Islamic and Indian history is one of the most underrated history subjects in popular media. African history is totally overlooked. But just a window in these subjects show how much is lost and how much is hidden.
How are they "overlooked"? Just because white people don't read them? Maybe you should stop centering your world around them and seeking approval from them
I remember seeing a video that showed some of African history was lost due to the system they used to record it. Basically, Some Africans used to record history using plaques that depicted images of major events in their history. The plaques were hung in chronological order to show the time. Unfortunately, a lot of the plaques were made up of gold so colonial soldiers took them. Of course, the soldiers never bother to record the order of the plates before removing them so now even if all the plaques were returned to Africa, the order is lost.
So basically, people in 8th century Baghdad also had to deal with last-minute complications for an important trip and had to run through a whole chain of people being unhelpful to fix their issue as time runs out? Good to know we're not the only one this happens to.
As an African, I love learning the history of different countries and their cultures. Thank you for uploading a history of an Islamic era, hoping for another in the future.
It's such a shame we in Europe only get to study the European history, starting from the Greeks. As if Arabic, Persian, Indian, African history didint exist at all. Thank you TedEd for letting us fill those educational gaps with your insightful videos
@H. A. M. Fahim Kabir That's unfortunately so true..I've got a friend who lives in Mexico and she says they only study Mexican history from the moment when it was conquered by Spaniards- and from their point of view. That's heartbreaking....
One my most favorite periods in history, the Islamic Golden Age. Missing the days when the Caliphs surrounded himself with poets, philosophers, physicians and scholars of "ancient science" while the ulama studied religious science. And then, the Mongols arrived and while Baghdad eventually became functionable again, the House of Wisdom is gone forever along with the knowledge that was thrown into the Tigris River.
And the final nail in the coffin was the advent of the Ashariites who eventually turned Arab from a forward thinking progressive realm to a land of regressive fundamentalists.
@@lerneanlion No I didn't. I am just a history enthusiast with a good internet connection 😛. As I understand Ash'aris did have the scientific temper at the beginning and they tried to prove Quran through science. But as inevitable when science progressed enough to challenge Quran they became Quran apologists and started condemning science. To quote famed historian Eduardo Sachhau 'Ashari and Ghazali were the reason that the Arab world didn't have Galileo, Newton or Keppler'. Whatever Ibn-Khaldun or any other person believes in is completely their personal matter but I am just talking about the big picture. Again I am no historian so if anything I said is wrong then please correct me. Curiosity above everything ✌️
@@nathan-and-upam Ghazali was not responsible for the fall of the "ancient science" in the Muslim world. He supported math and other scientific ventures. He simply viewed metaphysics as making no sense.
3:18 Hisham, through his tears: p-please I just need a camel 😭 Scholar: nah son you need to know how to make a poultice. Hisham, sobbing: please…just a single camel. Scholar: hmm but have you ever considered Greek philosophy.
much respect to Saykoji. One of the sickest Indonesian rappers. His raps are supersick and a big part of my childhood. Well versed lyrics must come from a learned man such as Saykoji.
A beautifully presented video. I'd only like to bring up one point, that scholarship was not reserved only for men; rather, in Islamic culture, men and women have been learning from each other throughout history. Happy to provide examples if anyone wants them.
Indeed, this is quite true, however the particular scholarly culture of Baghdad during the time of Harun Ar-Rashid was one from which women were excluded. This was not true in other parts of the Abbasid caliphate at the time, and was not true of Baghdad in all times, but I think the writers here were very specifically focused on one particular time and place when telling their story But indeed, one of the major factors of Islamic history in general, going back to its earliest years, is the general openness to having women in positions of scholarly mastery. This, alongside the diversity of cultures and peoples that quickly became invested in the Islamic project, likely contributed greatly to the rapid ascent of academic progress during the Islamic Golden Age
Totally loved the storytelling, Arabic pronunciation of our cities, and the details made for everything mentioned . It really made me -a person raised in Makkah in the 21st century - feel like I was in Baghdad at that time!
Actually, women did join learning circles back then. There were many female students and scholars, of course their number doesn't compare at all to that of males, but they had a chance too. Even some of our greatest male scholars have female names in the list of their teachers.
@@marcomarco7750 In the Wikipedia page of Ibn Taymiyyah you'll find: "The number of scholars under which he studied hadith is said to number more than two hundred, *four of whom were women* ". Al-Suyuti is another example I can think of right now. Unfortunately his Wikipedia page in English doesn't mention female teachers, but the Arabic one does, check it if you can read Arabic. These are 2 examples, and there are many more.
Exactly! It's just mind-blowing how even as far back as the middle ages, women in the Islamic empire could get such high quality education comparable to modern day Muslim women in Afghanistan in the 21st century! Four students taught by Ibn Taymiyyah alone! If all the other teachers were documented as well, perhaps we could count up to ten women across the empire who could read Quran! The empowering influence of the Islamic culture can still be witnessed in the privileges that women hold all across the Islamic world, when compared to the non-Muslim nations! The video is obviously biased in saying that a life of formal scholarship was not likely for Asma.
I'm very interested in learning about the Islamic Golden Age and adore the A Day in the Life series! Thank you for making this video and temporarily satiating my curiosity. Can you please make a video based on Chinese history for the series?
This is honestly one of the most charming Ted-Ed vids I have ever seen! really deeply enjoyed the story and the animation is aesthetically brilliant, I love how it feels like a children's book but references an illuminated manuscript style. Excellent work on this.
