This lecture explores the Islamic Golden Age, it's origins, some key figures, and it's legacy. Presented by Wesley Cecil PhD. at Finnriver cidery in Chimacum Washington. The flyer is available at wescecil.com
@tsilis19961 Think Joe's dreaming of a day in which Baghdad wasn't sacked and bombed quite so brutally. Unless you're making light of that with your 'bomb' drop?
Des Cecil seems to underplay the contrubution of Byzantine in their books and scholars. Persian City leaders often employed Byzantines and the Byzantines translated their vast stores of great works from the Ancients. Also ignored is the direct transfer of work from Constantinoble to the Italian States. OR the Catholic guilt in sacking The City in 120i et al.
I find it a strange coincidence that 1492 the year the last Emirate (Granada) was kicked out of Andalusia in the Reconquista is the same year Columbus discovered the New World. The Reconquista and the discovery of the New World, the decline of the Silk Road trade and the rise of Ethnic strife (Seljuk Turks, Persians etc) all acted together with other factors like Plagues and famines to bring down the Islamic Empire. However, the legacy did not completely disappear, exactly like you said, it continued on in different form in the Ottoman Empire (which actively prohibited the printing of the Quran thereby reversing the trend that had been favorable to Moslems before as far as literacy, while Europe began reaping the benefits of Gutenberg's invention of printing), but also the richness of parts of Europe like Sicily and Spain which had been propelled by Moslem irrigation innovations and new crops like oranges and eggplants etc and the Moslem immigrant workforce (although it is categorically denied by the countries in question, you just have to take a look at Andalusians in Southern Spain and Sicilians to realize the Arabs most likely converted to Christianity and stayed behind.) Very interesting video I am looking forward especially to the series on German philosophers. Thank you for your work!
He forgot that chemistry was set up by ibn hayan in the 7th century. Additionally philosophers discussed the nature of God and the world. Avicenna gave his proof of God, Thomas Aquinis viewed it. The radius of the planet and being not the core of the solar system was discovered by al Burini 5 centuries before copernicus dissertation.
Interesting...but it seems that their PHILOSOPHY is not discussed at length. Wes talks a great deal about their love of knowledge and tolerance. First rate scholars certainly but totally ignored us Americans out of fear. Our ancestors “Shaved his head and burned a cross in it...” when he had only a skin rash and needed a salve applied said the Islamic doctor. .
...ignored by us Americans... His point that most of their written works have never been translated speaks volumes of our arrogance, self-centeredness and fear of their culture. Thx Wes!
CaspianReport has a good series on the rise and fall of science in Islam. The decline was caused more by religious fundamentalism when the Ash' ari school stressing predestination and literal interpretation of the Koran took control from the Mutazila school who stressed free will and rational thought and who had led the golden age.
Isfahan (Esfahan اصفهان) is in Iran. it was capital of persia(iran) during Safavid dynasty ([King] Shah Abbas the Great ) In that period of time Iran has several war with Ottoman Turks, they hated each other and this is still funny Isfahan (Persian: اصفهان, romanized: Esfahān [esfæˈhɒːn] ()), from its ancient designation Aspadana and later Spahan in middle Persian, rendered in English as Ispahan
I love your lectures, and this one is of course a relevant chapter in history. But I can't help feeling that you are giving Islam as a religious and political system/power special treatment here. In your previous lectures the distinction between religion and philosophy was made, but here you kind of credits Islam - a religion - for the great effort of copying the Greek text and progress in medical science. We (rightly) don’t call The Renaissance or The Enlightenment or the Colonial Period for “The Golden Age of Christianity”. The Golden Age was more rightly "The Golden Age of the Arab Empire". According to some historians, The Golden Age was characterized by a relative “looseness” and variety in the religion. Some say that the great Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (also known as al Mamun) actually was in favour of mutazilism, a rationalist school of Islam, that was eventually defeated and disappeared, while islam was consolidated - just as the heresies in the catholic world, that you told about last week :-)
