#islamic golden age

[probablyasocialecologist]

The most important thing to understand about what is often now called the “Translation Movement” is that it wasn’t primarily about translation. It was part of a wider commitment by Islamic scholars and political leaders to scientific investigation that also saw caliphs commission new works of science, geography, poetry, history, and medicine. It is well-known that classic works of Greek science and philosophy were translated into Arabic before they were translated into other European languages—including Latin. What is less well-known is that the point of translating foreign works was not to preserve them but to build on them. As links around the Mediterranean continued to increase, that Arabic scholarship began to reach western Europe, and to change the way people there thought.

[thefugitivesaint]

Franz von Bayros (1886-1924), ''Das Buch der Tausend Nächte und der einen Nacht'' (The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night), Bd. 1, 1906. Source

[ochipi]

So I might’ve actually lectured my lecturer. He’s an archivist, but not a historian (in the broadest version of the word).

Previously mentioned: Roman archives, didn’t really survive because of wax tablets and papyri decaying but we know they wrote and archived. Sure.

After the disappearance of the Western Roman Empire (he was very safe with his word choices here), archiving or writing large amounts of texts wasn’t really a thing, until the Arabs came by the 12th century and Europe was archiving again.

HOLD THE FFING PHONE RIGHT THERE! And I did ask why he was reasoning this way. He didn’t really got me immediately so I provided him with examples.

Roman law didn’t disappear, it was held up and added upon. (Fine = income!) we know this because A) we have catholic additions on it making pagan elements in society illegal, B) we have written versions of the Lex Salica as old as the 8th century, C) Carolingian Minuskel is a thing, learned how to read it at previous Uni.

They just continued copying/translating Greek to Latin to f.e. Diets.

Laws are only useful when you have an institute that has them, can check on them and execute them. All those laws are stored somewhere (= archived).

Handy for cloisters to know how many properties they have and what they provide in income and how much they cost.

Roman law became regional, the Goths, Salic Franks, Anglians all had written law. The Catholic Church even invited Irish monks over to baptize Europeans and they introduced the space in written language in the process to make it easier for them. Writing… archiving…

The Catholic Church was very keen on making martyrs immediate saints. Their stories were recorded (!) into hagiographies. We still have those. They were kept (archived!) in churches and cloisters.

They like their heroes. Tales like Beowulf are 8th century. The church wrote their hymns down so they could hand it out to their singers. The church provided education. The male elite could write…

Gregorius of Tours wrote his Historia Francorum. He wrote the history of the Francs, while they were still around! That’s archiving!

Yeah sure, they wrote how the Vikings were invaders and so on and on. But they wrote it down in the cloister archives!

I mean I can continue. But these were the things I mentioned in class.

To clarify, the Arabs did not re-introduce the production of archiving material and archives themself. They were just never gone. What the Arabs did do was re-introduced science! (Scream it out loud for the people in the back!). While Charlemagne was busy killing Slavs, the Arabs had libraries (Baghdad House of Wisdom) and research institutes and were good mathematicians and astronomers (many stars in our night sky have Arab names to this day). Europe owes a ton of stuff thanks to the Islamic Golden Age. But not really recording and archiving.

On the other hand, I was later informed that the lecturer started panicking because i apparently cornered him good. I just took the one time I get to prove that the last five years of me working around the Early Middle Ages wasn’t for nothing. I don’t want to apologise

[femboy-expert]

You’re islamophobic because you’re ignorant

I’m islamophobic because they made significant advances in mathematics and math makes my head go ouch

We are not the same

[nickysfacts]

The Hijab did not originate from Islam nor are they oppressive when women have the freedom to choose when they wear one.

🧕🏼☪️🧕🏾

[hamletthedane]

I miss her (the Baghdad House of Wisdom)

[loathsome-little-creature]

Arab science arguably informed the European fencing theory of the early fourteenth century, we may in part have the mathematical progress of the Islamic golden age to thank for the beginnings of the medieval traditions of geometric fencing. It would take me a long ass post to fully explain it but I highly recommend looking into geometry and stuff in high and late medieval (circa 1260-1340) fencing and sword design if it at all interests you

[eretzyisrael]

by Eunice G. Pollack and Stephen H. Norwood

Many Arabs stressed that even before "Zionist ... pretensions" threatened the "happy relationship" between Muslims and Jews, it had been disrupted by the imposition of European colonial rule.[13] They informed their Western audiences that Jews had "enjoyed all the privileges and rights of citizenship" before colonialism introduced an "artificial separation" between Muslim and Jew. A Moroccan political leader insisted that for this reason the Jews had "welcomed" the overthrow of colonial rule and the return of "Arabization" and the establishment of the independent Muslim nation.[14]

