NEW book:
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Foreword
by Dr. Muhammad Shoeb Abedin
by Dr. Muhammad Shoeb Abedin
Italian statesman Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite division of historical ages in his ‘History of the Florentine People’ (1442), with a middle period "between the fall of the Roman Empire and the revival of city life sometime in late eleventh and twelfth centuries". However, in later studies, the medieval period is counted from the 5th to the 15th century.
Italian poet Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374 CE) regarded the post-Roman centuries as ‘dark’ compared to the light of classical antiquity. And thus the concept of a ‘Dark Age’ originated. But, was Petrarch right?
Let us consider the knowledge and skills of European people during Petrarch’s lifetime:
a) In 1144, English Arabist Robert of Chester (who studied mathematics in Segovia, Spain) translated Algorithmi’s book into Latin as ‘Liber algebrae et almucabala’. John of Seville produced another Latin version. Thus Algebra had been introduced in Europe.
b) Through the writings of Fibonacci (d. 1245), decimal numeral system or the place value concept arrived in Europe. Fibonacci didn’t invent the system, he just combined ideas from Algorithmi’s book and defined them for a new audience.
c) Europeans were using paper produced in Xativa Paper Mill (founded in 1056), Spain.
d) Magnificent castles had been built across Europe.
e) Kings learnt that they had to serve their people, as well as themselves. They began to establish hospitals and colleges.
f) Universities were founded in European cities as well as African and Asian cities. The University of Bologna was founded in 1088 CE and the University of Oxford in 1096, the University of Salamanca in 1134, the University of Paris in 1150 while the University of Padua in 1222.
There were research institutes in Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus. According to the account of Mustawfi (d. 1349), there were "359 colleges in Herat, 12,000 shops all fully occupied, 6,000 bath-houses; besides caravanserais and mills, also a darwish convent and a fire temple". In the medieval period, the East was brighter than the West. Paper, printing press and mechanical devices were invented in China.
In later part of the period, invention of mechanical clocks, heavy plough, blast furnaces, wheelbarrow, noria, crankshaft, spinning wheel, eyeglasses, treadmill crane and improvements of canon and astrolabes advanced the world. Double entry bookkeeping in accounting evolved in this period.
British art critic Waldemar Januszczak shows in his documentary ‘The Dark Ages: An Age of Light’ that the medieval era was an age of light, by looking at the art and architecture. The documentary was broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation in November and December 2012.
Anisur Rahman focuses, in his book “Eminent Researchers of the
Medieval Period”, on philosophical and scientific developments in the medieval period and introduces to us prominent agents.
Another important aspect of civilization is morality. This issue has not been discussed in the book. But we might compare morality of people of different ages. For understanding moral issues, we have to recall some real stories. We should admit that hatred and fraudulence are more prevalent in modern times in comparison to the Medieval Period. There were just and generous leaders who tried to win the hearts of people they ruled although they were not elected democratically.
Byzantine emperor Justinian I patronized learning of laws. His Committee of jurists developed Code of Justinian, a collection of laws and legal interpretations, under the sponsorship of Justinian I. Persian emperor Khosro I (r. 531–579) introduced a rational system of taxation based upon a survey of landed possessions and tried to increase the welfare and the revenues of his empire. In Babylonia he built or restored the canals. His army was disciplined. He was called ‘Anushiruwan the Just’. His successors were not competent and they were defeated by Arabs.
In the 7th century Arabia, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the teacher and ruler, judge and legislator, philanthropist and social reformer became prominent. William Draper said, “Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born in Mecca, in Arabia, the man Muhammad, who of all men, has exercised the greatest influence upon the human race. To be the religious head of many empires, to guide the daily life of one-third of the human race, may perhaps justify the title of a Messenger of God.” (William Draper, History of Intellectual Development of Europe, 1876)
Chinese emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (r. 1368–1398) said,
The universe began with the heavenly tablet recording his name.
The religion-delivering great sage, born in the western realm.
Conferring and receiving heavenly scripture in thirty parts, universally transforming all created beings.
Master of the trillion rulers, leader of the ten thousand sages.
Assisted by destiny, protector of the community.
In each of the five prayers, he silently supplicates
for their total well-being.
His intention is that Allah should remember the needy.
Deliver them from tribulations to safety, Knower of the unseen.
Exalted above every soul and spirit,
free from any blameworthy deeds.
A mercy to all of the worlds, whose path is preeminent for all time.
Renounce spiritual ignorance; return to The One – that is the religion called Islam.
