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The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western CivilizationBy Jonathan Lyons Bloomsbury 248pp, £20
Caliph Abu Jafar al-Mansur, the founder, built a great library in Baghdad, Lyons relates, “modelled after those of the great Persian kings”. Arab chroniclers later praised his mastery of logic and law and his interest in philosophy and astronomy, and gave him credit for directing translation into Arabic of numerous important works by Greek, Persian and Hindu philosophers and scientists. Data were gathered from across the widespread Islamic empire for development by Baghdad’s men of learning. His library was named The House of Wisdom.
Arabs adopted the efficient Hindu decimal system, with the nine numerals and zero we use today. On the basis of Euclid’s geometry and Ptolemy’s astronomy, the Arabs devised algebra and trigonometry and made astronomical observations of their own. At a time when the Christians of Europe believed the world was flat, found it difficult to fix the date of Easter and could not even tell the time of day, the Arabs, aided by a gadget called the astrolabe, made astronomical and terrestrial measurements to discover that our world is spherical and to calculate its size almost exactly. The astrolabe was also a valuable navigational instrument, determining latitude.
The Arabs made great progress in cartography, chemistry and medicine at a time when the Christian Church was telling adherents that diseases were divine punishments for human sins. Flagellation was one of the atonements for the Black Death.
Lyons traces the influences of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on the Arabs. “Today many tend to see religion as the enemy of scientific progress,” Lyons writes. “Yet early Islam openly encouraged and nurtured intellectual inquiry of all kinds.” Muhammad himself said: “Seek for science, even in China.” In contrast with the Crusaders who rampaged through the Holy Land at the end of the 11th century, there were European scholars, such as Adelard of Bath and Michael Scot, who travelled to Islam and brought back Arabic texts for translation into Latin and beyond. Cultural go-betweens connecting East and West were helped by Muslims in Sicily and Spain to transmit knowledge.
originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: Willtell
Too bad the American Indians didn't hear about the snake maybe they'd still be here
We're still here. Just not as many. Thanks.
To me were all brothers and sisters
and when any of us our down on our luck
I DON’T GIVE A SH__ WHAT RACE YOU ARE
I help
originally posted by: Now2016
To me were all brothers and sisters
and when any of us our down on our luck
I DON’T GIVE A SH__ WHAT RACE YOU ARE
I help
That's all Fine and Dandy in a World of Rainbows and Unicorns, but in the Real World when you mess with Snakes you can expect to be Bit.
originally posted by: Discotech
a reply to: Konduit
Ok you point out a problem, well done, nobody in Europe ever knew there was a problem.....
What I don't see you posting is any kind of solution to fix this mess that both America and Europe have created
It's all too easy to point fingers isn't it and you rarely ever see people pointing their fingers offering sensible solutions to the problems that literally everybody is already aware of
originally posted by: Willtell
originally posted by: Now2016
To me were all brothers and sisters
and when any of us our down on our luck
I DON’T GIVE A SH__ WHAT RACE YOU ARE
I help
That's all Fine and Dandy in a World of Rainbows and Unicorns, but in the Real World when you mess with Snakes you can expect to be Bit.
You have to know a snake when one sees one, first.
Do those who hear this understand that the are hearing it from a very snake himself.