Posted on 07/10/2010 2:35:04 AM PDT by Scanian
In the 16th century, astrono mer Taqi al-Din built one of the world's great observato ries in Istanbul. It rivaled that of pioneering Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe -- while it lasted.
"Taqi al-Din's observatory was razed to the ground by a squad of Janissaries, by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of the Chief Mufti," Bernard Lewis writes in his book "What Went Wrong?" "This observatory had many predecessors in the lands of Islam; it had no successors until the age of modernization."
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden caused a furor when he revealed that President Obama had directed him "to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science . . . and math and engineering."
This shouldn't be hard to do, so long as Bolden is well-versed in accomplishments rising out of the Middle East many centuries ago. It gave us what we know as Arabic numerals, although they originated in India.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I heard it in Bosnia-creepy as hell. Made me think of a goat being strangled.
Even “Damascus” steel is actually Wootz steel, from southern India.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootz_steel
“Islamic” architecture, like all those Iranian mosques, isn’t really as Islamic as one would want to believe. Such wonders of architecture are largely from regions east of Iraq, which the invading Muslims assumed for themselves.
Arabia, for example, has very little significant architecture of the category. Even the Turks took it from the Persians. It would be safe to assume that the architecture developed in Persia long before it was infested by Islam.
Even Damascus steel is actually Wootz steel, from southern India.>>>>>>>
I have never heard of a Wootz sword so I have to give Muslims credit for taking the Wootz steel and sticking with it, working with it, improving it to make the famous swords made of Damascus steel.
Then again Syria, Lebanon, Iraq have always had Christians so maybe they worked the Damascus steel to make the swords
In Mosul you could hear dozens of mosques blasting it all at the same time, from all around you.
In Baghdad, during a big Battalion operation, my Platoon was set up in a house directly across the street from a mosque when they blasted the call to prayer for about a solid 45 minutes. It NEVER lasts that long, so we figured they were just trying to annoy the crap out of us. It worked.
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