Maybe a bit off topic but it's always strange when someone says "Islamic Golden Age" when talking about Iran. Nothing against a specific religion. It's like saying Newton's work came during Christian Golden Age in Europe. The religion had nothing to do with it. In fact, there is a book [1] (in Persian) title "Two Centuries of Silence" that talks about the significant blow to Iran's culture, literature and science aft…
Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
101–110 of 111 posts
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a pretty big assumption. It's natural to like your heritage and it's fine doing so while being respectful of other people's culture and heritage. I like other people to know about my culture for what it really was, what it went through and what it is right now. This is in contrast with how western media has tried to depict Iran as their political foe. Interestingly, Modern Persia and Islam (more with Islamic r…
Right so you have a bit of an agenda here. You want to separate the scholarship. The problem is there really isn't enough historiographical work done here to meaningfully tease out the differences. Surviving primary sources often ended up in the hands of colonial governments which are loathe to open up access today or in the hands of estates of former colonial figures where they rot in a dark room somewhere. Another…
>Right so you have a bit of an agenda here.
A perfectly valid one i.e. nothing wrong with it. That is why "Historical Revisionism" (when done in the pursuit of Truth) is so very important.
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm familiar with the term. So far as I'm aware and some quick online checks suggest likewise[1], it largely came into widespread usage in the 20th century and tends to refer to either the Olttoman Empire or the post-WWI nation-states of the roughly from present day Turkey to Egypt to Iran. Wikipedia gives origin of the term to roughly 1855, at which point it would have referred to the Ottoman Empire, as opposed to I…
> And I'm not aware of either term...being used to apply to the period from the 8th - 13th centuries The Journal of Near Eastern Studies ( https://www.jstor.org/journal/jneareaststud ) is typical in defining its scope as the Near East, from the ancient times to pre-modern Near East. As I said, "Near East" is the standard term for referring to the history/archaeology of this cultural region in pre-modern times. When y…
Thanks, fair points.
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah the famous historians Neil deGrasse Tyson and Joe Rogan... Better to head to /r/askhistorians with those kinds of questions.
How dare they, the arrogant fools, talk to each other /s
Surely I can also talk about aircraft design or Sanskrit, but nobody will pay attention or base their opinions on that, right?
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#105Maybe a bit off topic but it's always strange when someone says "Islamic Golden Age" when talking about Iran. Nothing against a specific religion. It's like saying Newton's work came during Christian Golden Age in Europe. The religion had nothing to do with it. In fact, there is a book [1] (in Persian) title "Two Centuries of Silence" that talks about the significant blow to Iran's culture, literature and science aft…
Well, think of it as a term of art and less a description of the ground truth. We can bike shed whether it's the best description, but it's what we have.
Indeed, there are plenty of examples of similarly reductionist terms used throughout history.
For example, until recently the western world marks the era of history in which we live as existing within the reign of our Lord, Jesus Christ [0]. We have now invented a backronym to work around this unpleasant detail, but we couldn't even get so far as to switch out the letters (so as to avoid upsetting people who we know are going to keep thinking in terms of "anno domini" regardless).
There's also the related "Christendom" [1] term which was in broad usage.
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they ever wanted to increase tourism, just consider: 1. Would you like to visit Persia? 2. Would you like to visit Iran?
It is so unfortunate. I am from Iran and I much prefer the current name. It's an ancient name that includes not only Persians, but also Medians, Partians, etc. Iran has been multi cultural since old times and it's nice to have an inclusive name. I believe after we throw the occupiers (mullahs) out, we have a lot of work to do. The only weird thing with the name Iran, is that it literally means "The Land of Aryans" wh…
Yes the country is for ever Iran, for all iranians of different ethnicities. The connotation in tourists's mind about "Iran" has to change, were the country to be called Persia today, it would have the same negative sound to it like Iran (arguably) does for some today. Also, most people would be able to distinguish a nazi use of the term Aryan and it's original meaning so that's really not a problem with the name Iran
I know that you're not confusing this but as some others might: Persian language is of the Persian people (although there are many non-persian L2 speakers), it should rightfully still called that and should not be confused with the (settled at this point) debate about the name of the country as a whole
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#107The issue I most have with terminology like "blank's Golden Age" is that it heavily implies a complete scope of an exactly defined thing but it's often used to describe nostalgia for something ongoing - something incomplete, which it can't be bc it's scope is undefined and so no "best part" exists yet bc new parts are still coming - like "The Golden Age of Cinema" could easily be ahead of us for a stupid example that also demonstrates it's overuse and misuse.
Who knows - maybe Islam will evolve into something more commercially viable, more able to adapt Western culture, and eventually become the most dominant global religion. That all could be only a prophet away - history is full of them, we're likely due.
I know the Author doesn't think that a future golden age will happen but I don't like to count chickens.
People may disagree with when exactly was the Golden Age of the Roman Empire but it most certainly isn't a future date.
tl;dr - I dislike non-historical "golden ages"
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. Not to mention Farsi has some of the most beautiful proverbs.
And where modern Maths come from... Mosques tile embellishments are actually 2d representations of 4th dimensional math concepts... - Jeasus I have to explain this on HN? -- https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11235-medieval-islami... https://muslimheritage.com/new-discoveries-in-the-islamic-co... etc... much learning you need
I HOPE THAT YOU SUCCEED, PLEASE TELL ME WHEN YOU DOU
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#109Maybe a bit off topic but it's always strange when someone says "Islamic Golden Age" when talking about Iran. Nothing against a specific religion. It's like saying Newton's work came during Christian Golden Age in Europe. The religion had nothing to do with it. In fact, there is a book [1] (in Persian) title "Two Centuries of Silence" that talks about the significant blow to Iran's culture, literature and science aft…
I find it strange when people deny basic well known history regarding this. In fact, post Islam, Persia was at the forefront in what is known as the "Islamic Golden Age".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamization_of_Iran
Books by the Oxford Historian Peter Frankopan are a great read if you want to learn more about this.
Re: Technology of water in ancient Iran from prehistory to the Islamic Golden Age
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "dominant influence" does not mean "exlusive" or even "majority", but "that which has the greatest overall impact in a specific area" The burden of proof for "high impact" is heavy. I recommend reading some of the articles by the Inarah Institute http://inarah.net/publications > on how shaky the dominant Islamic history narrative is. To clarify: It is unclear what the direction of the influence is. Was it Islam tha…
The discovery and dating of Sana’a manuscripts to 630-650AD have debunked much of the “historical critical “ theories of Islam wrt origins of the Quran. It turns out the the traditional narratives seem to be lining up with historical evidence.
In what way, and could you point to a reference on that?