Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Islam Book

["THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 151 See also: The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates 136\u201339 \u25a0 The first modern scientists 152\u201355 \u25a0 The beginnings of Islamic philosophy 156\u201357 \u25a0 Arabic numerals and al-jabr 158\u201361 \u25a0 The uses of astronomy 162\u201363 The ink of the scholar and faster to write than older The House of Wisdom played host to is more holy than the blood forms. As a result, in Baghdad scholars who translated Greek works in the 8th century it became into Arabic. They built upon classical of the martyr. possible to write a book and sell knowledge to make breakthroughs in Prophet Muhammad it in the marketplace for the first fields such as astronomy, as seen here. time in human history. by Euclid and astronomy by accommodate this became known Ptolemy, and through translation The House of Wisdom as the House of Wisdom, or Beit introduced their ideas into the The translation movement reached al-Hikma in Arabic. Arabic-speaking Islamic world. a peak during the 20-year reign of the dynasty\u2019s seventh ruler, Caliph No one knows what form the Paper and penmanship al-Mamun (r. 813\u2013833). Half Arab, House of Wisdom took because The preservation and spread of half Persian, al-Mamun promoted no exact written description or knowledge was aided by the Arab an openness toward other religions archaeological evidence survives, replacement of costly parchment and cultures that attracted scholars but it was probably more than just with paper, which had been in every field from all over the a library. Written evidence suggests invented by their trading partners, empire to gravitate to Baghdad. it also fulfilled the function of an the Chinese. A paper mill was academy, attracting many of the established in Baghdad in 795. At This environment encouraged outstanding figures in Islam\u2019s the same time, a new Arabic script free thinking and led to an golden age of learning. The was developed that was more fluid increasing amount of original translation movement lasted writing in astronomy, mathematics, approximately two hundred years. The oldest universities medicine, philosophy, and the During that time, Abbasid Baghdad various branches of science. Often, became a center for learning that Baghdad was far from being the foreign rulers defeated in battle would not be equaled until the sole example of an early Islamic would be required to hand over Renaissance in Italy in the 15th city of learning. The world\u2019s books as part of the terms of and 16th centuries. \u25a0 oldest continually operating surrender. Al-Mamun reputedly university was established in sought to bring together all of the Fez, Morocco, in 859. Called world\u2019s knowledge under one roof; al-Kairouan, it was founded by and the institution he created to a woman named Fatima al-Fihri, whose family were originally of in Islamic law, astronomy, the Quraysh tribe from Mecca. philosophy, and logic. During the reign of Sultan Salah al-Din In 972, the Ismaili Shia (r. 1174\u201393) the university Fatimid dynasty founded became a Sunni institution, and al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, which it remains the leading university began accepting students three of Sunni Islamic learning today. years later. Classes were given It stands for a more moderate form of Islam than that promoted by the likes of Saudi Arabia. The Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar is considered by some Muslims to be the highest authority in Sunni Islamic jurisprudence and thought.","152 IN CONTEXT BCTAHEONTENDWRFSELECIIECISENTNNICSOELAM THEME The first modern scientists DR. OSMAN BAKAR OF THE CENTER FOR MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING WHEN AND WHERE 10th\u201311th centuries, across the Islamic world BEFORE 5th and 4th centuries bce The leading figures of classical Greece produce great works on many scientific subjects. However, these remain almost purely theoretical. 762 ce The fledgling Abbasid caliphate founds a new capital in Baghdad, where it sponsors scholarship and research. AFTER 1543 Andreas Vesalius publishes On the Fabric of the Human Body and Nicolaus Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. T here is a fringe view held by some Muslims that the texts of the Quran and the hadith contain everything that anyone would ever need to know about the world. It follows from this that there is no point in scientific enquiry\u2014some even consider the pursuit of science un-Islamic. Such thinking has always existed in Islam but it has always been the view of a small minority. Most Muslims see science as a means of increasing knowledge, which is something that is explicitly encouraged by the Quran. Numerous Quranic verses instruct followers to observe and reflect upon natural phenomena,","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 153 See also: The House of Wisdom 150\u201351 \u25a0 Arabic numerals and al-jabr 158\u201361 \u25a0 The uses of astronomy 162\u201363 \u25a0 The example of Islamic Spain 166\u201371 \u25a0 Ibn Sina and the Canon of Medicine 172\u201373 Some Muslims believe Some Muslims descriptions of experiments, that pursuing scientific believe that the Quran including the apparatus required studies is a collective duty contains the answers and how it was to be used. The of the Muslim community. to all the questions about results of the experiments were Many verses of the Quran our world that any believer presented in support of his theories. specifically ask Muslims could wish to know. Ibn al-Haytham\u2019s most to observe and study important theory related to how the world. we see. The Greeks believed that we see because rays of light are something that has usually been (Book of Optics), a revolutionary emitted from our eyes that interpreted as encouragement for seven-volume treatise on the illuminate objects. Ibn al-Haytham scientific enquiry. mathematical theory of vision, was the first to deduce that the published in 1021. reverse is true and that vision The correct way of seeing works through the refraction of light Abu Ali al-Hassan ibn al-Haytham, The basic principles of through the eye\u2019s lens. He also better known simply as Ibn geometric optics had been laid deduced that refraction is correctly al-Haytham (or Alhazen in the down in ancient Greece by Plato explained by light moving more West), was born in Basra, in what and Euclid, including such ideas slowly in denser mediums, such is now southern Iraq, around 965. as light traveling in straight lines as the eye\u2019s lens, because more In his early years he worked and the laws of reflection. Where particles get in its way. He also as a civil servant for the Abbasid Ibn al-Haytham differed was that investigated meteorological rulers in his hometown, but he soon rather than dealing in the purely aspects related to the rainbow, abandoned the post to pursue theoretical, his Book of Optics was as well as exploring the nature an intellectual career in Cairo, the a true science book, with detailed of celestial phenomena such as capital of the rival Fatimid dynasty. eclipses and moonlight. He caught the attention of the Fatimid caliph with a proposal for The Latin translation of Ibn a dam. While he ultimately failed al-Haytham\u2019s book on optics was in his dam-building attempts, Ibn to have a wide influence on \u276f\u276f al-Haytham did produce a vast body of other valuable work, writing more than 200 manuscripts in fields including astronomy, engineering, ethics, mathematics, music, politics, and theology. However, his most influential thinking was compiled in the Kitab al-Manazir Ibn al-Haytham\u2019s Book of Optics describes how he thought the eye was anatomically constructed and then considers how this anatomy might function as an optical system.","154 THE FIRST MODERN SCIENTISTS The extremist among them would stamp the sciences as atheistic. Al-Biruni medieval European scientists set. From this, using geometry Al-Biruni studied almost all fields of and philosophers and, thanks to and a value for the size of Earth science and wrote treatises related to an edition published in Basel in provided by astronomers in most of them. This illustration, from 1572, on mathematicians such Baghdad, al-Jayyani deduced one of his astronomical works, explains as Johannes Kepler (1571\u20131630), the height of Earth\u2019s atmosphere the different phases of the moon. Ren\u00e9 Descartes (1596\u20131650), and to be 52 miles (84 km). In the 20th Christiaan Huygens (1629\u201395). century with the aid of jet aircraft, The supreme polymath geophysicists determined that the While it is possible to determine How high is the sky? border between Earth\u2019s atmosphere the key achievements of Ibn Another 11th-century Arab and space is actually about 62 miles al-Haytham and Ibn Muadh, physicist, Ibn Muadh al-Jayyani (100 km). The Islamic scientist, the output of Abu Rayhan (989\u20131079) of Cordoba, also worked who lived 900 years ago, was just Muhammad al-Biruni (973\u20131050) is in the field of optics and celestial 10 miles (16 km) out. so exceptional in so many areas it phenomena. He recognized that is difficult to know where to begin. twilight following a sunset must be due to illuminated water vapor Born in Central Asia, al-Biruni high in the upper atmosphere spent most of his adult life in reflecting light after the sun has Ghazni, in Afghanistan, serving as a scholar and advisor at the What happened to Muslim science? court of the Ghaznavid sultan. There was almost nothing he saw Science in the Islamic world lost. The new Islamic empires that did not attract his interest. flourished from about 700 to that emerged were Turkish, He wrote a book on determining the 11th century, then went into Persian, and Indian and lacked the coordinates of cities, which decline. By contrast, European a spirit of cooperation. There is provided crucial assistance in scientific activity was negligible also a view that the Islamic determining the direction of Mecca until about the 15th century, orthodoxy movement gained the for prayer. He also produced a major when it suddenly burst into life upper hand over the rationalists study of India, the first work of its and quickly overtook the Islamic and succeeded to some extent kind, which included analyses of world. So what happened to in \u201cre-Islamicizing\u201d science by the relationships between Greek Islamic science? portraying the Quran as the sole civilization and that of the Hindus, source of knowledge. and between Islam and Hinduism. Some historians suggest that when the Mongols razed In the modern era, science in Baghdad and the Christians the Islamic world is resurgent, reconquered Spain, the two with three recent Muslim Nobel poles of Islamic learning were Prize winners in science.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 155 In other fields, al-Biruni compiled Vesalius and On the Revolutions Modern renaissance a pharmacopoeia that described of the Heavenly Spheres (with its Pakistani Muhammad Abdus Salam all the medicines known at the thesis that Earth moves round the (1926\u201396) was a corecipient of the time, listing the names for drugs sun) by Polish astronomer Nicolaus 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for his in multiple languages. He was also Copernicus. But there is no doubt contribution in the field of particle an outstanding mathematician that Ibn al-Haytham and al-Biruni physics. In his acceptance speech who used calculus to describe the were \u201cmodern scientists\u201d 500 years he quoted from the Quran to the motion of heavenly bodies, laying before. Both embodied the spirit effect that the deeper we seek, the the groundwork for Isaac Newton\u2019s of the experimental method in more our wonder is excited. Salam laws of motion more than 600 years science. While we do not know Ibn was the first Muslim scientist to be later. In physics, al-Biruni came al-Haytham\u2019s views on theology, honored with a Nobel Prize since up with a variety of methods for al-Biruni was quite clear when he the awards began in 1901. But, as exploring densities, weight, and stated that the Quran \u201cdoes not on occasion he pointed out, he was even gravity. interfere with the business of following in a highly distinguished science nor does it infringe on and venerable tradition of ground- Scientific method the realm of science.\u201d breaking Islamic scientists. \u25a0 In common with the recorded practices of Ibn al-Haytham, al-Biruni\u2019s approach to scientific discovery was very similar to the modern scientific method. It consisted of a repeating cycle of observation, hypothesis, and experimentation, backed by independent verification. When al-Biruni could not find definitive evidence for a theory he remained neutral\u2014even over the question that vexed some of the greatest minds of the era. This question was whether the sun and planets orbited Earth (following Ptolemy\u2019s geocentric theory), or whether Earth and the other planets orbited the sun (this was the heliocentric theory). In this neutral stance al-Biruni was acting in accordance with the Quran, which states in sura 17:36, \u201cDo not follow what you know not.\u201d Historians sometimes claim that modern science began in 1543, which saw the publication of both On the Fabric of the Human Body by Italian anatomist Andreas Typifying Islam\u2019s genius for applied science, engineer al-Jazari (1136\u20131206) invented various clocks, including this \u201celephant clock\u201d which operated via hydraulics in the animal\u2019s belly.","156 BWACEEKASNSHOHOWAUMLLEEDDDNGTOEOTTRUTH ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY BY AL-KINDI (9th CENTURY) IN CONTEXT B aghdad\u2019s House of Wisdom knowledge of God and a clearer produced a number of understanding of the words of the THEME celebrated scholars, many Quran. Their opponents, however, The beginnings of Islamic of them polymaths excelling in a maintained that secular philosophy philosophy wide range of fields. The first of was un-Islamic. these Abbasid polymaths was WHEN AND WHERE al-Kindi (Latinized as Alkindus On First Philosophy 9th century, across the in the West), who is best known Islamic world for introducing the philosophy of Of the many works written by Aristotle to the Arabic-speaking al-Kindi, the most famous is called BEFORE world in the 9th century. He On First Philosophy. It begins pre-9th century made the Greek philosopher\u2019s with an invitation to the reader to Knowledge of Greek learning work not only accessible but honor ancient Greek philosophical declines in the West with the acceptable, by fusing Aristotelian wisdom. Al-Kindi argues that no fall of the Byzantine Empire. philosophy with Islamic theology. one should ignore the achievements Many Greek texts, however, of past scholars on the basis that are translated by the Al-Kindi (c.800\u201373) was a follower they are of a different race, culture, Sasanians, and preserved. of a doctrine known as Mutazilism or creed. He accuses those who fail (literally, \u201cthose who separate to appreciate the contribution of AFTER themselves\u201d), which believed in the Greeks of being narrow-minded 11th century Ibn Sina a spirit of rational enquiry and and lacking in faith in Islam. (Avicenna) further attempts to opposed the literal interpretation of reconcile rational philosophy the Quran. The Mutazilites believed On First Philosophy includes with Islamic theology. that it was the human intellect that a celebrated discussion of the guided mankind toward a true eternity of the world. Aristotle 11th century Al-Ghazali believed that the universe has writes The Incoherence of the Philosophers, attacking the use Introducing God into Aristotle of philosophy in theology. Aristotle believed that the Al-Kindi argued that the 12th century Ibn Rushd universe had existed universe had a starting publishes The Incoherence of \u201cthe Incoherence,\u201d refuting forever, hence no creator. point and was brought into al-Ghazali\u2019s work. being by a creator.