113: Daily Life and Culture

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11-3 Daily Life and Culture

• Objective You will identify and understand how
  the many achievements of Islamic civilization
  spread to and influenced other parts of the world.

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House of Wisdom

• Founded in A.D. 830 by Abbasid caliph Mamun
• Translated Greek, Persian and Indian scientific
  texts into Arabic
• Employed Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars
• Performed scientific experiments and mathematic
  calculations

http//www.muslimheritage.com
3
Mathematics

• India devised (Arabic) numeral system and concept
  of zero
• Muslims adopted number system and established the
  place-value system

http//www.geocities.com/uripi/arabic_numbers.html
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Mathematics

• Invented Algebra
• Geometric work led to trigonometry i.e. stars
  and falling objects
• Practical uses pumps, fountains, building and
  surveying.

http//www.answers.com/topic/alhambra
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Astronomy and Geography

• House of Wisdom cross-referenced Greek findings
• Observed the skies
• Made physical and mathematical model of the
  universe
• Proved the moon affects the ocean

• Improved Greek astrolabe
• Position of stars
• Movement of Planets
• Time
• Direction of Makkah, time of Ramadan and hours of
  prayer

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Astronomy and Geography

• Proved the Earth is round
• Outlined continents (eastern hemisphere)
• Traveled for knowledge of
• Earths surface
• Climates
• People

http//knowingthetruth.wordpress.com/tag/the-quran
/
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Chemistry and Medicine

• Al-Razi (864-930)
• Classified animals, minerals and vegetables
• Compiled medical encyclopedias of nearly 200
  works describing origins of disease
• Wrote a handbook on differences of small pox and
  measles

http//www.geocities.com/alcislam/dijetare/index.h
tml
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Chemistry and Medicine

• Ibn Sina (981-1037)
• Wrote the Canon of Medicine summary of medical
  knowledge of that time
• Wrote on the functions of the organs
• Wrote of the diagnosis and treatment of diseases

http//www.geocities.com/alcislam/dijetare/index.h
tml
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Chemistry and Medicine

• Ibn al-Haytham
• (965-1040)
• Founder of optics
• Discovered the eye see because it receives light.

http//www.s9.com/Biography/Alhazen
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Art and Architecture

• Discouraged images or pictures of living things
• Developed and used calligraphy
• Arabesques decorated books, carpets, swords and
  walls
• Landscapes became artistic
• Flowers and trees
• Running water and fountains

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http//www.artline.com/galleries/glass/artists/tar
pley/index.html
http//www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam
/learning/calligraphy.html
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Literature

• Until A.D. 600s, Arabic literature was mostly
  poetry passed on orally
• The Quran was the first and greatest literary
  work
• A.D. 700s non-religious work Kalila and Dimna
• Animal fables presenting moral lessons

Kalila visits the captive DimnaKalila wa
Dimna.Herat, 1430.Revan 1022, folio 56a
http//www.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/history/timurid.html
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Literature

• Abbasid Period

• Umayyad Spain

• 70 libraries
• More than half a million books

• Influenced by
• Greek
• Hindu
• Persian
• Well Stocked Libraries

http//www.eximiousbooks.com/cgi-bin/exb455/index.
html
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Literature

• Persian Influence
• Themes
• Warrior-hero
• Religious poetry
• Verses of love

• Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) Persian mathematician
  and poet
• Rubaiyat
• Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) Sinbad
  the Sailor, Aladdin and His Lamp, and Ali Baba
  and the Forty Thieves

http//www.resonancepub.com/omarkhayyam.htm
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Philosophy and History
Muslims used Greek philosophy to explain the
Quran Sound Familiar?!

• Ibn Sina (980-1037)
• Known in Europe as Avicenna

• Ibn-Rushd (1126-1198)
• Known in Europe as Averroes

http//www.hmc.org.qa/hmc/qmj/june2002/biography/b
io2.htm
http//www.ibn-rushd.org/English/BiographicalInfoI
bnRushd.htm
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Philosophy and History

• Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)
• Wrote the Mishne Tora a 14 volume work on Jewish
  law and tradition (written in Hebrew)
• Wrote The Guide of the Perplexed(written in
  Arabic)

http//www.britannica.com/ebc/art-72987/Moses-Maim
onides-engraved-portrait-and-autograph-1190
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Philosophy and History
Islam traces history through events and chronicles
http//www.famousmuslims.com/ALI20IBN20RABBAN20
AL-TABARI.htm

• Al Tabari (838- about 870)
• Wrote a multi-volume history of the world

• Ibn al-Athir
• Wrote an extensive history

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Philosophy and History

• Ibn-Khaldun
• (1332-1406)
• Took a scientific approach to history
• Laws and cause-and-effect relationships
• Believed human events were shaped by geography,
  climate, economics and moral/spiritual forces

http//www.liberal-international.org/editorial.asp
?ia_id670