The Caliph Haroun Al-Rasheed built a magnificent Scientific Academy in which was housed a huge bookstore containing manuscripts and books about various subjects in the arts and the sciences and in different languages. This Scientific Academy was called the House of Wisdom (Bayt Al-Hikma and Dar Al-Hikma).

In the twelfth century Gerard of Cremona and Roberts of Chester translated the algebra of Al-Khowarizmi into Latin. Mathematicians used it all over the world until the sixteenth century.

For the past century and a half, enormous advances have taken place in science and technology to the benefit of mankind. But, these developments have also posed great problems and health hazards, threatening the existence of human life on earth.

Gutenberg does seem to have been the first to devise a printing press, but printing itself, that is, making multiple copies of a text by transferring it from one raised surface to other portable surfaces (especially paper) is much older.

Islam advocates the incorporation of knowledge within a just and balanced value system where anything beneficial for one's spiritual and worldly improvement is encouraged and advocated.

Foremost in the achievements of Muslim scholars was the treatment of numbers. It is impossible to conceive how science could have advanced without a sensible logical numeric system to replace the clumsy numerals of the Roman Empire.

It is interesting to note that 600 years before Braille, a Syrian Muslim, known as Ali Ibn Ahmed Ibn Yusuf Ibn Al-Khizr Al-Amidi (d. 1314 CE) was considered an expert in reading such a system. Like Braille, he too was blind from childhood.

This is the second and final part of the article on Arabic calligraphy which has reflected the essence of our Arab and Islamic art through history, mirroring its spirit and nature and representing its progress.

The Prophet’s life reveals that he was a staunch advocate of environmental protection. One could say he was an “environmentalist avant la lettre”, a pioneer in the domain of conservation, sustainable development and resource management, one who constantly sought to maintain a harmonious balance between man and nature.

Arabic calligraphy is the central original Islamic art, which our ancestors mastered. They perfected its scripts, designs, and decorations, turning it into a great and eternal art. Throughout history, Arabic calligraphy has