THE DAWN STORY

Where the sun rises.

This site — and the scene on our business card — tells a single story. Scroll down; let the sun rise with you.

  1. 01 · WEST

    A world counted in letters

    Rome wrote numbers with letters: MMXXVI. Letters can record a number, but they cannot compute — there was no zero, no place value. Humanity counted for millennia; it could not multiply, divide, or reach toward infinity.

  2. 02 · EAST

    Like a sun: the zero

    Then a sun rose on the eastern horizon. A ring filled with light: the zero. The gift of Islamic civilization to humanity — and with it came the decimal system, place value, and boundless calculation. A gift not handed to scholars alone; it rose over all of humanity like the sun.

  3. 03 · SCIENCE

    The founding link of science

    Ibn al-Haytham is the father of the experimental method that made proof the heart of science. "Algebra" is the title of al-Khwārizmī's book — al-Jabr — and "algorithm", the word today's AI stands on, comes from his very name. And the chain does not end with them: al-Battānī turned the sky into calculation, al-Jazarī gave machines a soul, Yusuf Khass Hajib set knowledge at the foundation of the state, Ali Qushji carried the observatory tradition to Istanbul.

    Every machine that runs on algorithms runs a science named after a scholar.
  4. 04 · ASCENT

    One year, three notations

    From inside the sun the year itself ascends: ٢٠٢٦ — in Eastern Arabic numerals. At the apex it becomes today's form: 2026 — the numerals of the Maghreb and Andalusia, the form the whole world writes today. One year, three civilizations' notations — and ŞafakAI's founding year.

  5. 05 · DIGITAL

    The age of 0 and 1

    The entire digital world — computers, artificial intelligence, the phone in your pocket — stands on just two digits: zero and one. The cornerstone of the digital age is the very sun that rose that day.

The chain of knowledge — carriers of the sun

These names are architects not only of their own age but of ours: experiment, algorithm, calculation, doubt, automation, exploration, the map and the science of society — the foundations of modern science, of the digital age and of artificial intelligence were laid in this chain.

8TH C. · KUFA

Jābir ibn Hayyān

Father of chemistry

Turned experiment and the laboratory into the language of chemistry; the Latin world called him "Geber". From distillation to materials science, the first link of everything made with matter.

9TH C. · KHWARAZM–BAGHDAD

al-Khwārizmī

The algorithm's namesake

Founded algebra with his book al-Jabr; the word "algorithm" comes from his name. Every piece of software running today runs a science named after him.

858–929 · HARRAN

al-Battānī

Mathematician of the sky

Brought trigonometry into celestial calculation; measured the solar year with a precision beyond his age. From signals to simulation, every calculation made with angles passes through his link.

865–925 · RAY–BAGHDAD

Abū Bakr al-Rāzī

Pioneer of clinical observation

In al-Hāwī he recorded cases one by one, testing disease by observation and treatment by record. The first great link of evidence-based medicine and the case record.

872–950 · FARAB–BAGHDAD

al-Fārābī

The Second Teacher — architect of logic

He rebuilt Aristotelian logic and wrote the classification of the sciences. This heritage binding logic to calculation is the reasoning foundation of today's AI.

965–1040 · BASRA–CAIRO

Ibn al-Haytham

Father of the experimental method

Founded optics with the Book of Optics; made testing claims by experiment the heart of science. The first link on the road from the camera to computer vision.

980–1037 · BUKHARA–HAMADAN

Ibn Sīnā

The canon of medicine

The Canon of Medicine served as a textbook on two continents for centuries; he turned medicine into an architecture of knowledge — ancestor of today's medical knowledge systems.

11TH C. · BALASAGUN

Yusuf Khass Hajib

A state philosophy of knowledge

With Kutadgu Bilig — "the wisdom that brings happiness" — he bound felicity to reason and knowledge: the summit of Turkic thought that set knowledge at the foundation of governance.

1058–1111 · TUS

al-Ghazālī

Pioneer of methodical doubt

In his Deliverance from Error he tested knowledge to its roots and made doubt a method on the road to truth — centuries before Descartes. Every system that refuses an answer without a source asks his question.

1136–1206 · CİZRE

al-Jazarī

He who gave machines a soul

Designed water clocks, automata and crank mechanisms in his al-Jāmiʿ — the first steps of cybernetics, the ancestor of robotics. Automation's family tree begins with him.

1150–1210 · RAY–HERAT

Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī

Summit of dialectic and logic

He carried the systematic method of weighing proof against proof to its peak. Every chain of reasoning that tests an argument step by step — today's reasoning systems — passes through his discipline.

1304–1368 · TANGIER

Ibn Battūta

The ancient master of travel

Crossed three continents in nearly thirty years of journeys; his Rihla became the world-atlas of its age. He showed that travel itself is knowledge — the first link of our own trade.

1332–1406 · TUNIS–CAIRO

Ibn Khaldūn

Founder of social science

In the Muqaddimah he turned history from narration into a science of society. Every model that reads society from data — today's data science — walks the road he opened.

15TH C. · SAMARKAND–ISTANBUL

Ali Qushji

Istanbul's astronomer

Came from the Samarkand observatory to Mehmed the Conqueror's Istanbul; rebuilt astronomy on mathematics and renewed the tradition of learning in this city — our city.

16TH C. · GALLIPOLI

Pîrî Reis

Captain of the map

With his 1513 world map and the Kitāb-ı Bahriye he turned the seas into knowledge. From the chart to navigation, every system that plots a route today descends from him.

Link joined link — from experiment to algorithm, from doubt to automaton, from exploration to the map; modern science rose upon this chain. The digital age is this heritage's child, and artificial intelligence is the chain's newest link. ŞafakAI takes its name and its direction from this lineage.

Write your year in three civilizations

Enter a year; watch it in three notations. Mind Rome's limit: letter-numbers end at 3999.

Results updated.

Roman (letter-number)MMXXVI
Eastern Arabic numerals٢٠٢٦
Today's notation2026

Tip: try a year greater than 3999.

We wrote our founding year into this story.

A new dawn for every business.