The exhibition launch ceremony and press preview took place on 21 January 2010; Dr El-Bizri attended the event. The preview included presentations by Professor Chris Rapley, Director of the Science Museum, and Professor Salim T. S. Al-Hassani, Chair of the ‘1001 Inventions’ initiative and President of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC). The launch ceremony was covered by national and international media.
Dr. Susan Mossman was the Project Director at the Science Museum for the ‘1001 Inventions’ project, and Ms. Yasmin Khan curated the Science Museum display of related objects. The exhibition was produced by the FSTC, in association with the Al-Jameel Foundation.
The exhibition stems from a global educational project, managed by the FSTC, in association with the Al-Jameel Foundation. The project is also supported by the UK Home Office and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Working with international leading academics, this project engages with the public through educational media and interactive global exhibitions, in order to highlight the collective scientific and technological inheritance of humanity.
The Science Museum exhibition 1001 Inventions traces the story of a thousand years of science from the Muslim world; from the 7th century CE onwards, as well as celebrating the shared and universal scientific heritage of other cultures. The exhibition looks at the social, scientific and technical achievements that are credited to the Muslim world; showing how many modern inventions, spanning fields such as engineering, medicine and design, can trace their roots back to Muslim civilisations and their material cultures.
The exhibition space is designed in seven thematic zones: home, school, market, hospital, town, world and universe. These feature a diverse range of more than sixty displays, electronic interactive pods and dramatisation. Also included in the exhibition are valuable historical artefacts from the Science Museum collection, many of which have never been on public display.
The reproduction of a 9th-century flying device is also shown, together with a six-metre-high replica of the iconic and visually striking ‘Elephant Clock’, designed by the celebrated mechanics scholar and polymath, Ibn al-Razaz al-Jazari (1136 – 1206 CE). A short film, starring Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley as al-Jazari, educates visitors through means of historical drama about science in Muslim civilisations.
After leaving the Science Museum, the exhibition will tour some of the world’s most respected museums and centres of learning over a period of four years, bringing the exhibition to a worldwide audience.
Further information is available via the following websites:
Science Museum, London
Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation
Please note that the images of the exhibition objects are copyright of 1001 Inventions.
