Al Razi – Medieval Islamic science
A manuscript copy of Al Razi's writing (from 1094 AD) Where was al Razi from? Al Razi was born in Iran, in the Samanid kingdom, in 865 AD. That was when Iran [...]
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07, 2017
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07, 2017
Seljuk Dynasty – Medieval Islamic history
The Seljuks defeat the Persians (1040 AD) The Seljuks were Turkic nomads from Turkmenistan. They were related to the Uighurs. They entered the Abbasid empire around 950 AD and gradually converted to Sunni Islam. By 1030 AD the Seljuks [...]
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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
Slavery in medieval India
Dancing woman from Mohenjo Daro, in what is now Pakistan Slavery in ancient India There were probably always slaves in India, but until about 1000 AD there were only a few people who were enslaved, [...]
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07, 2017
History of India – Early South Asia
Clay figurines from Mehrgahr India was one of the first places people came to after they left Africa. They travelled along the coast around the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. The first [...]
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07, 2017
Vedic expansion – history of India
Ganges river - wider and slower than the Indus Vedic people become more Indian After the Vedic people moved into the Ganges valley about 800 BC, they were further from West Asia and Central Asia and [...]
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07, 2017
The end of the Mughal Empire in India
Taj Mahal, the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal When the Mughal emperor Jahangir died in 1627, his third son, Shah Jahan, became the new emperor. He immediately imprisoned his stepmother Nur Jahan so he could [...]
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07, 2017
Barbarians in ancient Greece
A Greek image of a Persian "barbarian" woman Where does the word 'barbarian' come from? People in ancient Greece called everyone who didn't speak Greek a barbarian (barbaros). They said [...]
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07, 2017
Who was Xenophon? What’s the Anabasis?
A later portrait of Xenophon (now in the Prado museum in Madrid) Xenophon, like Thucydides, was an Athenian from a rich family who lived during the Peloponnesian War, in the [...]
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07, 2017
Defeat at Thermopylae – Second Persian War
Thermopylae The Spartans fought the Persians at the mountain pass of Thermopylae for three days, while the other Greek soldiers got safely away to the south. At the end of three [...]
