Interesting coincidence (?)...right now (6 PM PDT), "History 2" channel is showing season 3, episode 2 of "Ancient Discoveries", "Machines of the East": "Examining the inventions of Arab engineer Al-Jazari, who lived in what is now modern Turkey in the 13th century, whose designs included a water clock and a variety of geared mechanisms".
Al-Jazari
51–60 of 127 posts
Re: Al-Jazari
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once we replace "Islamic contribution" with "Arab contribution", we will move forward.
This isn't a very fair or accurate statement given that many of the greatest scholars of Islam weren't Arab (a large number were Persian for example). There were multiple centres of scientific endeavor throughout Islamic history including (but not limited to) Baghdad, Damascus, Al-Andalus (i.e. Islamic Spain) and Africa. Much of the Islamic scholarship at the time revolved around gaining a greater understanding of th…
Right, a Muslim scholar in Persia could be seen as a Persian scholar or a Muslim scholar. However, Arabs often end up looking at their contributions as Islamic Contributions, or rather Arab-Islamic dismissing non-Muslim Arabs. To your point, there were many non-Muslim Arab scholars.
Re: Al-Jazari
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
They weren't Arabs...
Arab can be a very generic and overly used term in many conversations. Please define who you think are Arabs. Also the link this whole thread is about on wikipedia is about a Scientist from Turkey, not Arabia. > "Badi'al-Zaman Abū al-'Izz ibn Ismā'īl ibn al-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206) (Arabic: بديع الزمان أَبُو اَلْعِزِ بْنُ إسْماعِيلِ بْنُ الرِّزاز الجزري) was a Muslim polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engi…
Arab is not really generic. It is an ethnicity. An Arab does to have to be living in Arabia. Cizre at that time, was inhabited by Arabs. Al Jazari was an Arab, living in Cizre (Jazeera Ibn Amr in Arabic). It happens that this city today is a Turkish city.
Re: Al-Jazari
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
They weren't Arabs...
Arab can be a very generic and overly used term in many conversations. Please define who you think are Arabs. Also the link this whole thread is about on wikipedia is about a Scientist from Turkey, not Arabia. > "Badi'al-Zaman Abū al-'Izz ibn Ismā'īl ibn al-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206) (Arabic: بديع الزمان أَبُو اَلْعِزِ بْنُ إسْماعِيلِ بْنُ الرِّزاز الجزري) was a Muslim polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engi…
Arab is not really generic. It is an ethnicity. An Arab does to have to be living in Arabia. Cizre at that time, was inhabited by Arabs. Al Jazari was an Arab, living in Cizre (Jazeera Ibn Amr in Arabic). It happens that this city today is a Turkish city.
Re: Al-Jazari
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a hateful comment. How can one judge a man who lived in the 7th century by today's standards?! Objectively speaking, a warlord he might have been but a misogynist and a pedophile surely he wasn't.
Because he is the perfect example to follow for all humans according to Muslims? He definitely was a misogynist and a pedophile according to Islamic texts. Would you like some links?
So was every single religious figure..
Re: Al-Jazari
#56Another interesting Arab from that general period is Ahmad al-Tifashi [1]. He was a poet, writer, and anthologist, mainly known for his anthology "Promenade of the Hearts" of poetry, jokes, and anecdotes of an erotic nature or about sexual practices. An English translation of the gay chapters is available: "The Delight of Hearts: Or What You Will Not Find in Any Book" [2]. I've got it, and it is an amusing, entertain…
In the same vein, Abu Nuwas did a lot more than clown around for Harun al-Rashid in the Arabian Nights
Re: Al-Jazari
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a hateful comment. How can one judge a man who lived in the 7th century by today's standards?! Objectively speaking, a warlord he might have been but a misogynist and a pedophile surely he wasn't.
Because he is the perfect example to follow for all humans according to Muslims? He definitely was a misogynist and a pedophile according to Islamic texts. Would you like some links?
I await your similar frenzied expose of Richard the Lionheart with bated breath....
Re: Al-Jazari
#58The Islamic Golden Age is pretty fantastic, not the first time I heard about it and usually a cause of pride among my muslim friends (and for good reason). Too bad we're witnessing the Islamic Dark Ages right now.
One would like to think, along with the slow disintegration of Western Rome, that it might serve as an object lesson to people who naively assume that progress is inevitable and will solve all our problems.
Re: Al-Jazari
#59The Islamic Golden Age is pretty fantastic, not the first time I heard about it and usually a cause of pride among my muslim friends (and for good reason). Too bad we're witnessing the Islamic Dark Ages right now.
Seems like they have been going for the last 700 years.
Which makes me feel that the feelings of pride my Muslim friends feel are unjustified as they have very little in common with the world that made al-Jazari. Or perhaps more importantly, the rest of the world has advanced in 700 years, but they have staid behind.
Re: Al-Jazari
#60The medieval polymaths were a fascinating bunch! Hildegard of Bingen[1] was a contemporary of al-Jazari, and one of the most influential European women of the late Middles Ages.
In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church[2] – a title given by the Catholic Church to only 35 people over the past 2,000 years!
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen
[&] http://www.hildegard-society.org/p/academic-sources.html