SHARJAH: His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah and President of University of Sharjah (UoS) attended the final session of the third International Conference on Arabs’ and Muslims’ History of Sciences, ICAMHS, which was organised by UoS.

At the beginning of the session, Dr. Humaid Al Nuaimi, Chancellor of the UoS, thanked Sheikh Sultan for attending the conference.

Dr. Al Nuaimi pointed out that the conference has become an identity of the UoS. Sheikh Sultan spoke to the guests and explained to them the idea of Dr. Sultan Al Qasimi Centre of Gulf Studies, (Al Darah) and the reason for its establishment. He noted that Al Darah contains the oldest objects in terms of photography, manuscripts and documents.

Speaking about the importance of the conference and the role of Arab and Muslim scientists and researchers, Sheikh Sultan said, “We know that the West benefitted greatly from the Muslims as they moved from darkness to light only by virtue of Muslims researchers. I worked on this side to show how sciences entered Europe; I have one of the first editions of the translation from the Arabic into the Latin language. It is the first transfer to the Latin language from the Holy Quran; by this way science and knowledge entered Europe.”

Explaining the suffering of researchers in obtaining the documents, he said, “We know that the centres of scientific research are spread everywhere but it is not easy to get the document when you want it. I was at the National Documentation Centre in Lisbon, Portugal; I was trying to see one document in the centre, but I could not. Then, I travelled from Sharjah to Java, Indonesia, but I could not get the document.” At the end of the session, the participating scientists and researchers thanked Sheikh Sultan for sponsoring the conference.

WAM