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 157 See also: Sufism and the mystic tradtion 140\u201345 \u25a0 The House of Wisdom 150\u201351 \u25a0 Arabic numerals and al-jabr 158\u201361 \u25a0 The example of Islamic Spain 166\u201371 \u25a0 Ibn Sina and The Canon of Medicine 172\u201373 Ignorance leads to fear, and must have come into being fear leads to hatred, and together with the universe. This hatred leads to violence. finiteness of the universe allowed al-Kindi to identify God as creator Ibn Rushd of the world, who brought it into being out of nothing. existed forever. But if the universe is eternal then there is no creator Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd Al-Farabi founded his own school of and therefore no God. For al-Kindi, In the 10th century, a scholar named philosophy known as \u201cFarabism.\u201d He a devout Muslim, the problem was al-Farabi (c. 872\u2013950), known in the aimed at synthesizing philosophy and how to fit God and Creation, as West as Alpharabius, continued to Sufism. He is featured on this stamp from described in the Quran, into this explore the intersection of Islam Kazakhstan, his presumed birthplace. view of the cosmos. and classical philosophy. Al-Farabi wrote commentaries on the works the West as Averroes, was an Al-Kindi came up with a of the Greeks, with an emphasis Andalusian who argued that strongly reasoned argument to on central Islamic themes, such as philosophy cannot contradict refute the idea of an eternal law, prophecy, political succession, revelations in Islam because they universe, which he was able to and jurisprudence. are just two different methods of express in mathematical terms. reaching the truth, and \u201ctruth His reasoning led him to believe Ibn Sina (980\u20131037), better cannot contradict truth.\u201d \u25a0 that time could not have existed known in the West as Avicenna, before the creation of the universe was a devout Muslim from Central Asia, who sought to reconcile rational philosophy with Islamic theology. He came up with a formal argument for proving the existence of God, known as the \u201cProof of the Truthful.\u201d It has been called one of the most influential medieval arguments for God\u2019s existence. Ibn Rushd (1126\u201398), known in Al-Kindi We know little about the life of As well as supervising the Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi, better translation of Greek texts, known simply as al-Kindi. He was al-Kindi produced more than 200 born around the year 800 into works of his own. He wrote on pure-blooded aristocratic Arab an astonishing range of subjects lineage. He was a member of the from ethics to music, and from powerful Kinda tribe, originally the workings of the human eye from Yemen but influential in to swordmaking. He played an Arabia since before the time of important role in introducing Islam. He was born in Kufa, in Indian numerals to the Islamic present-day Iraq, but probably world, and subsequently Arabic moved to Baghdad early in life numerals to the Christian world. and received his education there. However, he is best known for founding an entire philosophical He showed great early promise tradition on which Islamic as a scholar and was recruited to thinkers were able to build for work under the patronage of centuries. He died in 873. Caliph al-Mamun (r. 813\u201333).","158 IN CONTEXT OPTAHFREBTRRSEOUKNEINON THEME Arabic numerals and THE COMPENDIUM ON CALCULATING BY al-jabr REJOINING AND BALANCING BY AL-KHWARIZMI (8th CENTURY) WHEN AND WHERE 9th century, Baghdad BEFORE 1650 bce In ancient Egypt, the Rhind papyrus includes solutions to linear equations. 300 bce Euclid\u2019s Elements lays the foundations of geometry. c.3rd century ce The Greek mathematician Diophantus uses symbols to represent unknown quantities. 7th century Brahmagupta solves the quadratic equation. AFTER 1202 Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa) uses the Hindi-Arabic number system in his Liber Abaci (Book of Calculation). S ome time around 830, House of Wisdom scholar Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi completed a work that would revolutionize mathematics. Its opening pages include a dedication that explicitly delineates the link between Islamic faith and intellectual endeavor: \u201cThat fondness for science, by which God has distinguished the Imam al-Mamun, the Commander of the Faithful \u2026 has encouraged me to compose a short work on calculating by (the rules of) completion and reduction.\u201d This book, The Compendium on Calculating by Rejoining and Balancing (in Arabic, Kitab","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 159 See also: The House of Wisdom 150\u201351 \u25a0 The beginnings of Islamic philosophy 156\u201357 \u25a0 The uses of astronomy 162\u201363 \u25a0 Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 174\u201375 al-Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-Jabr w\u2019al- Algebra deals They are related to Muqabala) laid out the principles with numbers and things that are known. that are the foundation of modern quantities that are algebra, which in itself is the Unknown quantities unifying thread of almost all unknown. can be determined by of mathematics. examining the things The determination Al-jabr equals algebra of the unknown that are known. Al-Khwarizmi introduced some quantities is possible. The Compendium on Calculating fundamental operations, which he is divided into two halves. In described as reduction, rejoining, numerous instances in which these the first, al-Khwarizmi lays down and balancing. The process of mathematical formulas could be the rules of algebra and the reduction (which we now call of use: \u201cin cases of inheritance, sequences necessary to solve simplifying an equation) could legacies, partition, lawsuits, and different problems. The second be done by rejoining (in Arabic, trade \u2026 or where the measuring part of the book is full of examples al-jabr, from where we get the word of lands, the digging of canals, of his methods as applied to a algebra)\u2014in other words, moving geometrical computations, and wide range of everyday problems. \u276f\u276f subtracted terms to the other other objects of various sorts and side of an equation\u2014and then kinds are concerned.\u201d balancing the equation. Al-Khwarizmi did not invent these processes, but he brought together obscure mathematical rules, known only to a few at the time, and turned them into an instruction manual for solving mathematical problems that might occur in everyday situations. At the start of the book, he describes Al-Khwarizmi Little is known about the life of because he wrote in Arabic and al-Khwarizmi. Historians think did all his work in the context of that he was born around 780 in Arab Abbasid culture. As well Khwarizm\u2014then part of the as his work on algebra, he made Persian Empire, now Khiva in important contributions to Uzbekistan\u2014from which he took trigonometry, advocated the his name. At some point he moved use of Hindi numerals, revised to Baghdad, where he worked at Ptolemy\u2019s Geography, oversaw the court of Caliph al-Mamun. the drafting of a new world Such was the respect in which map, took part in a project to he was held, he was appointed determine the circumference chief astronomer and head of of Earth, and compiled a set the library of the celebrated of astronomical tables for the House of Wisdom. movements of the sun, the moon, and the five planets known at While probably Persian, the time. Al-Khwarizmi died al-Khwarizmi is usually described around 850. as an Arab mathematician","160 ARABIC NUMERALS AND AL-JABR Instead of the mathematical When I consider what Although better known for his symbols we use today, al-Khwarizmi people generally want in poetry, the Persian Omar Khayyam wrote his equations entirely in calculating, I found that it (1048\u20131131) was also a highly words, supported by diagrams. accomplished mathematician. For example, he wrote out the always is a number. His Treatise on Demonstration of equation (x\/3 + 1)(x\/4 + 1) = 20 as Al-Khwarizmi Problems of Algebra (1070) dealt \u201cA quantity: I multiplied a third of with cubic equations. it and a dirham by a fourth of it and the \u201cEgyptian reckoner\u201d attempted a dirham; it becomes twenty.\u201d The to solve indeterminate equations Arabic numerals dirham was a coin, which was (those with more than one solution). Among the lasting contributions used by al-Khwarizmi to signify He further explored this topic in made by Islamic mathematicians a single unit. his Book of Birds (Kitab al-Tair), was the popularization of the in which he posed a miscellany decimal system that is used The \u201cEgyptian reckoner\u201d of bird-related algebra problems, throughout the world today. This Al-Khwarizmi\u2019s text inspired including: \u201cHow many ways can has its origins in India, where the countless mathematicians one buy 100 birds in the market use of nine symbols along with throughout the Islamic world. with 100 dirhams?\u201d. zero was developed in the 1st The Egyptian mathematician to 4th centuries ce to allow any Abu Kamil (c. 850\u2013930) wrote number to be written efficiently. the Book of Algebra (Kitab fi al- The system was adopted and Jabr w\u2019al-Muqabala), which was refined by mathematicians in designed to be an academic Baghdad\u2014hence the name, the treatise for other mathematicians. Hindi-Arabic decimal system. In In another book, Rare Things in the the 9th century, both al-Khwarizmi Art of Calculation (Kitab al-Taraif and the philosopher al-Kindi wrote fi al-Hisab), the man nicknamed books on the subject. Their work India, 1st century ce The spread of Islam through parts of India in the India, 9th century 8th century led to Arab mathematicians learning of Hindi numerals, including zero. The system was adopted by Arab mathematicians in Baghdad and spread through the Islamic world. The 13th-century Italian scholar Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa) first discovered the numerals in North Africa and made them known throughout Europe. Muslim Spain, c.11th century Arabia, c.11th century India, c.11th century Europe, 15th century Europe, 16th century","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 161 Islamic mathematicians gather that finally saw Europe adopt Damascus. The name Uqlidisi in the library of a mosque in this Hindi-Arabic numerals, which refers to Euclid, and may mean illustration from a manuscript by came into widespread use by the that al-Uqlidisi earned his living the 12th-century poet and scholar late 15th or early 16th century. by making and selling copies of al-Hariri of Basra. Euclid\u2019s famous work Elements. The decimal point In his book, al-Uqlidisi uses a was later translated into Latin The Arabs can also take the credit slanted dash over the number and published in the West, thus for introducing the decimal point, that is the decimal; this would introducing Europeans to the which allowed mathematicians to later evolve into the decimal decimal system, which was known express fractions of whole numbers. point as we know it today. in the Middle Ages only as Arabic This small but crucial symbol first numerals. However, decimal appears in The Book of Chapters Influence in the West numbers were regarded for a long on Hindu Arithmetic (Kitab al-Fusul The discoveries and rules set time as symbols of the heathen fi al-Hisab al-Hindi) by Abu down by medieval Islamic Muslim enemy. Instead, Europe al-Hassan al-Uqlidisi (c. 920\u201380), scholars are still the foundation persisted with Roman numerals, possibly written around 952 in of much of mathematics today, in which numbers are represented particularly algebra. When in letters. This continued to work Whoever thinks algebra is a al-Khwarizmi\u2019s Compendium on well for most purposes in daily trick in obtaining unknowns Calculating was translated into life, all numbers up to 1,000 being Latin 300 years after his death, his represented by combinations of has thought it in vain. style was so clear and authoritative just seven letters (I, V, X, L, C, D, Omar Khayyam that his book became the standard M; representing 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, mathematical text in Europe for 500 and 1,000). However, it was centuries to come. Its Latin title, incredibly cumbersome when Liber Algorismi, made its author\u2019s applied to mathematics. For Latinized name (Algorismi) a example, the basic multiplication household word synonymous with 42 x 58 = 2436 becomes XLII x arithmetic itself. It also gave us the LVIII = MMCDXXXVI. It was English word \u201calgorithm,\u201d which only the interest in mathematics stands as a tribute to the greatest during the Italian Renaissance of Muslim mathematicians. \u25a0","162 HOABBAVOSEVERETVHTEEHDYEMTNHE..E.V?ESRKY THE QURAN, 50:6 IN CONTEXT I slam is one of the few religions Baghdad was a major center of in history in which scientific astronomy under the Abbasid THEME procedures are necessary for caliphs from the 8th century The uses of astronomy religious ritual. The observation of onward. Working from the celestial bodies plays an essential Almagest, a Greek astronomical WHEN AND WHERE part in the organization of the lunar treatise on the motions of the stars 10th\u201313th centuries ce, calendar and religious festivals, and and planetary paths, written by across the Islamic world in the regulation of the five daily Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd prayers, the timings of which are century ce, House of Wisdom BEFORE astronomically defined. The sun scholars double-checked its 2nd century ce The Greek also plays another role in the rituals measurements. The Arab polymath Ptolemy writes the of Islam by helping to determine mathematician al-Khwarizmi Almagest, an astronomical the qibla, or direction of prayer. (c. 780\u2013c. 850) compiled the first treatise on the motion of the known tables of daily prayer times, stars and planets. Locating Mecca his calculations assisted by direct Five times a day Muslims around astronomical observations. 