1.
Tus, Iran
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Tus, also spelled as Tous, Toos or Tūs, is an ancient city in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran near Mashhad. To the ancient Greeks, it was known as Susia and it was captured by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. It was also known as Tusa, Tus was taken by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and remained under Umayyad control until 747, when a subordinate of Abu Muslim Khorasani defeated the Umayyad governor during the Abbasid Revolution. In 809, the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid fell ill and died in Tus and his grave is located in the region. Tus was almost entirely destroyed by the Mongol conquests between 1220 and 1259, the most famous person who has emerged from that area was the theologian, jurist, philosopher and mystic al-Ghazali. Another is the poet Ferdowsi, author of the Persian epic Shahnameh, whose mausoleum, built in 1934 in time for the millennium of his birth, dominates the town. Al-Tusi – a descriptor used for individuals associated with Tus Tus citadel Media related to Tus, Iran at Wikimedia Commons Livius. org, Susia
2.
Greater Khorasan
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Khorasan is a historical region lying in the northeast of Persia. Khorasan in its proper sense comprised principally the cities of Balkh and Herat, Mashhad and Nishapur, Merv and Nisa, and Bukhara and Samarkand. Some believe that at certain times Khorasan covered an area, which included parts of Transoxiana, Soghdiana, Sistan. Sources from the 14th to the 16th century report that areas in the south of the Hindu Kush mountain range formed a frontier between Khorasan and Hindustan, in the Islamic period, Persian Iraq and Khorasan were the two important territories. The boundary between these two was the surrounding the cities of Gurgan and Qumis. In particular, the Ghaznavids, Seljuqs, and Timurids divided their empires into Iraqi, the adjective Greater is added these days to distinguish the historical region from the Khorasan Province of Iran, which roughly encompassed the western half of the historical Greater Khorasan. The name Khorāsān is derived from Middle Persian Khwarāsān, a compound of khwar, thus the name Khorasan means land where the sun rises or east. The Persian word Khāvar-zamīn, meaning the land, has also been used as an equivalent term. First established as an entity by the Sassanids, the borders of the region have varied considerably during its 1. Initially the Khorasan province of Sassanid empire included the cities of Nishapur, Herat, Merv, Faryab, Taloqan, Balkh, Bukhara, Badghis, Abiward, Gharjistan, Tus or Susia, Sarakhs and Gurgan. It acquired its greatest extent under the Caliphs, for whom Khorasan was the name of one of the three political zones under their dominion. Under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, Khorasan was divided into four sections or quarters, each section based on a single major city, Nishapur, Merv, Herat. In the Middle Ages, the term was applied in Persia to all its territories that lay east and north east of Dasht-e Kavir. Ghobar uses the terms Proper Khorasan and Improper Khorasan in his book to distinguish between the usage of Khorasan in its sense and its usage in a loose sense. Improper Khorasans boundaries extended to as far as Hazarajat and Kabul in the east, Sistan and Baluchistan in the south, Transoxiana and Khwarezm in the north, and Damghan and Gorgan in the west. It is mentioned in the Memoirs of Babur that, The people of Hindustān call every country beyond their own Khorasān, in the manner as the Arabs term all except Arabia. On the road between Hindustān and Khorasān, there are two great marts, the one Kābul, the other Kandahār. Caravans, from Ferghāna, Tūrkestān, Samarkand, Balkh, Bokhāra, Hissār and this country lies between Hindustān and Khorasān
3.
Al-Kadhimiya Mosque
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The Al-Kādhimiya Mosque is a shrine located in the Kādhimayn suburb of Baghdad, Iraq. It contains the tombs of the seventh Twelver Shī‘ah Imām Mūsā al-Kādhim, also buried within this mosque are the famous historical scholars, Shaykh Mufīd and Shaykh Nasīr ad-Dīn Tūsi. Repairs to the structure of the main courtyard of the mosque. Once the inner structure was completed, the floors and walls were then plated in various kinds of marble, updates to the cooling units of the mosque began in late 2008, and new water filtration units were installed on November 28,2008. Construction work on the new entrance to the mosque began in late 2008. Among the earliest of repairs done to the mosque after the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein, were repairs done to one of the gates of the mosque known as Bāb al-Qiblah. The gate and the wall had to be entirely refurbished because of the severe neglect they had withstood. The golden dome over the grave of Muhammad at-Taqī was re-gilded and unveiled to the public in March 2008, during the celebrations of Muhammad and his descendant. Repair work on the dome over the grave of Mūsā al-Kādhim began in early August 2008, during the ceremonies of Husayn ibn ‘Alī, ‘Abbās ibn ‘Alī. Holiest sites in Islam History of the Shrine at Kadhimayn
4.
Kadhimiya
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Al-Kāẓimiyyah or al-Kāẓimayn is a northern neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq about 5 kilometres from the city center on the west bank of the Tigris. Al-Kāẓimiyyah is also the name of one of nine districts in Baghdad. Al-Kāẓimayn is regarded as a city in Shia Islam. It received its name from the two Shii Imams buried there, Musa al-Kadhim and his grandson and successor, Muhammad al-Jawad, a shrine was first built over their tombs, and subsequently the al-Kadhimiya Mosque. The area that now constitutes al-Kāẓimiyyah was originally the location of a reserved for members of the Quraysh. This land was set aside for this purpose by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, in its early history, the town was an important center of Shii learning, perhaps the main center, but over time the town declined, and other cities rose to prominence. The location of the city has lent it to numerous plunders, among the most damage ever experienced by the town was after the Mongol Siege of Baghdad where the shrine of the Shii Imams was burnt down. The area was also an important center of Iraqi revolt against the British after World War I, Iraqi officials executed Saddam Hussein at an American operated facility in al-Kāẓimiyyah known as Camp Justice. Pilgrims to the shrine were attacked on 30 April 2016, leading to wider protests, during Operation Imposing Law in 2007, there were rumours that U. S. forces built walls around al-Kadhimiyya Mosque. According to Iraqslogger. com, the protests that resulted were due to an agreement between Iraqi security officials and the Mahdi Army that US forces would not come within 1,000 metres of the shrine, kadhimiyya Womens Prison is in the area. Women on Iraqs death row are held at the Shaaba Khamsa death row facility at Camp Justice, as of 2014 the adult womens death row had 36 women as well as children even though the facility was only intended to hold 25 women. Amil High School for Girls is in this neighborhood, adhamiyah Holiest sites in Shia Islam List of neighborhoods and districts in Baghdad List of places in Iraq New York Times article about the district, May 18,2007
5.
Baghdad
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Baghdad is the capital of the Republic of Iraq. The population of Baghdad, as of 2016, is approximately 8,765,000 making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab world, and the second largest city in Western Asia. Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century, within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic world. This, in addition to housing several key institutions, garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the Centre of Learning. Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with a population of 1,200,000 -3,000,000 people. The city was destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state in 1938, in contemporary times, the city has often faced severe infrastructural damage, most recently due to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent Iraq War that lasted until December 2011. In recent years, the city has been subjected to insurgency attacks. As of 2012, Baghdad was listed as one of the least hospitable places in the world to live, the site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. By the 8th century AD, several villages had developed there, including a Persian hamlet called Baghdad, the name is of Indo-European origin and a Middle Persian compound of Bagh god and dād given by, translating to Bestowed by God or Gods gift. In Old Persian the first element can be traced to boghu and is related to Slavic bog god, a similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithradāt, known in English by its Hellenistic form Mithridates, meaning gift of Mithra. There are a number of locations in the wider region whose names are compounds of the word bagh, including Baghlan. The name of the town Baghdati in Georgia shares the same etymological origins, when the Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name Madinat al-Salaam or City of Peace. This was the name on coins, weights, and other official usage. By the 11th century, Baghdad became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis, after the fall of the Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital whence they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, on 30 July 762, the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city, mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying, This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward. The citys growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors, it had control over strategic and trading routes along the Tigris, the abundance of water in a dry climate
6.
Ilkhanate
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The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate, was established as a khanate that formed the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire, ruled by the Mongol House of Hulagu. It was founded in the 13th century and was based primarily in Iran as well as neighboring territories, such as present-day Azerbaijan and the central and eastern parts of present-day Turkey. The Ilkhanate was originally based on the campaigns of Genghis Khan in the Khwarazmian Empire in 1219–24 and was founded by Hulagu Khan, with the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate. At its greatest extent, the state expanded into territories that comprise most of Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, western Afghanistan. Later Ilkhanate rulers, beginning with Ghazan in 1295, would convert to Islam, according to the historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, Kublai Khan granted Hulagu the title of Ilkhan after his defeat of Ariq Böke. The term il-Khan means subordinate khan and refers to their initial deference to Möngke Khan, the title Ilkhan, borne by the descendants of Hulagu and later other Borjigin princes in Persia, does not materialize in the sources until after 1260. When Muhammad II of Khwarezm executed a contingent of merchants dispatched by the Mongols, the Mongols overran the empire, occupying the major cities and population centers between 1219 and 1221. Persian Iraq was ravaged by the Mongol detachment under Jebe and Subedei, Transoxiana also came under Mongol control after the invasion. The undivided area west of the Transoxiana was the inheritance of Genghis Khans Borjigin family, thus, the families of the latters four sons appointed their officials under the Great Khans governors, Chin-Temür, Nussal, and Korguz, in that region. Muhammads son Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu returned to Iran in c.1224 after his exile in India, the rival Turkic states, which were all that remained of his fathers empire, quickly declared their allegiance to Jalal. He repulsed the first Mongol attempt to take Central Persia, however, Jalal ad-Din was overwhelmed and crushed by Chormaqans army sent by the Great Khan Ögedei in 1231. During the Mongol expedition, Azerbaijan and the southern Persian dynasties in Fars and Kerman voluntarily submitted to the Mongols, to the west, Hamadan and the rest of Persia was secured by Chormaqan. The Mongols invaded Armenia and Georgia in 1234 or 1236, completing the conquest of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1238 and they began to attack the western parts of Greater Armenia, which was under the Seljuks, the following year. In 1236 Ögedei was commanded to raise up Khorassan and proceeded to populate Herat, the Mongol military governors mostly made camp in the Mughan plain in what is now Azerbaijan. Realizing the danger posed by the Mongols, the rulers of Mosul, Chormaqan divided the Transcaucasia region into three districts based on the Mongol military hierarchy. In Georgia, the population was divided into eight tumens. By 1237 the Mongol Empire had subjugated most of Persia, Armenia, Georgia, as well as all of Afghanistan and Kashmir. After the battle of Köse Dağ in 1243, the Mongols under Baiju occupied Anatolia, while the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm and the Empire of Trebizond became vassals of the Mongols
7.
Ethnicity
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive
8.
