Liddy Malone
H-Block
December 16, 2013
I Pledge LM
Both the Islamic and Byzantine Empires were fascinating and remarkable time periods over the grand scheme of world history. They both qualify as advanced and finely cultured in their own ways. However, one does indeed stand out from the other. From gathered research, it can be concluded that the Islamic Empire had more advanced knowledge and technology than the Byzantine Empire. Two primary sources, one from each empire, undeniably are examples this statement. In the article “Exchanges between Byzantium and the Islamic World: Art and Material Culture” by Anna Ballian, two bowls are pasted side by side. One is from Corinth in the late 11th or early 12th century. This makes it from Byzantium. It is slip painted, and its colors range from a beige to dark brown. It is cracked in a few areas, and does not look nearly as it must have initially. Several brown rings are drawn on it, increasingly smaller closer to the middle, where a brown bird is depicted. The bowl beside it has been preserved in much better ways, but it was obviously prettier to begin with, as well. It is from the Islamic empire, for it is an 11th century bowl from Egypt, based on Ballian's description. It is shiny in comparison to the one from the Byzantine Empire. Despite a few design differences, the only physical contrast between the Byzantine bowl and the Islamic bowl is that the Islamic bowl was luster painted. They both have a bird illustrated in the middle of several circles, but the Islamic bowl has a much more beautiful glaze. Only the Islamic Empire had the technology to make such a captivating bowl. These primary sources reflect that the Islamic Empire was more advanced.
I. A. Though Byzantium attempted to match the Islamic Empire's wisdom in pottery, the Islamic Empire had a more advanced sense of technology and was not beat.
B. Early Islamic pottery was considered extremely luxurious and beautiful, based on Anna Ballian's article titled “Exchanges between Byzantium and the Islamic World: Art and Material Culture”.
1. This was especially true in the Abbasid time period.
2. Bowls and plates were given the fine porcelain appearance that was coveted, and had
intricate designs drawn using luster painting.
C. Pottery like this was popular among the rich in Iran and the rest of the Muslim world.
1. Local potters strived to copy its beauty.
2. However, the potters who mastered luster painting did not openly share the envied
technique, so the style was merely imitated by others, including Byzantines.
a. The Byzantine impressions were not of the same standard, and the lovely glaze of luster painting was matched by slipware and pottery decorated using other glazes.
D. To Ballian, it is evident that the Islamic style was what the Byzantine potters were striving to clone, because some Islamic designs were depicted on their pottery.
E. The Byzantines obviously greatly respected this achievement of the Muslims, but did not
acquire the skill, for they were not as technologically advanced.
II. A. The Islamic Empire was a step ahead of the Byzantine Empire with their discoveries in mathematics, for the Byzantine Empire could not keep up with the times.
B. According to “The Majesty That Was Islam” by W. Montgomery Watt, it is widely accepted that the Arabs were vital to bringing the Arabic numerals, or the ten digits, into the world, using
Indian sources.
1. The Arabs easily recognized the system as superior to Roman, or even Greek, numerals. In addition, the Arabs learned to use those numbers.
a. According to "The Islamic World to 1600" on the University of Calgary website, Muslims even did early work with trigonometry.
2. As explained in the article “Al-Khwarizmi” by Sawn Overbay, Jimmy Schorer, and Heather Conger, a man by the name of Mohammed ibn-Musa al- Khwārizmī was a talented
astronomer and mathematician who worked in the House of Wisdom.
a. He wrote a book called De numero indorum that explained the Hindu numerals, which was important to spreading the system through the Islamic Empire and identifying it as the leading structure.
b. According to the article, al- Khwārizmī lived approximately from 800 A.D. to
847 A.D.
c. In his work, W. Watt wrote that Al-Khwārizmī wrote another book that “may
be reckoned with the foundation of algebra”.
d. Al-Khwārizmī and those who replaced him even discovered how to find the square roots of numbers.
C. The Byzantine Empire during this time period, however, was far less mathematically focused.
1. The Greek language continued to be frequently used in Byzantium after Rome was split and the West Roman Empire fell, according to “A Report on Mathematical Activity in
Trigonometry in Medieval Arabia” by Jessica Furr.
a. Scholars and researchers were still able to use the Hellenistic libraries, and so they did not bother to translate or keep other ancient documents in good condition.
b.Even works in Alexandria's library were in terrible shape by the 8th century.
c. Also, the Byzantines, speakers of the Greek language, used Greek numerals, which
are now considered second-rate, as said in W. Montgomery Watt's book.
3. Where the Byzantine Empire struggled with translating and preserving, the Islamic Empire thrived, according to Furr.
a. Under the influence of Hindu ideas, the Islamic Empire gradually became a more intelligent civilization.
b. By the 9th and 10th centuries, the Islamic capital Baghdad greatly
outshone Alexandria in the mathematical world.
D. The Islamic Empire can easily be considered more technologically advanced than
the Byzantine Empire, for it gradually achieved impressive mathematical knowledge
in comparison.
MLA Citations
Ballian, Anna. "Exchanges between Byzantium and the Islamic World: Courtly Art and Material Culture." Academia.edu. Academia, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. <https://www.academia.edu/4961779/Exchanges_between_Byzantium_and_the_Islamic_World_Courtly_Art_and_Material_Culture>.
Watt, W. Montgomery. The Majesty That Was Islam; the Islamic World, 661-1100. New York: Praeger, 1974. Print.
Overbay, Shawn, Jimmy Schorer, and Heather Conger. "Al-Khwarizmi." Math Sciences. University of Kentucky, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.ms.uky.edu/~carl/ma330/project2/al-khwa21.html>.
"The Islamic World to 1600." University of Calgary. Department of History at the University of Calgary, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. <http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/index2.html>.
"Bowl, 10th Century Iraq." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1977.126>.
Furr, Jessica. "A Report on Mathematical Activity in Trigonometry in Medieval Arabia."The University of Georgia Mathematics Education. The University of Georgia, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013. <http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/EMT668.Folders.F97/Waggener/Papers/arabtrig.html>.
No comments:
Post a Comment