Science and Technology in the Islamic World 02

Science and Technology in the Islamic World -A.B. Zahlan Science and technology over the past two centuries have made enormous strides that have resulted in widespread social and economic changes. As a consequence of recent scientific and technological developments, there has been a massive dematerialization of the economy. More than 90% of the economic output of industrial nations is knowledge-based and more than 50% of this output is based on quantum physics, which unknown in 1900. The utility and significance of scientific research increase as societies establish an enabling environment for the conversion of knowledge into useful products and services. The advancement of nations depends on mastering the skills needs to benefit from science and technology. During the 19th century, developing countries were exposed to the power of science at the hands of imperialists. Centuries ago, the Islamic world was at the center of one of the great waves of scientific progress. [Sources: i) Fakhruddin A. Daghestani and Arafat R. Altamimi, Science and Technology Issues for development in the Muslim World, The Islamic Foundation for Science, Technology and Development, (Jeddah, 1991)]. ii) https://al-furqan.com/science-and-technology-in-the-islamic-world/ Research output The research output of nations is measured in terms of the numbers of papers cited in the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) database. This database examines systematically those periodicals that meet minimal standards. Thus, the ISI enumerates the contents of only 3,600 of the more than 40,000 periodicals published every year. Even amongest these, three is a pecking order with only a small proportion of these periodicals providing the most cited papers. Turkey with 6,074 publications was the leading Islamic country. Among the non-Arab Islamic countries. Turkey is followed by Iran and then Malaysia and Nigeria. The scientific size of Pakistan is roughly equal to that of Kuwait; that of Iranians equal to that of Saudi Arabia; the scientific size of Malaysia and Nigeria is smaller than Morocco. Bangladesh has roughly the scientific size of the UAE. The Institutional Base of Scientific Research in the Arab World 80% of all R&D in the Arab world is generated in universities. Hospitals and agricultural research stations account for much of the remaining research output. In 1995, 26 organisations published more than 50 papers or 64% of the output of the Arab world. Of these, 23 were universities; the other three were: the National Research Center, Cairo (150 papers); The International Center for Agricultural in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo (57 papers); the Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR), Kuwait (50 papers) .[Sources: i) The above topic was reviewed by A. B. Zahlan, Acquiring Technological Capacity: A Study of Arab Consulting and Contrasting Firms, Macmillan, 1991. ii) https://al-furqan.com/science-and-technology-in-the-islamic-world/]. Research & Development Personnel & Expenditures, 1993 The situation in the non-Arab Islamic countries varies. There are wide differences in the efforts made to harness the national science and technplogy infrastructure. Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia have all made efforts in this respect. However, Turkish scientists published their papers in better rated periodicals (as measured by ISI in terms of their impact factor). He also found that during this period the total output in physics from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Turkey was less than 1% of world output. He furthermore reports that although the world average of physics research output is 1.6% of total scientific output the middle Eastern countries' share of physics of their national output was: 0,5% for Saudi Arabia, 0.2% for Syria; 1.1% for Iraq; 1.1% for Turkey; and 1.6% for Iran. [Sources: i) A. Uzan, ʻA Bibliometric Analysis of Physics Publications from Middle Eastern Countriesʼ, Scientometrics, 36, 2, pp. 259-269, 1996. ii) https://al-furqan.com/science-and-technology-in-the-islamic-world/] This confirms my findings that the proportion of research output in all the basic sciences is generally less than 10%. Source: Review of National Science Technology Policy: Republic of Korea, OECD, Paris, 1996. UNISCO's world Science Report, 1998, confirms that the expenditure of Arab states, as a percentage of their GDP, on the lowest in the world. It is 0.2% of GDP. Only Bangladesh of the OIC countries a similar proportion. Iran and Pakistan devote 0.45% and 0.5% of GDP respectively. Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia each devotes 0.3 of GDP; and China invests 0.5%. The R&D budget is only part of the research community in a Third World country receives. In fact since the vast majority of research is undertaken at universities, as we have said earlier, the employment conditions of academics are crucial. In most Arab countries- except for GCC public universities and possibly the Maghreb- the salary levels of university professors are inadequate for their survival. They often have to take on additional employment, which of course drastically limits their ability to undertake research. Cooperation in Science and Technology There are several relevant areas of cooperation in research for science and technology: (a) Cooperation between research scientists and technologists: regional (i.e. inter-Arab); within OIC; and international; (b) Participation in international conferences; (c) Cooperation in the acquisition and application of technology.