Persian people
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The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. They share a cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the ancient Iranian population who entered modern-day Iran by the early 10th century BC. The English term Persian derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís, in the Bible, it is referred to as Parás —sometimes Paras uMadai —within the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya. Although Persis was originally one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term were adopted through Greek sources, thus, in the Western world, the term Persian came to refer to all inhabitants of the country. 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi, Dari and Azari as dialects of the Persian language, in 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta, referred to the people of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of Persians. Lady Mary Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, describes Persians, Kurds and Leks to identify themselves as descendants of the ancient Persians. On March 21,1935, the king of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran. However, the term Persian is still used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent. The earliest known written record attributed to the Persians is from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the inscription mentions Parsua as a tribal chiefdom in modern-day western Iran. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the Iranian population that, in the early 10th century BC. They were initially dominated by the Assyrians for much of the first three centuries after arriving in the region, however, they played a role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes, another branch of population, founded the unified empire of Media as the regions dominant cultural and political power in c.625 BC. Meanwhile, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids formed a state to the central Median power. In c.552 BC, the Achaemenids began a revolution which led to the conquest of the empire by Cyrus II in c.550 BC. They spread their influence to the rest of what is called the Iranian Plateau, at its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the creation of Pasargadae and its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, until the Parthian era, the Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, however, it did not yet have a political import
9.
Islamic Golden Age
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This period is traditionally said to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the Sack of Baghdad in 1258 AD. A few contemporary scholars place the end of the Islamic Golden Age as late as the end of 15th to 16th centuries, the metaphor of a golden age began to be applied in 19th-century literature about Islamic history, in the context of the western aesthetic fashion known as Orientalism. There is no definition of term, and depending on whether it is used with a focus on cultural or on military achievement. During the early 20th century, the term was used only occasionally, the Muslim government heavily patronized scholars. The money spent on the Translation Movement for some translations is estimated to be equivalent to twice the annual research budget of the United Kingdom’s Medical Research Council. The best scholars and notable translators, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, had salaries that are estimated to be the equivalent of professional athletes today, the House of Wisdom was a library established in Abbasid-era Baghdad, Iraq by Caliph al-Mansur. During this period, the Muslims showed a strong interest in assimilating the knowledge of the civilizations that had been conquered. They also excelled in fields, in particular philosophy, science. For a long period of time the personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians, among the most prominent Christian families to serve as physicians to the caliphs were the Bukhtishu dynasty. Throughout the 4th to 7th centuries, Christian scholarly work in the Greek, the House of Wisdom was founded in Baghdad in 825, modelled after the Academy of Gondishapur. It was led by Christian physician Hunayn ibn Ishaq, with the support of Byzantine medicine, many of the most important philosophical and scientific works of the ancient world were translated, including the work of Galen, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy and Archimedes. Many scholars of the House of Wisdom were of Christian background, the use of paper spread from China into Muslim regions in the eighth century, arriving in Al-Andalus on the Iberian peninsula, present-day Spain in the 10th century. It was easier to manufacture than parchment, less likely to crack than papyrus, Islamic paper makers devised assembly-line methods of hand-copying manuscripts to turn out editions far larger than any available in Europe for centuries. It was from countries that the rest of the world learned to make paper from linen. Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sina played a role in saving the works of Aristotle, whose ideas came to dominate the non-religious thought of the Christian. Ibn Sina and other such as al-Kindi and al-Farabi combined Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam. Arabic philosophic literature was translated into Latin and Ladino, contributing to the development of modern European philosophy, during this period, non-Muslims were allowed to flourish relative to treatment of religious minorities in the Christian Byzantine Empire. The Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, who lived in Andalusia, is an example, in epistemology, Ibn Tufail wrote the novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and in response Ibn al-Nafis wrote the novel Theologus Autodidactus
10.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
11.
Avicennism
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Avicennism is a school in Islamic philosophy which was established by Avicenna. According to Henry Corbin and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, there are two kind of Avicennism, Islamic or Iranian Avicennism, and Latin Avicennism, according to Nasr, the Latin Avicennism was based on the former philosophical works of Avicenna. This school followed the Peripatetic school of philosophy and tried to describe the structure of reality with a system of thinking. In the twelfth century AD, It became influential in Europe, particularly in Oxford and Paris, while the Latin Avicennism was weak in comparison with Latin Averroism, according to Étienne Gilson there was a Avicennising Augustinism. On the other hand, Islamic Avicennism is based on his works which is known as The oriental philosophy. Therefore, philosophy in the eastern Islamic civilization providing became close to gnosis and this approach paved the road for the Iranian school of Illuminationism by Suhrawardi. Henry Corbin referred to divergent between Iranian Avicennism and Latin Avicennism, beside he showed that we can see three different schools in Avicennism. He called them Avicennism Augustinism, Latin Avicennism and Iranian Avicennism, Avicenna Philosophy Eastern philosophy Iranian philosophy Islamic philosophy Contemporary Islamic philosophy Corbin, Henry. The Voyage and the Messenger, Iran and Philosophy, berkeley, CA, US, North Atlantic Books. The Voyage and the Messenger, Iran and Philosophy, berkeley, CA, US, North Atlantic Books. Corbin, Henry, Trask, Willard R. Avicenna and the Visionary Recital
12.
Early Islamic philosophy
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This period starts with al-Kindi in the 9th century and ends with Averroes at the end of 12th century. Early Islamic philosophy can be divided into sets of influences, branches, schools. The life of Muhammad or sira which generated both the Quran and hadith, during which philosophy was defined by Muslims as consisting in acceptance or rejection of his message. Together the sira and hadith constitute the sunnah and are validated by isnad to determine the truth of the report of any given saying of Muhammad. Key figures are Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud, each sifted through literally millions of hadith to accept a list of under 1. This work, which was not completed until the 10th century, ilm al-Kalām is the Islamic philosophical discipline of seeking theological principles through dialectic. Kalām in Islamic practice relates to the discipline of seeking theological knowledge through debate, a scholar of kalām is referred to as a mutakallim. With Kalam, questions about the sira and hadith, as well as science and law and this period is characterized by emergence of ijtihad and the first fiqh. As the Sunnah became published and accepted, philosophy separate from Muslim theology was discouraged due to a lack of participants, during this period, traditions similar to Socratic method began to evolve, but philosophy remained subordinate to religion. Independent minds exploiting the methods of ijtihad sought to investigate the doctrines of the Quran, one of the first debates was that between partisan of the Qadar, who affirmed free will, and the Jabarites, who maintained the belief in fatalism. At the 2nd century of the Hijra, a new movement arose in the school of Basra. This new school was called Mutazilite that lasted from the 8th to 10th centuries and its principal dogmas were three, God is an absolute unity, and no attribute can be ascribed to Him. It is on account of two principles that the Mutazilities designate themselves the Partisans of Justice and Unity. All knowledge necessary for the salvation of man emanates from his reason, humans could acquire knowledge before, as well as after, Revelation and this fact makes knowledge obligatory upon all men, at all times, and in all places. This appellation became the name for all seeking philosophical demonstration in confirmation of religious principles. The first Mutakallamin had to both the orthodox and the non-Muslims, and they may be described as occupying the middle ground between those two parties. But subsequent generations were to large extent critical towards the Mutazilite school, throughout history, the place of kalam in Islamic thought has been controversial. The vast majority of the early traditional Sunni Muslim scholars have criticized or prohibited it
13.
Islamic astronomy
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Islamic astronomy comprises the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age, and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa and these included Greek, Sassanid, and Indian works in particular, which were translated and built upon. Islamic astronomy also had an influence on Chinese astronomy and Malian astronomy, a significant number of stars in the sky, such as Aldebaran, Altair and Deneb, and astronomical terms such as alidade, azimuth, and nadir, are still referred to by their Arabic names. A large corpus of literature from Islamic astronomy remains today, numbering approximately 10,000 manuscripts scattered throughout the world, even so, a reasonably accurate picture of Islamic activity in the field of astronomy can be reconstructed. These observations were based on the rising and setting of stars. Anwa continued to be developed after Islamization by the Arabs, where Islamic astronomers added mathematical methods to their empirical observations, according to David King, after the rise of Islam, the religious obligation to determine the qibla and prayer times inspired more progress in astronomy for centuries. The first astronomical texts that were translated into Arabic were of Indian and Persian origin, another text translated was the Zij al-Shah, a collection of astronomical tables compiled in Sasanid Persia over two centuries. Fragments of texts during this period indicate that Arabs adopted the function in place of the chords of arc used in Greek trigonometry. The House of Wisdom was an established in Baghdad under Abbasid caliph Al-Mamun in the early 9th century. From this time, independent investigation into the Ptolemaic system became possible, Astronomical research was greatly supported by the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun through The House of Wisdom. Baghdad and Damascus became the centers of such activity, the caliphs not only supported this work financially, but endowed the work with formal prestige. The first major Muslim work of astronomy was Zij al-Sindh by al-Khwarizmi in 830, the work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. The work is significant as it introduced Ptolemaic concepts into Islamic sciences and this work also marks the turning point in Islamic astronomy. Hitherto, Muslim astronomers had adopted a primarily research approach to the field, translating works of others, al-Khwarizmis work marked the beginning of nontraditional methods of study and calculations. In 850, al-Farghani wrote Kitab fi Jawani, the book primarily gave a summary of Ptolemic cosmography. However, it also corrected Ptolemy based on findings of earlier Arab astronomers, al-Farghani gave revised values for the obliquity of the ecliptic, the precessional movement of the apogees of the sun and the moon, and the circumference of the earth. The book was circulated through the Muslim world, and even translated into Latin. The period when a distinctive Islamic system of astronomy flourished, the period began as the Muslim astronomers began questioning the framework of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy
14.
Islamic mathematics
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Mathematics during the Golden Age of Islam, especially during the 9th and 10th centuries, was built on Greek mathematics and Indian mathematics. Arabic works also played an important role in the transmission of mathematics to Europe during the 10th to 12th centuries, the study of algebra, the name of which is derived from the Arabic word meaning completion or reunion of broken parts, flourished during the Islamic golden age. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, is along with the Greek mathematician Diophantus, known as the father of algebra. In his book The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, Al-Khwarizmi deals with ways to solve for the roots of first. He also introduces the method of reduction, and unlike Diophantus, Al-Khwarizmis algebra was rhetorical, which means that the equations were written out in full sentences. This was unlike the work of Diophantus, which was syncopated. The transition to symbolic algebra, where symbols are used, can be seen in the work of Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi. It is important to understand just how significant this new idea was and it was a revolutionary move away from the Greek concept of mathematics which was essentially geometry. Algebra was a theory which allowed rational numbers, irrational numbers, geometrical magnitudes. It gave mathematics a whole new development path so much broader in concept to that which had existed before, another important aspect of the introduction of algebraic ideas was that it allowed mathematics to be applied to itself in a way which had not happened before. Several other mathematicians during this time expanded on the algebra of Al-Khwarizmi. Omar Khayyam, along with Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī, found several solutions of the cubic equation, omar Khayyam found the general geometric solution of a cubic equation. Omar Khayyám wrote the Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra containing the solution of cubic or third-order equations. Khayyám obtained the solutions of equations by finding the intersection points of two conic sections. This method had used by the Greeks, but they did not generalize the method to cover all equations with positive roots. Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī developed an approach to the investigation of cubic equations—an approach which entailed finding the point at which a cubic polynomial obtains its maximum value. His surviving works give no indication of how he discovered his formulae for the maxima of these curves, various conjectures have been proposed to account for his discovery of them. The earliest implicit traces of mathematical induction can be found in Euclids proof that the number of primes is infinite, the first explicit formulation of the principle of induction was given by Pascal in his Traité du triangle arithmétique
15.
