History of schools and education
History of schools: Scribes writing (New Kingdom Egypt) The history of schools From the Stone Age to the end of the Middle Ages, most children never went to school at [...]
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07, 2017
Medieval Islamic science
Medieval Islamic science: Al Tusi's diagram of linear motion from circular motion Indian and African science In the Early Middle Ages, before the formation of the Islamic Empire, Buddhists ran the world's biggest [...]
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07, 2017
al Tabari – Medieval Islamic medicine
al Tabari's homeland in Tabiristan Where did al Tabari come from? Al Tabari was from a Christian family in the Abbasid Empire, near the Caspian Sea (modern Iran). His father, Sahl, was himself [...]
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07, 2017
Sinbad the Sailor – Arabian Nights
An island turned out to be a whale Sinbad was (as Sheherazade told the story) a trader from Baghdad. He sailed his trading ships all around the Persian Gulf and [...]
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07, 2017
Noureddin and the Persian Woman
A pile of gold coins Here's another of the stories Sheherazade told the king: Once the sultan had two viziers, a good one (Khacan) and a bad one (Saouy). Naturally Saouy hated [...]
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07, 2017
Islamic geographers – Medieval Islam
Islamic geographers: al-Idrisi's map of the world (1100s AD) Universities in the Islamic Empire Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade made many people in the Islamic Empire rich enough to send [...]
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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 [...]
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07, 2017
Medieval Islamic pottery – Islamic art
A tin-glazed plate Just about the time of the Arab conquests (about 600-700 AD), potters started to use metal-based glazes on their pots. So Islamic pottery looks very different from the Roman pottery that came [...]
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07, 2017
Architecture of the Abbasid Caliphate
Minaret at Samarra, 847 AD The Abbasids built Baghdad When the Abbasid dynasty moved the capital of the Islamic Empire to Baghdad from Damascus in 762 AD, of course they needed a lot of [...]
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07, 2017
Buddhism in India – A religion of ancient India – History of Buddhism
Buddhism in India - Buddha Reincarnation and the wheel In the 500s BC, during the later part of the Vedic period in India, the idea of reincarnation became very strong among Hindus. Most people [...]
