. We have Rome. We have Paris. We
have Strasbourg.
We have other German cities
where all of these so this is not
just one particular corner of,
European territory where these books are being produced.
This was throughout Europe.
Europeans are inspired by this knowledge. They were
actually take now
for some reason, there is a lot of
Islamophobia.
There's a lot hatred against Islam and Muslims
in the Muslim civilization
because of ignorance,
because people don't know this stuff. And this
is why we're making this video so that
you get to realize. This is why I
want you to come and visit this library
in Dubai. If you come to Dubai and
you many people do,
please don't miss this opportunity.
You will be blown away by other parts
of the library like the Quranic manuscripts and
poetry and literature and some of the European
varieties.
You will find
early editions of Shakespeare in this library. You
will find Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the
first edition
put in this particular library. And, I mean,
look, I don't cannot go through every single
text and work kept in this library,
in this treasure,
but you must visit and spend at least
5 to 6 hours looking at the collection.
You'll be blown away. Seriously?
Last item we have in this side of
the collection.
What is that ship? Here we have Azarqali's
tables of astronomy.
So these were he was again a Cordoban
astronomer, and this is his tables that were
translated again from Arabic
into,
Castilian and then later into Latin. This is
the first printed edition from 14/83.
Wow.
Venice
14/83,
Al Zapali,
an Andalusian
Muslim,
Astronomer.
Astronomer who produced these tables. Okay? So, again,
brothers and sisters,
this is vast,
vast treasure. This is vast legacy,
vast heritage that we have not yet fully
deciphered.
I'm talking to Muslims in particular
and to all humans in general. Guys, we
need to wake up and realize
how we have helped each other, how we
have become bridges for each other from time
to time, and we have moved forward together
as human beings. So this is why don't
undermine
and downplay anyone's legacy. Appreciate everyone
in human history, and that's how we will
bring about harmony and mutual respect for each
other. So brothers and sisters, my message is
do not miss this opportunity. Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid Library in Dubai, you must visit as
soon as you can. Thank you so much
for watching this video. There's more stuff coming.
Stay,
stay tuned as they say. Keep
watching.
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