Alchemy and chemistry in Islam
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Alchemy and chemistry in Islam refers to the study of both traditional alchemy and early practical chemistry by scholars in the medieval Islamic world. The word alchemy was derived from the Arabic word كيمياء or kīmiyāʾ. and may derive from the ancient Egyptian word kemi. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the focus of development moved to the Caliphate. Much more is known about Islamic alchemy as it was better documented, in considering Islamic sciences as a distinct, local practice, it is important to define words such as Arabic, Islamic, alchemy, and chemistry. In order to gain a better grasp on the concepts discussed in this article and this may also help to clear up any misconceptions regarding the possible differences between alchemy and early chemistry in the context of medieval times. He therefore proposes that the spelling of chemistry as chymistry refers to a unified science including both alchemy and early chemistry. Principe goes on to argue that, ll their chymical activities were unified by a focus on the analysis, synthesis, transformation. Therefore, there is not a defined contrast between the two fields until the early 18th century, the transmission of these sciences throughout the Eastern and Western hemispheres is also important to understand when distinguishing the sciences of both regions. The beginnings of cultural, religious, and scientific diffusion of information between the Western and Eastern societies began with the conquests of Alexander the Great. By establishing territory throughout the East, Alexander the Great allowed greater communication between the two hemispheres that would continue throughout history. The Quran, the book of Islam, became an important source of theology, morality, law. This development made way for contributions to be made on behalf of the East towards the Western conception of such as alchemy. According to the bibliographer Ibn al-Nadīm, the first Muslim alchemist was Khālid ibn Yazīd, the historicity of this story is not clear, according to M. Ullmann, it is a legend. Jābir ibn Ḥayyān may have born in 721 or 722, in Persian city of Tus, Iran, and have been the son of Ḥayyān. When young Jābir studied in Arabia under Ḥarbī al-Ḥimyarī, later, he lived in Kufa, and eventually became a court alchemist for Hārūn al-Rashīd, in Baghdad. Jābir was friendly with the Barmecides and became caught up in their disgrace in 803, as a result, he returned to Kufa. According to some sources, he died in Tus in 815, a large corpus of works is ascribed to Jābir, so large that its difficult to believe he wrote them all himself. According to the theory of Paul Kraus, many of these works should be ascribed to later Ismaili authors and it includes the following groups of works, The One Hundred and Twelve Books, The Seventy Books, The Ten Books of Rectifications, and The Books of the Balances
16.
Islamic medicine
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Islamic medicine preserved, systematized and developed the medical knowledge of classical antiquity. During the post-classical era, Islamic medicine was the most advanced in the world, integrating concepts of the ancient Greek, many aspects of their writings are still worth reading even today, and their memory is held in high respect by the physicians of today. Medicine was a part of medieval Islamic culture. The works of ancient Greek and Roman physicians Hippocrates, Galen, ophthalmology has been described as the most successful branch of medicine researched at the time, with the works of Ibn Al-Haitham remaining an authority in the field until early modern times. Early on, the study and practice of medicine was understood as an act of piety, founded on the principles of Imaan and Tawakkul. Muhammads opinions on issues, and habits with regard to leading a healthy life, were collected early on. Anas writes about two physicians who had treated him by cauterization and mentions that the wanted to avoid this treatment and had asked for alternative treatments. Later on, there are reports of the caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān fixing his teeth with a made of gold. He also mentions that the habit of cleaning ones teeth with a wooden toothpick dates back to pre-islamic times. The Prophetic medicine was mentioned by the classical authors of Islamic medicine. In his Kitab as-Ṣaidana from the 10. /11, century, Al-Biruni refers to collected poems and other works dealing with, and commenting on, the materia medica of the old Arabs. The most famous physician was Al-Ḥariṯ ben-Kalada aṯ-Ṯaqafī, who lived at the time as the prophet. He is supposed to have been in touch with the Academy of Gondishapur and he reportedly had a conversation once with Khosrow I Anushirvan about medical topics. The translation of the capital of the emerging Islamic world to Damascus may have facilitated this contact, the names of two Christian physicians are known, Ibn Aṯāl worked at the court of Muawiyah I, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. The caliph abused his knowledge in order to get rid of some of his enemies by way of poisoning, likewise, Abu l-Ḥakam, who was responsible for the preparation of drugs, was employed by Muawiah. His son, grandson, and great-grandson were also serving the Umayyad and these sources testify to the fact that the physicians of the emerging islamic society were familiar with the classical medical traditions already at the times of the Umayyads. The medical knowledge likely arrived from Alexandria, and was transferred by Syrian scholars, or translators. Very few sources provide information about how the expanding Islamic society received any medical knowledge, a physician called Abdalmalik ben Abgar al-Kinānī from Kufa in Iraq is supposed to have worked at the medical school of Alexandria before he joined ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīzs court
17.
Islamic physics
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The natural sciences saw various advancements during the Golden Age of Islam, adding a number of innovations to the Transmission of the Classics. During this period, Islamic theology was encouraging of thinkers to find knowledge, thinkers from this period included Al-Farabi, Abu Bishr Matta, Ibn Sina, al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham and Ibn Bajjah. These works and the important commentaries on them were the wellspring of science during the medieval period and they were translated into Arabic, the lingua franca of this period. Islamic scholarship had inherited Aristotelian physics from the Greeks and during the Islamic Golden Age developed it further, however the Islamic world had a greater respect for knowledge gained from empirical observation, and believed that the universe is governed by a single set of laws. Their use of observation led to the formation of crude forms of the scientific method. The study of physics in the Islamic world started in Iraq, fields of physics studied in this period include optics, mechanics, and astronomy. The primary subject of physics, according to Aristotle, was motion or change, in his Metaphysics, Aristotle believed that the Unmoved Mover was responsible for the movement of the cosmos, which Neoplatonists later generalized as the cosmos were eternal. One of the first commentaries of Aristotles Metaphysics is by Al-Farabi, in The Aims of Aristotles Metaphysics, Al-Farabi argues that metaphysics is not specific to natural beings, but at the same time, metaphysics is higher in universality than natural beings. One field in physics, optics, developed rapidly in this period, by the ninth century, there were works on physiological optics as well as mirror reflections, and geometrical and physical optics. In the eleventh century, Ibn al-Haytham not only rejected the Greek idea about vision, Ibn al-Haytham postulated in his Book of Optics that light was reflected upon different surfaces in different directions, thus causing different light signatures for a certain object that we see. It was a different approach than that which was thought by Greek scientists, such as Euclid or Ptolemy. Al-Haytham, with this new theory of optics, was able to study the aspects of the visual cone theories without explaining the physiology of perception. Also in his Book of Optics, Ibn al-Haytham used mechanics to try, using projectiles, he observed that objects that hit a target perpendicularly exert much more force than projectiles that hit at an angle. Al-Haytham applied this discovery to optics and tried to explain why direct light hurts the eye, because direct light approaches perpendicularly, taqī al-Dīn tried to disprove the widely held belief that light is emitted by the eye and not the object that is being observed. Therefore, the illumination must be coming from the stars so we can see them as soon as we open our eyes, the Islamic understanding of the astronomical model was based on the Greek Ptolemaic system. However many early astronomers had started to question the model and it was not always accurate in its predictions and was over complicated because astronomers were trying to mathematically describe the movement of the heavenly bodies. Ibn al-Haytham published Al-Shukuk ala Batiamyus, which outlined his many criticisms of the Ptolemaic paradigm and this book encouraged other astronomers to develop new models to explain celestial movement better than Ptolemy. In al-Haythams Book of Optics he argues that the spheres were not made of solid matter
18.
Islamic science
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Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasid Caliphate. Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a range of subject areas, especially astronomy, mathematics. Other subjects of scientific inquiry included alchemy and chemistry, botany, geography and cartography, ophthalmology, pharmacology, physics, in the 8th century, scholars had translated Indian, Assyrian, Sassanian and Greek knowledge, including the works of Aristotle, into Arabic. These translations became a wellspring for advances by scientists from Muslim-ruled areas during the Middle Ages, major religious and cultural works of the empire were translated into Arabic. The culture inherited Greek, Indic, Assyrian and Persian influences, an era of high culture and innovation ensued. Islamic scientific achievements encompass a range of subject areas, especially mathematics, astronomy. Other subjects of scientific inquiry included physics, alchemy and chemistry, ophthalmology, alchemists supposed that gold was the noblest metal, and that other metals formed a series down to the basest, such as lead. They believed, too, that an element, the elixir. Jabir ibn Hayyan wrote on alchemy, based on his own experiments and he described laboratory techniques and experimental methods that would continue to be used when alchemy had transformed into chemistry. Ibn Hayyan identified many substances including sulfuric and nitric acids and he described processes including sublimation, reduction and distillation. He utilized equipment such as the alembic and the retort stand, there is considerable uncertainty as to the actual provenance of many works that are ascribed to him. Astronomy was one of the disciplines within Islamic science. Al-Battani accurately determined the length of the solar year and he contributed to numeric tables, such as the Tables of Toledo, used by astronomers to predict the movements of the sun, moon and planets across the sky. Some of his tables were later used by Copernicus. Al-Zarqali developed a more accurate astrolabe, used for centuries afterwards and he constructed a water clock in Toledo. He discovered that the Suns apogee moves slowly relative to the fixed stars, nasir al-Din al-Tusi wrote an important revision to Ptolemys celestial model. When he became Helagus astrologer, he was given an observatory and gained access to Chinese techniques and he developed trigonometry as a separate field, and compiled the most accurate astronomical tables available up to that time. The study of the world extended to a detailed examination of plants
19.
Evolution
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Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to biodiversity at every level of organisation, including the levels of species, individual organisms. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the LUCA of all living on Earth. The fossil record includes a progression from early biogenic graphite, to microbial mat fossils, existing patterns of biodiversity have been shaped both by speciation and by extinction. More than 99 percent of all species that lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates of Earths current species range from 10 to 14 million, more recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described. In the mid-19th century, Charles Darwin formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection. This teleonomy is the quality whereby the process of natural selection creates and preserves traits that are fitted for the functional roles they perform. The processes by which the changes occur, from one generation to another, are called evolutionary processes or mechanisms, the four most widely recognized evolutionary processes are natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene migration. Natural selection and genetic drift sort variation, mutation and gene migration create variation, consequences of selection can include meiotic drive, nonrandom mating and genetic hitchhiking. In the early 20th century the modern evolutionary synthesis integrated classical genetics with Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection through the discipline of population genetics, the importance of natural selection as a cause of evolution was accepted into other branches of biology. Moreover, previously held notions about evolution, such as orthogenesis, evolutionism, evolutionary computation, a sub-field of artificial intelligence, involves the application of Darwinian principles to problems in computer science. The proposal that one type of organism could descend from another type goes back to some of the first pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, such as Anaximander, such proposals survived into Roman times. The poet and philosopher Lucretius followed Empedocles in his masterwork De rerum natura, in contrast to these materialistic views, Aristotelianism considered all natural things as actualisations of fixed natural possibilities, known as forms. This was part of a teleological understanding of nature in which all things have an intended role to play in a divine cosmic order. In the 17th century, the new method of modern science rejected the Aristotelian approach, however, this new approach was slow to take root in the biological sciences, the last bastion of the concept of fixed natural types. The biological classification introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1735 explicitly recognized the nature of species relationships. Other naturalists of this time speculated on the change of species over time according to natural laws
20.
