what else besides tiles did the ottomans contribute to the modern day world?

Question

well since this is for a project it needs to be an artifact, something made by human hands

and no the footrest/ottoman was invented before their culture

Answer 1

Hmm, homework help.

With no offense to you, and certainly none to their culture, have you ever wondered about the piece of furniture so named?

I seriously doubt that they, in their time, wanted to, or became "FOOT RESTS" for others.

Just musing.

Steven Wolf

Answer 2

I will start by quoting a passage from an "Hyperhistory" essay (see link below) titled: "Scientific Revolutions in Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and China"

"What was the quality of the scientific revolutions in the Ottoman Empire?

The Ottoman Empire was the region to bring forth most of the scientific thought for a very long period of time. In fact, Copernicus had a theory very similar to a thought of one of the Ottoman scientists previous to him. “The path leading the scientific revolution in Europe was paved most significantly by Arabic-Islamic scientists” (Huff 237). The Islamic culture produced advancements in the sciences up until about the 13th century, just like China. They also understood the concept of what they were working on when they invented it. Huff also says, in reference to the “enlightened men of medicine, philosophy and science” of the era, “They were held at bay by the religious authorities of Islam, so that in the long run, no social institutions were founded that could protect and support freethinking, a term commonly denoting heresy” (Huff 360). This hindered any scientific revolutions from coming out of the Islamic world."

That summary makes for depressing reading in terms of your quest, especially because of the inference that invention in the Ottoman Empire began to fail by the 13th Century (well before the peak of the Empire). Be cautious, though, in accepting the Hyperhistory summary as the whole truth. "Hyperhistory" is produced by a Christian organization; is written from a Christian perspective; and may therefore be biased against non-Christian achievements.

Certainly, a different view is taken in the "Today's Zaman" article (see link below). This mentions (but offers no details on) a large number of "forgotten" inventions from the Islamic world centred upon the Ottoman state.

Another article "Madrasas of the Ottoman Empire" in MuslimHeritage.com (see link below), claims that these schools, which we now think of as restricted almost entirely to teaching religious doctrine, were at one period of the Ottoman Empire much more academically inclusive, teaching the sciences, etc.

But all of that is too generalized to be of much use for your study. Instead, I recommend that you explore the inventions listed in "1001 Inventions" (see link below). Finally, you will have some specific artefacts to consider for your project, such as: -

Abbas ibn Fimas' 9th Century flying machine.

Al-Zahrawi's surgical instruments.

Al-Jazari's water-powered clock.

You might also want to consider including a claimed (it is argued to and fro) Muslim / perhaps early Ottoman source for the basic scale in music (do-re-mi, etc.). Here is the link to another article from 1001 Inventions laying that claim: http://www.1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewBlogEntry&intMTEntryID=2739#14979

A strong candidate for your project could be another 1001 Inventions claim: that Muslims invented the University. However, the 3 Muslim mosque-universities on which that claim is mainly based (Fez, Cairo and Cordoba) were in territories far from the heart of the Ottoman Empire, and (except for Cairo) only nominally subordinate to the Sultan's rule. Here is a link to that claim: http://www.1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewBlogEntry&intMTEntryID=2743

Yet another claim in 1001 Inventions is that a Muslim, Al-Razi, created the prototype for the modern chemistry laboratory. The blog on this also contains a list of English words used in chemistry that derive from Arabic. The link to this blog is: http://www.1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewBlogEntry&intMTEntryID=2731

You will find a lot about Al-Razi's contributions to science at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Razi

And, finally, another claim from 1001 Inventions: that a Syrian invented a method for blind people to "read by touch" 600 years before the invention of braille. http://www.1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewBlogEntry&intMTEntryID=2578

I think that, if you delve deeper into 1001 Inventions, you will find claims to a great many more inventions that have contributed to the modern world.

Good luck!

Answer 3

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