MODERN MAN

~ 51 ~ the science of chemistry, subjected them for the first time to scientific examination. The entire earth for that matter was considered to be a deity. (It was even thought that the sky was a male deity and the earth a female deity) The Muslims again were the first to measure it to find out its diameter and circumference. The sea, too, was an object of worship, but the Muslims became the greatest pioneers in using it as a vast highway. Storms and the wind were held to be mysterious forces and, as such, were objects of awe and reverence. The Muslims set them to turning their windmills. Mysterious stories were associated with trees and thus the trees too had become worthy of veneration. The Muslims started investigating them, and succeeded in enriching Dioscorides’ Herbal by 2000 species. The rivers, too, were held to be sacred and therefore alive. Boys and girls were, therefore, sacrificed to these deities in order to please them. Muslims, however, used the same rivers for irrigation by making canals, thus ushering in a new age of agriculture.