Spherical trigonometry
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Spherical trigonometry is of great importance for calculations in astronomy, geodesy and navigation. The origins of spherical trigonometry in Greek mathematics and the developments in Islamic mathematics are discussed fully in History of trigonometry. This book is now available on the web. The only significant developments since then have been the application of methods for the derivation of the theorems. A spherical polygon is a polygon on the surface of the sphere defined by a number of great-circle arcs, such polygons may have any number of sides. Two planes define a lune, also called a digon or bi-angle, the analogue of the triangle. Three planes define a triangle, the principal subject of this article. Four planes define a spherical quadrilateral, such a figure, and higher sided polygons, from this point the article will be restricted to spherical triangles, denoted simply as triangles. Both vertices and angles at the vertices are denoted by the upper case letters A, B and C. The angles of spherical triangles are less than π so that π < A + B + C < 3π. The sides are denoted by letters a, b, c. On the unit sphere their lengths are equal to the radian measure of the angles that the great circle arcs subtend at the centre. The sides of proper spherical triangles are less than π so that 0 < a + b + c < 3π, the radius of the sphere is taken as unity. For specific practical problems on a sphere of radius R the measured lengths of the sides must be divided by R before using the identities given below, likewise, after a calculation on the unit sphere the sides a, b, c must be multiplied by R. The polar triangle associated with a triangle ABC is defined as follows, consider the great circle that contains the side BC. This great circle is defined by the intersection of a plane with the surface. The points B and C are defined similarly, the triangle ABC is the polar triangle corresponding to triangle ABC. Therefore, if any identity is proved for the triangle ABC then we can derive a second identity by applying the first identity to the polar triangle by making the above substitutions
21.
Tusi couple
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The Tusi couple is a mathematical device in which a small circle rotates inside a larger circle twice the diameter of the smaller circle. Rotations of the cause a point on the circumference of the smaller circle to oscillate back. Some modern commentators also call the Tusi couple a rolling device, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, born in the town of Tus in 1201, is acknowledged throughout the Islamic world as one of the Great Wisdoms. Tusi was the first astronomer to attempt a solution which would provide for latitudinal motion without introducing a longitudinal component and it is one of several late Islamic astronomical devices bearing a striking similarity to models in Nicolaus Copernicuss De revolutionibus, including his Mercury model and his theory of trepidation. Since the Tusi-couple was used by Copernicus in his reformulation of mathematical astronomy and it has been suggested that the idea of the Tusi couple may have arrived in Europe leaving few manuscript traces, since it could have occurred without the translation of any Arabic text into Latin. One possible route of transmission may have been through Byzantine science, several Byzantine Greek manuscripts containing the Tusi-couple are still extant in Italy. There are other sources for this model for converting circular motions to reciprocating linear motion. It is found in Procluss Commentary on the First Book of Euclid, in his questiones on the Sphere, Nicole Oresme described how to combine circular motions to produce a reciprocating linear motion of a planet along the radius of its epicycle. Oresmes description is unclear and it is not certain whether this represents an independent invention or an attempt to come to grips with a poorly understood Arabic text. Although the Tusi couple was developed within a context, later mathematicians. The mathematician Gerolamo Cardano designed a system known as Cardans movement, nineteenth-century engineers James White, Matthew Murray, as well as later designers, developed practical applications of the hypocycloid straight-line mechanism. Copernicus, Amico, Fracastoro and Tusis Device, Observations on the Use, journal for the History of Astronomy. The Rolling Device of Naṣir al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī in the De spera of Nicole Oresme, new York Academy of Sciences,1987. ISBN 0-89766-396-9 Ragep, F. J. Nasir al-Din al-Tusis Memoir on Astronomy, Sources in the History of Mathematics, dennis W. Discusses the model of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and the interactions of Arabic, Greek, and Latin astronomers
22.
Avicenna
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Avicenna or Ibn Sīnā was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, in 1973, Avicennas Canon Of Medicine was reprinted in New York. Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicennas corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and poetry. Avicenna is a Latin corruption of the Arabic patronym Ibn Sīnā, meaning Son of Sina, however, Avicenna was not the son, but the great-great-grandson of a man named Sina. His full name was Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnā, Ibn Sina created an extensive corpus of works during what is commonly known as the Islamic Golden Age, in which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively. Under the Samanids, Bukhara rivaled Baghdad as a capital of the Islamic world. The study of the Quran and the Hadith thrived in such a scholarly atmosphere, philosophy, Fiqh and theology were further developed, most noticeably by Avicenna and his opponents. Al-Razi and Al-Farabi had provided methodology and knowledge in medicine and philosophy, Avicenna had access to the great libraries of Balkh, Khwarezm, Gorgan, Rey, Isfahan and Hamadan. Various texts show that he debated philosophical points with the greatest scholars of the time, aruzi Samarqandi describes how before Avicenna left Khwarezm he had met Al-Biruni, Abu Nasr Iraqi, Abu Sahl Masihi and Abu al-Khayr Khammar. Avicenna was born c. 980 in Afshana, a village near Bukhara, the capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan. His mother, named Setareh, was from Bukhara, his father, Abdullah, was a respected Ismaili scholar from Balkh and his father worked in the government of Samanid in the village Kharmasain, a Sunni regional power. After five years, his brother, Mahmoud, was born. Avicenna first began to learn the Quran and literature in such a way that when he was ten years old he had learned all of them. According to his autobiography, Avicenna had memorised the entire Quran by the age of 10 and he learned Indian arithmetic from an Indian greengrocer, ءMahmoud Massahi and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. He also studied Fiqh under the Sunni Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid, Avicenna was taught some extent of philosophy books such as Introduction s Porphyry, Euclids Elements, Ptolemys Almagest by an unpopular philosopher, Abu Abdullah Nateli, who claimed philosophizing. As a teenager, he was troubled by the Metaphysics of Aristotle. For the next year and a half, he studied philosophy, in such moments of baffled inquiry, he would leave his books, perform the requisite ablutions, then go to the mosque, and continue in prayer till light broke on his difficulties. Deep into the night, he would continue his studies, and even in his dreams problems would pursue him and work out their solution
23.
Fakhr al-Din Razi
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Fakhr al-Din al-Razi or Fakhruddin Razi was an Iranian Sunni Muslim theologian and philosopher He was born in 1149 in Rey, and died in 1209 in Herat. He also wrote on medicine, physics, astronomy, literature, history and he left a very rich corpus of philosophical and theological works that reveals influence from the works of ibn Sina, Abul-Barakāt al-Baghdādī and al-Ghazali. Two of his works titled Mabahith al-mashriqiyya fi ilm al-ilahiyyat wa-l-tabiiyyat and he first studied with his father, and later at Merv and Maragheh, where he was one of the pupils of al-Majd al-Jili, who in turn had been a disciple of al-Ghazali. He was accused of rationalism, despite the fact that he restored many to the orthodox faith and he was a leading proponent of the Ashari school of theology. His commentary on the Quran was the most-varied and many-sided of all extant works of the kind and he devoted himself to a wide range of studies, and is said to have expended a large fortune on experiments in alchemy. He taught at Rey and Ghazni, and became head of the university founded by Mohammed ibn Tukush at Herat, in his later years, he also showed interest in mysticism, though this never formed a significant part of his thought. This work contains much of philosophical interest, one of his major concerns was the self-sufficiency of the intellect. He believed that based on tradition could never lead to certainty but only to presumption. However, his acknowledgement of the primacy of the Quran grew with his years, al-Razis rationalism undoubtedly holds an important place in the debate in the Islamic tradition on the harmonization of reason and revelation. Al-Razis development of Kalam led to the evolution and flourishing of theology among Muslims, Razi had experienced different periods in his thinking, affected by the Ashari school of thought and later by al-Ghazali. Al-Razi tried to use of elements of Muʿtazila and Falsafah. The most important instance showing the synthesis of Razis thought may be the problem of the eternity of the world and he tried to reorganize the arguments of theologians and philosophers on this subject, collected and critically examined the arguments of both sides. He considered, for the most part, the argument for the worlds eternity stronger than the theologians position of putting emphasis on the temporal nature of the world. According to Tony Street, we should not see in Razis theoretical life a journey from a young dialectician to a religious condition and it seems that he adapted different thoughts of diverse schools, such as those of Mutazilite and Asharite, in his exegesis, The Great Commentary. He raises the question of whether the term worlds in this verse refers to multiple worlds within this single universe or cosmos, the arguments of the philosophers for establishing that the world is one are weak, flimsy arguments founded upon feeble premises. Al-Razi rejected the Aristotelian and Avicennian notions of a single revolving around a single world. He describes their main arguments against the existence of multiple worlds or universes, pointing out their weaknesses and refuting them. This rejection arose from his affirmation of atomism, as advocated by the Ashari school of Islamic theology, which entails the existence of vacant space in which the atoms move, combine and separate
24.
Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi
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Al-Urdi (full name, Muʾayyad al‐Dīn al‐ʿUrḍī (مؤيد الدين ألعرضي was a medieval Syrian astronomer. In 1259 he moved to Maragha after being asked by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi to help establish the Maragha observatory under the patronage of Hulagu, Al-Urdis most notable works are Risālat al-Raṣd, a treatise on observational instruments, and Kitāb al-Hayʾa, a work on theoretical astronomy. His influence can be seen on Bar Hebraeus and Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi and he also constructed some of the instruments used in the observatory, in the year 1261/2. Al-Urdis son, who worked in the observatory, made a copy of his fathers Kitāb al‐Hayʾa. Al-Urdi is a member of the group of Islamic astronomers of the 13th and 14th centuries who were active in the criticism of the model presented in Ptolemys Almagest. Marsh 621 as a copy of Al-Urdis Kitāb al-Hayʾa, based on which he argued that Al-Urdis contributions predated Al-Tusi, maragheh observatory Zij-i Ilkhani George Saliba. The First Non-Ptolemaic Astronomy at the Maraghah School, Isis 70, the Astronomical Work of Muayyad al-Din al-Urdi, A Thirteenth Century Reform of Ptolemaic Astronomy, Markaz dirasat al-Wahda al-Arabiya, Beirut
25.