I love these "A Day In....Series " makes me feel as if I'm actually there!Also as an African I appreciate learning the history of Africa and other cultures,refreshing from European
As an arab I had tears in my eyes Its too emtional for me to see who my grandfathers lived peacfully and united Not like us their is genocide in gaza and we cant do any thing about it
In addition to the accessible and fascinating narration, the animation is beautiful and perfect for shaping the story. Thank you for allowing us to get to know a culture that is unknown to us, sometimes strange but always fascinating. Greetings from Venezuela🇻🇪
I love the animation, it's really amazing. "A day in life.." series are one of my favourite of this channel other than "myths around the world". It's nice to see you covered a history of Islam, in Ramadhan too.
Poor Hisham literally just went into the library for directions to the nearest camel vendor only to be read and lectured by people. Sure knowledge is fun but none of it exactly helped him at the moment
The attention to detail in this animated video is so cool... you guys even made, the flipping of pages and sequence of characters from right to left like how most middle eastern country write and read... that is so cool.
I really *NEED* the audio (or background music) of this video! The music is so traditional and calm imo... Great vid and amazing animation Ted-Ed ! I really love these 'a day in...' kinds of videos
I tried to look it up for you, but to no avail.. It seems like it was composed or commissioned by the director of the video Mohammad Babakoohi. If you're still looking for the background music, I would recommend reaching out to him directly :).
That's a little misleading. The "Dark Ages" were the period in classical history after the Bronze Age collapse, where Mycenean Greece was broken into hundreds of city-states. the Middle Ages of Europe had centers of wisdom and knowledge, but since most of the centralization to Rome was broken after the empire's collapse, scholars and academics needed to build and re-establish networks of connectivity. The Middle East already had some of that, given the Roman-Asian-African sites in Alexandria, Jerusalem, and all across Egypt and the Levant, while the Sassanids already dominated the lands west of the Roman East. Plus, Constantinople was a center of knowledge and academia (and continues to be).
In today's world, we are the least developed race. I can't believe we are the successor of people who literally had knowledge of seven skies. By the way, you guys are the best, you cover almost all race, culture and traditions of the world in your videos. That's really great.
MashaAllah, as a Muslim, I get goosebumps seeing the concept of pilgrims before modern age transportations, a huge caravan like a moving city, now that make sense considering the journey for fellow pilgrims is long and arduous journey, every time the caravan about to departure, I can only feel the labaikallah being chanted from the city, thank you for sharing this
I love how this video introduce cultual aspects of their daily lives while telling us a story. It felt like as if I was watching them as one of the citizens.
the beauty of farsi literature is of another level, there are so many literature and poetry works done by many wise and knowledgeable scholars. if anyone is interested then they could checkout the following books, (if you can't read farsi then no problem because they are all translated into various languages!) 1- gulista/the rose garden by sheikh sa'di (my personal favorite, it has both stories and poetry on very intresting topics, highly recomended!) 2- the masnavi by jalal uddin rumi 3- busta by sheikh sadi
Bagdad before the invasion of the mongols was considered the library of the world! The islamic world were technologically, economically and intellectually more advanced then the west
Great effort, thank you. Just as a matter of perspectives. I don't like the word Medieval, maybe some parts of Europe lived In the midst of evils at that time, but I would use "Middle Ages".
The fact they were all together in caravans protected by the Caliph's horsemen guards from Baghdad to Makkah is a REGULAR occurence, is CRAZY. How did life back then be so much more meaningful?
I find strange that Medieval Islam scholars were so interested in Classical Greece, but today Islam World tend to disregard it and only focus on Muhammad story and XVIII century conservative reinterpretations.
I don't think Muslims don't care about classical Greece , but they got a lot more to focus on and the statement about Mohammad is kinda true because it's their prophet so why not
Actually there are many countries in the islamic world(like the maghrebian ones) that have philosophy as a main subject in public schools and it's included in all the branches
I Can’t Even Begin To Describe How Beautifully Made This Video Is , Its Probably One Of The Best Animated Pieces I’ve Ever Seen , The Design Of The Small Details Like The Costumes , The Lanterns , The Houses , Its Just So Artistic & Beautiful To Watch , Hats Off To All Of You The Animation & Illustration Teams For Your Creativity & For Highlighting Such A Unique Historical Era 🤍🤍
It's about time you guys cover Islamic history, and boy it is beautiful. I hope for more videos to come because there is much more in Islamic history than its "golden age", maybe a day in the life of a Ghilman/Mamluke soldier who will dominate the late Abbasid Caliphate?.
great topic, I love to see non-Muslims learn about the Golden Ages. But just a note, women DID also study and make science and religious careers back then, it was after that some slipped and refused women's rights!
@@anisa2273 M.+-sli-ms, have historically, been sl-+_a.vers, they e-ns_.la+-ved more afri-+cans than even the Atlantic $la-+ve tra-ders. S-+lav+..es were being sold in Saudi Arabia, as recently as a few decades ago. The prophet Mu-ha-+.mm+ad ow-n+-ed sl-a-.v-+es himself. Although he did claim fre-+(eing sl.a+..v-es was a good thing, he never outright banned sl-&av+..ery and s.la-&ve raiding. Wor+k-ing conditions for sl-a.v+!es working in salt mines were so bad that revolts happened multiple times, and that's during the early isl-+amic period.
@@mmrxaaa377 yes I know, I just want TedEd to make a quality video with verified information about it, that way we all learn and it also reaches more people in their audience
I never finished it, but I did enjoy what I read of The Conference of the Birds. Aside from being beautifully written, the text is deeply infused with principles of Sufism, or Islamic mysticism.