476\u2013550 The Indian the world face Mecca to pray. mathematician Aryabhata Determining the compass direction If the distance from the Kaaba produces the Aryabhatiya, of Mecca is therefore of the utmost is small, its direction may be a highly influential Sanskrit importance. In the 10th century, astronomical treatise. Islamic astronomers discovered determined by a diligent that there are two days in the year seeker, but when the distance AFTER when at a precisely determined is great, only the astronomers 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus time the sun passes directly above can determine that direction. proposes a heliocentric model Mecca. On those days, anyone in of the Solar System. His work the same (northern) hemisphere as Al-Biruni is defended by Galileo Galilei Mecca could easily determine the (1564\u20131642). qibla by noting the position of the sun at the correct time of day and 1576 The first notable determining its compass direction. European observatory is Two different days could be used to established by Tycho Brahe, determine the correct direction of three centuries after Maragha. the qibla for worshippers in the southern hemisphere.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 163 See also: The Five Pillars of Islam: salat 42\u201343 \u25a0 The Islamic calendar 116\u201317 \u25a0 The House of Wisdom 150\u201351 \u25a0 Arabic numbers and al-jabr 158\u201361 The direction of Mecca from Anyone who does not know any location is determined that he does not know is stuck using the \u201cGreat Circle\u201d method\u2014in other forever in double ignorance. words via the shortest Nasr al-Din al-Tusi route (over one of the Poles if necessary). A succession of renowned Muslim The Maragha Revolution with new solar and lunar theories. astronomers built on al-Khwarizmi\u2019s By the 13th century, Islamic For example, in order to explain the work; among the greatest of these astronomy was at its zenith. In varying speeds of some planets as were the Syrian al-Battani (c. 858\u2013 1259, Mongol warlord Hulagu Khan they moved across the cosmos, 929) and the Egyptian Ibn Yunus built an observatory at Maragha Ptolemy had suggested that planets (c. 950\u20131009). One of al-Battani\u2019s in northwestern Iran. Here, Persian rotated around poles that did not best-known achievements was the astronomer Nasr al-Din al-Tusi coincide with their centers, which determination of the solar year as (1201\u201374) and his successors made is impossible. Muslim astronomers 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes, use of a giant quadrant, which invented new models that produced and 24 seconds, which is only measured the planets\u2019 elevations the same effects without violating 2 minutes and 22 seconds off. as they crossed the meridian. With the laws of physics. this apparatus the astronomers Earth at the center could produce increasingly accurate Some of the ideas developed Drawing from Ptolemy\u2019s Almagest, planetary tables (in Arabic, zijes). by Islamic astronomers inspired the early Islamic astronomers Polish astronomer Nicolaus adopted his view that Earth was The observatory attracted Copernicus, who overturned the at the center of the solar system, scholars from as far afield as China. Ptolemaic universe in 1543 when and that the other planets rotated They collectively contributed to he proposed that the planets around it. Only occasionally was what was known as the Maragha revolved around the sun rather this questioned\u2014the 10th-century Revolution, which overhauled than around Earth. \u25a0 astronomer al-Biruni did consider Ptolemy\u2019s work on astronomy and a heliocentric system that had the replaced the Greek\u2019s hypotheses sun at its center, but he could not prove it and so settled for retaining The direction of Mecca, or qibla, an open mind on the subject. is commonly indicated in public buildings in the Muslim world.","164 SBPETROOEPRALDIEESITNMSEEEOLDRFE THAN THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS IN CONTEXT T he Quran existed in oral Tellers of tales form well before its parts In a society that attached great THEME were collected together and importance to the ancient tradition The chain of oral tradition written down in the 7th century. of storytelling, tales of the Prophet Followers of the Prophet learned Muhammad communicated the WHERE AND WHEN and faithfully repeated the words message of Islam most effectively. 9th\u201310th centuries, that had been revealed to him. Individuals known as qussa Baghdad Verses such as, \u201cWe have made the specialized in telling religious Quran easy to remember\u201d (54:17) stories in the mosques. BEFORE suggest the Muslim holy book 224\u2013651 ce The collecting of was intended to be recited. Outside of the mosque, the entertaining stories becomes Today, pious Muslims continue most popular tales were the epics fashionable in pre-Islamic to memorize the Quran and recite of Islamic heroes. The romance of Sasanian Persia. Hazar its verses aloud. They quote it as Abu Zeid, for example, was devoted Afsaneh (A Thousand Stories), a way of expressing their views. to Arab victories over the Berbers for example, was translated in North Africa, and the stories of into Arabic some time in the The Quran emerged at a time al-Zahir Beibars were loosely based 8th or 9th centuries. and place in which writing was on the exploits of a Mamluk sultan scarcely used. Pre-Islamic Arab who ruled Egypt in the 13th 8th century The Homeric society prided itself on orations century. While these story cycles epics are translated into of lengthy pieces of poetry. In Arabic at the Abbasid court. fact, the tradition remains; in the Arabian Gulf, for example, AFTER Million\u2019s Poet\u2014a reality television 1704\u201317 Antoine Galland\u2019s show in which contestants recite French translation introduces self-penned verses to compete The Nights to a non-Arabic- for cash prizes\u2014has become one speaking audience. of the most successful Arab television shows ever produced. 2019 Walt Disney Pictures produces a live-action musical The hakawati, or professional teller film based on the tales of of stories, largely vanished in the 19th Aladdin from The Nights. century. Just a few individuals, such as this performer at a coffeehouse in Damascus, keep the tradition alive.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 165 See also: Al-Jahiliyyah, the Time of Ignorance 20\u201321 \u25a0 Sayings and actions of the Prophet 118\u201323 \u25a0 The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates 136\u201339 \u25a0 Orientalism 218 A partial manuscript In the 14th century, Between 1704 and 1717 called Kitab Hadith Alf Boccaccio\u2019s The Antoine Galland Leila (The Book of Tales Decameron and of the Thousand Nights) publishes his 12-volume indicates these tales Chaucer\u2019s Canterbury French translation of existed as early as Tales both contain The Thousand and c. 800\u2013900 ce. echoes of The Thousand One Nights. and One Nights. Egyptian Nobel Prize- Georges M\u00e9li\u00e8s\u2019 Le Palais The first English- winning author Naguib des mille et une nuits language translation Mahfouz reclaims (1905) becomes the first of The Thousand and Scheherazade for Arabic- cinematic treatment of One Nights appears speakers with Leyali Alf Leila (Arabian Nights The Thousand and in 1811. One Nights. and Days) in 1979. were occasionally written down, Scheherazade, she spends the night the suras in the Quran, some tales they existed primarily in the telling him a beguiling story, which are one short paragraph, others are performances of professional she promises to continue the next hundreds of pages long. The stories storytellers known as hakawati. night, and in this way postpones have no definite birthplace and Hakawati were a common feature of the executioner\u2019s sword. have their roots in the folklore of the life in Muslim cities as far back as Middle East, India, and throughout Umayyad Damascus and Abbasid Arabic-language manuscripts of the Muslim world\u2014although the Baghdad. They told their stories some of these stories exist dating cultures of medieval Baghdad and wherever eager listeners gathered. back to the 9th century, but it is Cairo are always present. They were still common as recently likely Scheherazade predates Islam. as the 19th century. The Nights has no known author In spite of numerous allusions and no fixed table of contents. Like to the Prophet and echoes of the Tales of The Nights Quran, the stories are too full of He recites walking magic and sorcery, bawdiness, and Among all the tales told by the to and fro in the middle amorality to be found respectable. hakawati, those that have come These are tales for the coffeehouse, to be best known outside the of the coffee room. not the family home or mosque. Muslim world are the stories that Alexander Russell make up Alf Leila wa Leila or, as The Nights became known it is translated into English, The The Natural History of Aleppo (1794) outside the Arab-speaking world Thousand and One Nights, or through a translation by the French Arabian Nights. This is a cycle of Orientalist Antoine Galland, stories told to a sultan who is in printed in 1704\u201317. This was the the habit of taking to bed a new first printed version of The Nights, wife every night, only to have in any language. Since then the her killed in the morning. When tales have been retranslated, retold, the sultan selects the wily and adapted in the Western world, in books, music, ballet, and film. \u25a0","OTHRENBARIMLLEIANNTT OF THE WORLD THE SUFFERINGS OF PELAGIUS BY HROTSVITHA OF GANDERSHEIM (10th CENTURY)","","168 THE EXAMPLE OF ISLAMIC SPAIN IN CONTEXT I f the Baghdad of the early The Ishmaelite citizens call it Abbasid caliphs heralded a al-Andalus, and the kingdom THEME golden age of Islamic science The example of and culture, its peak occurred is called Cordoba. Islamic Spain roughly a century later, not in the Hasdai ibn Shaprut Middle East but in Spain. WHEN AND WHERE Jewish vizier to Abd al-Rahman III 912\u201361, Spain In 711, Umayyad general Tarek ibn Ziyad had crossed from North Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads BEFORE Africa into Spain (known as Iberia and eradicated their ruling class. From 5th century Spain to the Romans) and thus extended A prince, Abdul Rahman, escaped is under the control of the Islamic rule into Europe. The the slaughter and fled westward Visigoths, Germanic tribes Muslim presence in Spain, in to the farthest extents of Muslim who invade the region as territories they called al-Andalus, reach\u2014al-Andalus. There he won Roman power declines. lasted almost 800 years. In its control of the Muslim soldiers and prime\u2014from the early 10th to settlers in the recently conquered 641 Muslim armies take over early 11th century\u2014what the West territory and founded an Umayyad Egypt, then Libya. Tunisia falls dubbed Moorish Spain was the state, politically autonomous from in 647, Algeria in 680, and setting for a celebrated chapter the caliph in Baghdad, with the Morocco the following year. of Islamic civilization, in which city of Cordoba as its capital. Muslims, Christians, and Jews 711 Tarek ibn Ziyad leads a coexisted to the benefit of all. For the next century and Muslim Arab and Berber army a half, Abdul Rahman and his across the Straits to invade When ex-British prime minister descendants ruled as emirs of southern Spain. Tony Blair wrote in 2007, \u201cThe Cordoba with nominal control standard-bearers of tolerance in the over the rest of al-Andalus. But AFTER early Middle Ages were far more 1492 The last Muslim ruler likely to be found in Muslim lands of Spain, Sultan Muhammad than in Christian ones,\u201d it was to XII, surrenders Granada to al-Andalus that he was referring. Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. A new capital at Cordoba Initially, al-Andalus was a distant province of the Islamic empire ruled from Damascus. But in the 750s the The conquest of Spain The Strait of Gibraltar, the stretch bulk of Tarek\u2019s army. Of the of sea that separates the tip of various historical accounts of southwestern Europe from North the campaign, at least one has Africa, is named after the Rock of Tarek delivering a speech upon Gibraltar (pictured), which derives reaching Spain, saying, \u201cWe its name from the Arabic Jebel have not come here to return. Tarek, or Tarek\u2019s Mountain. Either we shall conquer and establish ourselves here or we Tarek ibn Ziyad was the will perish,\u201d and setting fire to Umayyad general who led an his own fleet of ships to prevent invading Islamic army across the his army from retreating. strait in 711. Accounts disagree, but it is likely that Tarek was a The Muslims met the former Berber slave. The Berbers Visigoth army, led by their were the pre-Arab inhabitants king, Roderic, at the Battle of of much of North Africa, who Guadalete in 711\u2014the Muslims converted to Islam in the 7th emerged victorious and Roderic century and now made up the lost his life.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 169 See also: Tolerating the beliefs of others 80\u201381 \u25a0 The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates 136\u201339 \u25a0 Islamic art and architecture 194\u2013201 \u25a0 Paradise on Earth 202\u201303 his grandson Abdul Rahman III, In 711, Muslim armies pour An Umayyad noble, who became emir in 912, not only across the Mediterranean Abdul Rahman escapes enforced his power throughout onto the Iberian Peninsula al-Andalus but extended it into the Abbasids, flees to western North Africa as well. to extend the rule of Cordoba, and establishes In 929, he proclaimed himself Islam into Europe. a rival state\u2014al-Andalus. caliph of the entire Islamic world, competing for influence with the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. The glory of al-Andalus Civil war topples The rule of Abdul Under the rule of Abdul Rahman Cordoba, and al-Andalus Rahman III ushers in a III, his son al-Hakam II (r. 961\u201376), splits into warring factions. golden age for al-Andalus. and the regent al-Mansur ibn Abi Amir (r. 981\u20131002), al-Andalus Muslim Berbers from Christian armies became a beacon of learning. Morocco take over Islamic retake Spain and The city of Cordoba came to be Spain but again succumb Muslims are told to known as one of the leading convert or be expelled. cultural and economic centers to internal conflict. in the Islamic world. Flight and forceps citizens with fresh water, and Science and scholarship relied A German nun, Hrotsvitha of hundreds of bathhouses and initially on the Arabic books that Gandersheim (c. 935\u201373), visiting mosques, the city had a reputed 70 arrived from Baghdad, but, over the region in the 10th century, libraries. The royal palace had its time, this western outpost of wrote: \u201cThe brilliant ornament of own library, which was said to have Islam made its own significant the world shone in the west, a noble held about 400,000 books\u2014this at contributions to the world\u2019s city known for the military prowess a time when the largest library in intellectual and technological that its Hispanic colonizers had Europe had probably no more than development. Abbas ibn Firnas brought, Cordoba was its name.