Ibn Khaldun
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Ibn Khaldun was a North African Arab historiographer and historian. He is claimed as a forerunner of the disciplines of sociology. He is best known for his book, the Muqaddimah or Prolegomena, the book influenced 17th-century Ottoman historians like Kâtip Çelebi, Ahmed Cevdet Pasha and Mustafa Naima who used the theories in the book to analyze the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. 19th-century European scholars also acknowledged the significance of the book and considered Ibn Khaldun as one of the greatest philosophers of the Middle Ages, Ibn Khalduns life is relatively well-documented, as he wrote an autobiography in which numerous documents regarding his life are quoted word-for-word. His family, which many high offices in Andalusia, had emigrated to Tunisia after the fall of Seville to the Reconquista in AD1248. Under the Tunisian Hafsid dynasty some of his family held office, Ibn Khaldūns father and grandfather however withdrew from political life. His brother, Yahya Khaldun, was also a historian who wrote a book on the Abdalwadid dynasty, and who was assassinated by a rival for being the official historiographer of the court. In his own words, And our ancestry is from Hadhramaut, from the Arabs of Yemen, via Wail ibn Hujr also known as Hujr ibn Adi, from the best of the Arabs, well-known and respected. However, the biographer Mohammad Enan questions his claim, suggesting that his family may have been Muladis who pretended to be of Arab origin in order to gain social status. Enan also mentions a well documented past tradition, concerning certain Berber groups, the motive of such an invention was always the desire for political and societal ascendancy. Some speculate this of the Khaldun family, they elaborate that Ibn Khaldun himself was the product of the same Berber ancestry as the majority of his birthplace. Even in the times when Berbers were ruling, the reigns of Al-Marabats and al-Mowahids, the Ibn Khalduns did not reclaim their Berber heritage. Khalduns tracing of his own genealogy and surname are thought to be the strongest indication of Arab Yemenite ancestry and his familys high rank enabled Ibn Khaldun to study with the best teachers in Maghreb. He received a classical Islamic education, studying the Quran which he memorized by heart, Arabic linguistics and he received certification for all these subjects. The mathematician and philosopher, Al-Abili of Tlemcen, introduced him to mathematics, logic and philosophy, at the age of 17, Ibn Khaldūn lost both his parents to the Black Death, an intercontinental epidemic of the plague that hit Tunis in 1348–1349. Following family tradition, Ibn Khaldūn strove for a political career, Ibn Khaldūns autobiography is the story of an adventure, in which he spends time in prison, reaches the highest offices and falls again into exile. In 1352, Abū Ziad, the Sultan of Constantine, marched on Tunis, Ibn Khaldūn, in any case unhappy with his respected but politically meaningless position, followed his teacher Abili to Fez. Here the Marinid sultan Abū Inan Fares I appointed him as a writer of royal proclamations, in 1357 this brought the 25-year-old a 22-month prison sentence
26.
Qutb al-Din Shirazi
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Mosleh Shirazi was a 13th-century Persian polymath and poet who made contributions to astronomy, mathematics, medicine, physics, music theory, philosophy and Sufism. He was born in Kazerun in October 1236 to a family with a tradition of Sufism and his father, Zia al-Din Masud Kazeruni was a physician by profession and also a leading Sufi of the Kazeruni order. Zia Al-Din received his Kherqa from Shahab al-Din Omar Suhrawardi, Qutb al-Din was garbed by the Kherqa as blessing by his father at age of ten. Later on, he received his own robe from the hands of Najib al-Din Bozgush Shirazni. Quṭb al-Din began studying medicine under his father and his father practiced and taught medicine at the Mozaffari hospital in Shiraz. After the passing away of his father, his uncle and other masters of the period trained him in medicine and he also studied the Qanun of the famous Persian scholar Avicenna and its commentaries. In particular he read the commentary of Fakhr al-Din Razi on the Canon of Medicine and this led to his own decision to write his own commentary, where he resolved many of the issues in the company of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. Qutb al-Din lost his father at the age of fourteen and replaced him as the ophthalmologist at the Mozaffari hospital in Shiraz, at the same time, he pursued his education under his uncle Kamal al-Din Abul Khayr and then Sharaf al-Din Zaki Bushkani, and Shams al-Din Mohammad Kishi. All three were teachers of the Canon of Avicenna. He quit his medical profession ten years later and began to devote his time to education under the guidance of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. When Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, the renowned scholar-vizier of the Mongol Holagu Khan established the observatory of Maragha and he left Shiraz sometime after 1260 and was in Maragha about 1262. In Maragha, Qutb al-din resumed his education under Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and he discussed the difficulties he had with Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on understanding the first book of the Canon of Avicenna. While working in the new observatory, studied astronomy under him, one of the important scientific projects was the completion of the new astronomical table. In his testament, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi advises his son ṣil-a-Din to work with Qutb al-Din in the completion of the Zij, qutb-al-Dins stay in Maragha was short. Subsequently, he traveled to Khorasan in the company of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi where he stayed to study under Najm al-Din Katebi Qazvini in the town of Jovayn, some time after 1268, he journeyed to Qazvin, Isfahan, Baghdad and later Konya in Anatolia. This was a time when the Persian poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi was gaining fame there, in Konya, he studied the Jame al-Osul of Ibn Al-Athir with Sadr al-Din Qunawi. The governor of Konya, Moin al-Din Parvana appointed him as the judge of Sivas and it was during this time that he compiled the books the Meftāḥ al-meftāh, Ekhtiārāt al-moẓaffariya, and his commentary on Sakkāki. In the year 1282, he was envoy on behalf of the Ilkhanid Ahmad Takudar to Sayf al-Din Qalawun, in his letter to Qalawun, the Ilkhanid ruler mentions Qutb al-Din as the chief judge
27.
Ibn al-Shatir
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Ibn al-Shatir or Ibn ash-Shatir was an Arab astronomer. He worked as muwaqqit in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and constructed a magnificent sundial for its minaret in 1371/72 and his most important astronomical treatise was kitab nihayat al-sul fi tashih al-usul. In it he drastically reformed the Ptolemaic models of the Sun, Moon and planets, eliminating the eccentric, although his system was firmly geocentric, the mathematical details of his system were identical to those in Copernicuss De revolutionibus. It is unknown whether Copernicus read ibn al-Shatir, list of Arab scientists and scholars Islamic scholars Fernini, Ilias. A Bibliography of Scholars in Medieval Islam, abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation,1998 Kennedy, Edward S. Kennedy, Edward S. and Ghanem, Imad, the Life and Work of Ibn al-Shatir, an Arab Astronomer of the Fourteenth Century. Aleppo, History of Arabic Science Institute, University of Aleppo,1976, the Solar and Lunar Theory of Ibn ash-Shatir, A Pre-Copernican Copernican Model. Roberts, Victor and Edward S. Kennedy, the Planetary Theory of Ibn al-Shatir. Theory and Observation in Islamic Astronomy, The Work of Ibn al-Shatir of Damascus, journal for the History of Astronomy,18, 35-43. Science in Medieval Islam, an illustrated introduction, University of Texas Press, Austin,1995. ISBN 0-292-78149-0 ISBN 0-292-78147-4 King, David A. Ibn al‐Shāṭir, Science in Medieval Islam by Howard R. Turner The Lights of the Stars
28.
Copernicus
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Copernicus was born and died in Royal Prussia, a region that had been part of the Kingdom of Poland since 1466. A polyglot and polymath, he obtained a doctorate in law and was also a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classics scholar, translator, governor, diplomat. In 1517 he derived a quantity theory of money – a key concept in economics –, Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in the city of Toruń, in the province of Royal Prussia, in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. His father was a merchant from Kraków and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy Toruń merchant, Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. His brother Andreas became an Augustinian canon at Frombork and his sister Barbara, named after her mother, became a Benedictine nun and, in her final years, prioress of a convent in Chełmno, she died after 1517. His sister Katharina married the businessman and Toruń city councilor Barthel Gertner and left five children, Copernicus fathers family can be traced to a village in Silesia near Nysa. The villages name has been variously spelled Kopernik, Copernik, Copernic, Kopernic, Coprirnik, in the 14th century, members of the family began moving to various other Silesian cities, to the Polish capital, Kraków, and to Toruń. The father, Mikołaj the Elder, likely the son of Jan, Nicolaus was named after his father, who appears in records for the first time as a well-to-do merchant who dealt in copper, selling it mostly in Danzig. He moved from Kraków to Toruń around 1458, Nicolaus father was actively engaged in the politics of the day and supported Poland and the cities against the Teutonic Order. In 1454 he mediated negotiations between Polands Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki and the Prussian cities for repayment of war loans, Copernicuss father married Barbara Watzenrode, the astronomers mother, between 1461 and 1464. The Modlibógs were a prominent Polish family who had been known in Polands history since 1271. The Watzenrode family, like the Kopernik family, had come from Silesia from near Świdnica and they soon became one of the wealthiest and most influential patrician families. Lucas Watzenrode the Elder, a merchant and in 1439–62 president of the judicial bench, was a decided opponent of the Teutonic Knights. In 1453 he was the delegate from Toruń at the Grudziądz conference that planned the uprising against them, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, the astronomers maternal uncle and patron, was educated at the University of Kraków and at the universities of Cologne and Bologna. He was an opponent of the Teutonic Order, and its Grand Master once referred to him as the devil incarnate. In 1489 Watzenrode was elected Bishop of Warmia against the preference of King Casimir IV, as a result, Watzenrode quarreled with the king until Casimir IVs death three years later. Watzenrode was then able to close relations with three successive Polish monarchs, John I Albert, Alexander Jagiellon, and Sigismund I the Old. He was a friend and key advisor to each ruler, Watzenrode came to be considered the most powerful man in Warmia, and his wealth, connections and influence allowed him to secure Copernicus education and career as a canon at Frombork Cathedral
29.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
30.
Polymath
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A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas, such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. The term was first used in the 17th century, the related term, the term is often used to describe great thinkers of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment who excelled at several fields in science and the arts. In the Italian Renaissance, the idea of the polymath was expressed by Leon Battista Alberti and this term entered the lexicon during the twentieth century and has now been applied to great thinkers living before and after the Renaissance. Renaissance man was first recorded in written English in the early 20th century and it is now used to refer to great thinkers living before, during, or after the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci has often described as the archetype of the Renaissance man. These polymaths had an approach to education that reflected the ideals of the humanists of the time. A gentleman or courtier of that era was expected to speak several languages, play an instrument, write poetry. The idea of an education was essential to achieving polymath ability. At this time, universities did not specialize in specific areas but rather trained students in an array of science, philosophy. This universal education gave them a grounding from which they could continue into apprenticeship toward becoming a master of a specific field, aside from Renaissance man as mentioned above, similar terms in use are Homo Universalis and Uomo Universale, which translate to universal person or universal man. The related term generalist—contrasted with a used to describe a person with a general approach to knowledge. The term Universal Genius or Versatile Genius is also used, with Leonardo da Vinci as the prime example again. The term seems to be used especially when a person has made lasting contributions in at least one of the fields in which he was involved. When a person is described as having knowledge, they exhibit a vast scope of knowledge. This designation may be anachronistic, however, in the case of such as Eratosthenes whose reputation for having encyclopedic knowledge predates the existence of any encyclopedic object. One whose accomplishments are limited to athletics would not be considered a polymath in the sense of the word. An example is Howard Baker, who was called a sporting polymath by the Encyclopedia of British Football for winning high jump titles and playing cricket, football, many polymaths from across the centuries have their roots in medical applications. One of the well known polymaths, Leonardo da Vinci, was known for his immense interest in human anatomical structure
31.
