Hundred Great Muslims

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Preface
Some of the most outstanding and charming personalities of Islam come
from among the Companions of the Prophet, who lived during this period of
ideal democracy. It is very difficult to make a selection from this group of
selfless devotees to Islam, who staked their all for the glory of their New Faith.
But, the scope of the book demanded a larger canvas for selection which
was provided by the outstanding scientists and scholars, historians and explorers,
artists and writers, statesmen and rulers, revolutionaries and reformers of later
Islam.
The inspiration to write this book I got from One Hundred Great Lives
published by the Home Library of the Times of India Press, Bombay, in the
early thirties of the present century. HundredGreatMuslims has been modelled
on the same lines and has been divided into 12 biographical categories.
The Editors and the Publishers of the OneHundred GreatLives have done
great mjustice to the Muslims by including only two biographies of the sons of
Islam-Muhammad (PBUH) the Prophet of Islam and Kamal Ataturk. It is
strange that some of the greatest conquerors of the world like Timur, Khalid,
Tariq and Salahuddin Ayyubi; great rulers like Harun, Mamun, Sulaiman, the
Magnificent and Abdur Rahman al-Nasir; great scientists and scholars like Ibn
Khaldun, ibn Sina, Baroni, Razi and Khwarizmi; great historians and explorers
like Tabari, Masudi, Ibn Batuta and Sulaiman al-Mahiri; great writers and poets
like Hafiz, Saadi, Firdausi, Omar Khayyam and Iqbal did not find a place in this
book.
It is only to counter this utter injustice to the sons of Islam that I decided
to write this book. There is another reason as well.
The ignorance of our educated class towards the achievements of their
ancestors in different spheres of human activity, especially in the realm of
sciences and arts impelled me to raise the curtain which hung over the glorious
achievements of the sons of Islam.
The Western education is responsible for creating an inferiority complex
among our educated classes who link the entire development of sciences and
arts to the West. They are much familiar with Western Scientists like Newton
and Stephenson, Harvey and Masconi but not with greater Muslimscientists like
Khwarizmi and Ibn Sina, Baruni and Ibn Nafis. But, modern research, including
some outspoken admissions by Western orientalists have brought out the truth
about the achievements of Muslim scholars and scientists during the mediaeval
times. These orientalists are Robert BritTault, John Draper, Phillip K. Hitti,
George Sarton, Max Meyerhof, H. G. Farmer and Carra De Vaux.
Efforts have been made to provide documentary evidence for the achievements
of the sons of Islam from the writings of Western orientalists, in order
to save the author from a possible charge of partisanship towards Islam.