Weird Science Update: Columbia Prof Was Misquoted

Sat, Nov 10, 2007 at 9:25:24 am PST

Columbia professor George Saliba was quoted by Pakistan’s Daily Times saying that all modern scientific discoveries were made by Muslims, but an LGF reader forwarded an email from the professor that says the Daily Times made it all up. (Which isn’t hard to believe.)

This should teach you not to believe the press on such matters. I never said what is attributed to me in that report. All I said is that the decimal fractions were finally used as numbers for the first time during Islamic times, and in particular in a manuscript written by Uqlidisi in Damascus around the year 952 AD where the decimal point is clearly marked in the text. To explain the system I drew attention to the fact that the decimal system is not unique and that there are other systems such as the sexagessimal system, and the Binary system NOT invented during Islamic civilization, although the first has extensively used in that civilization. But I can’t control what the press report ended up saying.