Category Archives: Muslim Empire (old series)

Astrology and alchemy: magic as the mother of science

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Ruth

Astrology and alchemy were the two medieval magical sciences, but both led to real science. We have a number of mathematical and scientific words that start with “A” because they are from Arabic’s definite article “al.” Astrology, of course, is … Continue reading →

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Medieval Muslim medicine

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Ruth

Medicine in the Muslim regions was at once better and slightly worse than in the Christian areas. In the academic realm, all the best books were in Arabic, and the cutting-edge research (such as it was) was too. But at … Continue reading →

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Avicenna

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Ruth

Avicenna was one of the first medieval scholarly medical doctors. “Avicenna” is how his name came into Latin, the way al-Khwarismi came to us as algorithm. It’s a shortening of Ibn Sina, son of Sina, which was actually his family’s … Continue reading →

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Coda: The Map of Piri Reis, 1517 to 1929

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Ruth

In 1929, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and the new nation of Turkey was going through painful rapid social changes under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Most importantly, they were changing their writing system from Arabic script to Latin. … Continue reading →

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The End of Mamluk Egypt, 1492-1517

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Ruth

1492 was a very bad year in Egypt. It was a particularly bad plague visitation year, in a place with a large aging elite class. The only thing worse than thousands of geezers who still control everything and have all … Continue reading →

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Gunpowder Empires, 1501-1524

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Ruth

We’ve traced the messy patchwork of changing power alliances in the sweep of Asian land between Turkey and China. In 1500, the patchwork was as shifting as ever, although the Ottoman piece grew larger and larger. On its eastern border, … Continue reading →

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Vasco da Gama kills the Silk Road and some pilgrims, 1498-1503

Posted on April 29, 2018 by Ruth

The biggest source of financial power the Muslim Empire had always came from controlling large parts, if not all, of the Silk Road. This was literally a road in some places, with oases and cities along the way to support … Continue reading →

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Later Spanish Inquisition, 1494-1517

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Ruth

The Inquisition in Spain ran through the 1500s, 1600s, and 1700s, ending only in the time of Napoleon, whose brother was appointed King of Spain. But its nature changed after the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Its rate of … Continue reading →

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Movable type crosses from West to East, 1493

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Ruth

Around the time Orban’s huge bombard was breaking down the walls of Constantinople, Gutenberg printed the first Bible with movable type. As with all past inventions, we take it for granted without stopping to understand just how many things had … Continue reading →

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The Fall of Granada, 1492

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Ruth

Granada’s fall was as inevitable as Constantinople’s. In both cases, there was a sorting process in which boundary territories that had wavered between Islam and Christendom had final settlements. By the time each last enclave fell, it was well surrounded … Continue reading →

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