Have Muslims ever tried to calculate the age of the Earth or Universe from information in the Koran? Is there a Muslim equivalent to Archbishop Ussher who calculated a Creation date of 4004BC from the Bible?

1) For a Muslim fundamentalist, the Qur'an represents the absolute truth.
However, in the contrary of most Christian fundamentalists, Muslims fundamentalist generally accept the findings of science even if they differ from the interpretation of the Qur'an that has been done until then. They will rather try to find in the Qur'an some texts that could be interpreted as supporting modern science's findings.
Of course, like in all other religions, the deeper study of religious texts has never be of any help for the development of new scientific ideas.

In this sense, if "the modern accepted figure for the age of the universe is a little bit more than 18 billion (thousand million) years", Muslim fundamentalist scholars will try to prove that this value is also found in the Qur'an. It is a well known truth that you always find in this kind of texts proofs for whichever idea you want to prove, if you are looking deep enough:

"Could it be possible that the age of the universe is also found in the Quran?
Well, let's take a look at two verses:

1. "the angels and the spirit ascend unto Him in a day, the measure of which was fifty thousand years." 70:4

This verse refers to the ascent of angels and the spirit (meant to be Gabriel) back to heaven after settling all matters of life in the universe.
The verse clearly said a day that "was" and not a day that 'is', which clearly indicates that that day was in the past (50,000 years ago).

2. "…a day relative to your God is equivalent to a thousand years of your count." 22:47

With a few simple equations:
If 1 day (for God) = 1000 years (for man)
1 year = 1000 x 365 (for man)
= 365,000 years

50,000 years (for God) = 365,000 x 50,000 (for man)
= 18.25 billion!"
Source and further information:
http://www.submission.org/universe.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/9525326/The-Creation-of-the-Universe-in-the-QurAn


2) Here some other examples of this rhetorik:
http://www.quransearch.com/18_billion_years.htm
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Islam-947/Cosmology-Islam.htm
http://www.55a.net/en/miracles/a046.php
http://www.islamology.com/Overview/Science/BIBLE,%20QURAN%20AND%20SCIENCE.htm


3) "Muslim Fundamentalists are fond of claiming that the Koran miraculously predicted the findings of modern science, and that all of its factual scientific claims are flawless. There are two important objections to this claim that I will make, one pointing to a general problem, the other a specific example of the failure of the claim. The tactic in general has also been criticized by Muslim intellectual Imran Aijaz (see part 2 of "Evidentialist Apologetics in Islam) and I have criticized other examples of it elsewhere ("The Koran Predicted the Speed of Light? Not Really," "Predicting Modern Science: Epicurus vs. Mohammed." "
Source and further information:
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/islam.html

Further information:
- "Flat Earth Koran":
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/7999020/Flat-Earth-Koran-09-of-13---Medieval


4) On the other hand, a particular interpretation of the Qur'an has allowed the development of scientific knowledge:

"Islam advised Muslims to find ways of using the stars. The Qur'an says: "And it is He who ordained the stars for you that you may be guided thereby in the darkness of the land and the sea."[9] On the basis of this advice Muslims began to develop better observational and navigational instruments, thus most navigational stars today have Arabic names.

Other influences of the Qur'an on Islamic astronomy included its "insistence that the Universe is ruled by a single set of laws" which was "rooted in the Islamic concept of tawhîd, the unity of God", as well its "greater respect for empirical data than was common in the preceding Greek civilization" which inspired Muslims to place a greater emphasis on empirical observation, in contrast to ancient Greek philosophers such as the Platonists and Aristotelians who expressed a general distrust towards the senses and instead viewed reason alone as being sufficient to understanding nature. The Qur'an's insistence on observation, reason and contemplation ("see", "think" and "contemplate"), on the other hand, led Muslims to develop an early scientific method based on these principles, particularly empirical observation. Muhammad Iqbal writes:
“The general empirical attitude of the Qur'an which engendered in its followers a feeling of reverence for the actual, and ultimately made them the founders of modern science. It was a great point to awaken the empirical spirit in an age that renounced the visible as of no value in men's search after God.” "
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy_in_medieval_Islam#Islamic_attitude_towards_astronomy


5) "The relationship between true science and Islam is a matter of extreme controversy. In the Muslim world, many believe that modern science was first developed in the Muslim world rather than in Europe and Western countries, that "all the wealth of knowledge in the world has actually emanated from Muslim civilization," and what people call "the scientific method", is actually "the Islamic method." Muslims often cite verse 239 from Surah Al-Baqara —- He has taught you what you did not know. —- in support of their view that the Qur'an promotes the acquisition of new knowledge.

In contrast, some people worry that the contemporary Muslim world suffers from a "profound lack of scientific understanding," and lament that, for example, in countries like Pakistan post-graduate physics students have been known to blame earthquakes on "sinfulness, moral laxity, deviation from the Islamic true path," while "only a couple of muffled voices supported the scientific view that earthquakes are a natural phenomenon unaffected by human activity."

The development of scientific thought and knowledge has caused differing reactions among Muslims. In the Muslim world today, most of the focus on the relation between Islam and science involves scientific interpretations of the Quran (and sometimes the Sunna) that claim to show these sources make prescient statements about the nature of the universe, biological development and other phenomena later confirmed by scientific research, and proof of the divine origin of the Qur'an. This effort has been criticized by some scientists and philosophers as containing logical fallacies, being unscientific, likely to be disproven by evolving scientific theories"
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_science