Aramaic alphabet replaces cuneiform
This inscription from Kandahar, in Afghanistan, has Greek writing at the top, translated into the Aramaic alphabet at the bottom. The Mauryan Indian king Ashoka put it up about 258 BC. [...]
15
09, 2017
15
09, 2017
Where does Hebrew come from? Semitic languages
Early alphabets and Hebrew Some time possibly around 4000 BC, as West Asian people settled down in towns and villages, each group of people began to develop their own special language. This was partly [...]
4
08, 2017
Medieval Schools – Europe
Clerks in the Manessa Codex threatening students with sticks (1300 AD) - Medieval schools Who went to school? In medieval Europe, even fewer kids went to school than in the Roman Empire. [...]
29
07, 2017
What is zero? Zero and place value
A math problem showing place value How can you add big numbers without an abacus? You still group the sheep (or whatever) just as you did when you were using the abacus, but [...]
27
07, 2017
Languages and Writing
Cuneiform tablet from West Asia Most people in the ancient Mediterranean and West Asian areas spoke languages that divided into two groups. One language group is Indo-European and the other group is Semitic. In southern [...]
27
07, 2017
ibn Rushd – Medieval Islamic Science
Ibn Rushd prayed and studied in this Cordoba mosque Can science and religion work together? Since the time of Socrates - or before - many people have tried to figure out [...]
26
07, 2017
Maktab – Medieval Islamic schools
Boys in Mauretania learning Quran verses in a maktab from wooden tablets Schools in the Islamic Empire In the Islamic empire and in Africa, as in West Asia before Islam, most kids never went to [...]
25
07, 2017
Islamic poetry – Medieval Islam
The poet Rumi (1200s AD) Arabic poetry has a long tradition in the Arabian peninsula even before the development of Islam. People composed and recited long poems that they remembered without writing down. [...]
25
07, 2017
Arabic language and literature
Arabic language: Sabataean writing Where did Arabic come from? Arabic is in the Semitic language group. Semitic languages seem to have gotten started before the beginning of writing. That would be before [...]
23
07, 2017
The Abbasids – Medieval Islamic history
Minaret at Samarra, 847 AD The first Abbasid caliphs In 750 AD, the Abbasid caliphs murdered all of the surviving Umayyad men but one. Who were the Umayyads? All our medieval Islam articles [...]
