41–50 of 56 posts
There was no "golden age" in Islam, unless you think that an age of slaughter, murder and enslavement can be called "golden". Sam Harris on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I2WyY_R_hA Bill Warner on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwXtTwNvWXc
In 1258, after the Siege of Baghdad by the mongols, the golden age of Islam ended. Scholars were killed, buildings were sacked, infrastructure was destroyed. Islamic Spain (Al-Andalus) survived temporarily. In Spain, the city of Cordoba in Andalusia was objectively the most advanced in all of Europe. After Al-Andalus was lost to Europeans, the Latin translations of the 12th century occurred. Those Latin translations,…
Why is this person being downvoted? Let's face it, the West in general does a great job of not giving credit to Muslims as it should. Chemistry, Algebra, Algorithms, Astronomy, the Scientific Method, etc.
More accurate.
Ironically enough, this born out of a very Western European point of view. While progress had slowed in the West during the Middle Ages, it was continuing on in the Byzantine Empire.
In the past, the Byzantines were not Christian enough to receive credit for their contributions by likes of Edward Gibbon, now it seems to have swung the other way and they are too Christian for contemporaries to go out of their way to praise.
This article reminds me of a book written by Kim Stanley Robinson, "The Years of Rice and Salt". It's a historical fiction which explores a history in which the bubonic plague wiped out Europe, precluding Western civilization as we know it. The cultural and religious vacuum left behind is filled by Islam, Buddhism, and the Chinese dynasties. Robinson explores the evolution of humanity over the next 600 years under th…
Historical fiction is like the books by Ken Follett, about medieval Europe. They're set in that time, as we understand it historically, but the characters and events are fictional.
What you're describing is alternate history: it's fictional work that assumes something went very differently at some point in the past, and then attempts to extrapolate from there how history turned out. For instance, suppose the US had never gotten involved in WWI; how would the later 20th century have turned out? Or suppose Al Gore had won in 2000; how would things be different now?
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..and they too in turn should credit the Greeks and Indian cultures whose knowledge they transcribed!
They did. They preserved authorship in all their works. Their additions were in the form of footnotes, comments and original works. They translated works of Ptolomy, Euclid, Archimedes, Aristotle, Galen for us. They also produced very important works in Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, etc. I challenge you to find translators for those languages in Medieval Europe when literacy rate was less than 1%. Their contributions were…
This is the Western European point of view I referenced in my other comment. These works were also being preserved in Latin and Greek in Constantinople for the entire duration of the Middle Ages in Western Europe and the rise and fall of the Golden Islamic Age.
> The Pool of the Arches allows visitors to relive the city’s glorious past. Caliph Harun al Rashid, who commissioned the pool, ruled during the Golden Age of Islam, when economics, science and culture flourished from the western edge of the empire in Spain all the way into Asia. The significance and accomplishments of this period became clear as our boat glided through the dark water under the tall arches, still sta…
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Yep last time I've checked the Roman aqueducts are still there and well the pyramids are also there (unless you think Stargate is an accurate historic account of events). People weren't stupid, and building big whilst labor intensive isn't particularly hard.
We marvel at those aqueducts and pyramids in the same way we marvel at this. WE shouldn't pooh-pah one accomplishment just because another exists that we're culturally more familiar with.
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They did. They preserved authorship in all their works. Their additions were in the form of footnotes, comments and original works. They translated works of Ptolomy, Euclid, Archimedes, Aristotle, Galen for us. They also produced very important works in Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, etc. I challenge you to find translators for those languages in Medieval Europe when literacy rate was less than 1%. Their contributions were…
>I challenge you to find translators for those languages in Medieval Europe This is the Western European point of view I referenced in my other comment. These works were also being preserved in Latin and Greek in Constantinople for the entire duration of the Middle Ages in Western Europe and the rise and fall of the Golden Islamic Age.
Albert Magnus and his pupil Thomas Aquinas studied from Aristotle translations made in Toledo.
Nicolaus Copernicus studied from Ptolomy books translated in Toledo.
Roger Bacon studied from translations made in Toledo.
So, stop trying to imply that translations came from Byzantium and not Al-Andalus.
> The Pool of the Arches allows visitors to relive the city’s glorious past. Caliph Harun al Rashid, who commissioned the pool, ruled during the Golden Age of Islam, when economics, science and culture flourished from the western edge of the empire in Spain all the way into Asia. The significance and accomplishments of this period became clear as our boat glided through the dark water under the tall arches, still sta…
Compare, for example, the Basilica Cistern. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern It was built in Constantinople maybe 2 centuries earlier, and one would think that the technology persisted.
The title should say "Arabic golden age" the secular attributes alone of the Arab culture created that golden age. In fact the golden age ENDED for religious reasons (just like the Catholic church did with Galileo for example) before the Mongols invaded. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwXtTwNvWXc and http://www.patheos.com/blogs/marginoferr/2014/06/05/lets-sto...
Israeli Jew here. And I think that's a bit unfair. There's a critical difference between Islam and Christianity, and it bears nothing, because without grasping this detail you can't really give Islam a fair understanding. Secularism in the Christian World is the result of peacemaking after the Wars of Religion. It's 1648, you want Christians to stop killing each other. Since this involves a religion whose followers e…
and it bears noting?
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Compare, for example, the Basilica Cistern. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern It was built in Constantinople maybe 2 centuries earlier, and one would think that the technology persisted.
It's so obvious, I'm embarrassed to say it, but I can't help myself. The Mines of Moria.