\u201d 400. In the words of American (810\u201387) is regarded by some as In addition to paved and well-lit historian Firas Alkhateeb, Cordoba the world\u2019s first aviator. He built streets, aqueducts to supply its was a \u201ccity that served as a bridge a rudimentary hang-glider and between undeveloped, generally launched himself from the side of a illiterate Europe and the great mountain. Some accounts maintain cultured cities of the Muslim world\u201d. he remained airborne for several minutes before he came crashing Medinat al-Zahra was the fortified to the ground. Abu al-Qasim palace-city built by Abdul Rahman III al-Zahrawi (c. 936\u2013c. 1013) was a as the capital of his caliphate. It was physician to Caliph al-Hakam and sacked in 1009. Its remains are located invented more than 100 surgical \u276f\u276f on the outskirts of modern Cordoba.","170 THE EXAMPLE OF ISLAMIC SPAIN instruments, including the forceps Europe lay in mud, and Christians: they were subject used in childbirth. He supposedly Cordoba\u2019s streets to special taxes (jizya) and dress developed inhalant anaesthetic codes, and could not make public sponges soaked in cannabis and were paved. displays of their religious rituals. opium, and perfected the procedure Victor Robinson They could flourish but remained of tracheotomies. His 30-volume second-class citizens. Method of Medicine (Kitab The Story of Medicine (1932) al-Tasrif) was translated into Latin Within a few generations, there to serve as a primary source for characterize al-Andalus. When was a vigorous rate of conversion European knowledge of medicine. Abdul Rahman III became emir from Christianity to Islam. This of Cordoba in 912, the Jews\u2019 civic was encouraged by Muslims with Cordoba was also the place and political status improved a range of civil advantages for of birth of Ibn Rushd (1126\u201398), markedly. The Muslims were converts, notably exemption from known in the West as Averroes, considerably more accepting paying jizya. Intermarriage further a highly influential philosopher of Judaism than the Christian helped to create a society of mixed who produced commentaries on Visigoths had been. Jews were now ethnicity and intermingled faiths. the work of the Greek philosopher allowed to practice their religion A variety of words came into use Aristotle. He is considered by many and live according to the laws and to denote the varied permutations to be the father of secular thought scriptures of their community. They of society: there were terms for a in Europe and one of the most benefited from sharing in much of Christian living under Arab rule important philosophers of all time. Muslim social and economic life. (mozarab); a Muslim living under It was also in al-Andalus that Christian rule (mudejar); a Moses ben Maimon (1135\u20131204), The same rights were extended Christian convert to Islam (muladi); better known as Maimonides, wrote to Christians. There were, however, a Jewish convert to Christianity his definitive text on Jewish law, restrictions placed on both Jews (converso); a Jew who converted which remains central to the subject but remained a secret Jew more than eight centuries later. (marrano); and, later, a Muslim who converted to Christianity (morisco). Jews and Christians That major works of Jewish culture The fall of al-Andalus emerged from Islamic Spain is an The downfall of the Islamic era indication of the pluralism and in Spain was eventually brought religious tolerance that came to about not by Christian\u2013Muslim warfare but through a series of brutal wars of succession for the Cordoban caliphate, beginning in 1009. These ended in 1013, when an invading Muslim Berber army from Morocco sacked Cordoba, massacring its citizens and burning the palace complex and its library to the ground. The new rulers of al-Andalus were the Almoravids, followed by the Almohads, two dynasties that emerged from the Atlas Mountain The wealth and learning of al-Andalus were expressed in its architecture. The Great Mosque of Cordoba, begun in 784, has a prayer hall of unsurpassed magnificence.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 171 These Moors taught Spain and Italy for five centuries. Voltaire A Philosophical Dictionary region of southern Morocco. Under Emirate of Granada, fell in 1492. A Christian and an Arab play chess them, the Islamic presence in Spain The Christian monarchs\u2014Isabella in an illustration from a work made for continued for almost another 280 of Castile and Ferdinand II of Alfonso X (r. 1252\u201384) of Castile and years but the spirit of coexistence Aragon\u2014immediately ordered the Le\u00f3n. Known as Alfonso the Wise, the was diminished. Al-Andalus had expulsion of all Jews from Spain. king fostered a cosmopolitan court. disintegrated into a number of Later, Muslims were also compelled subject for literature, including small principalities called taifas, to convert or be expelled. verse, and movies, and is frequently ruled by politically weak emirs invoked as an ideal for Islamic, if who competed among themselves. The legacy of al-Andalus not global, society. \u25a0 In time, Muslim control of Spain The recapture of Spain gave was also eroded by reconquest from Christian Europe access to the For every [Christian] who can the Christian kingdoms to the north. wealth of knowledge produced in the write a letter in Latin, there The last Muslim territory, the Islamic world. Several cities, notably Toledo, became centers of translation are a thousand who can Ferdinand II of Aragon was the of Arabic texts into Latin. One of express themselves in Arabic king who led campaigns to reconquer the first translations commissioned Spain for the Christians. His tomb in was a Castilian version of the series with elegance, and write Seville has inscriptions in Arabic, of animal fables known as Kalila better poems in this language Hebrew, Latin, and Castilian. wa Dimna, a book meant to instruct rulers and civil servants in making than the Arabs themselves. wise choices. In later centuries, Alvaro of Cordoba when the first universities opened in the major European cities, Christian scholar (c.800\u201361) a great part of their libraries consisted of Latin translations of Arabic texts from Cordoba. Al-Andalus maintains a firm grip on the modern Muslim imagination. It remains a popular","172 KCATNHONEYMOTWPKHLNNIENOTBWGEYILUISETNDSNLGOECETSAOSUFSITESIS IBN SINA (AVICENNA) IN CONTEXT M edicine is \u201ca science In his five-volume work, Ibn Sina from which one learns the sought to collate and organize all THEME conditions of the human known medical knowledge, building Ibn Sina and the Canon body with regard to health and the on a well-developed legacy of Arab of Medicine absence of health, the aim being to medicine. It was during the Islamic protect health when it exists and golden age that medicine first began WHEN AND WHERE restore it when absent\u201d. If this to be treated as a true science, with c. 1012, Bukhara sentence seems to be stating the an emphasis on empirical evidence obvious, it was much less so when and repeatable procedures. BEFORE it was first penned, sometime 9th century In Persia, al-Razi around 1012. It forms part of the Pioneering physicians writes medical works, later opening statement of the Qanun Early Islamic medicine drew translated into Latin. fi al-Tib, or Canon of Medicine, on the ancient Greek theory of written by Persian physician and humors, which divides human c. 1000 In Cordoba, al- philosopher Ibn Sina (980\u20131037). fluids into four basic types: blood, Zahrawi\u2019s encyclopedia of phlegm, yellow bile, and black medicine includes the first bile. The balance between them illustrated guide to surgery. determines an individual\u2019s health. This theory was discredited by AFTER Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi 12th century Persian Ibn (854\u2013925), a Persian pharmacologist Rushd (Averroes) writes a and practicing clinician in a medical encyclopedia, later Baghdad hospital in the late 9th known as the Colliget in Latin. century. Hospitals had become widespread across the Islamic 13th century Ibn al-Nafis world under the Abbasid caliphs. from Damascus is the first to Al-Razi introduced many outline pulmonary circulation progressive practices, including of the blood. Medical treatises by Muslim 15th century Works by scholars included compendiums Ottoman physician Serefeddin of plants and animals necessary Sabuncuoglu show advanced for making a \u201ctheriac,\u201d an antidote Muslim surgical procedures. composed from multiple ingredients.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 173 See also: The House of Wisdom 150\u201351 \u25a0 The beginnings of Islamic philosophy 156\u201357 \u25a0 The example of Islamic Spain 166\u201371 Ibn Sina (Avicenna) establishing a psychiatric ward in Medicine in the Islamic world was Abu Ali al-Hussein ibn his hospital at a time when in other far more advanced than the West during Abdullah ibn Sina was born parts of the world the mentally ill the Middle Ages. Muslim physicians in 980, near Bukhara, in what were regarded as possessed by wrote extensively on anatomy, ailments, is now Uzbekistan. Bukhara demons. He ran clinical trials cures, and clinical practice. at this time was part of the employing a control group, treating Persian Samanid Empire, and one set of patients with bloodletting procedures and instruments used. one of the intellectual centers but not the other, in order to Many of these instruments were of the Islamic world. The young compare the results. invented by al-Zahrawi and his Ibn Sina enjoyed a privileged colleagues; he also pioneered the upbringing. As a boy, he had In Islamic Spain, Abu al-Qasim use of catgut for stitching up memorized the entire Quran al-Zahrawi (936\u20131013) compiled patients after an operation. The and a great deal of Persian the Kitab al-Tasrif (The Method physician Abu al-Qasim Ammar poetry. After studying logic, of Medicine), a 30-volume ibn Ali al-Mawsili (996\u20131020) philosophy, and natural encyclopedia that documented developed a hollow syringe to sciences, he became interested accounts of his and his colleagues\u2019 remove cataracts via suction. in medicine and was a working experiences in treating the sick doctor by the age of 18. and injured, as well as the surgical Canon of Medicine While his most famous An ignorant doctor The studies and practices of these work is on medicine, Ibn Sina is the aide-de-camp and other pioneers gave Ibn Sina is said to have written more a lot to draw on for his Canon of than 450 works, of which of death. Medicine. It was a synthesis of all roughly one third concerned Ibn Sina that had gone before, covering philosophy, which has led to basic medical and physiological Ibn Sina being called \u201cthe principles, and anatomy, as well as most influential philosopher of a compendium of drugs and their the pre-modern era.\u201d He also general properties. For diseases, wrote on alchemy, astronomy, one book covered the diagnosis and geography, math, and physics, treatment of diseases specific to and penned poetry. He died in one part of the body, while another 1037 in Hamadan, Iran, where covered conditions not specific to he is buried. one bodily part, such as poisonous bites and obesity. The Canon also contained Ibn Sina\u2019s own work, such as his explanation of contagious diseases, and the suggestion that physical activity and exercise are important factors in preventing various chronic diseases. When the work was later translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century (and Ibn Sina became known in the West as Avicenna), it remained the predominant text for the teaching of medicine in Europe for the next six centuries. \u25a0","174 IETSVHWEERIUTYNHTIIHVNIENYRGOSUIEN JALAL AL-DIN MUHAMMAD RUMI (13th CENTURY) IN CONTEXT Everything in the universe, including man, THEME The writings of Jalal al-Din is part of an endless Muhammad Rumi flow of life. WHEN AND WHERE Anything that The past, present, 1207\u201373, Turkey ceases to exist in one and future are form is always reborn linked in one BEFORE 644 Ali ibn Abi Talib, in another form. endless continuum. Muhammad\u2019s cousin and son-in-law, becomes caliph. J alal al-Din Muhammad Rumi man with the divine. One of the was born in 1207, in Balkh, greatest poets in the Persian 10th century Ali\u2019s mystical Afghanistan, which was language, he is also said to be interpretation of the Quran then a center of Persian culture. He the best-selling poet in the United becomes the basis for Sufism. was a devout Muslim, an Islamic States today. scholar, an expert in Islamic law, AFTER a theologian, and a Sufi. He Rumi was raised in the 1273 Rumi\u2019s followers found developed a version of Sufism that orthodox tradition of Islam. The the Mevlevi order of Sufism sought to explain the relationship of family moved frequently, staying in based in Konya, Turkey. Baghdad for a while,, before settling 1925 After the founding of a secular republic in Turkey, the Mevlevi order is banned. It remains illegal until 1954. 1976 American poet Coleman Barks begins publishing his paraphrasings of 19th-century translations of Rumi\u2019s work, reaching many more readers in the West.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 175 See also: The emergence of Shia Islam 108\u2013115 \u25a0 Sufism and the mystic tradition 140\u201345 \u25a0 The secularization of Turkey 228\u201331 \u25a0 The creation of Pakistan 242\u201347 in Anatolia in Turkey. Like his I died as a mineral and Among other works, toward the father, Rumi became an Islamic became a plant, I died as a end of his life Rumi also wrote the jurist and teacher, until in 1244 a plant and rose to animal, I Masnavi, a six-book epic poem, meeting with a wandering dervish died as animal and I was Man. which frequently alludes to Quranic by the name of Shams al-Din verses that offer moral lessons. Tabrizi is said to have completely Rumi changed his life. Rumi transformed Rumi\u2019s legacy himself into an ascetic devoted reincarnation, but in a progression The mystical elements of Rumi\u2019s wholly to a life of Sufism. from one form to another. Death is ideas were inspirational within inevitable, but as something ceases Sufism, and influenced mainstream The eternal flow of life to exist in one form, it is reborn in Islam, too. They were also pivotal Rumi became a teacher in a Sufi another. Because of this, Rumi in converting much of Turkey from order. In contrast to general Islamic taught, we should have no fear of Orthodox Christianity to Islam. practice, he placed emphasis on death, nor should we grieve a loss. After his death in 1273, Rumi\u2019s dhikr\u2014ritual prayer or chanting\u2014 In order to ensure our growth from followers founded the Mevlevi rather than rational analysis of the one form to another, however, we order of Sufism, which is famous Quran for divine guidance, and should strive for spiritual growth for its whirling dervishes, who became known for his ecstatic and an understanding of the perform a distinctive form of dhikr revelations. He believed it was his divine-human relationship. Rumi unique to the sect. task to communicate the visions he believed that understanding comes experienced, and so he wrote them from emotion, not from reason. Despite the ban imposed on the down in the form of poetry. Mevlevi order by Kemal Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s secular repubulic of Turkey in 1925, Central to Rumi\u2019s philosophy Rumi\u2019s work experienced renewed was the idea that the universe and popularity in the 20th century, everything in it is an endless flow east and west. One of his greatest of life, in which God is an eternal admirers was poet, philosopher, presence. Man, he believed, was a and politican Muhammad Iqbal, link between the past and future in advisor to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a continual process of life, death, who campaigned for an Islamic and rebirth\u2014not as a cycle, or state of Pakistan in the 1930s. \u25a0 Rumi in the West The ideas and imagery used Rumi as a mystical New Age by Rumi in his poetry have poet or a writer of love poems. transcended time and cultures. Love is an overwhelming part Their popularity is such that of Rumi\u2019s work, but for the poet Madonna has recorded an himself this was a higher love, English translation of one of his for God. Rumi\u2019s spirituality was poems and the British band undeniably of the religious kind, Coldplay incorporated a recitation something that he makes of another poem on one of their explicit in the Masnavi when albums. What is notable, however, he writes: I am the servant of is how many modern renderings of Rumi remove the Islamic and the Quran as long as I have life. Quranic references from his verse. The most popular translators of I am the dust on the path of the Persian poet\u2019s work, who [Muhammad], the chosen one. include Coleman Barks and Deepak Chopra, prefer to present If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings, I am quit of him and outraged by these words.","176 IN CONTEXT THE EARTH THEME LISIKREOAUNSDPHERE Mapping the Islamic world THE BOOK OF ROGER BY AL-IDRISI WHEN AND WHERE 12th century, Sicily BEFORE c. 150 ce In his Geography, the Greek polymath Claudius Ptolemy compiles geographical coordinates that provide a basis for drawing maps. 7th century Spanish scholar Isidore of Seville provides a description of the world that inspires centuries of European maps that are largely symbolic rather than practical. AFTER 1507 Following voyages by Christopher Columbus and others to the \u201cNew World,\u201d German cartographer Martin Waldseem\u00fcller\u2019s truly global world map is the first to use the name \u201cAmerica.