Muhammad is the most noble sage.
(Praising the Prophet Muhammad in Chinese: A new translation and analysis of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang’s Ode to the Prophet Muhammad, translated by Brendan Newlon, The Matheson Trust, page 3.)
Robert Briffault stated in The Making of Humanity: “The ideas of freedom for all human beings, of human brotherhood, of the equality of all men before the law of democratic government, by consultation and universal suffrage, the ideas that inspired the French Revolution and the Declaration of Rights, that guided the framing of the American Constitution and inflamed the struggle for independence in the Latin-American countries were not inventions of the West. They find their ultimate inspiration and source in the Holy Quran, They are the quintessence of what the intelligentsia of medieval Europe acquired from Islam over a period of centuries through the various societies that developed in Europe in the wake of the Crusades in imitation of the brotherhood associations of Islam. It is highly probable that but for the Arabs modern European civilization would never have arisen at an, it is absolutely certain that but for them it would never have assumed that character which has enabled it to transcend all previous phases of evolution.” (KJ Ahmad, Hundred Great Muslims p. 9)
Ramakrishna Rao said: “The personality of Muhammad, it is most difficult to get into the whole truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic succession of picturesque scenes. There is Muhammad the Prophet. There is Muhammad the Warrior; Muhammad the Businessman; Muhammad the Statesman; Muhammad the Orator;Muhammad the Reformer; Muhammad the Refuge of Orphans; Muhammad the Protector of Slaves; Muhammad the Emancipator of Women; Muhammad the Judge; Muhammad the Saint. All in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is alike a hero.” (K. S. Ramakrishna Rao, Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, 1979)
Muhammad (pbuh) gave very valuable instructions for mankind. He said, "A strong person is not the person who throws his adversaries to the ground. A strong person is the person who contains himself when he is angry."
He said, “The Almighty God will not be merciful to those who are not merciful to people.”
He said: “Envy consumes good deeds just as fire burns wood. Charity extinguishes sinful deeds just as water extinguishes fire.”
He said: “The Almighty will punish those who punish the people in this world.”
He said: I hope that when I meet Allah, none of you will have any claim on me for an injustice regarding blood or property.
He said: “The best of mankind are those who are most beneficial to mankind.”
He said, "A believing man should not hate a believing woman. If he dislikes something in her character, he should be pleased with some other or another trait of hers."
Caliph Umar (r. 634–644) said, “For those who practice tyranny and deprive others of their rights, I will be harsh and stern, but for those who follow the law, I will be most soft and tender.”
Alfred the Great, king of Wessex from 871 to 899, promoted a revival of education, scholarship, law and administration. He said, “I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works.”
He said, “Doom very evenly! Do not doom one doom to the rich; another to the poor! Nor doom one doom to your friend; another to your foe!”
When Saladin (r. 1174–93) reclaimed Jerusalem, he ordered his men not to kill and plunder. When he ruled Cairo, he built hospitals and universities for the city. In his dealings with the Crusaders, Saladin allowed them to ‘save face’ by permitting Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem, even though he controlled the city. In an era when chivalry was just developing in Europe, Saladin won the reputation of being exceptionally ‘chivalrous.’ He and Richard the First each became the other's ‘favorite’ opponent.
Saladin said, “I warn you against shedding blood, indulging in it or making a habit of it, for blood never sleeps.” He said, “Victory is Changing the Hearts of Your Opponents by Gentleness and Kindness."
Nasiruddin, emperor of India (r. 1246-65) was a man of saintly disposition, who would take almost nothing from the treasury.
We are aware that genocides were committed in Jerusalem (killing of thirty thousand civilian in Siege of Jerusalem in 1099), Greece (killing of two thousand Greek civilian in Sack of Constantinople in 1204), France (killing of two million Cathars in 1229), Spain (killing of one hundred thousand Moors of Granada in 1492) and in many other places. We are also aware that more widespread genocides were committed in modern period, for example: genocide of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany, Bangladesh genocide in 1971, killing of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia, the Srebrenica massacre (killing of eight thousand people in 1995), killing of ten thousand Rohingya and expulsion of eight million Rohingyas during 2016-2017.
In 1944 and 1945, napalm bombs were dropped in Japan and Korea. Atomic bombs ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ were dropped over civilian area in two Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The American air campaign during the Vietnam War was the largest in military history. Chief of Staff of the US Air Force Curtis LeMay stated that "we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age". It is evident that modern-day atrocities are crueler.
