Posted on 02/22/2007 6:15:51 PM PST by xcamel
developed post seventh century?
Did you intend to use forum in your comment, or is thread a more accurate term?
(As a coherent philosopher, she was on the side of Averroes. :)
Sounds like the same writer that found "complex fractals" in the weavings of primitive African tribes, and upped their mathematical accomplishments to greater than that of Euclid, Godel, Turing, and Newton.
btt 4 later
The Islamic world invented zero so they could adequately describe their economic growth centuries later.
It would depend a lot on the timing, I believe. For me, it was tough for anything to compete with the Atari and Star Wars items received that same year.
What does the design of tiles have to do with mathematics as such? Parts of plants often have fractal forms -- this doesn't mean that your house plant is the next coming of Einstein. I'm perfectly willing to give credit when it's due, and the Arabs did have their famous mathematicians, but during the last few decades there has been more and more of this kind desparate grasping at straws by politically correct historians.
Supposedly you can tell their authenticity is there is a flaw--another Islamic thing: no creature is perfect. From a Christian view, this is almost also true, but it could be a bit arrogant to figure that you have to make a flaw in your rug--there will be one in there even if you try for a perfect rug.
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:w4LbP6_iW3rvJM:http://www.utopiasprings.com/chartes.jpg
The Mogul Empire in India stole lots of things - like the number zero. India is the place where the Arabs got their math smarts. Attributing invention of mathematics to Arabs is to put the cart before the horse.
I see nothing in the article that indicates that the muslims knew the mathematical expression(s) underlying the patterns.`The ancient Egyptions knew that 5^2=3^2 + 4^2 but never figuered out C^2=A^2 + B^2
Plants are not made by human creatures; tile designs are.
Status of Muslim Societies around the World:
...there are several factors for the backwardness of the Muslim society. First and foremost is their illiteracy in general and women illiteracy in particular. Another major reason of Muslim fall is the fact that hardly 16% of population is involved in industrial production. It is important to note that 60% of Christian population is engaged in industry. High population growth is another major factor for Muslim backwardness because this rapid population rise neutralizes whatever economic development takes place in Muslim Societies. Human Development Index prepared by UNDP gives a very dismal picture of the status of literacy, health and economy of Muslim nations. In the first 25 best countries listed under HDI (2002), no Muslim country figured in the list. Barring few small oil producing Muslim nations, majority of the Islamic world lies in the middle and low categories of human development, a clear indication that the Islamic nations needs to increase their focus on human development. Latest data (2002) about the Human Development Index (HDI) and Per capita GDP of some of the important and large populated Muslim countries are as follows;
HDI Income
(Per Capita)
Indonesia: 112 $850
(Population 210 M)
Bangladesh: 139 $350
(150 M)
Pakistan, 144 $500
(1300 M)
India 127 $500
(I Billion, Muslims, 140 M)
Egypt: 120 $1200
(70 M)
Turkey 96 $2700
(65 M)
Iran 106 $1,600
(70 M)
S. Arabia 73 $9,000
(22 M)
Malaysia 58 $4,000
(25 M)
Sudan 138 $450
(30 M)
Nigeria 152 $350
(120 M)
Libya 61 $7,000
(6 M)
Morocco 126 $1,300
(30 M)
Afghanistan 145 $300
(24 M)
Iraq 74 $5,500
(2.5 M)
Tunisia 91 $2,000
(10 M)
Syria 110 $1,300
(15 M)
Algeria 73 $1,700
(30 M)
It may be stated that the few Muslim countries, which do figure between 25 to 50 HDI, are Brunei, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar. Their per capita GDP is also comparatively higher i.e. between 10,000 to 15,000 dollars but combined population of all these Muslim countries is hardly 30 millions. One must bear in mind that total GDP of all the Arab oil producing counties (12 in numbers) is less than the GDP of Spain alone. Ironically Muslim Spain during Middle Ages had higher revenue (because of the industrial products like Textile, Paper, mineral etc) than the whole of the Christian Europe (eleventh Century AD). Today Germany alone has a GDP of 3 thousand Billion Dollars that is almost twice of the entire Muslim World. Per capita GDP of major Christian countries is also staggering. A few examples with higher Human Development Index (HDI) and per capita incomes are as below: ...
http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_251_300/status_of_muslim_societies_aroun.htm
Beautiful image. Thanks for posting.
They (the Muslims) stole their mathematics from the Hindus.
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