\u201d 1569 Gerardus Mercator of Flanders (Belgium) develops a cylindrical projection that is still widely used for navigation charts and global maps. M odern maps put north at the top, with the North Pole and Arctic on the roof of the world. But there is no actual \u201cup\u201d or \u201cdown\u201d on Earth\u2014maps simply represent how those who make them see the world. In the 15th and 16th centuries, when the empires of Spain and Portugal began to explore the world, the pioneering mapmakers were Europeans. They placed their own lands at the centre and top of the map, which resulted in north","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 177 See also: The House of Wisdom 150\u201351 \u25a0 Arabic numerals and al-jabr 158\u201361 \u25a0 The example of Islamic Spain 166\u201371 \u25a0 Spreading Islam through trade 182\u201385 Which way up? In ancient Early Islamic In early China, Medieval Egypt, maps favored the emperor lived in Christian maps south at the top put east at the top pictograms have the north of the because the Bible east at the top because for country, so north places the Garden of because this is the most Muslims that was at the top Eden in the east. direction from was the direction which the sun of the map. of Mecca. rises. being \u201cup.\u201d Before the European no longer exists, but we know al-Idrisi, more simply known as Age of Discovery (15th\u201317th about it because scholars al-Idrisi. Born around 1100 in the centuries), the most advanced described some of its attributes town of Sabta (modern-day Ceuta), cartographers were Muslims, and in a compilation of geographical on the northern tip of what is now for them the south was at the top. information called Surat al-Ard Morocco, he received his education (Picture of the Earth), which was in Cordoba, Spain, a major center Early Islamic maps completed in 833. of learning at the time. Al-Idrisi The earliest Muslim maps were traveled widely as a young man, produced in Abbasid Baghdad. The most influential of all finally settling in Sicily, which was The Caliph al-Mamun (r. 813\u201333) Muslim maps appeared three under the rule of the Christian ordered the production of a new centuries later. This was the work Norman king Roger II. \u276f\u276f map of the world to update those of Abu Abdullah Muhammad the Arabs inherited from the Greeks. Led by al-Khwarizmi, 70 geographers and other scholars recalculated the coordinates of major cities and other landmarks, and added important Islamic cities such as Mecca and Baghdad. They corrected the Greeks\u2019 notion of the Atlantic and Indian oceans as landlocked seas, and adjusted what had previously been a gross overestimate for the length of the Mediterranean. Al-Mamun\u2019s map Islamic mapmakers were helped by the detailed accounts of journeys given by pilgrims making the Hajj to Mecca, as painted here by French artist L\u00e9on Belly in 1861.","178 MAPPING THE ISLAMIC WORLD Situated at the heart of the eastern For Muslims, pilgrimage The Book of Roger Mediterranean, the Kingdom of rituals are something Sicily traded with all the lands of the sublime. Once the research was complete, bordering this sea. Roger wanted Ibn Jubayr the task of mapmaking began. The more accurate maps, and turned resulting atlas was completed and to al-Idrisi for help. Although a their lives would make the Hajj to presented to the king in 1154, just a Norman and a Christian, the king Mecca in Arabia. This pilgrimage few weeks before he died, probably was well aware that Christian could involve months of traveling of a heart attack. It was called Europe\u2019s approach to mapmaking by land and sea\u2014the Islamic Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq at this time was still highly empire of the 12th century spread al-Afaq (For the Delight of One Who symbolic. Its maps showed from the Atlantic coasts of Africa Wishes to Traverse the Regions of a circular earth composed of three and Spain across to India. the World), or more simply, al-Kitab continents equal in size\u2014Asia, al-Rujari (The Book of Roger). Africa, and Europe\u2014separated by The world atlas that the Sicilian narrow bands of water. Jerusalem king commissioned in 1138 took The work contains 70 sectional was at the center, while monsters about 15 years to prepare. Al-Idrisi maps, but its most famous element occupied the unexplored regions. began by evaluating all available is a circular world map\u2014presented geographical knowledge, from the to Roger engraved on a vast silver Mapping routes ancient Greeks and centuries of disc, and also included in the book. Muslims made better maps, and Islamic learning\u2014and from there were two reasons for this: contemporary sources, too. The Al-Idrisi\u2019s circular map reflected economics and faith. While Moroccan\u2019s assistants also asked knowledge that he, like other medieval Europe was fragmented the crews of ships in Sicily\u2019s ports cartographers in medieval Europe, and parochial, the Muslim world about the places they had visited. had inherited from the Greeks. was unified by religion, culture, \u201cThe earth is round like a sphere, and a flourishing long-distance and the waters adhere to it and are commerce. Muslim merchants and maintained on it through natural officials used so-called \u201croad books\u201d equilibrium which suffers no on their journeys that described variation,\u201d he explained in the routes and cities along the way. accompanying notes to the atlas. Such knowledge was also relevant The world, he added, remained to the Muslim populace in general, \u201cstable in space like the yolk in an many of whom at some point in egg\u201d. Al-Idrisi\u2019s great map, however, added an unprecedented level of cartographic detail and a very Islamic orientation. Roger II of Sicily presided over a The Hajj and beyond boarded a boat for Jeddah in multicultural court mixing Eastern Arabia and arrived at Mecca and Western Christians, Muslims, and Numerous accounts written by in August. Jews. This Greek-Norman-Islamic state early pilgrims making the Hajj was both powerful and prosperous. survive. One of the most famous For his return journey, Ibn is by Ibn Jubayr, who was born Jubayr joined a pilgrim caravan in Valencia, Spain, and served to Medina, then headed north as secretary in the palace of the to Baghdad, then to Damascus, governor of Granada. He set off and to the Mediterranean coast. for Mecca in February 1183 and He was shipwrecked off Sicily, was gone for two years. During which was ruled by the Arabic- this time, he kept a meticulous speaking King William II, the account of his journey. He grandson of Roger II. Ibn Jubayr traveled by sea to Alexandria finally arrived back in Spain in in Egypt and then up the Nile April 1185. The written accounts before cutting across the desert of his journeys inspired a new to the Red Sea. There he genre of writing, the rihla, or travelogue.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 179 The Earth is essentially round but at no point is the roundness perfect. Al-Idrisi The world of al-Idrisi south of most Muslim lands but its Of the 10 surviving manuscript Al-Idrisi\u2019s map shows a contiguous importance demanded it be at the copies of the The Book of Roger, landmass surrounded by oceans. top of the map. In the same way, or Tabula Rogeriana in Latin, this Europe up to the Arctic Circle, Christian maps from the medieval is the earliest. It is preserved in the Asia, and North Africa are all era put east at the top, because Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France. clearly identifiable, as are numerous this is where the Bible locates the major rivers and lakes. The map Garden of Eden, and they placed the the world produced in the Middle includes the Canary Islands in the holy city of Jerusalem at the center. Ages. They describe the habitable west and China in the east. The The top of the world was to the east world, proceeding from west to east eastern Mediterranean and Arabia, in ancient Egypt too, because this and from south to north through the heartlands of the Islamic world, was the direction of sunrise. 10 sections. Each section presents are at the center of the map. These a general description of the region areas, along with Asia, are depicted Compared with the simplicity and an account of the principal in some detail. of the maps produced in Europe cities, along with the distances at this time, al-Idrisi\u2019s world map between them. Overarching all the other is remarkable. It was enormously continents is Africa. It includes influential, and for nearly three Al-Idrisi went on to compose the sources of the Nile, which were centuries afterward geographers another geographical work for not explored by Europeans until the continued to copy his work with William I, Roger\u2019s successor. This 19th century, but were evidently only minor alterations. work is said to have been even known to 12th-century Muslim more extensive than his earlier travelers. Below the equator is The texts that accompanied effort, but only a few extracts empty, its southern temperate zone the maps in Roger\u2019s book constitute have survived. \u25a0 thought to be rendered unreachable the most elaborate description of by an impassable area of deadly heat. Northern Europe, which was generally an area of little interest to the Muslims, is squashed at the bottom of the map. Seismic change To a modern viewer, the most striking feature of al-Idrisi\u2019s map is that it is upside down, placing Africa at the top and Europe at the bottom. Islamic maps placed the south at the top because Mecca lay","180 IMVSIALCYATMOGROYD TGORANT NUR AL-DIN (12th CENTURY) IN CONTEXT F or Muslims, Jerusalem Jerusalem is confirmed as one of is the holy city of all of the the three holiest cities for Muslims. THEME prophets of Islam who came Just six years after the death of the The Crusades through before Muhammad. As such, it was Prophet, in 638, Jerusalem was Muslim eyes the first qibla, the place to which conquered by the Muslim armies prayers are directed. The Prophet of the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab. WHEN AND WHERE Muhammad is reported to have 12th\u201313th centuries, Syria said, \u201cDo not prepare yourself for a The First Crusade journey except to three mosques: On July 15, 1099, some 15,000 BEFORE Masjid al-Haram [Mecca], the Christian soldiers surged into 620 Muhammad makes his Mosque of Aqsa [Jerusalem] and Jerusalem following a month-long Night Journey to Jerusalem on my mosque [Medina].\u201d Thus, siege. The victorious \u201ccrusaders\u201d his flying steed Buraq. Christian forces Pope Urban II calls on 638 Muslim armies led by the attempt to capture Christian soldiers to second caliph, Umar, capture Muslim territory all launch a holy war to Jerusalem from the Byzantines. around the Mediterranean. capture Jerusalem. AFTER 1187 Salah al-Din retakes Salah al-Din retakes Crusading armies capture Jerusalem from the Crusaders. Jerusalem for Islam Jerusalem and establish and drives the Crusaders four Christian states in 1453 Constantinople falls to out of the Holy Land. the Ottomans, marking the Muslim lands. end of the Byzantine Empire. Western Christian appropriation of Muslim lands 1917 During World War I, resumes with colonization by European nations. Britain\u2019s General Allenby takes Jerusalem, ending 730 years of Muslim rule. 1948 Following the creation of Israel, Jerusalem is partitioned into East (Arab) and West (Jewish).","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 181 See also: The early life of Muhammad 22\u201327 \u25a0 Islam in Europe 210\u201315 \u25a0 The rise of political Islam 238\u201341 The 1099 siege of Jerusalem saw The ongoing crusade the First Crusaders capture the Holy City from Egypt\u2019s Fatimid Caliphate. Some Muslim historians do It would be almost 200 years before not regard the Crusades as the Muslims recaptured it. beginning with Pope Urban II\u2019s 1095 speech and ending slaughtered Muslim defenders and Salah al-Din (Saladin), Sultan of with the 1291 fall of Acre. Jews alike in a bloody act that Egypt and Syria, who retook They see the events that marked the beginning of 200 years Jerusalem in 1187. Yet the Christians Western historians call the of intermittent Muslim\u2013Christian maintained a presence in Muslim Crusades as one chapter in a warfare in Muslim lands. lands until they were ejected from continuing pattern of Western their final stronghold of Acre in 1291. aggression against the Muslim The campaign originated in a world\u2014including earlier speech given by Pope Urban II in The Muslims considered the Christian conquests of Islamic 1095 in Clermont, France. In it, he Europeans, or afranj (from Franks, Spain and the Norman seizure announced that: \u201cA race absolutely medieval rulers of most of Western of Sicily in the 11th century. alien to God has invaded the land Europe), barbarians. A Muslim of the Christians.