So we do have justification to differ with Petrarch. And we may wisely conclude that the medieval period is not a dark era but an era of scientific and moral progress.
To present a good book is a painstaking task. “Eminent Researchers of the Medieval Period” is certainly a good composition and it has been done with care. But it might include more personalities. I sincerely wish it a wide circulation.
Muhammad Shoeb Abedin
Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Italian poet Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374 CE) regarded the post-Roman centuries as ‘dark’ compared to the light of classical antiquity. And thus the concept of a ‘Dark Age’ originated. But, was Petrarch right?
Let us consider the knowledge and skills of European people during Petrarch’s lifetime:
a) In 1144, English Arabist Robert of Chester (who studied mathematics in Segovia, Spain) translated Algorithmi’s book into Latin as ‘Liber algebrae et almucabala’. John of Seville produced another Latin version. Thus Algebra had been introduced in Europe.
b) Through the writings of Fibonacci (d. 1245), decimal numeral system or the place value concept arrived in Europe. Fibonacci didn’t invent the system, he just combined ideas from Algorithmi’s book and defined them for a new audience.
c) Europeans were using paper produced in Xativa Paper Mill (founded in 1056), Spain.
d) Magnificent castles had been built across Europe.
e) Kings learnt that they had to serve their people, as well as themselves. They began to establish hospitals and colleges.
f) Universities were founded in European cities as well as African and Asian cities. The University of Bologna was founded in 1088 CE and the University of Oxford in 1096, the University of Salamanca in 1134, the University of Paris in 1150 while the University of Padua in 1222.
There were research institutes in Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus. According to the account of Mustawfi (d. 1349), there were "359 colleges in Herat, 12,000 shops all fully occupied, 6,000 bath-houses; besides caravanserais and mills, also a darwish convent and a fire temple". In the medieval period, the East was brighter than the West. Paper, printing press and mechanical devices were invented in China.
In later part of the period, invention of mechanical clocks, heavy plough, blast furnaces, wheelbarrow, noria, crankshaft, spinning wheel, eyeglasses, treadmill crane and improvements of canon and astrolabes advanced the world. Double entry bookkeeping in accounting evolved in this period.
British art critic Waldemar Januszczak shows in his documentary ‘The Dark Ages: An Age of Light’ that the medieval era was an age of light, by looking at the art and architecture. The documentary was broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation in November and December 2012.
Anisur Rahman focuses, in his book “Eminent Researchers of the
Medieval Period”, on philosophical and scientific developments in the medieval period and introduces to us prominent agents.
Another important aspect of civilization is morality. This issue has not been discussed in the book. But we might compare morality of people of different ages. For understanding moral issues, we have to recall some real stories. We should admit that hatred and fraudulence are more prevalent in modern times in comparison to the Medieval Period. There were just and generous leaders who tried to win the hearts of people they ruled although they were not elected democratically.
Byzantine emperor Justinian I patronized learning of laws. His Committee of jurists developed Code of Justinian, a collection of laws and legal interpretations, under the sponsorship of Justinian I. Persian emperor Khosro I (r. 531–579) introduced a rational system of taxation based upon a survey of landed possessions and tried to increase the welfare and the revenues of his empire. In Babylonia he built or restored the canals. His army was disciplined. He was called ‘Anushiruwan the Just’. His successors were not competent and they were defeated by Arabs.
In the 7th century Arabia, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the teacher and ruler, judge and legislator, philanthropist and social reformer became prominent. William Draper said, “Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born in Mecca, in Arabia, the man Muhammad, who of all men, has exercised the greatest influence upon the human race. To be the religious head of many empires, to guide the daily life of one-third of the human race, may perhaps justify the title of a Messenger of God.” (William Draper, History of Intellectual Development of Europe, 1876)
Chinese emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (r. 1368–1398) said,
The universe began with the heavenly tablet recording his name.
The religion-delivering great sage, born in the western realm.
Conferring and receiving heavenly scripture in thirty parts, universally transforming all created beings.
Master of the trillion rulers, leader of the ten thousand sages.
Assisted by destiny, protector of the community.
In each of the five prayers, he silently supplicates
for their total well-being.
His intention is that Allah should remember the needy.
Deliver them from tribulations to safety, Knower of the unseen.
Exalted above every soul and spirit,
free from any blameworthy deeds.
A mercy to all of the worlds, whose path is preeminent for all time.
Renounce spiritual ignorance; return to The One – that is the religion called Islam.
