Entrance wall graphic of Arabick Roots exhibition

17th-century leaders of the scientific revolution were Europeans like Newton, Boyle, Halley and Hevelius. The 'Arabick Roots' exhibitoin , produced by 1001 Inventions, reveals how important the 'Arabick' roots of knowledge were to these western scholars.

European scholars rediscovered the advances made in early Muslim civilisation led by scientists such as Ibn al-Haytham. They also searched out the living knowledge of the East, and used both as sources for new leaps of understanding.

'Selenographia' was the first book to chart the Moon's surface as seen through a telescope. The Polish astronomer, Johannes Hevelius, published it in 1647. On the title page, he chose to honour two giants of science whose work had made 'Selenographia' possible; Ibn al-Haytham and Galileo.

11th-century scholar Ibn al-Haytham, Latinised Alhasen or Alhazen, is drawn on the left with a plinth bearing an image of the brain and the word 'Ratione' (reason in Latin), crediting him as a pioneer of the rational scientific method.

Arabic or Arabick?

17th-century European scholars used the term 'Arabick' to refer to languages that use the Arabic script, including Arabic, Persian and Ottoman, which they learned in their quest to unlock a treasure of knowledge.