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From: uunet!unrvax!unssun.nevada.edu!beekun@ncar.UCAR.EDU (R. I. Beekun)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Response to `ISLAM'S CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE'
Message-ID: <13225@wpi.wpi.edu>
Date: 4 Jun 90 11:31:10 GMT
References: <8516@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Sender: shari@wpi.wpi.edu
Reply-To: uunet!unrvax!tahoe.unr.EDU!unssun!beekun@ncar.UCAR.EDU (R. I. Beekun)
Organization: University of Nevada-Reno
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Approved: sadeghi@oxy.edu



In article <8516@accuvax.nwu.edu> partha@mse.ogi.edu (R. Parthasarathy) writes:
>
>>From: amin@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Aminuddin Ahmad)
>
>
>
>
>			ISLAMIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE
>
>
>	----------------------------------------------------------------
>>	This is a research paper written for the Department of
>
>>	(Hitti 373). About the year 600 A.H.-during the lifetime of
>>	Prophet Muhammad - an Indian Muslim mathematician developed the
>			      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>	symbol "cipher" or zero and the system of placed notation.
>
>	I think during the prophet Muhammed's time, islam hadn't
		       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>	spread to the indian sub-continent. Therefore, I am puzzled
>	about how an " Indian Muslim Mathematician " could have
>	developed the concept of zero.

You should read the sentence more carefully. It says "about the year
600 A.H.", which means that this did not take place during the
lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), but rather about 600
years after Hijrah.

Hijrah represents the date of the Prophet's flight from Mecca to Yathrib, and
counts as the beginning of the Muslim Era. Pickthall talks about Hijrah
as June 20th, 625 A.D. Consequently, 600 A.H. would make it about 1225 A.D.
If I remember right, Muslims had been spreading Islam in the Indian sub-
continent by that time.


Abu Syed Marwan
............................................................................
:... We decreed for the children of   : 				   :
:Israel that whosoever kills a human  : 				   :
:being for other than manslaughter or : 		/ |	   ""	 | :
:corruption in the earth, it shall be : 	      /   |	    |  | | :
:as though he had killed all mankind, : 	     |	  |    __|  |  | | :
:and whoso saves the life of one, it  :      ____|___|	  |   <__|__|__| | :
:shall be as though he had saved the  :     |  *			   :
:life of all mankind. (Qur'an 5: 32)  :  _ /				   :
:.....................................:....................................: