4 ms·
Alexandria was founded as a Greek city and stayed Hellenistic until the Islamic Invasion 600 something. Wikipedia lists Hypatia as "Greek", Greek and Roman cul
by filmor 9y ago
Alexandria was founded as a Greek city and stayed Hellenistic until the Islamic Invasion 600 something.
Wikipedia lists Hypatia as "Greek", Greek and Roman culture is usually counted as "western".
It could also be meant in contrast to "eastern" as in Chinese and Indian astronomy.
- weeksie 9y agoIn any case Egypt is certainly not in the "middle east"
- filmor 9y agoIt is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East (the Near East then being the Balkan). In other languages (e.g. in German) one calls this part "Near East", "Middle East" is Iran -> India, "Far East" is South-East Asia, China, etc.
- weeksie 9y agoHuh, never heard it used in such a way as to include Egypt. I've always heard Egypt included in MENA (Middle East/North Africa). There you go.
- asdjasldkjkljd 9y agoMaybe consider not being so blindly confident in the future. :)
- JumpCrisscross 9y agoMENA includes Morocco, Tunisia, et cetera.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoSurely Greco-Roman culture was pre "Western". So it's like calling Boudica an Anglo-Saxon. Better would surely be the "Hellenic astronomer", or just "Alexandrian astronomer" which places things reasonable well in geo-historical context. Would you call pharoahs "Western rulers"? If you say Western I'd assume it's after the downfall of the Roman Empire. Worth noting that Hypatia precedes the Qin dynasty by 200 years so there was no "Far East"/China in civilisation terms as such.