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Not only India, but Persia, countries in The Levant, North Africa and Mediterranean were highly developed before the advent of Islam (which originated amongst d
by rramadass 4y ago
Not only India, but Persia, countries in The Levant, North Africa and Mediterranean were highly developed before the advent of Islam (which originated amongst desert tribes). It is their knowledge which gave rise to the
so called "Golden Age of Islam". Islamic conquest merely acted as a conduit for the spread of these ideas from one geographical region to another (a la the later Mongol Empire).
- selimthegrim 4y agoCentral Asia certainly played its role too. I invite you to consider that when Jai Singh II built Jantar Mantar, he used "Islamic" sources (Zij) as well from there.
- rramadass 4y agoCentral Asia's prominence before Islam was mainly due to trade routes (later named the "Silk Road").
- random314 4y agoIt is fairly standard in Indian right wing media to be dismissive of anything positive of Islamic origin, by constructing a short alternative history as per the writers imagination. So any post Islamic Arab contributions to math would have to be stolen from India, using bloodshed - as if math is a treasure that can be lifted or looted or were existing amongst Arabs before Islam.
- rramadass 4y agoNobody is talking about "right wing media" etc other than you. What is being pointed out is the achievements of civilizations predating Islam in those countries which are today Islamic. It is simple factual History.
- selimthegrim 4y agoVery well, so what is wrong about mentioning Al Biruni or Ulugh Beg or Zij-i-Sultani as well?
- random314 4y agoIt is was fairly straightforward for me to tell that you belong to the Indian right wing, from your biases when commenting about a secular topic like mathematics. > It is simple factual History. Just like post Islamic Arab mathematics by Al Khawrizmi, Al Biruni et al. > Nobody is talking about "right wing media" etc other than you. Yes, and ... ??
- rramadass 4y ago>It is was fairly straightforward for me to tell that you belong to the Indian right wing None of my posts have anything to do with "right wing"; It is your reading of them that is flawed. If anything, hiding behind internet anonymity and posting ad hominem comments tells a lot about you.
- teleforce 4y agoIt is not merely act as a conduit. Using your anology they act as amplifier, filter, signal processing, etc toward the knowledge contributions. These regions becoming even more prosperous due to these knowledge based activities after Islamic rules unlike India who becoming much poorer after the British colonization.
- rramadass 4y agoYour first part is debatable. The analogy i see is Arabs->later advancements(7th century and later) is the same as Mongols->later advancements(13th century and later). Both Arabs and Mongols were not inherently as "advanced" a civilization as the ones they conquered.
- teleforce 4y agoI'm not sure if you're trolling but I'll bite. Unlike Mongols, Arab and Muslim scientists are well-knwon to have numerous and extensive contributions to the scientific knowledge. A lot of the novel scientific, mathematics, and other knowledge terminology are based on the Arabic languages namely algorithm, chemistry, alkali, just to name a few [1]. For medicine alone the contributions are numerous from Al-Nafis discovery of blood cirtculation several hunderds years before Harvey[2], Avicennna's book adoption as standard medicine textbooks for several hundred years at Oxford, Cambridge and other major European university [3], Ibn Al Quff the father of modern anesthasia [4] and Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawai the father of modern surgery [5]. Actually I want to mention well-known contributions to mathematics and astronomy by Arab and muslim scientists and mathematicians as well, but I think you probably get the points by now. If your claim is true about the Mongols I'd like you to come up with similar list just for modern medicine alone from the Mongolian scientists (not ancient China) but I doubt you can and will. [1]List of English words of Arabic origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Arabic_origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Arabi... [2]Ibn al-Nafis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Nafis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Nafis [3]Avicenna: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna [4]An Arabic surgeon, Ibn al Quff's (1232–1286) account on surgical pain relief: https://journals.lww.com/anar/Fulltext/2010/04010/Historical_essay__An_Arabic_surgeon,_Ibn_al_Quff_s.3.aspx https://journals.lww.com/anar/Fulltext/2010/04010/Historical... [5]Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi: Father of Modern Surgery: https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/academic-events/CIS-PM-AQAZFMS https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/academic-events/CIS-PM-AQAZFMS
- kamaal 4y agoBasically nobody invents anything from scratch. It would be a pity if we have to rediscover everything all over again, every time there is a major change in a regions political order. The modern USA is today a continuation of the Europe's printing press revolution.
- rramadass 4y agoThe point was that the achievements of civilizations predating Islam have been given short shrift.
- AdamN 4y agoI can't think of anybody giving short shrift to the achievements of civilizations predating Islam: Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and many more civilizations are all commonly referred to as having made major achievements.
- rramadass 4y agoI thought it was obvious but apparently not; my other comment clarifies it as; >What is being pointed out is the achievements of civilizations predating Islam in those countries which are today Islamic.
- AdamN 4y agoOh yeah - that's a big issue. Lots of big civilizational achievements were happening in what became the Islamic world before Islam became dominant.
- rramadass 4y agoMy strong contention is that much of the credit for the "Golden Age of Islam" should go to these pre-Islamic civilizations whose achievements were forcibly appropriated by the Arabs under their "Islamic" conquest.