Software Development & Engineering



Science in the Islamic World was the science developed and practiced in the Islamic world during the Islamic Golden Age (8th century CE – c. 1258 CE, sometimes considered to have extended to the 15th or 16th century). During this time scholars translated Indian, Assyrian, Iranian and Greek knowledge into Arabic. These translations became a wellspring for scientific advances by scientists from Muslim-ruled areas during the Middle Ages.

Through this process, the population of the lands of Islam gained access to all the important works of all the cultures of the empire, and a new common civilization formed in this area of the world, based on the religion of Islam. A new era of high culture and innovation ensued, where these diverse influences were recognized and given their respective places in the social consciousness.

These achievements encompass a wide range of subject areas; most notably: Mathematics, Astronomy, and Medicine. Other notable areas, and specialized subjects, of scientific inquiry include: Physics, Alchemy and Chemistry, Cosmology, Ophthalmology, Geography and cartography, Sociology, Psychology & Philosophy.

During this time the sciences, which included philosophy, were viewed holistically. The individual scientific disciplines were approached in terms of their relationships to each other and the whole, as if they were branches of a tree. In this regard, the most important scientists of Islamic civilization have been the polymaths, known as hakim or sages. Their role in the transmission of the sciences was central.

Adab (polite, worldly culture) permeated the lives of the professional, the courtly and genteel classes. Art, literature, poetry, music and even some aspects of religion were among the areas widely appreciated by those of a more refined taste among Muslim and non-Muslim alike. New trends and new topics flowed from the center of the Baghdad courts, to be adopted both quickly and widely across the lands of Islam. Excellence & acceleration in the sciences & arts was considered a holy endeavor or educational jihad & struggle. (jihad al-tarbiyyah); This type of Jihad was regarded as the greater jihad or struggle. (al-jihad al-akbar).





Pictured above is Amir Abbas Hoveyda the Prime Minister of Iran who brought one of the first computers to Iran, here he is pictured using it in his office.







Shirzad has been working with computers & doing programming since early childhood using the BASIC computing languages that were developed on the Atari 400, Apple IIe & Commodore 64 models & GW-Basic on the PC platform.











As a kid he used to play computer games, program and even wrote a Chess game on Apple IIe as well as a conceptual Virus on the PC, his parents forced him to take up music lessons as a means to keep him away from computers.









Over the last 17 years, Shirzad has consulted and directed software projects of varying scale and content at some of the worlds largest corporations. His technical skills, and deep understanding of business analysis, software architectures and software development have led him to such challenging positions as the lead technical developer of Hewlett Packard's Network Server & Global Computing Division.




Shirzad has a very strong command of business analysis as well as a strong understanding of client\server technologies, plus a multitude of programming languages which has allowed him to engage on international consulting efforts worldwide. He has worked in the United States, Canada, India, Malaysia, Argentina, Puerto Rico & Iran.


Some of his clients include: Hewlett-Packard, Symantec, Boeing, Wells Fargo, Chevron, Honeywell, CSFB, Boyd Gaming, Wynn Resorts, The Blackstone Group, Franklin Templeton, Sherman & Sterling, Midway Games, Creative Labs, British American Tobacco (BAT), 20th Century Fox, Accenture, Level3 Communications, NetIQ, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Planned Parenthood, Molina Healthcare, MCS, Doral Bank, BayDynamics, TriTek Solutions, etc.






He is currently living in Tehran, Iran and works, as a Microsoft Senior Software Engineer and Business Intelligence Data Artist subject matter expert, providing expert solutions on architecture design, guidance, assessment, direction, and mentoring/training on Business Intelligence (BI), Data Warehousing (DW), with a heavy emphasis on the Microsoft BI stack.

While not programming Shirzad loves to play Persian music and also is an old school gamer, his handle was the original: Overlord777 & PersianStarr.

To download an Atari emulator and play games & program in Basic follow this link:

ATARI 800 Emulator & ROMs

To download a Commodore 64 emulator, follow this link: Commodore 64 Emulator

To connect with Shirzad on LinkedIn please follow: https://ir.linkedin.com/in/persianstarr

Below are some of my favorite games and past-times...





Seems they left out the Apple IIe! ;)