This timeline of science and engineering in the Muslim world covers the time period from the eighth century AD to the introduction of European science to the Muslim world in the nineteenth century. All year dates are given according to the Gregorian calendar except where noted.
Eighth Century
Astronomers and astrologers
d 777 CE Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulayman ibn Samura ibn Jundab al-Fazari (Arabic: إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمرة بن جندب الفزاري) (died 777 CE) was an 8th-century Muslim mathematician and astronomer at the Abbasid court of the Caliph Al-Mansur (r. 754–775). He should not be confused with his son Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī, also an astronomer. He composed various astronomical writings ("on the astrolabe", "on the armillary spheres", "on the calendar"). d 796 Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulayman ibn Samra ibn Jundab al-Fazari (Arabic: إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمرة بن جندب الفزاري) (died 796 or 806) was a Muslim philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. He is not to be confused with his father Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī, also an astronomer and mathematician. Some sources refer to him as an Arab, other sources state that he was a Persian. Al-Fazārī translated many scientific books into Arabic and Persian. He is credited to have built the first astrolabe in the Islamic world. Along with Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq and his father he helped translate the Indian astronomical text by Brahmagupta (fl. 7th century), the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, into Arabic as Az-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab., or the Sindhind. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which the Hindu numerals were transmitted from India to Islam.
Biologists, neuroscientists, and psychologists
(654–728) Ibn Sirin Muhammad Ibn Sirin (Arabic: محمد بن سيرين) (born in Basra) was a Muslim mystic and interpreter of dreams who lived in the 8th century. He was a contemporary of Anas ibn Malik. Once regarded as the same person as Achmet son of Seirim, this is no longer believed to be true, as shown by Maria Mavroudi.
Mathematics
780850: al-Khwarizmi Developed the "calculus of resolution and juxtaposition" (hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala), more briefly referred to as al-jabr, or algebra.
Ninth Century
Chemistry
801873: al-Kindi writes on the distillation of wine as that of rose water and gives 107 recipes for perfumes, in his book Kitab Kimia al-'otoor wa al-tas`eedat (book of the chemistry of perfumes and distillations.) 865925: al-Razi wrote on Naft (naphta or petroleum) and its distillates in his book "Kitab sirr al-asrar" (book of the secret of secrets.) When choosing a site to build Baghdad's hospital, he hung pieces of fresh meat in different parts of the city. The location where the meat took the longest to rot was the one he chose for building the hospital. Advocated that patients not be told their real condition so that fear or despair do not affect the healing process. Wrote on alkali, caustic soda, soap and glycerine. Gave descriptions of equipment processes and methods in his book Kitab al-Asrar (book of secrets).
Mathematics
826901: Thabit ibn Qurra (Latinized, Thebit.) Studied at Baghdad's House of Wisdom under the Banu Musa brothers. Discovered a theorem that enables pairs of amicable numbers to be found. Later, al-Baghdadi (b. 980) developed a variant of the theorem.
Miscellaneous
c. 810: Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) set up in Baghdad. There Greek and Indian mathematical and astronomy works are translated into Arabic. 810887: Abbas ibn Firnas. Planetarium, artificial crystals. According to one account that was written seven centuries after his death, Ibn Firnas was injured during an elevated winged trial flight.
Tenth Century
By this century, three systems of counting are used in the Arab world. Finger-reckoning arithmetic, with numerals written entirely in words, used by the business community; the sexagesimal system, a remnant originating with the Babylonians, with numerals denoted by letters of the arabic alphabet and used by Arab mathematicians in astronomical work; and the Indian numeral system, which was used with various sets of symbols. Its arithmetic at first required the use of a dust board (a sort of handheld blackboard) because "the methods required moving the numbers around in the calculation and rubbing some out as the calculation proceeded."
Chemistry
957: Abul Hasan Ali Al-Masudi, wrote on the reaction of alkali water with zaj (vitriol) water giving sulfuric acid.