’1001 Muslim Inventions’ Fantasy Comes to DC: The Presentation of Legend as History

National Geographic Explorer’s Hall in Washington D.C. has hosted some of the most prestigious exhibits in America. Previous exhibits have included the Chinese terracotta warriors, as well as the James Caird, the lifeboat Sir Ernest Shackleton miraculously sailed from Antarctica to South Georgia Island in 1916. Currently it is hosting a curious exhibit through February 2013 entitled “1001 Inventions: Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization.” This high tech, slickly produced exhibit explicitly seeks to debunk the “myth” that the dark ages were dark.

The exhibit purports to provide examples of innovations from Muslim civilization, and some of the claims may come as a surprise to those familiar with the Wright Brothers or Yuri Gagarin.

I recently visited “1001 Inventions” which was housed on the same floor as a fantastic Titanic exhibit. I purchased entry to the museum at a ticket booth staffed by Rebecca Head, a National Geographic employee. Perhaps assuming I was heading to see the Titanic exhibit, Head pushed attendance at 1001 Inventions – “There is a really great exhibit on Muslim inventions you should see.”

The exhibit begins with star power – a short movie starring Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley. Kingsley plays a librarian who faces a trio of young uniformed (presumably British) students seeking information about “the dark ages.”

Kingsley’s character bristles at the children’s characterization, critical of those “filling your head with such nonsense and ripping down the good of former civilizations.”

But “everyone knows the Greeks and Romans invented everything!” one child replies.

Kingsley’s librarian doesn’t equivocate – “some of the most important discoveries” were made by “Muslim civilizations.”

The reason I posted it is the builder, Shah Jahan was a Muslim:

..the Taj Mahal was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".

There's some nice Muslim Architecture is Spain too but the Taj Mahal beats everything. IIRC it's one of the 'Seven Wonders'.

I don't hate Muslims. I've worked with many nice people in Engineering and Commercial Construction (Hi-Rises) who were / are Muslims (from many countries). Never got screwed over once by them (42 years now). Unfortunately I can't say that about my fellow Christians or Jews (Or agnostics or atheists either) I've worked with or for as a sub-contractor.

The true cause of the Florentine Reanaissance was the rediscovery of Plato and the adaptation of neo-platonism into the workings of the Vatican. His notions about hypothesis and higher hypothesis, wherein new discovery is encouraged to replace the old, was the foundation of scientific method and rigorous analytical thought. This led to the analysis of human sight (one of DaVincis still missing codices was on optics) and the creation of perspective drawing which allowed for accurate blueprints and the birth of the Industrial Revolution, which should be more properly termed the Industrial Renaissance.

Analytic thought also allowed the Italians and others to synthesize various technologies brought from China into far more useful forms. Chinese water clocks let to gear driven power transmission, lens grinding led to telescopes and microscopes, gunpowder led to firearms and industrial blasting, block print led to the printing press, and we can’t forget that won ton led to ravioli.

Any caste based feudal system will stifle invention as technology is considered suspect unless applied to war and domination, where it is rigidly controlled. In China, the Mandarin class kept China a technological backwater in spite of unlimited resources.

In Italy and Europe, the rise of merchants, importers and bankers began the work of breaking down class/caste barriers by the creation of an educated and productive bourgeoise. There was also the Vatican’s policy of founding universities and offering free education via the Brethren of the Common Life as a matter of neo-platonic idealism- the notion that an educated human being is a better human being who is closer to God and better able to create a more ideal society.

The eminent genius mathematician of the period, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, was the spark plug behind the work of Da Vinci, Bruneleschi, Mirandola, Alberti and many other investigators of nature and mind who were patronized by wealthy bankers and merchant dynasties most famously by the Medici family.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.