Trigonometry
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Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships involving lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies, Trigonometry is also the foundation of surveying. Trigonometry is most simply associated with planar right-angle triangles, thus the majority of applications relate to right-angle triangles. One exception to this is spherical trigonometry, the study of triangles on spheres, surfaces of constant positive curvature, Trigonometry on surfaces of negative curvature is part of hyperbolic geometry. Trigonometry basics are often taught in schools, either as a course or as a part of a precalculus course. Sumerian astronomers studied angle measure, using a division of circles into 360 degrees, the ancient Nubians used a similar method. In 140 BC, Hipparchus gave the first tables of chords, analogous to modern tables of sine values, in the 2nd century AD, the Greco-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy printed detailed trigonometric tables in Book 1, chapter 11 of his Almagest. Ptolemy used chord length to define his trigonometric functions, a difference from the sine convention we use today. The modern sine convention is first attested in the Surya Siddhanta and these Greek and Indian works were translated and expanded by medieval Islamic mathematicians. By the 10th century, Islamic mathematicians were using all six trigonometric functions, had tabulated their values, at about the same time, Chinese mathematicians developed trigonometry independently, although it was not a major field of study for them. At the same time, another translation of the Almagest from Greek into Latin was completed by the Cretan George of Trebizond, Trigonometry was still so little known in 16th-century northern Europe that Nicolaus Copernicus devoted two chapters of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium to explain its basic concepts. Driven by the demands of navigation and the growing need for maps of large geographic areas. Bartholomaeus Pitiscus was the first to use the word, publishing his Trigonometria in 1595, gemma Frisius described for the first time the method of triangulation still used today in surveying. It was Leonhard Euler who fully incorporated complex numbers into trigonometry, the works of the Scottish mathematicians James Gregory in the 17th century and Colin Maclaurin in the 18th century were influential in the development of trigonometric series. Also in the 18th century, Brook Taylor defined the general Taylor series, if one angle of a triangle is 90 degrees and one of the other angles is known, the third is thereby fixed, because the three angles of any triangle add up to 180 degrees. The two acute angles therefore add up to 90 degrees, they are complementary angles, the shape of a triangle is completely determined, except for similarity, by the angles. Once the angles are known, the ratios of the sides are determined, if the length of one of the sides is known, the other two are determined. Sin A = opposite hypotenuse = a c, Cosine function, defined as the ratio of the adjacent leg to the hypotenuse
32.
Twelver
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Twelver Shia Islam or Imamiyyah is the largest branch of Shia Islam. Twelver belief is based on the Quran and the message of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad attested in hadith, according to Shia tradition, the Mahdis tenure will coincide with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, who is to assist the Mahdi against the Masih ad-Dajjal. Twelvers believe that the Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Iran is the only country with state religion as Shia Islam. They also differ in the role and overall definition of an Imam, alevis in Turkey and Albania and Alawis in Syria share belief in the Twelve Imams with Twelvers, but their theological doctrines are remarkably different. The Twelvers are also known by names, The Shiah is commonly used as a synonym for Twelvers since this branch comprises the majority group in Shia Islam. Shia refers to a group of Muslims who believe that the succession to Muhammad must remain in his family for specific members who are designated by a divine appointment, tabatabaei states that the word referred to the partisans of Ali at the time of Muhammad himself. Jafari refers exclusively to the Twelver Juridical school which is followed by the majority of Shias and it also refers to the minority Akhbaris who advocate a distinct juridical approach within Jafari Jurisprudence. The term is derived from the name of Jafar al-Sadiq who is considered by the Twelvers to be their Sixth Imām, Jafar al-Sadiq is also respected and referenced by the founders of the Sunni Hanafi and Maliki schools of jurisprudence. Imami or Imamiyyah or Imamite is a reference to the Twelver belief in the infallibility of the Imāms, Ali is quoted as arguing that unity of God means that he has no like, he is not subject to numeration and is not divisible either in reality or imagination. On another occasion, he is quoted saying, The first step of religion is to accept, understand, the correct form of belief in his unity is to realize that he is so absolutely pure and above nature that nothing can be added to or subtracted from his being. That is, one should realize there is no difference between his person and his attributes, and his attributes should not be differentiated or distinguished from his person. Sayyid Haydar Amuli a prominent Shia mystic and philosopher defines God as alone in being, along with his names, his attributes, his actions, the totality of being therefore is he, through him, comes from him, and returns to him. God is not a next to or above other beings, his creatures, he is being. The divine unitude does not have the meaning of a unity, among, next to. For, if there were being other than he, God would no longer be the Unique, as this Divine Essence is infinite, his qualities are the same as his essence, Essentially there is one Reality which is one and indivisible. According to Twelvers theology, Tawhid consists of several aspects including Tawhid of the Essence, the attributes, the creatorship, Tawhid of the essence of God means his essence is one and peerless. Regarding this, Quran 112 states, Say, He is Allah, One, Allah and he neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent. Tawhid of the attributes means Gods names and attributes have no other reality than His essence, Ali argues that Every attributes testifies to its being other than the object to which it is attributed, and every such object in turn testifies to its being other than the attribute
33.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
34.
Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
35.
Ja'fari jurisprudence
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Jaʿfari jurisprudence, Jaʿfari school of thought, Jaʿfarite School, or Jaʿfari Fiqh is the school of jurisprudence of most Shia Muslims, derived from the name of Jafar al-Sadiq, the 6th Shia Imam. This school of jurisprudence is followed by Twelvers in general and Ismailis in part, however, despite these differences, there have been numerous fatwas regarding the acceptance of Jaʿfari fiqh as an acceptable Muslim madhhab by Sunni religious bodies. These include the Amman Message and a fatwa by Al-Azhar, in the modern era, former Prime Minister of Sudan Sadiq al-Mahdi defined the recognized schools of Muslim jurisprudence as eight, Jafari was one of them. This school of thought utilizes ijtihad by adopting reasoned argumentation in finding the laws of Islam, usulis emphasize the role of Mujtahid who was capable of independently interpreting the sacred sources as an intermediary of the Hidden Imamas and thus serve as a guide to the community. This meant that legal interpretations were kept flexible to account of changing conditions. This school of thought is predominant among most Shia, ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini emphasized that Jafari jurisprudence is configured based on the recognition that epistemology is influenced by subjectivity. Accordingly, Jafari jurisprudence asserts Conventional Fiqh and Dynamic Fiqh and this school of thought takes a restrictive approach to ijtihad. This school has almost died out now, very few followers are left, Some neo-Akhbaris have emerged in the Indian subcontinent, but they do not belong to the old Akhbari movement of Bahrain. Twelvers, along with other Shia sects such as the Zaydis and this belief is further emphasized by the Shia concept of Bada’, which states that God has not set a definite course for human history. Instead, God may alter the course of history as is seen to be fit. Nikah mutʿah, is a type of marriage used in Twelver Shia Islam, where the duration of the marriage and it is a private contract made in a verbal or written format. A declaration of the intent to marry and an acceptance of the terms are required, nikah mutʿah was also practiced by the pre-Islamic Arabs. Zaidi Shias, Ismaili Shias, and Sunni Muslims do not practice nikah mutah and this practice was emphasized in Shia Islam whereby adherents may conceal their religion when they are under threat, persecution, or compulsion. Hanafi Hanbali Maliki Shafii ^A In Arabic script, جعفري, strict transcriptions, Jaʻfarī or Ǧaʿfarī, /d͡ʒaʕfariː/, from the name, جعفر, Jaʻfar/Ǧaʿfar, the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics. Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press, Jafari, Shii Legal Thought and Jurisprudence from Oxford Islamic Studies Online Some of Shia Islamic Laws books Islamic Laws of G. A. Sayyid Abulqasim al-Khoei Islamic Laws of G. A, fazel Lankarani Islamic Laws of G. A. Syed Ali al-Husaini Seestani Towards an Understanding of the Shiite Authoritative Sources
36.
Nishapur
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It had an estimated population of 239,185 as of 2011 and its county 433,105. Nearby are the mines that have supplied the world with turquoise for at least two millennia. The city was founded in the 3rd century by Shapur I as a Sasanian satrapy capital, Nishapur later became the capital of Tahirid dynasty and was reformed by Abdullah Tahir in 830, and was later selected as the capital of Seljuq dynasty by Tughril in 1037. From the Abbasid era to the Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia and Eastern Iran, the city evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center within the Islamic world. Nishapur reached the height of its prosperity under the Samanids in the 10th century, but was destroyed by Mongols in 1221 and they worked at Nishapur between 1935 and 1940, returning for a final season in the winter of 1947–48. What remains of old Nishapur region is a 3500-hectare Kohandejh area, little archaeology has been done on this vast and complicated site. George Curzon remarked that Nishapur had been destroyed and rebuilt more times than any city in history. The Metropolitan Museum of Art undertook excavations from 1935 that were interrupted in 1940, searching largely for museum-worthy trophies that they shared with the government of the Shah, the Metropolitans publications were limited to its own Nishapur ceramics. The site of Nishapur has been ransacked for half a century since World War II, shadiyakh was one of the main palaces of old Nishapur up to the 9th century AD, which became more important and populated after that. Some notable people like Attar lived there, attars tomb is nowadays in that area. This palace was completely ruined in the 13th century. Nishapur occupies an important strategic position astride the old Silk Road that linked Anatolia, on the Silk Road, Nishapur has often defined the flexible frontier between the Iranian plateau and Central Asia. The town derived its name from its founder, the Sassanian king Shapur I. Nearby are the mines that supplied the world with turquoise for at least two millennia. In the year 1000 CE, it was among the ten largest cities on earth, after the husband of Genghis Khans daughter was killed at Nishapur in 1221, she or Genghis ordered the death of the entire population of the city, which was reputedly 1.7 million. Their skulls were reputedly piled in pyramids by the Mongols and this massacre, combined with subsequent earthquakes destroyed the pottery industry. US band Santana released a track entitled Incident at Neshabur on their 1970 LP release. Carlos Santana says this was a reference to a place in Haiti, yo-Yo Ma released an instrumental track entitled Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur as part of the Silk Road Project
37.