\u201d The pope was noble from northern Syria, Usama In the eyes of many Muslim referring to the Seljuk Turks, whose ibn Munqidh (1095\u20131188), wrote historians, the Western threat recent defeat of the Byzantines at about the afranj in his Kitab did not end until the mid-15th Manzikert threatened to push the al-Itibar (The Book of Learning by century, when the Ottomans frontiers of Christianity back to Example). He railed against the conquered Constantinople. the gates of Constantinople, but invaders with expressions such as There is also a view that later his goal was to capture Jerusalem, qabbahum Allah (\u201cMay God make European colonial conquests site of the tomb of Jesus Christ. them ugly\u201d) and labeled them of Muslim lands\u2014starting Christian warriors rallied to the shayatin (\u201cdevils\u201d). To him, they with the French invasion of cause, eager to gain both salvation were intellectually inferior, largely Egypt in 1798 and occupation and plunder by joining a so-called illiterate, and like beasts, with no of Algeria in 1830\u2014were all \u201choly war\u201d in God\u2019s name. virtues except courage. He was also part of a continuing crusading appalled by the Europeans\u2019 worship mindset. In the 1960s, the Enemies and friends of God as a young child (Jesus). Egyptian Islamic theorist The Crusaders also captured the Sayyid Qutb claimed that cities of Edessa, Antioch, and Yet despite cursing the afranj, \u201cthe Crusader spirit runs in Tripoli, which, along with Jerusalem, ibn Munqidh made friends among the blood of all Westerners.\u201d became Christian city-states. Seljuk them. One Crusader offered to take ruler Nur al-Din\u2019s counteroffensive his son back to Europe, to teach We never felt secure on from Damascus paved the way for him chivalry\u2014a thought that filled account of the Franks, whose the Muslim with horror. territory was adjacent to ours. Muslim warlords sometimes Usama ibn Munqidh aligned themselves both politically and militarily with Crusaders against other Muslims in struggles for regional power. Trade continued between Muslims and Christians, as did mixed marriages. The Crusades also brought Muslim learning into Europe, as some of the afranj took home Islamic knowledge of science, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy. \u25a0","182 IN CONTEXT OGTTHOFOEDTISHHOLEEPAAEKMRNINTEGD THEME Spreading Islam THE TRAVELS, IBN BATTUTA (14th CENTURY) through trade WHEN AND WHERE 14th century, across the Islamic world BEFORE 7th century According to Islamic tradition, Muslims reach as far as Ethiopia in the lifetime of Muhammad. AFTER 1453 Following the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, the city on the Bosphorus becomes the great trading hub of the Islamic world. 17th century The Ottomans dominate trade in Southeast Asia; by the time Europeans arrive in the 17th century, the region up to New Guinea is overwhelmingly Muslim. T he initial expansion of Islam was by conquest. During the 7th century, the followers of Muhammad spread quickly north and west through the territories of the Byzantine Empire. By the 9th century, the Islamic domain extended into Persia and Central Asia. Meanwhile, the message of the Prophet was traveling much greater distances across the world, carried not by armies and swords but by merchant ships and camel caravans. Islam in Africa Africa did not have to wait long to be exposed to Islam. While Muhammad was still alive, a group","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 183 See also: Mapping the Islamic world 176\u201379 \u25a0 The caliphate of the Ottoman Empire 186\u201389 \u25a0 Islam in Europe 210\u201315 \u25a0 Islam in Africa 278\u201379 From Southeast Asia, Muslim caravans Muslim traders brought traversed the Silk Road back spices, including through Central Asia to cinnamon, pepper, cloves, and China to bring back fine nutmeg. They exported all silks and other textiles, manner of goods, as well as their religion of Islam. and technologies such as paper. Major Muslim trading cities Ibn Battuta in Arabia and the eastern Mediterranean included At the age of 21, Ibn Battuta Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, (1304\u201368\/9) set out from his Damascus, and Cairo. home city of Tangier on the Hajj, with the intention of Europeans imported In East Africa, studying Islamic law along mainly luxury goods the Muslims sent caravans the way. He spent most of the from the Islamic world, of salt south, and in return next 29 years on his travels, notably cotton, silk, perfumes, received gold and slaves. during which time he covered and exotic fruits and spices. some 75,000 miles (120,700km), They sent back lumber, visiting the equivalent of 44 modern-day countries. In that metals, and wool. time, he served as an Islamic judge in India; met the of his followers fled persecution Sahara Desert, linking the Arabs Christian emperor in the city in Mecca to settle in what is now of the north with the Africans who of Constantinople; was robbed, Ethiopia. Later, merchants from lived along the Niger river. Gold and kidnapped, and shipwrecked; Arabia began to settle in cities slaves went north; salt and Islam got married and divorced as along the East African coast\u2014 came south. The Muslim religion many as 10 times; and excavations in Kenya have revealed gradually influenced the local fathered numerous children. mosques that date as far back as culture\u2014so much so, that by the the 10th century. 12th century, Mali had become As a result of Islamic the first Muslim kingdom of West expansion, first by conquest From the coasts of North Africa, Africa. When its king, Mansa Musa, and later by trade, the majority Islam extended south into West made a pilgrimage to Mecca in \u276f\u276f of countries he visited were Africa. Trade routes crossed the under Muslim rule and belonged to the dar al-Islam, or World of Islam. Even those that were not Islamic had small Muslim communities. \u201cI set out alone,\u201d he later wrote, \u201chaving neither fellow-traveler in whose companionship I might find cheer, nor caravan whose party I might join.\u201d But the fact is, the great wanderer would seldom have been far from his religious fellows on his travels.","184 SPREADING ISLAM THROUGH TRADE The king of Mali, Mansa Musa, appears in the Catalan Atlas (1375) wearing a golden crown and holding a golden disc as an indication of the vast wealth of his African empire. 1324, he and his entourage of 8,000 formerly Buddhist population only Islam provided a glue that bound courtiers reputedly spent so freely recently had been converted to together trading routes from East and gave out so much in alms along Islam. This happened, according to Africa to Arabia, India, and beyond. the way that the value of gold in the traveler\u2019s account, as the result Muslim traders carried their Egypt and Arabia depreciated for of the work of a North African religion as well as goods to the the next 12 years. Returning to missionary. \u201cHe stayed amongst ports along the Indian Ocean coast Mali, Mansa Musa took back with them,\u201d writes Ibn Battuta, \u201cand and onward to Southeast Asia\u2014 him some of the finest artisans, God opened the heart of the king soon followed by missionaries, scientists, and Islamic scholars, to Islam and he accepted it before often Sufis. The first Muslim state and created a new hub of research the end of the month.\u201d in Southeast Asia was in northern and learning in Timbuktu, where he built mosques and madrasas. The renowned Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited both East and West Africa in the 14th century. He remarked on the religious zeal of the people, who saw Islam not as a religion imposed on them but as a native African religion. By sea to Asia In 1343, Ibn Battuta visited the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean, where, by contrast, the c. 651 c. 750 c. 1150 c. 1550 From the Arabian Peninsula the followers of Islam first spread their religion by conquest around the eastern Mediterranean and into Persia. Later, traders carried the religion south into Africa, and east into the islands of the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 185 Sumatra (Aceh). When Italian If Paradise be on this luxury imports from the East was merchant, explorer, and writer earth, Damascus it is, Italy. The city-states of Venice, Marco Polo traveled through Asia Florence, and Genoa, which in the 13th century, he noted the and none but she. controlled maritime trade in the Sumatrans\u2019 adherence to the \u201cLaw Ibn Battuta Mediterranean, formed close ties to of Mahommet.\u201d Islam soon spread Egypt, Syria, and other areas along eastward throughout the Malay Chinese cities, particularly ports the eastern Mediterranean shore Archipelago, one island at a time, on the southeastern seaboard, they from the 13th century onward. and from there to Indonesia, the remained in isolated communities. Philippines, and beyond. Venice, in particular, became Venice and the Mamluks Christian Europe\u2019s most important Silk and spice routes Europe also remained resistant to interface with the Muslim lands of The Caliph Uthman ibn Affan Islam while enjoying strong trading the Near East. Italian merchants sent an ambassador to the Tang links with the Muslim world. The did business predominantly with Dynasty of China as early as 650. Muslims controlled the eastern the citizens of Mamluk Egypt Islamic tradition has it that the Mediterranean, which was the and Syria. Islamic arts and crafts emperor who received the envoy nexus from which ancient trading flourished under this dynasty, and ordered a mosque built in honor networks stretching west to Europe a dazzling array of goods\u2014textiles, of Muhammad, although there is and east into Asia met. The carpets, inlaid metalwork, precious no historical evidence for this. Muslims were the middlemen, stones, glass, porcelain, as well as What is certain is that in the organizing the transit and paper\u2014traveled in both directions. following centuries, trade between exchange of precious commodities. The Mamluks had a direct artistic the Muslim dynasties in Damascus In Europe, the main destination for influence on the fashions and and Baghdad and the Chinese architecture of Venice, whose flourished along the mercantile artisans adapted and imitated the Central Asian superhighway that Muslims\u2019 tastes and techniques. was the Silk Road. But other than Evidence of this remains in the in the most westerly regions of polychromatic stonework and the country, where the Silk Road Arabesques that beautify much terminated, Islam failed to take Venetian architecture until today. root in China. The Chinese were unsusceptible to the new religion. While Europe held firm against While Muslims did settle in the spread of Islam as a religion, it was happy to benefit from other bounties of the Islamic world. \u25a0 They have converted the natives to the Law of Mahommet. Marco Polo The Venetians became rich from trade with the Islamic world and were inspired by its cities, like Damascus here, to Orientalize their own buildings.","186 IN CONTEXT PHATUNOOTDLGYOPOMNRDAATYNHTELE THEME The caliphate of the HOCA SALEDDIN EFENDI (1596) Ottoman Empire WHERE AND WHEN 1517\u20131923 BEFORE 1258 The Mongols sack Baghdad and execute the Abbasid caliph, bringing the caliphate era to an end. 1299 Osman I founds the Ottoman dynasty. 1453 Mehmet II captures Constantinople, establishing the Ottomans as the greatest power in the Muslim world. AFTER 1952 In Jerusalem, Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir argues for the revival of the caliphate to unify all Muslims. 2014 So-called Islamic State (ISIS) proclaims itself as a new caliphate. W hen Baghdad was finally taken by the Mongols in 1258, it marked the end of the Abbasid Caliphate. There was a shadow Abbasid Caliphate continuing in Cairo, Egypt, but these caliphs held no power and were token spiritual symbols serving the ruling Mamluk sultans only. After the Ottoman sultan Selim the Grim\u2019s conquest of Egypt in 1517, the shadow caliphate ended, and the sultan in Constantinople became caliph. In defeating the Mamluks, the Ottomans added not only Egypt to their empire, but also Syria and Arabia, including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. From being an empire on the fringes of","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 187 See also: A successor to the Prophet Muhammad 102\u201303 \u25a0 The rightly guided caliphs 104\u201307 \u25a0 The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates 136\u201339 \u25a0 Islam in Europe 210\u201315 \u25a0 The secularization of Turkey 228\u201331 On the death of the Prophet Muhammad The position of caliph exists in 632, a successor, or caliph, is nominated under Egypt\u2019s Mamluk sultans to succeed him as leader of the umma, as a purely ceremonial position with or Muslim community. no authority. The Ottoman sultan also takes the title of The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks caliph and presents himself as and add Egypt, Syria, spiritual and political leader of the Islamic world. and Arabia to their empire. the Islamic world, centered on Mehmet, whose achievements into a mosque. Next to it he built Turkish Anatolia, the Ottomans now earned him the epithet \u201cMehmet the a large madrasa (Islamic seminary) commanded most of the traditional Conqueror,\u201d made Constantinople and a cluster of other Islamic lands of Islam. They could rightly his capital and renamed it Istanbul. institutions. In 1463, the new claim to be heirs to the caliphate, Signaling Muslim supremacy, Fatih (or Conqueror\u2019s) Mosque, a and under them the title of caliph Mehmet had the city\u2019s Haghia huge monument to victory, was regained its old authority. Sophia, one of the greatest built on the site of the crumbling cathedrals in Christendom, turned Church of the Apostles. Mehmet \u276f\u276f The rise of the Ottomans The Ottoman dynasty was named for its founder, Osman I (r. 1299\u2013 1324), who led his Turkic tribesmen out of what is now known as Central Asia, to conquer much of the region now called Turkey. His successors extended this empire to Greece in 1345, and Serbia in 1389. Mehmet II (who ruled twice, from 1444\u201346 and again from 1451\u201381) conquered Constantinople in 1453, something that had first been attempted by the Umayyad caliphs seven centuries earlier, ending the millennium-old Byzantine Empire. This map of Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, appears in a miniature by soldier-cartographer Matrak\u00e7i Nasuh from his 1537 account of S\u00fcleyman\u2019s campaign in Iran and Iraq.","188 THE CALIPHATE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE also began construction of the S\u00fcleyman I (1494\u20131566) reigned for speed cavalry units could turn Topkapi Palace, a complex of public more than 45 years. The 10th ruler of what looked like a retreat into a and private courtyards, gardens, the House of Osman, he was known devastatingly effective flanking halls, pavilions, barracks, harems, locally as Kanuni (\u201cthe Lawgiver\u201d), due attack, surrounding the enemy in a and imperial quarters on a to his important legal reforms. crescent formation that would take promontory overlooking the city them by surprise. and Bosphorus Strait below. To promote the revival of the city, The Janissaries the sultan encouraged the elite At the heart of the army were to invest and build, and forcibly the Janissaries, a unit of infantry resettled people in his new capital, that began as the imperial guard which became a vital trading port and expanded to become the most between East and West. feared elite force of the period. Initially, the unit was made up of Mehmet spent most of his men who, as children, had been 30-year reign on campaigning, abducted from Christian families consolidating, and expanding in the Balkans. Under the devsirme Ottoman domains, unifying system, which was also known as Anatolia (now central Turkey) and the \u201cblood tax,\u201d boys ages from conquering southeast Europe as eight to 18 were taken by the far west as Bosnia. Ottoman military, converted to Islam (despite the Quran\u2019s Governing the empire grand vizier\u2014ruled on the sultan\u2019s prohibition on forced conversion), To control their vast territory, the behalf. They appointed regional and sent to live with Turkish Ottomans evolved a strong system military governors (beys), with local families, where they learned the of government that combined local councils to keep the beys in check. Turkish language and customs. administration with central control. They were then given rigorous The sultan, whose brothers were The Ottoman army was also military training, and any who customarily murdered at his crucial to the empire\u2019s success. showed particular talent were accession to avoid rival claims, It was technologically advanced\u2014 selected for specialized roles was supreme ruler, but a council of employing cannon from the siege ranging from archers to engineers. advisors\u2014and later his deputy, the of Constantinople onward\u2014and tactically sophisticated. Its high- Worship of God is the highest throne, the happiest of all estates. S\u00fcleyman I Istanbul\u2019s S\u00fcleymaniye Mosque was commissioned by S\u00fcleyman I. Inaugurated in 1557, its soaring dimensions and fine decoration testify to the might of the Ottoman Empire.