SIFHAMS revives Arab and Islamic scientific heritage

May 12, 2026 / 6:13 PM

Sharjah 24: Professor Mesut Idriz, Director of the Sharjah International Foundation for the History of Arab and Muslim Sciences—known as SIFHAMS—at the University of Sharjah, has outlined the foundation's broad ambition to bring Arab and Islamic scientific heritage back into the spotlight. Speaking to Sharjah24, Prof. Idriz described the foundation's core mission as documentation, authentication, and publication—ensuring that the remarkable contributions of Muslim scholars across fields such as medicine, astronomy, and physics are properly recorded, widely understood, and given the recognition they deserve on the world stage.

Born from two landmark conferences

The Foundation, he explained, grew directly out of two international conferences organised by the University of Sharjah in 2008 and 2013 on the history of Arab and Muslim sciences—gatherings that made clear just how much dedicated, sustained institutional work this field demanded.

Winter school

Among SIFHAMS's most distinctive programmes is its Winter School for postgraduate students, which has run every year since 2020. The school delivers 30 hours of intensive teaching in both Arabic and English, covering the history and definitions of science within Islamic civilisation—from mathematics and medicine to philosophy, astronomy, and beyond. Prof. Idriz was candid about what makes it stand out: it is, he said, the only programme of its kind anywhere in the world that offers this depth of content in both languages in such a concentrated format

Connecting heritage to the Present

The Foundation also organises an international conference every two years and hosts the UNESCO Chair conference on science, diplomacy, and scientific research—an initiative that originated at the University of Sharjah and whose fourth edition is due to be held this year in the Russian city of Sochi. Taken together, these programs reflect a deliberate effort not simply to preserve the past but to draw a living, meaningful line between historic Arab and Muslim scientific achievements and the present day.