Wednesday, November 14

Mongolian Invasion Cont.

Weapons and Strategy

Bow and arrow
swords
Catapults
put local residents or surrendered soldiers in the front of the army to act as a human shield

Key Players

Genghis Khan
- military leader with unbeatable and matched strategies
Kublai Khan -1215-1294
- ruled over Yuan Dynasty in China
- grandson of Genshis Khan
Marco Polo
- interested Kublai Khan with his stories
Major Battles
- Invasion of India-1221
- Invasion of Russia-1221
- Chinese Empire-1231
- Korea-1231
- Eastern europe-1237

Lasting effects in Iran

Math and Science

Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi

Ibn al Hajthan

Alhazen was a Muslim scientist and polymath
called Ibn al-Hajthan after his birthplace
Either Persian or Arab
He contributed to the principles of optics, physics, astronomy,mathematics, scientific method, etc.
very overconfident about his knowledge-assumed he could regulate floods of Nile
when he was ordered to carry out his plan, he realized it was imporssible and retired from engineering
after that, he feared for his life so he played mad
placed under house arrest after that
devoted his life to scientific work until he died

Optics

Alhazen studied the structure of the eye and correctly described the process of vision
his book contains the oldest existing diagram illustrating the eye and its connection to the central nervous system
the parts of the eye that he labeled are still used today
studied light refraction

al-jabr

Astronomy

Ptolemy's model of the earth-centered universe form the basis of Islamic Astronomy
However, several Islamic astronomers made observations and calculations that were more accurate the Ptolemy's
Islamic astronomy was built on sciences of two great cultures, the Greek and the Indian
The main reason for studying the sky was for timekeeping because in the Islamic religion requires five prayers at specific positions of the sun
another reason was to pinpoint religious festivals
Galileo Galilei was an astronomer and created the telescope
Galileo observed a series of transits of the sun
Al-Khwarizmi was the inventor of algebra
Galileo used Al-Khwarizmi's ideas and found out the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the sun

Literature

The book of One thousand and one nights
collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales
collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars
Known as the Arabian Nights in English
Tales trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian culture

King Shahryar

Fictional Persian King
King Shahryar was known for executing his wives the day after their wedding so they would not get the chance to be unfaithful like his first wife was
His first wife had 'relations' with a slave
This was seen by Shah Zaman, the kings brother, and the lovers were executed
Shocked by his first wife's betrayal, the king would marry a virgin every night and would have her executed the next day
Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, could not find any more virgins

Genres

Shahnameh

long epic poem written by the Persian poet, Ferdowsi, between 977 and 1010 AD
National epic of Iran and related societies
Consists of about 60,000 verses
Tells about the mythical and historical past or Iran form the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century
literary masterpiece in Persia

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