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 189 We Turks are but, unlike the Ottomans, none Ottoman artisans excelled in faithful Muslims. fitted the criteria of ruling the ceramics, carpet-weaving, and textiles, majority of Muslims and having notably silk, such as this cloth, woven Mehmet II control of the holy cities of Mecca with gold and silver threads, and rich in and Medina. motifs such as flowers and arabesques. To ensure their loyalty to the sultan alone, Janissaries were not Leaders of Muslims the European powers, the sultans permitted to marry until they retired From the time of the capture of embraced the idea of the caliphate from duty, but they received special Egypt in 1517 until World War I in to prop up their authority. When benefits and privileges. Although 1914\u201318, it was the Ottomans who Abdul Hamid II took the throne in they constituted only a small protected the great annual Hajj 1876, he was obliged by reformists proportion of the Ottoman army, caravans setting out from to agree to a parliamentary system they had a leading role and played a Damascus and Cairo against of government. As compensation key part in many victories, including bandits, and who provided the for his loss of temporal power, a at Constantinople and in Egypt. kiswa each year, the ornate cloth new constitution reasserted the that covered the Kaaba. This sultan\u2019s role as caliph and leader Ottoman heyday \u201csponsorship\u201d of the Hajj would of all Muslims. The empire reached its economic, have done much to encourage all military, and cultural peak under Muslims to regard the Ottomans This was not to last. With defeat the sultan S\u00fcleyman I (r.1520\u201366). as leaders of the Islamic world. in World War I, the Ottoman Empire Known as S\u00fcleyman the Magnificent, came to an end and was replaced he forged an alliance with the Some questioned the legitimacy by Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s new French against the Hapsburg rulers of a Turkish caliphate on the Republic of Turkey in 1923. The of the Holy Roman Empire, and grounds that only a member of the role of caliph and caliphate was signed a treaty with the Safavids Prophet\u2019s Quraysh tribe could be abolished the following year. \u25a0 of Persia that divided Armenia and caliph. In the mid-16th century, Georgia between the two powers. the Ottoman grand vizier Lutfi He conquered much of Hungary Pasha responded in a pamphlet and even laid siege to Vienna in that argued that the only 1529, although he did not succeed qualifications for the office were in taking it. power and competence, and that inheritance or kinship had nothing The Ottomans took their Islamic to do with it. faith to their conquered territories, building mosques everywhere\u2014 The legitimacy of the Ottoman and with the mosques came Islamic caliphs was underscored by the scholarship and education. possession of relics said to have belonged to the Prophet. These In the past, several Muslim included a roughly woven mantle, states had made the claim to be the Burda. Sultan Mehmet III caliphates\u2014including the Fatimids (r. 1596\u20131603) took this talismanic of Egypt (909\u20131171), the Umayyads item on campaign in Hungary. At of Cordoba (929\u20131031), and the one point, when it looked as if his Almohads in Morocco (1121\u20131269)\u2014 army was losing a battle, a courtier named Saadeddin told the sultan, \u201cPut on the Holy Mantle and pray to God.\u201d The sultan did so and the battle was turned around. The last of the caliphs In the 18th century, with the Ottoman Empire increasingly threatened by the military might of","190 WGTHOAEDSFCTIRRHESEATPTETENHDING PROPHET MUHAMMAD IN CONTEXT C alligraphy is an enormously the unseen face of God. Not all prestigious art in Islamic Arabic calligraphy was religious in THEME culture. The Quran is the content, but the Arabic language The divine art of Islamic word of God, which was delivered was the language God chose for calligraphy to Muhammad and recited by early His revelation, and so Arabic is Muslims. Following the death of inextricably linked with Islam. WHEN AND WHERE Muhammad, it was written down. 10th century, Baghdad The first printed Quran was made Scribes sought to make the in the 16th century, so for 900 years word of God appear authoritative BEFORE all Qurans were handwritten. yet beautiful. To this end, they c. 150 bce The Nabataeans, developed a stylized, rectilinear whose capital is Petra (in Copying the Quran\u2019s text was script that became known as kufic. modern-day Jordan), develop considered an act of devotion. As It was in the city of Kufa in Iraq, an alphabet. Used for writing calligraphy was equated with an early center of Islamic culture, the Aramaic language, it has glorifying the language of the that the new script emerged, late 22 letters, all representing Quran, it was seen as beautifying in the 7th century. consonants, and is written from right to left. Kufic script is characterized by 3rd to 5th centuries ce angular foms Nabataean Aramaic script Naskh is more develops into a recognizably rounded, and easier Arabic form. to write and read 7th century After the fall Alhamdulillah of the Sasanian Empire, the (\u201cThank God\u201d) written Persians adopt Arabic script. in two different scripts illustrates the stylistic AFTER diversity of Arabic 1514 The first book printed in calligraphy. Arabic is a translation of the Christian devotional Book of Hours and is printed in Italy.","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 191 See also: Depicting the Prophet 58\u201359 \u25a0 Compiling the Quran 64\u201369 \u25a0 The composition of the Quran 70\u201375 \u25a0 Islamic art and architecture 194\u2013201 If someone, whether he can The Six Styles Islamic calligraphy, as on this read or not, sees good writing, A civil servant at the Abbasid court mosque lamp, reflects the idea that he likes to enjoy the sight of it. in Baghdad, Ibn Muqla (886\u2013940) God speaks to man through the Arabic is often cited as the inventor of language, whether spoken or written. Qadi Ahmed naskh, a rounded script, easy to write and highly legible, which The calligrapher\u2019s pen, the qalam, \u201cCalligraphers and Painters,\u201d 1606 replaced the angular kufic as the was made of dried reed or bamboo, standard of Islamic calligraphy. It and dipped in ink. The introduction The style spawned many variants was said of him, \u201cHe is a prophet of paper from China in the 9th but all are recognizably kufic in the field of handwriting. It was century allowed Muslim scribes to from their sharp angles and poured upon his hand, even as it create many more books than their severely vertical and horizontal was revealed to the bees to make counterparts in Europe, who were lines. For about 300 years, kufic their honey-cell hexagonal.\u201d still using expensive parchment. was considered the only suitable script in which to write the Quran. Ibn Muqlah is also credited with Calligraphy appeared on sacred It was used, for example, on the creating five more scripts, which, and secular objects in almost every first surviving monument of Islamic together with naskh, are known medium\u2014stone, stucco, ceramics, architecture, the Dome of the Rock as the Six Styles (aqlam al-sitta) glass, jewelry, embroidery, carpets, in Jerusalem (completed in 691\u201392), of classical Islamic calligraphy. woodcarving, and metalwork. It can and on the earliest Islamic coins, provide valuable information about minted during the reigns of the A profusion of calligraphy the object it decorates, especially in Rashidun caliphs (632\u201361). Given Islam\u2019s general prohibition architecture, where in addition to of figurative representation, Quranic verses, the lettering spells Arabic script calligraphers have traditionally been out the names of patrons and dates. the most highly regarded artists in Arabic is the second most Islamic culture. Techniques were The practice of calligraphy in widely used writing system in passed on from master to student, the Islamic world continues. New the world, based on the number often within the same family. To generations of artists continually of countries using it. The script is become a master calligrapher, a reinvent the tradition, exchanging written from right to left. It has student had to train for years by age-old media such as pen and 28 letters, but many of them are copying models to perfect his skills. paper for new techniques such differentiated by dots, so there as graffiti and digital graphics. are in fact only 18 letter forms the word (at the beginning, Muslims today remain very much for the 28 sounds. There are only middle, or end, or placed on aware that the Arabic letters\u2014 letters for three vowels, and their own). In Latin-based the letters of the Quran\u2014are most vowel sounds are indicated scripts (such as French and precious heirlooms. \u25a0 by a system of diacritical marks. English), letters are connected in handwriting or calligraphy, Arabic letters have no capital and unconnected when they are forms, but their form changes printed, but in Arabic it depends depending on their position in on the letters. All letters can connect to the preceding letter, but some letters do not connect to the letter that follows. A poetic tradition says these are \u201cangelic letters,\u201d because they are attached to their origin (God) but detached from what follows (the world).","192 GTHOED SOHNAEDAORWTHOF SHAH ISMAIL (16th CENTURY) IN CONTEXT I n 1500, the 13-year-old Ismail My name is Shah Ismail. became head of the Safaviyya I am God\u2019s mystery. THEME Sufi order in Azerbaijan, and Shah Ismail The Safavid Empire set out to avenge his father, who had been killed by the Turkic tribes Earth.\u201d He also wrote poetry that WHEN AND WHERE that ruled most of Iran. heralded his credentials: My 16th century, Persia mother is Fatima, my father Ali; I The following year, Ismail\u2019s am one of the twelve imams. I took BEFORE followers captured Tabriz and took back my father\u2019s blood from Yazid. 661 Following the death of Ali, power in Iran. Ismail made Tabriz (Yazid was the Sunni Umayyad the fourth caliph, Muslims are his capital and proclaimed himself caliph who killed Ali\u2019s son Hussein divided. Some support the shah (king), founding the Safavid at the Battle of Kerbala in 680.) claims of Muawiyah as the dynasty that would rule until 1722. next leader of Muslims; others He also declared Twelver Shiism Ismail set about eliminating support the claims of Ali\u2019s son. as the official religion of his new Sunnism in Iran. Sunni leaders The latter are known as Shia. empire, thus changing the course were either executed or deported. of Islamic history. In their place, religious scholars 765 After the death of the were invited from Arab centers of Sixth Imam, a group of Shias The hidden Mahdi Twelver scholarship to set up Shia diverge from the mainstream Twelver Shiism was a major branch schools in Iran. Ismail\u2019s war against and become known as Ismailis of Shia Islam that had never held Sunnism extended beyond Iran. In or Seveners. wide-ranging political power. Its 1510, he defeated the Sunni Uzbeks adherents held that no rule could in Khorasan, a region covering what 780 Foundation of the first be legitimate in the absence of the is now northeastern Iran and parts Shia state, by the Idrisid twelfth, \u201dHidden Imam,\u201d the Mahdi, of Central Asia and Afghanistan. dynasty based in North Africa. who is concealed but will one day return to bring justice and peace AFTER to the world. 