Attar of Nishapur
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Information about Attars life is rare and scarce. He is mentioned by two of his contemporaries, Awfi and Tusi. However, all sources confirm that he was from Nishapur, a city of medieval Khorasan. Attar was probably the son of a prosperous chemist, receiving an excellent education in various fields, while his works say little else about his life, they tell us that he practiced the profession of pharmacy and personally attended to a very large number of customers. The people he helped in the used to confide their troubles in Attar. Attars initiation into Sufi practices is subject to much speculation, of all the famous Sufi Shaykhs supposed to have been his teachers, only one - Majd ud-Din Baghdadi a disciple of Najmuddin Kubra- comes within the bounds of possibility. The only certainty in this regard is Attars own statement that he met him. At the age of 78, Attar died a violent death in the massacre which the Mongols inflicted on Nishapur in April 1221, today, his mausoleum is located in Nishapur. It was built by Ali-Shir Navai in the 16th century and later on underwent a renovation during Reza Shah the great in 1940. The thoughts depicted in Attars works reflects the evolution of the Sufi movement. In explaining his thoughts, Attar uses material not only from specifically Sufi sources, although his heroes are for the most part Sufis and ascetics, he also introduces stories from historical chronicles, collections of anecdotes, and all types of high-esteemed literature. His talent for perception of deeper meanings behind outward appearances enables him to details of everyday life into illustrations of his thoughts. The idiosyncrasy of Attars presentations invalidates his works as sources for study of the persons whom he introduces. As sources on the hagiology and phenomenology of Sufism, however, judging from Attars writings, he approached the available Aristotelian heritage with skepticism and dislike. Interestingly, he did not seem to want to reveal the secrets of nature and this is particularly remarkable in the case of medicine, which fell well within the scope of his professional expertise as pharmacist. He obviously had no motive for sharing his knowledge in the manner customary among court panegyrists, whose type of poetry he despised. Such knowledge is only brought into his works in contexts where the theme of a story touches on a branch of the natural sciences. One work is missing from lists, namely the Tadhkirat-ul-Awliyā
38.
Sufism
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Sufism or Taṣawwuf, which is often defined as Islamic mysticism, the inward dimension of Islam, or the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam, is a mystical trend in Islam characterized. These orders meet for sessions in meeting places known as zawiyas, khanqahs. They strive for ihsan as detailed in a hadith, Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, if you cant see Him, Rumi stated, The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr. Sufis regard Muhammad as al-Insān al-Kāmil, the perfect man who exemplifies the morality of God. The orders largely follow one of the four madhhabs of Sunni Islam, classical Sufis were characterized by their asceticism, especially by their attachment to dhikr, the practice of repeating the names of God, often performed after prayers. According to William Chittick, In a broad sense, Sufism can be described as the interiorization, historically, Muslims have used the Arabic word taṣawwuf to identify the practice of Sufis. In this view, it is necessary to be a Muslim to be a true Sufi. However, Islamic scholars themselves are not by any means in agreement about the meaning of the word sufi, Sufis themselves claim that Tasawwuf is an aspect of Islam similar to Sharia, inseparable from Islam and an integral part of Islamic belief and practice. Classical Sufi scholars have defined Tasawwuf as a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else, two origins of the word sufi have been suggested. Commonly, the root of the word is traced to ṣafā. Another origin is ṣūf, wool in Arabic, referring to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore, the two were combined by the Sufi al-Rudhabari, who said, The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity. Scholars generally agree that ṣūf or wool is probably the word of Sufi. This term was given to them because they wore woollen garments, the term labisal-suf meant he clad himself in wool and applied to a person who renounced the world and became an ascetic. Others have suggested that the word comes from the term ahl aṣ-ṣuffah and these men and women who sat at al-Masjid an-Nabawi are considered by some to be the first Sufis. Al-Qushayri and Ibn Khaldun both rejected all other than ṣūf on linguistic grounds. Sufi orders are based on the bayah that was given to the Prophet Muhammad by his Sahaba, by pledging allegiance to the Prophet Muhammad, the Sahaba had committed themselves to the service of God. According to Islamic belief, by pledging allegiance to Prophet Muhammad and it is through the Prophet Muhammad that Sufis aim to learn about, understand and connect with God. Such a concept may be understood by the hadith, which Sufis regard to be authentic, in which Prophet Muhammad said, I am the city of knowledge, eminent Sufis such as Ali Hujwiri refer to Ali as having a very high ranking in Tasawwuf
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Mongols
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The Mongols are an East-Central Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia and Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They also live as minorities in other regions of China, as well as in Russia, Mongolian people belonging to the Buryat and Kalmyk subgroups live predominantly in the Russian federal subjects of Buryatia and Kalmykia. The Mongols are bound together by a heritage and ethnic identity. Their indigenous dialects are known as the Mongolian language. The ancestors of the modern-day Mongols are referred to as Proto-Mongols, broadly defined, the term includes the Mongols proper, Buryats, Oirats, the Kalmyk people and the Southern Mongols. The latter comprises the Abaga Mongols, Abaganar, Aohans, Baarins, Gorlos Mongols, Jalaids, Jaruud, Khishigten, Khuuchid, Muumyangan, the designation Mongol briefly appeared in 8th century records of Tang China to describe a tribe of Shiwei. It resurfaced in the late 11th century during the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty, after the fall of the Liao in 1125, the Khamag Mongols became a leading tribe on the Mongolian Plateau. However, their wars with the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty and the Tatar confederation had weakened them, in the thirteenth century, the word Mongol grew into an umbrella term for a large group of Mongolic-speaking tribes united under the rule of Genghis Khan. In various times Mongolic peoples have been equated with the Scythians, the Magog, based on Chinese historical texts the ancestry of the Mongolic peoples can be traced back to the Donghu, a nomadic confederation occupying eastern Mongolia and Manchuria. The identity of the Xiongnu is still debated today, although some scholars maintain that they were proto-Mongols, they were more likely a multi-ethnic group of Mongolic and Turkic tribes. It has been suggested that the language of the Huns was related to the Hünnü, the Donghu are mentioned by Sima Qian as already existing in Inner Mongolia north of Yan in 699–632 BCE along with the Shanrong. Mentions in the Yi Zhou Shu and the Classic of Mountains, the Xianbei chieftain was appointed joint guardian of the ritual torch along with Xiong Yi. These early Xianbei came from the nearby Zhukaigou culture in the Ordos Desert, where maternal DNA corresponds to the Mongol Daur people, the Zhukaigou Xianbei had trade relations with the Shang. In the late 2nd century, the Han dynasty scholar Fu Qian wrote in his commentary Jixie that Shanrong, againm in Inner Mongolia another closely connected core Mongolic Xianbei region was the Upper Xiajiadian culture where the Donghu confederation was centered. After the Donghu were defeated by Xiongnu king Modu Chanyu, the Xianbei, tadun Khan of the Wuhuan was the ancestor of the proto-Mongolic Kumo Xi. The Wuhuan are of the direct Donghu royal line and the New Book of Tang says that in 209 BCE, the Xianbei, however, were of the lateral Donghu line and had a somewhat separate identity, although they shared the same language with the Wuhuan. In 49 CE the Xianbei ruler Bianhe raided and defeated the Xiongnu, killing 2000, the Xianbei reached their peak under Tanshihuai Khan who expanded the vast, but short lived, Xianbei state. Three prominent groups split from the Xianbei state as recorded by the Chinese histories, the Rouran, the Khitan people, besides these three Xianbei groups, there were others such as the Murong, Duan and Tuoba
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Mosul
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Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq. Since October 2016 it has been the site of an operation led by the Iraqi Government, under Haider al-Abadi, in an effort to dislodge. The city has been under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since June 2014, and no westerner has entered the city until the latest initiative. The Battle of Mosul, an offensive to retake the city begun in October 2016, is the largest deployment of Iraqi forces since the 2003 invasion by U. S. Located some 400 km north of Baghdad, Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank. The metropolitan area has grown to encompass substantial areas on both the Left Bank and the Right Bank, as the two banks are described by the locals compared to the direction of Tigris. Mosuls population grew rapidly around the turn of the millennium and by 2004 was estimated to be 1,846,500, an estimated half million people fled Mosul in the second half of 2014 when the IS fought with government forces for control of the city. On November 17,2014, ISIS attacked the city of Mosul, ultimately killing seven civilians, while some residents returned, more fled in 2015 as fighting and violence increased, and US bombings pounded the city. Historically, important products of the area include Mosul marble and oil, the city of Mosul is home to the University of Mosul and its renowned Medical College, which together was one of the largest educational and research centers in Iraq and the Middle East. The University has since been closed, the Islamic States leadership in Mosul has kept the Medical College open but it is reported to be barely functional. The name of the city is first mentioned by Xenophon in his expeditionary logs in Achaemenid Assyria of 401 BC, there, he notes a small Assyrian town of Mépsila on the Tigris somewhere about where modern Mosul is today. Be that as it may, the name Mepsila is doubtless the root for the modern name, in its current Arabic form and spelling, the term Mosul, or rather Mawsil, stands for the linking point – or loosely, the Junction City, in Arabic. Mosul should not be confused with the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh and this area is known today as the town of Nebi Yunus and is now populated largely by Kurds. It is the only neighborhood in Mosul. The site contains the tomb of the Biblical Jonah, as he lived and died in the capital of ancient Assyria. Today, this area has been absorbed into the Mosul metropolitan area. The indigenous Assyrians still refer to the city of Mosul as Nineveh. The ancient Nineveh was succeeded by Mepsila after the fall of Assyria between 612-599 BC at the hands of a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Scythians, Cimmerians and Sagartians, the Assyrians largely abandoned the city, building new smaller settlements such as Mepsila nearby
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Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi
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Yūnus Qūnawī was one of the most influential thinkers in mystical or Sufi philosophy. He played a role in the study of knowledge—or epistemology. Little is known about Qūnawīs personal life, as a young boy, Ṣadr al-Dīn was adopted by Ibn Arabī, whose pupil he was. A master of ḥadīth, people came to Konya from distant lands just to study under him, Qūnawīs overall influence appears more strategic than wide. Moreover, some of his students found fame and he instructed Quțb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, who went on to author a commentary, now well-known, on Suhrawardis Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq. Another student of Qūnawīs, the Sufi poet Fakhr-al-Dīn Iraqī, was instrumental in introducing Ibn Arabī into the Persian language, an easterly wind was stirring the blossoms. I gazed at them and reflected upon God’s power, might, the love of the Merciful filled me with such ardent passion that I labored to part with created things. Then, the spirit of Shaykh Ibn Arabī was personified to me in the most splendid form and he called out, “O ye who are perplexed, behold me. If God sublime and transcendent hath shown Himself to me in a flash of manifestation from the elevation of the essence. No goal, effort or salvation hath been disaffirmed. ”His recollection of this seems to indicate not just continuing deference to his teacher. Though a different intellectual breed than his mentor, Qūnavī too was a practising mystic. Qūnavīs significance arises from his place in Islams post-Avicennan period. His relationship with the aging teacher notwithstanding, Qūnavī had to stake out his own connection to higher knowledge. Al-Munāwī quoted him as saying that his teacher had striven to lead him to a level where God manifested Himself through flashes of manifestation to all seekers, but that he failed. Mystics describe a manifestation of this kind as a “flash, ” because the “direct witnessing of the essence” resembles the light, speed, and evanescence of any ordinary flash or lightning. Al-Qāshānī likened the “flash” to “the illumination appearing to a person that beckons and summons to the Presence of Proximity to the Lord for a journey within God. ”Ibn Arabī referred to the deep tranquility felt by the saintly “friends of God, ” the awliyā’, who take their repose in it. Because tranquility did not always occur to them, they could only take furtive glances at the manifestation, Qūnavī considered it his life’s task to complete what Ibn Sīnā had begun with his Ishrāqī conception of knowledge. First, he shared with Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Arabī the goal of representing the journey in communicable fashion
