A Syrian postage stamp dedicated to the
Banu Musa brothers. The stamp, issued in
1996, commemorates Science Week in
Syria.
Aleppo University’s Institute for the
History of the Arab Science in Syria
compiled scattered manuscripts of the
Banu Musa book from the Topkapi
Sarayi Library in Istanbul, the Vatican
Library, Gotha Library in Germany,
and Leiden University in the Nether-
lands.
Banu Musa: The Sons Now, Syria and Aleppo are engulfed in the fire of
the sectarian bloodshed that was started in Iraq by
Of Musa ben Shaker the Anglo-Saudi terrorist groups, following the U.S.-
British invasion of Iraq. The University of Aleppo
The Sons of Musa ben Shaker or the Banu Musa itself became a horrific crime scene on Jan. 15, 2003.
brothers (Mohammed, Ahmad, and Hasan), and Several explosions, caused by rockets, or a combina-
their depth of knowledge, creativity, and playful- tion of rockets and a car bomb, targeted the buildings
ness, are true representatives of the early Islamic of the university, killing more than 89 students and
Renaissance. Their work extended into almost every others who had taken refuge there from the sectarian
field of science, and they used that knowledge to im- slaughter. While the opposition quickly accused the
prove the living conditions of Syrian government of firing
their nation. They represent the rockets, and the Western
the true humanist renaissance media immediately backed
spirit, which takes whatever that claim, the government
its predecessors achieved and accused the terrorist militias
lifts it to greater heights, to who were besieging the city.
deliver it to present and future The government troops were
generations far more en- in control of the university
riched than when they re- and the area around it, so
ceived it. they had no good reason to
attack it. Whatever the source
Baghdad and Aleppo, a of the rockets, it is still a trag-
tragic tale of two cities: It is edy caused by international
painful to compare the glori- geopolitics. The victims are
ous state of the City of Bagh- not only the innocent people
dad during the Islamic Re- of Syria, but also culture and
naissance, with the situation civilization itself.
today, when tragedy is revis- The distance between the
iting city. It was even more greatness of the Arab-Islamic
painful for this author to both An original drawing of one of the “devices” Renaissance of the 9th Cen-
enjoy the work of the Banu described in the book of Banu Musa: a mechanical tury and the current dark age
Musa book, and at the same oil lamp that automatically extends the lamp’s is not only a distance of
wick and refills the oil. When placed on city
time, grieve for the people streets, as it was in Baghdad at the time (9th years, but of thought and ap-
who edited and published Century), it did not need to be serviced during the preciation of human life and
this unique work. A team of night. potential.
October 18, 2013 EIR History 51
