December 17, 1903. An open field in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA. Around 10:35 AM, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, bicycle mechanics by trade, arrived at the field with a machine they had spent four years of hard work building. Only five spectators were present, their curiosity peaking. Orville Wright sat inside the machine and slowly set it in motion. To the amazement of those gathered, the machine built by the mechanic brothers gradually lifted off. History records that the 'first airplane' moved through the air at a height of 120 feet for about 12 seconds. Thus, the Wright brothers secured the credit for being the first to 'fly.' We memorized this in schools, commemorated their labor at science fairs, and spoke of them whenever we saw an airplane.

Was it truly the Wright brothers who flew for the first time? Or had someone else made such an attempt before them? History suggests there was. However, it did not happen after the European 'Renaissance.' It occurred centuries earlier in Islamic Spain, attempted by a Muslim scientist named Abbas ibn Firnas.

Who is Abbas ibn Firnas?

Abbas ibn Firnas was born in the 9th century, specifically in the year 810 AD, in Islamic Spain. His full name was Abu al-Qasim Abbas ibn Firnas ibn Wardas al-Takurini. He was born during an era when the Islamic civilization known as Al-Andalus was providing great contributions to the world in science, technology, arts, and literature. He was a man who proved his talents in various fields simultaneously. During his 77 years of life, he managed to contribute significantly to science, technology, poetry, and music. He invented special instruments to observe the celestial spheres and developed 'reading stones,' a form of magnifying glass used to understand and read letters.

The Experimental Flight of Abbas ibn Firnas:

It is an authentically recorded historical fact that Abbas ibn Firnas flew long before the Wright brothers. Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari, an Algerian historian who lived in the 17th century, wrote about the flight experiment of Abbas ibn Firnas. He took flight in front of a large crowd of spectators. Having understood the primary lessons of flight by observing birds, he took to the skies with wings attached to his body. However, because his design lacked a 'tail,' the experiment ended in a crash, and he sustained injuries from the fall.
History also notes that Mu'min bin Said, a famous poet of that time in Cordoba, composed a poem based on this flight. The lines of that poem are roughly as follows: "He flew faster than a phoenix when he dressed his body in the feathers of a vulture."

The Erasure of History:

Following the French Revolution, as Europe stepped into modernity, it obscured the contributions provided to the world by scientists of the Islamic world like Abbas ibn Firnas. Instead, it recorded the science and technology that spread through Christian Europe post-modernity with great historical importance. There is no wonder that people who try to understand the 'truth' solely through these modern historical narratives remain unaware of the contributions the Islamic civilization gave to the world.