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Ibn Arabi
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He is renowned by practitioners of Sufism as the greatest master and also as a genuine saint. Abū Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn Arabī was born in Murcia, Taifa of Murcia on Monday and he went by the names al-Shaykh al-Akbar and Muḥyiddin ibn Arabi. He was also known as Shaikh-e-Akbar Mohi-ud-Din Ibn-e-Arabi in the Subcontinent and his father, ‘Ali ibn Muḥammad, served in the Army of Abu ʿAbd Allah. When Abu ʿAbd Allah died in 1172 AD, ‘Ali ibn Muḥammad swiftly shifted his allegiance to the Almohad Sultan, Abū Ya’qūb Yūsuf I and his family then relocated from Murcia to Seville. His fathers family claimed descent from the legendary Arabian poet Hatim al-Tai and his mother came from a noble Berber family with strong ties to northern Africa. Ibn ‘Arabī’s intellectual training began in Seville in 578 AH, most of his teachers were the clergy of the Almohad era and some of them held the official posts of Qadi or Khatib. His spiritual mentor in Fes was Mohammed ibn Qasim al-Tamimi, in the year 597 AH, he was in Morocco and took his final leave from his master Yūsuf al-Kūmī, who was living in the village of Salé at that time. Ibn Arabi undertook Hajj in 598 AH and he lived in Mecca for three years. It was in Mecca that he started writing his work Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, after spending time in Mecca, he traveled throughout Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Anatolia. The year 600 AH witnessed a meeting between Ibn Arabi and Shaykh Majduddīn Isḥāq ibn Yūsuf, a native of Malatya and a man of standing at the Seljuk court. This time Ibn ‘Arabī was travelling north, first they visited Medina and this visit besides other benefits offered him a chance to meet the direct disciples of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir Jīlānī. Ibn Arabi stayed there only for 12 days because he wanted to visit Mosul to see his friend ‘Alī ibn ‘Abdallāh ibn Jāmi’, a disciple of Qaḍīb al-Bān. There he spent the month of Ramaḍan and composed Tanazzulāt al-Mawṣiliyya, Kitāb al-Jalāl wa’l-Jamāl and Kunh mā lā Budda lil-MurīdMinhu In the year 602 AH he visited Jerusalem, Mecca and it was his first time that he passed through Syria, visiting Aleppo and Damascus. Later in 604 AH he returned to Mecca where he continued to study and write, spending his time with his friend Abū Shujā bin Rustem and family, including the beautiful Niẓām. The next 4 to 5 years of Ibn ‘Arabī’s life were spent in these lands, on 22 Rabī‘ al-Thānī638 AH at the age of seventy-five, Ibn ‘Arabī died in Damascus. Al-Insān al-Kāmil or the perfect being was first deeply discussed in written form by Ibn Arabi in one of his most prolific works entitled Fusus al-Hikam. Taking an idea already common within Sufi culture, Ibn al-Arabi applied deep analysis and reflection on the issue of the Perfect Human, in developing his explanation of the perfect being al-Arabi first discusses the issue of oneness through the metaphor of the mirror. In this metaphor al-Arabi compares an object being reflected in countless mirrors to the relationship between God and his creatures, God’s essence is seen in the existent human being, as God is the object and humans being the mirrors
43.
Genghis Khan
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Genghis Khan, born Temüjin, was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the tribes of Northeast Asia. After founding the Empire and being proclaimed Genghis Khan, he started the Mongol invasions that conquered most of Eurasia, campaigns initiated in his lifetime include those against the Qara Khitai, Caucasus, and Khwarazmian, Western Xia and Jin dynasties. These campaigns were accompanied by large-scale massacres of the civilian populations – especially in the Khwarazmian. By the end of his life, the Mongol Empire occupied a portion of Central Asia. Before Genghis Khan died, he assigned Ögedei Khan as his successor and he died in 1227 after defeating the Western Xia. He was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Mongolia, many of these invasions repeated the earlier large-scale slaughters of local populations. As a result, Genghis Khan and his empire have a reputation in local histories. Beyond his military accomplishments, Genghis Khan also advanced the Mongol Empire in other ways and he decreed the adoption of the Uyghur script as the Mongol Empires writing system. He also practiced meritocracy and encouraged religious tolerance in the Mongol Empire, present-day Mongolians regard him as the founding father of Mongolia. This brought communication and trade from Northeast Asia into Muslim Southwest Asia and Christian Europe, Temüjin was related on his fathers side to Khabul Khan, Ambaghai, and Hotula Khan, who had headed the Khamag Mongol confederation and were descendants of Bodonchar Munkhag. When the Jurchen Jin dynasty switched support from the Mongols to the Tatars in 1161, Temüjins father, Yesügei, emerged as the head of the ruling Mongol clan. This position was contested by the rival Tayichiud clan, who descended directly from Ambaghai, when the Tatars grew too powerful after 1161, the Jin switched their support from the Tatars to the Keraites. Little is known about Temüjins early life, due to the lack of written records. The few sources that give insight into this period often contradict, Temüjins name was derived from the Mongol word temür meaning of iron, while jin denotes agency thus temüjin means blacksmith. Temüjin was probably born in 1162 in Delüün Boldog, near the mountain Burkhan Khaldun, the Secret History of the Mongols reports that Temüjin was born grasping a blood clot in his fist, a traditional sign that he was destined to become a great leader. He was the son of his father Yesügei who was a Kiyad chief prominent in the Khamag Mongol confederation. Temüjin was the first son of his mother Hoelun, according to the Secret History, Temüjin was named after the Tatar chief Temüjin-üge whom his father had just captured
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Nizari Ismaili state
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The Ismaili state, also called the Alamut state, was a Shia Nizari Ismaili state founded by Hasan-i Sabbah after he took control of the Alamut Castle in 1090 AD. The state consisted of a nexus of strategic fortresses throughout Persia and Syria. The state collapsed when Rukn-ud-Din Khurshah surrendered Alamut Castle to the invading Mongols, within two generations, the Fatimid Empire would suffer several more splits and eventually implode. The Seljuq amirs usually held full jurisdiction and control over the districts they administered, meanwhile, Persian artisans, craftsmen and lower classes grew increasingly dissatisfied with the Seljuq policies and heavy taxes. Hasan too, was appalled by the political and economic oppression imposed by the Sunni Seljuq ruling class on Shiite Muslims living across Iran. It was in context that he embarked on a resistance movement against the Seljuqs. The castle had never before been captured by means and thus Hasan planned meticulously. Meanwhile, he dispatched his reliable supporters to the Alamut valley to begin settlements around the castle, in the summer of 1090 AD, Hasan set out from Qazvin towards Alamut on a mountainous route through Andej. Still in disguise, Hasan made his way into the fortress, earning the trust, careful not to attract the attention of the castle’s Zaydi lord, Mahdi, Hasan began to attract prominent figures at Alamut to his mission. It has even suggested that Mahdi’s own deputy was a secret supporter of Hasan. The Alamut fortress was captured from Mahdi in 1090 AD and therefore from Seljuq control by Hasan. Mahdis life was spared, and he later received 3,000 gold Dinars in compensation, capturing of the Alamut Castle marks the founding of the Nizari Ismaili state. These periods of internal turmoil allowed the Ismaili state respite from attack, the state had around 200 fortresses overall. The most important one was Alamut Castle, the residence of the Lord, the largest castle was Lambasar Castle, featuring a complex and highly efficient water storage system. The most important fortress in Syria was Masyaf Castle, though the castle of Kahf was probably the residence of the Syrian Ismaili leader Rashid al-Din Sinan. The natural geographical features of the valley surrounding Alamut largely secured the castle’s defence, positioned atop a narrow rock base approximately 180 meters above ground level, the fortress could not be taken by direct military force. To the east, the Alamut valley is bordered by a range called Alamkuh between which the Alamut River flows. The valleys western entrance is a one, shielded by cliffs over 350m high
45.
Alamut Castle
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Alamut was a mountain fortress located in Alamut region in the South Caspian province of Daylam near the Rudbar region in Persia, approximately 100 km from present-day Tehran. In 1256, Ruknu-d-Dīn Khurshāh surrendered the fortress to the invading Mongols, sources on the history and thought of the Ismailis in this period are therefore lacking and the majority extant are written by their detractors. After the Mongol destruction, the castle was of regional significance. Today, it lies in ruins, but because of its historical significance, the origins of the Alamut fortress can be traced back to the Justanid ruler, Vahsudan, who, during a hunting trip, witnessed a soaring eagle perch down high on a rock. Realizing the tactical advantage of location, he chose the site for the construction of a fortress. Alamut remained under Justanid control until the arrival of the Ismaili chief da’i Hasan-i Sabbah to the castle in 1090 AD, the Seljuq amirs usually held full jurisdiction and control over the districts they administered. Meanwhile, Persian artisans, craftsmen and lower classes grew increasingly dissatisfied with the Seljuq policies, Hasan too, was appalled by the political and economic oppression imposed by the Sunni Seljuq ruling class on Shii Muslims living across Iran. It was in context that he embarked on a resistance movement against the Seljuqs. The castle had never before been captured by means and thus Hasan planned meticulously. Meanwhile, he dispatched his reliable supporters to the Alamut valley to begin settlements around the castle, in the summer of 1090 AD, Hasan set out from Qazvin towards Alamut on a mountainous route through Andej. Still in disguise, Hasan made his way into the fortress, earning the trust, careful not to attract the attention of the castle’s Zaydi ‘Alid lord, Mahdi, Hasan began to attract prominent figures at Alamut to his mission. It has even suggested that Mahdi’s own deputy was a secret supporter of Hasan. Earlier in the summer, Mahdi visited Qazvin, where he received orders from Nizam al-Mulk to find. Upon his return to the Alamut fortress, Mahdi noticed several new servants and his deputy explained that illness had taken many of the castle’s workers and it was fortunate that other labourers were found from the neighbouring villages. Worried about the associations of these workers, Mahdi ordered his deputy to arrest anyone with connections to the Ismailis, Mahdi’s suspicions were confirmed when Hasan finally approached the lord of the fortress, revealing his true identity and declared that the castle now belonged to him. Immediately, Mahdi called upon the guards to arrest and remove Hasan from the castle, astounded, he realized he had been tricked and was allowed to exit the castle freely. The Alamut fortress was captured from Mahdi and therefore from Seljuq control by Hasan, with Alamut now in his possession, Hasan swiftly embarked on a complete re-fortification of the complex. By enhancing the walls and structure of a series of storage facilities, the perimeters of the rooms were lined with limestone, so as to preserve provisions to be used in times of crisis
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Arabic language
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
