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Category Archives: Literature
How should Beowulf be translated?
Most people today have heard of Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, since it won an award when it was published in 1999, four years after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. By the time Heaney attempted the … Continue reading
Posted in Beowulf, Literature
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Early interpretations of Beowulf
The first early attempts to make sense of the poem that Thorkelin published were made by Thorkelin himself and an Englishman, Sharon Turner. At this time, very little was known of the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) language. These early interpretations were … Continue reading
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Beowulf: the discovery, 1786
Copenhagen, Court of King Christian VII, 1786: The royal archivist Grim Johnson Thorkelin goes to London on a research expedition. Thorkelin is an Icelander whose native tongue is closer to the language of the Vikings than is Copenhagen’s “modern” Danish. … Continue reading
Posted in Beowulf, Literature
Tagged British Museum, Cotton library, Thorkelin
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Ibn Khaldun Asks Tough Questions about History, 1377
The Ibn Khaldun family were descended from a Bedouin, Khaldun, who settled near Seville in the early years of Muslim conquest. Under Reconquista pressure in the 13th century, they moved to Tunis, where they were among the educated governing elite. … Continue reading
Posted in Black Death, Islam History F: the Ottomans, Literature
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Ibn Battuta Sees the World, 1325-55
The Muslim world had grown so large that it was very hard for them to know all parts of their own lands, let alone the rest of the world. Around 1355, a Moroccan named Ibn Battuta dictated and published his … Continue reading
Posted in Islam History F: the Ottomans, Literature
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At the Close of the 13th Century
Before going on to the momentous events of the 14th Century, let’s look at what Europe and Asia were like in the late 13th. Life was soon to change. Climate: First, and at the largest scale, a climatic maximum—-a warm … Continue reading
Posted in Black Death, Castles, Clothing, Food, Islam History F: the Ottomans, Literature
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Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes, 1244
Jalal ad-Din Mohammed al-Rumi was born in Balkh, Afghanistan in 1207. Balkh was one of the cities in Genghis Khan’s early sweep of eastern Islam. When Jalal was born, the Mongols were mopping up the eastern Silk Road cities of … Continue reading
Posted in Islam History E: the Mongols, Literature
Tagged poetry
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Arabic Numerals in the 9th Century
Our digital numeral system came first from India, but spent a long time as the dominant system in the Arabic kingdoms before entering Latin and Europe. The numbers are Arabic by adoption, Indian by birth. The Jain sect in India … Continue reading
Posted in Islam History C: the Abbasids, Literature
Tagged al-Khwarizmi, algebra, India, numbers
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The Book of Ingenious Devices, 850
Baghdad’s House of Wisdom produced a collection of all of the mechanical engineering devices known at that time. These devices were collected from China, India, Persia and Greece. We aren’t sure if the pictures in “The Book of Tricks” (or … Continue reading
Posted in Islam History C: the Abbasids, Literature
Tagged Banu Musa, machines
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Baghdad: the House of Wisdom
Baghdad’s Round City featured a large building that was called, at first, The Bookstore. It was modeled after the Persian Empire’s library in Ctesiphon, but its chief purpose was to transfer civilization into the Arabic script of the recently-literate nomads. … Continue reading
Posted in Islam History C: the Abbasids, Literature, Uncategorized
Tagged Baghdad, books
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