Abu Dhabi: Two Saudi academics have registered a patent in the US Patent Office for an idea to generate electricity by walking on small pistons placed under floors, according to Al Ekhbariya TV.

“We took years to register this patent,” said Dr. Abdul Hamid Al Khatib, assistant professor of medical engineering at King Abdulaziz University, one of the patentees, indicating that the world is looking for clean energies at a time when there are wasted energies that have not yet been harnessed.

Al Khatib explained this technology works by “pressing small pistons that are placed under the floors, and the generated energy is collected in batteries for the time of need,” noting that it is suitable for places where the number of pedestrians is large over long distances. Al Khatib added that there is no need for expensive materials to operate this invention, and that its implementation does not require new equipment or technologies that need to be discovered.

To do this, he explained, “you can use ordinary tiles with pistons underneath, and we use a liquid that may be water, oil, or inert gases. When the pistons are pressed, turbines similar to those that generate power through air or water move,” he said.

Al Khatib pointed out that this technology could be suitable for places, such as malls, the Riyadh walkway, hotel entrances, and likewise the Grand Mosques in Mecca and Medina, because they contain large numbers of walkers, who can contribute to providing a large proportion of the energy needed to light the two mosques. (Gulf News)

Israel: More than 2,500 rare manuscripts and books from the Islamic world covering a period of more than a thousand years are to be made freely available online. The National Library of Israel (NLI) in Jerusalem is digitising its world-class collection of items in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, dating from the ninth to the 20th centuries, including spectacularly beautiful Qur’ans and literary works decorated with gold leaf and lapis lazuli.

The NLI’s treasures include an exquisite Iranian copy of Gift to the Noble (Tuhfat al-Ahrar), created barely three years after the completion of a 1484 collection of verse on religious and moral themes by the great Persian mystical poet Nur al-Din Jami.

Among the extraordinary treasures are a miniature 10th-century Qur’an, just 37 by 68 mm. “It’s tiny,” Ukeles said. “It was not for study, but rather for religious protection as an amulet.”

The Qur’an was carried into battle by an Ottoman soldier in the siege of Vienna, 1529, but did not bring good fortune and was taken by the Austrian army when the Ottomans retreated, before being returned to the Ottomans in the 19th century.

Most of the manuscripts were bequeathed by Abraham Shalom Yahuda, a Jerusalem-born Arab-Jewish scholar and one of the most important Islamic manuscript collectors of the early 20th century, who died in 1951.

An NLI spokesman said the project would not have happened without a “generous grant” from the British-based Arcadia fund. Founded by Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, Arcadia supports charities and scholarly institutions to preserve cultural heritage, protect the environment, and promote open access.

(The Guardian)

JEDDAH: The Saudi Cabinet approved plans to establish the King Salman International Complex for the Arabic Language. It is part of the Kingdom’s wide-ranging initiatives to promote the Arabic language.
The planned complex will cover areas ranging from publications to research activities, as well as AI applications, organizing events and conferences, setting up Arabic teaching centers, the introduction of a comprehensive Arab language testing system, and media campaigns.
It will target Arabic-speaking academics specialized in the arts, politics, technology, education, and content creators, as well as those who use Arabic as a second language.
Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan said the complex will be a global community to serve the Arabic language and support its modern linguistic applications.
There are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world who read the Qur’an and understand the phonetics of the Arabic language. (Arab News)

MAKKAH: Makkah hotel prices have been slashed to unprecedented levels in the Umrah season, with the price of rooms dropping as low as SR38 ($10) in some areas.
Five-star hotels with a full view of the Grand Mosque in Makkah are getting ready to resume their activity and restore normality to the hotel industry by offering great discounts. The holy city contains more than 1,400 hotels, which make up more than two third of the accommodation sector in the whole of Saudi Arabia.
Known to have the highest prices through the year, which peak about three times during busy seasons, hotel rooms near the Grand Mosque currently cost between SR250 and SR700 ($77-$187). (Arab News)

DHAKA: A religious charity has opened the first school in Bangladesh for hijras, a transgender community whose members face widespread discrimination in the mostly conservative Muslim society and often live in abject poverty. Ostracised by their families, hijras are often banished from their homes at a young age. With no formal education, many are forced into begging.
The students will learn to read the Quran and the basic principles of Islam, but will also be taught Bengali, English, maths and receive some vocational training.
The government estimates there are about 10,000 hijras in Bangladesh but rights groups say the figure could be as high as 1.5 million in the country of more than 160 million people.
(Reuters)