A00025 - Flashes of Genius

The following is a speech I made on February 18, 2012, at the Renaissance Weekend held in Santa Monica. The topic was "Flashes of Genius (Glimpses of Extra-ordinarily Novel Thinking). I repeat the speech here because I have always thought that it was one of my better presentations. 

Everett Jenkins

Fairfield, California

March 2, 2022

Good Morning,

On the way to the hotel this morning, I listened to Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up."  It is a stirring piece of musical genius and contains the line "You raise me up so I can stand on mountains."  

Yesterday, we heard from individuals who stand on mountains.  The presentations on "The Ultimate Theory of Time", "The Spaces of Nature", "Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe" are pretty heady stuff and are undoubtedly flashes of genius.  However, today, I would like to focus on those who helped to raise them, and us, up to stand on mountains.  Today, I want to talk about the Muslim contribution to what we are and ever hope to be.

For now, I would like to focus on one flash of genius in particular.  I would like to focus on the presentation made by Naif al-Mutawa, and his Islamic Inspired Superheroes.  At the outset, allow me to say that I am not a Muslim.  However, irrespective of my religious affiliation, for me, the introduction of multi-ethnic superheroes displaying the 99 aspects Muslims attribute to God, could go a long way towards dispelling some of the ignorance and fear that we continue to harbor towards Muslims today.  

The disturbing report that, based on the complaints of a relative few, the airing of the cartoon series has been delayed is a troubling development that should cause all of us to pause.  It should give us pause not only because it is a shameful act of intolerance, but also because it fails to recognize that in so many ways so much of what we have talked about this weekend owes a great debt to the scientific and cultural achievements of Golden Age of Islam that lasted from 750 to 1258.

On Thursday, we were all amused by the tale of the reaction of Paul Bronston's patients to his new gynecological examination chair.  But in discussing medicine, it is often said that medicine was absent until Hippocrates created it, dead until Galen revived it, dispersed until al-Razi, a Muslim, collected it, and deficient until Ibn Sina, another Muslim, completed it.  After all, it was Muslims who were the first to develop hospitals and they set the standard for medical care for over 500 years throughout the world.  

In the discussion on the "Spaces of Nature," it is important to remember that the numbers that we use today are based on Arabic numerals and that Muslims gave birth to algebra and algorithms and advanced the fields of geometry and trigonometry.  It is important to also not that it is a Muslim who is considered to be the founder of chemistry and that even Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" which shows the proportions of the human body is based on discoveries mad 400 years earlier in the Epistles of the Ikhwan al-Safa.

In our discussion on "Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe," it is important to note that Muslims were the first to study stars with massive instruments in observatories.  Indeed, Muslims gave names and assigned magnitudes to over 1000 stars including the star Betelgeuse which was mentioned in the presentation.

So you see, Muslims have played a significant role in the scientific achievements of today.  But there is more.  If you look about this room you can see the Muslim influence -- the Muslim flashes of genius that continue to enrich our lives today.  The carpet which we walk on with its geometric pattern is a reminder of the development of the carpet making expertise of Muslims so fantastically displayed in such movies as Disney's Aladdin.

Indeed, the movies that are projected on screens in the movie theaters serve as reminders of the development of the camera obscura by Muslims, along with advances in the field of optics.  

The water glasses on the table remind us of advances made by Muslims in the are of glass blowing.  The presence of the precious water itself owes much to the Muslims reverence for water and Muslims development of water management and water distribution systems.  

Indeed, on a very mundane level, the programs that guide us to destinations are printed on paper -- a material that was introduced to West because the Muslims captured some Chinese artisans in 751 and, two hundred years later, Muslims introduced the material into Muslim Spain.  

Muslims not only advanced cosmology, they also advanced cosmetology.  Noting that beauty is one of the attributes of God, Muslims developed soap and perfume.  The seasonal clothing we wear today is based on a fashion trend begun in Muslim Spain 1200 years ago.  

My friends, the list of Muslim inventions and innovations goes on and on.  But alas, my time has come to an end, I know this because my awareness of time is based on a device that owes its existence to the Muslim daily prayer ritual,  To standardize the prayer ritual, Muslims advanced the development of clocks and it is that advancement that let's me know that I have run out of time.