My World: The Dark Ages...

Not really dark. If you see the Light. And know where to look.

Los Angles, California, U.S.A: Till March 2012, an exhibition is being held of 1001 Inventions. The

Islamic Heritage. 1000 years. The Dark Ages..not in the East..from China to Spain!!

If for nothing else, you will come to know about Al- Kindi and Ibn- AlHaitham. The foundations of the

science of optics and yes, lenses. And about al- Bayt- al-Muthlim. See what it translates to in Latin.

Find the meaning of the Arabic word ' qamara '. A 1000 years of innovation and science.

Kimia. Not about sorcery. But science. Kimia; Alkimia; Alchemy.

Zheng He. No, not a town in China.

Let the Light Shine.

But then the theological directions chosen under الغزالي and St. Thomas Aquinas were opposite. Some people believe we still see the effects of these choices today.

As to 鄭和 travels. the Emperor 正統 decided to end the explorations, with consequences which are obvious today. But I am sure you know that.

Hi Jerome. Thanks for stopping by.

But I do not understand what your comment has to do with the exhibition being held in L.A. or its

theme.

Regards.

I think that most reasonably educated people from "western" countries know that the European "dark ages" were not dark in Orient, so the exhibition is to be put in an historical context: why didn't the Muslim world, which was more advanced than Europe at the time, lost its advance at some point? How come that China did not explore the world, when they had the technology to sent 鄭和 with a fleet much more advanced than Christopher Colombus' one?

Jerome Marot said:

I think that most reasonably educated people from "western" countries know that the European "dark ages" were not dark in Orient, so the exhibition is to be put in an historical context: why didn't the Muslim world, which was more advanced than Europe at the time, lost its advance at some point? How come that China did not explore the world, when they had the technology to sent 鄭和 with a fleet much more advanced than Christopher Colombus' one?

Click to expand...

Jerome,

These are important questions. I don't know the answers but perhaps, at the exhibition they will examine that. I'll not miss it for sure.

Those educated in the U.K., at least in the Grammar School System, know sufficiently about Islamic science and poetry as well as the advanced nature of Greek, Roman, Chinese, Indian and South American civilizations. However, it's true that most folk in the West can benefit from some basic knowledge of the etiology of modern learning and how it came to the West.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

These are important questions. I don't know the answers but perhaps, at the exhibition they will examine that.

Click to expand...

As I pointed out in my previous message, some historians believe that Islam and Christianity diverged in their development when الغزالي (Al-Ghazali) and St. Thomas Aquinas chose opposite theological directions. The difference was between اجتهاد‎ (Ijtihad, religious decision made on personal conviction) and تَقْليد (Taqlid, following the decision of masters).

As to China, there is little doubt that the decision taken by Emperor 正統 to forbid sea travel resulted in China cutting itself from developments in the rest of the world.

It is fascinating, really. But not really related to photography.

Jerome Marot said:

As I pointed out in my previous message, some historians believe that Islam and Christianity diverged in their development when الغزالي (Al-Ghazali) and St. Thomas Aquinas chose opposite theological directions. The difference was between اجتهاد‎ (Ijtihad, religious decision made on personal conviction) and تَقْليد (Taqlid, following the decision of masters).

As to China, there is little doubt that the decision taken by Emperor 正統 to forbid sea travel resulted in China cutting itself from developments in the rest of the world.

It is fascinating, really. But not really related to photography.

Click to expand...

With these thoughts in mind, I hope to appreciate the exhibit at a deeper level.

Thanks Jerome and Fahim for giving us this opportunity to be a little more enlightened.

Asher

Then, maybe this short summary would also help.

This is the map of Asia in year 600 (so before Islam):



Far from being the "dark ages", we have three big empires sharing the world between themselves:
-the eastern roman empire
-the sassanid empire
-China
(Khanates or Thibet are too sparsely populated to really count even if their superficies is vast)

Trade never stopped between these world empires under the so called "dark ages". There was a terrestrial route (the famous "silk road") and a maritime route. That latter route was most important: Chinaware (ceramic) is easier to ship by boat and spices from Sri Lanka or the eastern coast of Africa cannot be reached otherwise.

Now look at the map of the world in year 700:



Basically, the Sassanid empire is replaced by the Umayyad Caliphate after being conquered by the muslim armies.

Now, this is the map of the expeditions of 鄭和 (Zheng He) between 1405 and 1433:



As you see, the main goal of these expedition was to secure the trade routes between China and the middle east.

The map at that time can be found on this link

The source of all these maps is Thomas Lessman

Jerome, Asher...important and interesting issues have been raised. Unfortunately nothing to do with

the subject of the post.

A thousand years of Man's achievements are on display in L.A. I thought that merits a mention.

One can be literate and ignorant simultaneously. Of course all in the West know about the Vitruvian Man.

Yes? Know who it is associated with? The exhibition in L.A. shall make them think again.

A lot of it is about Man's progress including, photography. ' Qamara '. About the Book of Optics. Or for

the Latin scholars here Magnum Opus. Snell's law. Why not call it Ibn Sahl's law?

The exhibition is about man and his quest for knowledge. It is about people like Abul Qasim Khalaf ibn Al-

Abbas Al-Zahrawi. Don't know about him? Next time you visit a hospital you shall see what he used

almost a thousand years ago. Ibn Sina could not find a cure for cancer, but he described its pathology.

That is what the exhibition is all about. Each culture of man building on those that went before them.

Unfortunately, some cultures downplay or are ignorant of a 1000 years of man's efforts in his/her quest

for knowledge. Don't' agree with me? Without consulting WiKi, what does ' convivencia ' mean. More

importantly, why?

But of course, you all know this.

Regards.

p.s. Al-Zahrawi is known in the West as Abulcasis.

But I certainly agree with you that the era importance is downplayed in the western presentation of world history! Actually, I was answering your question: "Why not call it Ibn Sahl's law?" In that respect, the exhibition will be quite useful.

Fahim and Jerome,

We need to ask why darkness comes to humanity and block progress towards emancipation of the mind and opportunity.

I don't think we can over emphasize the need to shine light backward to history to try and learn where we came from and what decisions contributed to good and bad, advancement and stagnation, freedom and subservience. We all think of the "inalienable rights of man", of the advances of logic, mathematics, science and more. I appreciate this discussion very much.

We go in fits and starts. Why did we have to have a self-centered Napoleon attack European states, obviously bad, but establish and impose "The Rights of Man" in his path, one of the most important accomplishments for humanity, perhaps. That the principles were already in the religious semitic codes for thousands of years, hardly decreases the importance of Napoleon making them international cross cultural standards. So for some reason, even on such intuitive noble ideas, there are major recessions in thought and practice. How could it be then that the Shoah and the massacres on Cambodia occurred. This means that even great ideas are resisted and there are cycles of mania. For the former, the Church was to blame and the latter the communist ideology taken to the logical extremes. It's as if man is in a constant struggle of opportunism and despotism v. compassion and respect.

Look at the misfortunes of Galileo, (almost our contemporary in consideration of these large time periods), whose thinking was nearly crushed.

Asher