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 [...]
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 [...]
Illustration in Ibn al-Nafis Who was ibn al Nafis? Ibn al Nafis was born in Syria in the early 1200s AD, just as the power of the Seljuks was collapsing. He studied [...]
Tomb of the scholar Qabus, Gurgan, Iran (built about 1010 AD) Who was al Ghazali? Al Ghazali was a scientist and philosopher in medieval Central Asia. More about Islamic science [...]
Maimonides studied in this Cordoba synagogue in Spain (1315 AD, rebuilt from Maimonides' time) What did Maimonides study? When Maimonides was a child, in the 1100s AD, he studied Jewish religious law in the Cordoba synagogue, [...]
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 [...]
Indian medicine: the Atharva Veda manuscript: an Indian medical book Early Indian medicine Medicine got an early start in India. Even in the Stone Age, about 5000 BC, dentists at Mehrgahr were [...]
History of Math: Counting tokens from Mehrgarh in Late Stone Age India Indian counting tokens and base 10 The first Indian numbers appeared in the late Stone Age, about 4000 BC. Around this time, [...]
Indian sailing: an Indus River boat from the Bronze Age (ca. 2500 BC) The first boats in India The first people to come to India from Africa, about 50,000 BC, may have come [...]
Ancient Indian science: Mohenjo Daro (ca. 2000 BC) From the time of the Harappans to the time of the Islamic conquests, Indian scientists and mathematicians were leaders. Ancient Indian science especially stood out in mathematics and [...]