Contrary to the Arabs' contentions, however, it was the colonial powers that had extended citizenship (e.g., Algeria in 1870), equality or near-equality (e.g., the French Protectorate in Morocco, 1912–1956) to the Jews, liberating them at last from their status as subjugated, humiliated dhimmis, and ending the oppressive jizya, the tribute always exacted by the Muslims. Thus Jews had strongly endorsed the colonial presence, generally embracing modern European education and culture.[15] It was under British occupation (1882–1922) that Jews in Egypt felt safest. Notably, under Islamic rule, it was only the Ottoman Empire that, in an effort to secure European support—and modern weapons—issued an Imperial Edict (1856) that, in theory, extended equal rights to all its subjects. In practice, however, Ottoman governors (pashas) confined themselves to collecting taxes, while local rulers and the populace—for example, the Mamluks in Egypt—continued to persecute, pillage, and impose additional "heavy levies" on the Jews. Thus most Jews not only supported European colonial rule, but feared the independence movements, with the threat of return to their earlier subordinate "social, political and economic" positions.[16]

Islamic Myths about Jews' Inherent Traits

Arab commentators readily dismissed over two centuries of travelers' accounts and investigative reports that belied their claims about the conditions and contentment of Jews under Islamic rule. They simply turned to another hoary myth in order to protect their current fable. The Arabs discarded all the testimony that contradicted their narrative, explaining that it had been derived largely from Jews, whom the Qur'an characterized as congenitally deceitful, never to be trusted.[17]

At times, political and religious leaders conceded that the Jews in Muslim lands had been relentlessly subjugated, relying on another large cache of myths, drawn or extrapolated from the Qur'an, to sanctify their abasement of those they now identified as "the dogs of humanity." Indeed, from the earliest years of Islam, Muslims had understood that "their deadliest enemies were the Jews."[19] They were the only people cursed in the Qur'an, whom Allah had promised "degradation in this world and a mighty chastisement in the next world." Muslim theologians recognized that the Jews were "like germs of a malignant disease where one germ is sufficient to eliminate an entire nation." But, they taught, "the Holy Qur'an ... constitutes the microscope through which we can see the pests and poisons that reside in their minds and hearts." Thanks to Qur'anic lessons on how to subdue the Jews, the Muslims were "the only people on earth to tolerate them" in their midst.[20]

Citing the Qur'an, prominent Muslim educators portrayed the Jews as driven throughout their history to bring "blind sedition ... and intrigue in any land or community where they happened to live." Some suggested that this was likely "why the Israelites ... were so detested by all surrounding tribes."[21] Others explained that "the Jews themselves have not changed" because, "according to ... their false Torah," they "are required to stir war with their neighbors once they have the opportunity to do so." Some added that the Jews often preferred to deploy "conspiracies, plots, intrigues [and] sedition" because they were inherently "cowards and could not openly face their enemy."[22]

Not acknowledging a contradiction, many spokesmen insisted that "the Jews have always been criminal aggressors." Jews claim that they are victims, "subjected [throughout] their long history" to "oppression and persecution" "for no other reason than their being followers of Moses." In truth, "the hatred felt by various peoples ... for Jews was not due to their belief, but their ... unchangeable behavior, always based on exploitation, ingratitude and evil-doing in return for kindness." That is, the "criminal aggressors" only deceptively identify as innocent victims.[23] Educators taught that the Jews are "avaricious, ruthless, cruel, hypocritical and revengeful. These traits govern their lives." They point out that the Qur'an warned that, if permitted, the Jews would "become great tyrants." They conclude: "No good is expected of them unless they live under the aegis of Islam as loyal and obedient subjects." Then the Muslims "will treat them ... tolerantly." "Islamic tolerance is," after all, in complete contrast to "Jewish intolerance and cruelty."[24]

[thebeesareback]

The House of Wisdom

I know people get annoyed about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, but I think they should also be upset about what the Mongols did to the House of Wisdom.

