The world's first beauty parlor/cosmetology school was opened by Ziryab in the 9th century in Cordoba, the capital of spain, during the medieval islamic civilization . Cordoba, along with Baghdad, was considered as one of  the major centres of intellectual and cultural activities during middle ages.

Ziryab was born in baghdad, Iraq in 787 AD and was of African descent. His real name was Abu Al-Hasan Ali Ibn Nafi and was lovingly called Ziryab, which means 'Black Bird' in Arabic, due to his extremely melodious voice, dark skin and pleasant speech. Ziryab arrived in Spain in 822AD and joined the court of Cordoba at a magnificent monthly salary of 200 gold dinars, annual bonuses amounting to 2500 gold dinars  and many other benefits.

Ziryab, in addition to being a great musician [details on his musical chievements later], was a trendsetter and a fashion icon for the upper class of the Cordoba. He introduced new styles of seasonal clothing and personal grooming and revolutionized the art of dining [details in another post]. According to Louie Provencal, the famous historian of Spanish civilization:

 “ [Ziryab ] was a genius and his influence in Spanish society of the time not only encompassed music but also all aspects of society.”

Ziryab opened the world's first beauty parlor/cosmetology school in cordoba in 9th century, for women, where he introduced a new hair style for women that was considered quite daring at that time. The women of spain at that time parted their hair in the middle with ears covered and used to have a long braid at the back. Ziryab's new hair style had hair cut into bangs on the forehead and the length was shorter with ears uncovered. At the parlor, chemical depilatories were used to remove body hairs. He also invented a new type of deodorant that, unlike the previous deodorants, didn't leave stains.

The 16th century historian al-Maqqari described Zaryab in his well-renowned book 'Nafh al-tib' (The Perfumed Breath):

"There never was a man of his profession, either before or since, who was so unanimously loved and admired. Even in the twilight years of the kingdom of Granada, which fell in 1492, poets were still finding in his glory a subject for their songs."

The  famous Spanish composer and guitarist, Paco de Lucía, dedicated his entire album 'Zyryab' (1990) to Ziryab.

Various attempts to determine the circumference of the earth were made, during the ancient Greek and Indian civilizations, that required sighting of the sun simultaneously from two diffrent locations. Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad Biruni (often referred to as 'al-Biruni') [973-1048] was the first scientist to provide a mathematical solution for determining the circumference of the earth.

During the medieval Islamic Civilization , prior to Al-biruni, the first successful attempt to determine the circumference of earth was carried out in the early 9th century on the desire of Caliph Al-mamun. In 820 AD, Al-mamun sent a team of astronomers in the desert of Sinjar (in Iraq) that performed the survey and estimated that one degree of earth was equivalent to 56 2/3 Arab miles. Conversion of this value gives the circumference of earth as 39, 986 km .......... quite close to the modern value of 40,075 km (circumference if measured around the equator).

Al-biruni descibed the above incident in his astronomical encyclopaedia 'Al-Qanun Al-Musudi'. He devised a new method to detrmine circumference which he described in his work 'Kitab Tahdid al-Amakin'  i.e.Book of Determination of the Location (thanks to Hicham Maged [http://blog.hichamaged.net] for providing the translation in the comment below) as:

"Here is another method for the determination of the circumference of the earth. It does not require walking in deserts."

Al-biruni's method used the following trignometric equation to determine the radius of the earth that required observing the distant horizon from a mountain peak.


R: Radius of the earth
h: Height of the mountain
d: Angle of dip

The details of this method are present in his book 'Kitab Tahdid al-Amakin'. He had constructed his own astrolobe to measure the height of mountains. Al-Biruni found the radius of the earth to be 6,339.9 km. The
circumference,according to his method, is 39,835 km quite close to the present accepted value.

Al-Birunis' method can be considered as one of the earliest examples of application of trignometry to real-world problems. He is, therefore, regarded as the 'Father of Geodesy' (Geodesy ~ Mathematical Geography).

Professor John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson in 'The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive':

"Important contributions to geodesy and geography were also made by al-Biruni. He introduced techniques to measure the earth and distances on it using triangulation. He found the radius of the earth to be 6339.6 km, a value not obtained in the West until the 16th century. His Masudic canon contains a table giving the coordinates of six hundred places, almost all of which he had direct knowledge."

As early as the second century, the Chinese knew the art of paper making. The Muslims learned it from the Chinese in the 8th century, made improvements and developed paper making from an art into an industry.

The world's first first paper mill was thus established in Samarqand in 751. The papermill was water-powered and linen or flax was used as raw material. Trip Hammers, powered by water wheels, were used to pound the raw materials. Soon after the establishment of the papermill in Samarqand, many more paper mills were established in Baghdad during the 8th century due to the high demand of books . From there, paper mills began being established in other parts of the world. Europe had its first paper mill established in Italy in 1261. Paper thus started replacing the costly parchment, papyrus and wood that were earlier being used for writing.