1979 Revolution in Iran overthrows the monarchy Before Ismail, most Shia had and establishes an Islamic been Arabs and most Muslims in Republic under Ayatollah non-Arab Iran were Sunni. Ismail Ruhollah Khomeini. claimed descent from Ali, the First Imam, and presented himself as the hidden Mahdi of the Twelvers and the so-called \u201cShadow of God on","THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 193 See also: The rightly guided caliphs 104\u201307 \u25a0 The emergence of Shia Islam 108\u201315 \u25a0 Sufism and the mystic tradition 140\u201345 \u25a0 The Iranian revolution 248\u201351 \u25a0 Sunni and Shia in the modern Middle East 270\u201371 Shah Abbas\u2019s Isfahan was graced with public squares and gardens, and a profusion of beautiful, turquoise-tiled mosques and palaces. He also campaigned against the Ottomans but was defeated by Sultan Selim I at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 and died in 1524. By the late 16th century, however, almost all Iranians were Shia, as they are to this day. Philosophy and suppression who had an iron grip on theology outlawed Sufis as heretics, and Under Ismail\u2019s great-grandson, Shah and canon law\u2014Islamic philosophy suppressed the teaching of Islamic Abbas I (r. 1588\u20131629), the Safavid flourished under his rule, producing philosophy. Instead, he promoted Empire reached its zenith. Abbas several great thinkers who made the strict observance of mourning achieved decisive victories over up what is now referred to as the rituals in honor of Imam Hussein the Ottomans and entered into School of Isfahan. at Kerbala, and regular visits to diplomatic accords with European the shrines of the Imams and their powers to keep Constantinople in After Abbas, there was a shift relatives in the shrine cities of Najaf check. His armies extended Safavid away from the philosophical to a and Kerbala in Iraq, and Mashhad rule west into Iraq, south to the more literal reading of Shiism. A and Qom in Iran. These remain Indus, and north into the Caucasus. leading figure in this realignment notable features of the Iranian was Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (1627\u2013 Islamic tradition today. \u25a0 Abbas also moved the Safavid 99). An influential cleric, Majlisi capital to the city of Isfahan, where culture and intellectual activity flourished. Although he maintained the dominance of the Shia ulema\u2014 the \u201clearned ones,\u201d a powerful class Shia shrines During the Safavid era, the Iranians. On one occasion Shah Ottomans controlled Mecca and Abbas I walked on foot from Medina, and so Shah Abbas Isfahan to Mashhad in 28 days promoted Mashhad in Iran as an to show his devotion. He alternative pilgrimage. The Shrine suggested this was equivalent of Imam Reza at Mashhad (shown to completing the Hajj. left) contains the tomb of Ali ibn Musa al-Reza (also known as Ali Other sites holy to Shia al-Rida), the eighth Twelver Shia Muslims include the Imam Ali Imam, and a direct descendant of Mosque in Najaf in Iraq, burial the Prophet Muhammad. He died place of the first Shia Imam; the in 818 in a village near Mashhad. Imam Hussein Shrine in Kerbala, Thought to have been poisoned, Iraq, burial place of the third al-Reza is revered as a martyr. Shia Imam; and the Sayyida Since he is the only Shia Imam Zeinab Mosque in Damascus, buried in Iran, his tomb is burial place of Zeinab, daughter extremely important to Shia of Ali and Fatima and thus the granddaughter of Muhammad.","GOD IS BEAUTIFUL AND HE LOVES BEAUTY THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD","","196 ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN CONTEXT D uring its golden age, Islam The principle which was spread across regions dominates over Islamic art THEME as geographically distant and the philosophy of beauty Islamic art and and culturally diverse as the Iberian which governs it, comes architecture Peninsula, the deserts of North Africa and Arabia, and the steppes directly from the Quran WHEN AND WHERE of Central Asia. Even so, it is still and hadith. From 692, Islamic world possible to talk about a common art and architecture of Islam. Art Sayyid Hussein Nasr BEFORE historians point to an extraordinary 1st century ce The Romans consistency of shared styles and Islamic philosopher (b.1933) extend their rule into the Near motifs found across all of these East, building temples at sites regions\u2014styles and motifs that flowing (or \u201carabesque\u201d) and such as Jerash, in what is now were quite distinct from anything geometric. In the Western tradition Jordan, and Palmyra, in Syria. in Western artistic traditions. pattern is applied sparingly; in Islam it is ubiquitous, covering 4th century Successors The most significant of these every surface. to the Romans and recent characteristics is the general converts to Christianity, the absence of people or animals (with Another hallmark of the Islamic Byzantines start building a few notable exceptions). This style is calligraphy, both religious churches in places of trait distinguishes it not only from and non-religious. Considered the significance to the Christian the Christian aesthetic, where highest of art forms, it appears on story, in Jerusalem and the human being is arguably the buildings and on many other throughout the Near East artist\u2019s major subject, but also from decorative objects. This is in and in Egypt. the art of earlier times\u2014of ancient marked contrast with the West, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, where calligraphy is largely AFTER and Rome. In contrast, Islamic art confined to manuscripts. 2016 Architects Glenn favors pattern, both natural and Murcutt and Hakan Elevli design a strikingly modernist Exquisite blue, white, and gold tiling mosque at the Australian adorns the facade of the Dome of the Islamic Center in Melbourne. Rock in Jerusalem. This was added in the 16th century by S\u00fcleyman I, replacing the original exterior mosaics.","GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 197 See also: Depicting the Prophet 58\u201359 \u25a0 An Islamic place of worship 98\u2013101 \u25a0 The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates 136\u201339 \u25a0 The divine art of Islamic calligraphy 190\u201391 Islamic decorative styles Calligraphy gives visible form to Geometric patterns convey Arabesque designs\u2014repeating, the revealed word of the Quran, and a certain quality of \u201coneness.\u201d interlacing patterns with foliate or is therefore considered the most noble They subsume the creativity floral motifs\u2014are ubiquitous in Islam. of the arts. It is widely used in the of the artisan to a greater They are a reflection of the presence of decoration of buildings. overall purpose. God in the natural world. No early artist, architect, or artisan converts to Islam but who were palace\u2019s mosque, where artisans is likely to have thought of their also steeped in Byzantine tradition. were instructed not to include any work as \u201cIslamic.\u201d They worked Other influences were ancient idolatrous representations. within local, regional, and national Greek and Roman buildings, from traditions. The idea of a universal which Muslim builders took\u2014often Motifs and meaning Islamic style is an invention of quite literally\u2014elements such as The Mshatta ruins represent 19th-century Western scholars. columns and capitals. an early example of the foliate However, it is evident that Islam scrollwork sometimes known did foster a distinctive artistic The Umayyads (661\u2013750), the as arabesque, which became one language. Iranian philosopher builders of the Dome of the Rock and of the hallmarks of Islamic art. \u276f\u276f Sayyid Hussein Nasr makes the the Great Mosque, also constructed claim that all Islamic art is a many small palaces in the desert. physical expression of \u201cthe inner The remains of one of these, reality that is Islam.\u201d Mshatta, 18 miles (30 km) south of Amman in Jordan, show clear Borrowed beginnings Coptic (Egyptian Christian) and The art and architecture of early Sasanian (Persian) motifs in the Islam was marked by the influence form of carved figures and animals. of other, pre-Islamic artistic But one section has no figures, and traditions. This included Byzantine is carved only with floral designs. mosaic work: the two oldest Historians speculate that this may surviving Islamic monuments, the have been the wall surrounding the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (completed in 692) and the Great Kasr Mshatta was commissioned by Mosque of Damascus (715), both Umayyad caliph al-Walid II (r. 743\u201344). feature dazzling mosaics, crafted It was abandoned before it was fully by artisans who were probably completed, but the palace\u2019s decoration is of great interest to historians.","198 ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE The dome on the mosque of the Mamluk sultan Qaitbay in Cairo is a high point of stone carving, combining a vine-and-leaf motif with a repeating geometric star-shaped pattern. It was probably inspired by the as a whole. The laboriously created making it difficult to assess their acanthus and vine decoration repetition of patterns directs the contributions to art and architecture. popular in classical Greece and attention away from the individual We can, however, trace the Rome, but over time Islamic in favor of a more holistic notion of developments under the Fatimids artisans developed the style to beauty. The all-over patterning also (909\u20131171), who challenged the rule become increasingly elaborate. draws the eye away from the form of the Abbasids and established a of a structure, which is earthly and rival caliphate in North Africa. In addition to foliate or floral only temporary. motifs, artists worked with a A Shia Muslim dynasty claiming repertoire of geometric shapes, such Dynastic legacies descent from the Prophet\u2019s daughter as stars, lozenges, and polygons, The Abbasids, who supplanted Fatima, the Fatimids governed first which they used in complex the Umayyads in 750, created two from Tunisia, then from their new arrangements, so that they often great capitals\u2014in Baghdad and, capital, Cairo. In their buildings, appear almost like optical puzzles. later, Samarra\u2014but little has they popularized the use of the These designs were applied to every survived of either from that time, \u201ckeel arch\u201d\u2014which comes to a surface of buildings, from domes point at its apex, like the upturned and doorways to walls, ceilings, and floors, and to everyday objects. Academics debate whether or not geometric motifs in Islamic art have meaning. One prevalent theory holds that the patterns symbolize the transcendent and infinite Oneness of God. Muslim craftsmen generally avoid obvious focal points, so that attention is not centered on any one area of a design; instead, it must be viewed The living image Representing people and was a particular speciality He who has not seen Cairo animals in art was generally of the Safavids (1501\u20131736). has not seen the world. She is frowned upon in Islam, but not These stylized compositions all cultures recognized this often included calligraphy and the Mother of the World. prohibition. Fatimid ceramics, geometric patterns, in scenes The Tale of the Jewish for example, frequently featured showing episodes from court life images of living beings. In Persia, or from the great Persian poetic Physician Islamic dynasties often looked epics\u2014such as the Shahnameh back to the pre-Islamic art of (\u201cBook of Kings\u201d), the mythical One Thousand and One Nights the Achaemenid (c. 550\u2013330 bce) story of the Persian people and Sasanian (224\u2013651 ce) written by Ferdowsi in the late Empires, which both depicted 10th century. Miniatures also humans. Painting jewellike became part of the artistic miniatures for wealthy patrons heritage of the Turkish Ottomans and illuminating manuscripts and the Indian Mughals.","GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM 199 hull of a boat\u2014and introduced the The mosques, mausoleums, and Techniques and color \u201csquinch,\u201d a structure that enables madrasas (religious colleges) of The Berber dynasties of the a dome to fit on top of a square the Mamluk era characteristically Almoravids (c. 1040\u20131147) and room. Both of these would become have exterior walls featuring striped the Almohads (1147\u20131248) ruled signature features of Islamic stonework, intricately carved domes from Morocco over territories architecture. The Fatimids also and minarets, and sumptuous that included Muslim Spain, and fashioned prized objects of interiors lined with polychromatic developed a distinctive, but still intricately carved wood, ivory, and inlaid marble. Mamluk decorative wholly Islamic, aesthetic. rock crystal, and their potters artwork, enriched by influences produced distinctive lusterware from across the Islamic world, Artisans in this region took the (ceramics with a metallic glaze). was highly sought after in the art of carving plaster to a pinnacle Mediterranean region and across of complexity and beauty, to the Cairo became a city of even Europe. Its treasures included extent that their work almost greater cultural riches under the enameled and gilded glass, and resembles lace. They enhanced Mamluks, former slave-soldiers who inlaid metalwork and woodwork. basic architectural forms by seized power in Egypt in 1250 and pinching the arch to look like a established their own sultanate In the second half of the 15th horseshoe, or adding scallops into controlling much of the Middle century, the arts flourished under the sides of arches. The intricate East. They used their acquired the patronage of the Mamluk sultan detail in brick and plaster was wealth to govern with great al-Ashraf Qaitbay (r.1468\u201396), who, mirrored by extensive use of \u276f\u276f pageantry and ceremony, and among other projects, extensively embarked upon lavish building restored the shrines of Mecca and Patterned tiling in Marrakech, projects, making Cairo the Medina. One of his earliest projects Morocco, decorates the base of the economic, intellectual, and artistic was his own funerary complex in walls and columns. It is characteristic center of the Arab Islamic world for Cairo, one of the most admired of the style that developed in Morocco the next two-and-a-half centuries. structures in Islamic architecture. and al-Andalus, or Muslim Spain.","200 ISLAMIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE patterned tiles: not only for floors and in Persia and Iraq, where the covered with a transparent glaze but also on walls, or as decoration tradition predated the arrival of and then fired. This was learned on minarets. One of the greatest Islam. The Ilkhanid dynasty (1256\u2013 from the neighboring Chinese, from examples of this is the fortress of 1335) only became Muslim in the whom the Timurids also obtained the Alhambra, built at Granada in late 13th century, which may their knowledge of blue pigments. Spain from 1230\u20131492, during the explain why its artisans, who The vivid Timurid palate, which twilight era of al-Andalus. labored in the ceramic workshops of included cobalts, yellows, rusts, the capital Tabriz, produced and golds, was used to create The tradition of architectural distinctive star-shaped tiles that almost psychedelic walls of pattern. tiling, used to dazzling effect under typically featured un-Islamic the Berber dynasties of Morocco images of birds and animals. Such beauty might seem in and Muslim Spain, was shared by stark contrast to the founder of the the Mongol peoples of Central Asia, The buildings of Central Asia\u2019s dynasty, Timur (known in the West Timurid dynasty (1370\u20131507) have as Tamerlane), who had a reputation Sheikh Lutfullah Mosque in Isfahan, domes enameled in brilliant for brutality. Rampaging through Iran, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site turquoise, meant to reflect the sky. Persia and Iraq, he slaughtered fellow and one of Islam\u2019s most exquisite They are so vivid because of a Muslims and created towers of their architectural creations, built in 1619 for technique called underglazing, decapitated heads, but regularly Shah Abbas and the women of his court. in which the painted surface is spared artists and craftworkers, transporting them back to his glorious capital at Samarkand. When the Timurid Empire collapsed, its artistic legacy lived on in Persia, and in parts of Turkey and India. Jewel in the crown If any city matches Samarkand for brilliance, it is Isfahan, in what is now Iran. Rebuilt by the Safavid Shah Abbas I in the early 17th century, one historian has called the city \u201cperhaps the most splendid and impressive gallery of Islamic architecture in the world\u201d\u2014a Persian pun on the city\u2019s name boasts that \u201cIsfahan is half the world\u201d (Esfehan nesfe jahan). Its One of the greatest and finest cities, and most perfect of them in beauty. Ibn Battuta describing Samarkand in 1330"]