Founded in the late 8th century, also known as the Islamic Golden Age, the House of Wisdom was a public library, observatory and academy located in what is now Baghdad, Iraq. There were rare books and Arabic poems, and plenty of translations of texts from Arabic, Syriac, Chinese, Sanskrit and Greek. Research was conducted and scholars had access to information from India, Greece and Persia. Scholars could study astronomy, maths, medicine, science and philosophy. Some of the astronomers worked on improving the astrolabe, which was used by Muslims to find Mecca and could also help travellers plan their journeys.

The House of Wisdom was in Baghdad, which at the time was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. This meant that plenty of people, including scholars, would visit the city. Some notable examples are al-Jahiz (who lived to be 89, and apparently died when a stack of books fell on him); al-Kindi (the father of Arab philosophy) and al-Ghazali (a Mujaddid who wrote "The Incoherence of Philosphers"). al-Jahiz taught at the university and wrote there. In one of his books he discusses evolution and argued that dogs, wolves, foxes etc probably shared a common ancestor with four legs and a tail. One scholar, al-Ma-mun, put together the most detailed map of the Earth (for its time - it looks like North Africa, Europe and parts of Asia to me. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/486177722268804983/ ).

The Mongols destroyed the House of Wisdom in 1258 when they sieged the city. Hulegn, the grandson of Ghengis Khan, attacked the city and destroyed hospitals, mosques and libraries. The attackers threw all of the books into the Tigris river. Legend says that for days afterwards the river water was turned black with ink and red with blood.

[ivy-likes-trees]

Me omw to Timbuktu to become a learned scholar

Goin on Hajj, might disrupt some local economies with gold

ALCHEMY TIME 💯💯

STUDYING MATHEMATICS 🗣️🗣️

[annachum]

A moodboard I did of Disney's Scheherazade ideas

🤩🤩🤩🥺🥺

[geopolicraticus]

PHILOSOPHICAL SIDE QUEST

Al-Ghazali’s Spiritual Crisis 

Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsiyy al-Ghazali, better known to posterity of Al-Ghazali, fits neatly between Avicenna, who died before he was born, and Averroes, who was born after he died, but al-Ghazali made a point of criticizing the use that Avicenna (and later Averroes) made of Greek philosophy. Al-Ghazali experienced a spiritual crisis as a result of being appointed to an influential position, and his response became a a touchstone of renewal in the Islamic world. His philosophical writings became a major influence in both Christian and Islamic civilization.  

Quora:             https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:          https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:             https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:     http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Text post:        https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/al-ghazalis-spiritual-crisis  

Video:               https://youtu.be/edLqmRE8gWY    

Podcast:           https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/v54kJbjemKb

[quotesfrommyreading]

Al-Rhazi and Ibn Sina kept alive and advanced much medical knowledge that had largely vanished from Europe – knowledge that had originated in Ancient Greece and Rome, and then spread through Constantinople and Gundeshapur to Baghdad and Bukhara, where it was combined with learnings from India and China, and was eventually translated back into European languages to form a basis for the flowering of the Renaissance. This reawakening of Classical thought inaugurated the age of the university, when medical schools were established throughout Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.

  —  Kill or Cure: An Illustrated History of Medicine (Steve Parker)

[nickysfacts]

Top Islamic Medieval Scholars be like:

“Lesbians exist because their hot”

🏳️‍🌈☪️🏳️‍🌈

[mazlizaothman]

The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization

This book explores the intellectual and cultural achievements of the Islamic Golden Age. It uncovers the often overlooked contributions of Arab and Muslim scholars, scientists, and thinkers from the 8th to the 14th centuries, highlighting their profound impact on Western civilization. In the eighth century, an Abassid caliph established Baitul Hikmah (i.e., House of Wisdom) in Baghdad. The…

[wagonlitcommunitytheatregroup]

You are offered 10 Million Dollars to go back in time, live for 10 consecutive years and record your findings. Where/when do you go and why?

Here are the rules:

You are offered to go back in time to any year of the holocene era and you must remain there for 10 consecutive years.

You will be outfitted with video recording devices that can't be detected and record what you see.

You will be innoculated against any potential diseases.

You will be trained in the dominant language of wherever you go prior to your departure.

You will start with enough money to get yourself a modest dwelling.

You cannot alter history, reveal yourself, or produce any children, inventions, art pieces, etc.

You must blend in and you will develop a backstory with historical experts before you go.

You can die/be killed during the duration of the job.

Upon your return you will be awarded $10 Million but 10 years will have passed in the present day meaning your loved ones may have died or moved on to other relationships.

Do you do it? If so where and when do you go?