Posted on 08/11/2013 4:38:30 PM PDT by Enza Ferreri
“Arabic” numbers, primarily the concept of zero, are of Indian origin.
Just great...now counting on my fingers is going to be much harder.
Actually, Arabic numbers were invented in India, about a century before Muhammad.
I prefer the Greek and Roman names, but no one other than astronomers really care.
We should also remember the lasting contribution of J.R.R. Tolkien to the field, whose names I personally think should have pride of place over both the Greeks and the Muslims. That way we could all go out and watch Menelvagor as he rises in the sky. :-)
That is true. I have said since they formed OPEC that we needed to bring in our own oil and let them go back to herding goats. They had no money to be terrorists before U.S. companies put them in the oil business, it is past time to take them out of it. Of course now they have many customers so if we stopped buying it would not put them out of business but I can dream.
Let’s not forget Pythagoras.
Arab does not necessarily equal Muslim.
The Arabic numerals actually came from India.
Let them have algebra, I couldn’t stand it, it’s fitting!
Actually, fragments of the Greek works were known inthe West, particularly in Spain, where Isidore of Seville included them in his compendium of all human knowledge (for the time), written about 75 years before the Islamic invasion of Spain and actually before the invention of Islam.
The Muslims conquered and destroyed numerous Christian and pagan Middle Eastern cultures that still possessed more complete copies of the Greek works, and some of these were preserved by scholars from those countries. While the countries were then islamicized, this was early enough for Islam not to have consolidated its full anti-intellectual impact, which has always resulted in the destruction of all art, music, literature and philosophy in any place that has remained under Islam for more than about 100 years.
Both the Syrians and the Persians, two of the dynasties that ruled Spain at various points, even ended up being considered near heretical by the the guardians of Islamic orthodoxy, the North African Muslims (the Arabs, from whom Mohammed originated), because they were influenced by the Jews and Christians of Spain and because they themselves had had strong intellectual traditions before their conquest by Mohammed and his Arab hordes.
Arabs had no intellectual culture and were nomadic raiders who lived in tents while the Syrians, Baghdadis and Persians lived in elaborate stone cities with gardens and fountains.
Islam is profoundly anti-intellectual. There’s nothing wrong with Arabs intellectually, but Islam stifles them.
Hmm, come to think of it. The only thing that islamist ever invented that actually worked are suicide belts and vests. And even that technology was probably stolen.
Don’t go by Fbonacci. He traveled through northern Africa and brought math concepts back.
The Indians are our enemies? Who knew? :))
The Crusaders weren't the only people who went on the crusades. There were thousands of "support personnel" - for lack of a better term - who trailed along. All sorts of civilians went and certainly the literate clergy were very interested in written works. The Imperial Library of Constantinople was the "last of the great libraries of the ancient world" with works that went back 1,000 years. Furthermore, the Byzantines didn't need any help translating the Greek language, since they spoke it. In fact, the "Franks" called the Byzantines "Greeks."
Constantinople (one of the largest cities in the world at that time) was the jumping off point for all the Crusades. We know there was an almost immediate Byzantine influence on Europe following the First Crusade; architecture in Europe started to change. Castle architecture was greatly influenced - square towers started to get replaced by round towers, for example. And maybe it was just a giant coincidence, but Gothic architecture first rose and rapidly spread across Europe in the 11th century following the First Crusade.
In 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, the East and the West had a bit of a falling out and the crusaders sacked Constantinople for three days - they dragged all kinds of crap home. There's no need to look to Spain for the source of ancient Greek literature.
“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” - Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos.
the decimal system and the Hindu numeric systems (see post above) come from India
Algebra etc. also from India with Zoroastrian thought
the ancient Babylonians, Harappans etc. had mapped the heavens at least as early as 3000 BC.
Then, as the ummah spread to Iraq, it co-opted many of the Jewish rabbi schools. Which is why, for instance, in the Koran, the punishment for adultery is whipping, but in the Hadiths it is like in the old testament -- death.
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