Muhammad is the most noble sage.
(Praising the Prophet Muhammad in Chinese: A new translation and analysis of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang’s Ode to the Prophet Muhammad, translated by Brendan Newlon, The Matheson Trust, page 3.)
Robert Briffault stated in The Making of Humanity: “The ideas of freedom for all human beings, of human brotherhood, of the equality of all men before the law of democratic government, by consultation and universal suffrage, the ideas that inspired the French Revolution and the Declaration of Rights, that guided the framing of the American Constitution and inflamed the struggle for independence in the Latin-American countries were not inventions of the West. They find their ultimate inspiration and source in the Holy Quran, They are the quintessence of what the intelligentsia of medieval Europe acquired from Islam over a period of centuries through the various societies that developed in Europe in the wake of the Crusades in imitation of the brotherhood associations of Islam. It is highly probable that but for the Arabs modern European civilization would never have arisen at an, it is absolutely certain that but for them it would never have assumed that character which has enabled it to transcend all previous phases of evolution.” (KJ Ahmad, Hundred Great Muslims p. 9)
Ramakrishna Rao said: “The personality of Muhammad, it is most difficult to get into the whole truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic succession of picturesque scenes. There is Muhammad the Prophet. There is Muhammad the Warrior; Muhammad the Businessman; Muhammad the Statesman; Muhammad the Orator;Muhammad the Reformer; Muhammad the Refuge of Orphans; Muhammad the Protector of Slaves; Muhammad the Emancipator of Women; Muhammad the Judge; Muhammad the Saint. All in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is alike a hero.” (K. S. Ramakrishna Rao, Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, 1979)
Muhammad (pbuh) gave very valuable instructions for mankind. He said, "A strong person is not the person who throws his adversaries to the ground. A strong person is the person who contains himself when he is angry."
He said, “The Almighty God will not be merciful to those who are not merciful to people.”
He said: “Envy consumes good deeds just as fire burns wood. Charity extinguishes sinful deeds just as water extinguishes fire.”
He said: “The Almighty will punish those who punish the people in this world.”
He said: I hope that when I meet Allah, none of you will have any claim on me for an injustice regarding blood or property.
He said: “The best of mankind are those who are most beneficial to mankind.”
He said, "A believing man should not hate a believing woman. If he dislikes something in her character, he should be pleased with some other or another trait of hers."
Caliph Umar (r. 634–644) said, “For those who practice tyranny and deprive others of their rights, I will be harsh and stern, but for those who follow the law, I will be most soft and tender.”
Alfred the Great, king of Wessex from 871 to 899, promoted a revival of education, scholarship, law and administration. He said, “I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works.”
He said, “Doom very evenly! Do not doom one doom to the rich; another to the poor! Nor doom one doom to your friend; another to your foe!”
When Saladin (r. 1174–93) reclaimed Jerusalem, he ordered his men not to kill and plunder. When he ruled Cairo, he built hospitals and universities for the city. In his dealings with the Crusaders, Saladin allowed them to ‘save face’ by permitting Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem, even though he controlled the city. In an era when chivalry was just developing in Europe, Saladin won the reputation of being exceptionally ‘chivalrous.’ He and Richard the First each became the other's ‘favorite’ opponent.
Saladin said, “I warn you against shedding blood, indulging in it or making a habit of it, for blood never sleeps.” He said, “Victory is Changing the Hearts of Your Opponents by Gentleness and Kindness."
Nasiruddin, emperor of India (r. 1246-65) was a man of saintly disposition, who would take almost nothing from the treasury.
We are aware that genocides were committed in Jerusalem (killing of thirty thousand civilian in Siege of Jerusalem in 1099), Greece (killing of two thousand Greek civilian in Sack of Constantinople in 1204), France (killing of two million Cathars in 1229), Spain (killing of one hundred thousand Moors of Granada in 1492) and in many other places. We are also aware that more widespread genocides were committed in modern period, for example: genocide of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany, Bangladesh genocide in 1971, killing of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia, the Srebrenica massacre (killing of eight thousand people in 1995), killing of ten thousand Rohingya and expulsion of eight million Rohingyas during 2016-2017.
In 1944 and 1945, napalm bombs were dropped in Japan and Korea. Atomic bombs ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ were dropped over civilian area in two Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The American air campaign during the Vietnam War was the largest in military history. Chief of Staff of the US Air Force Curtis LeMay stated that "we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age". It is evident that modern-day atrocities are crueler.
So we do have justification to differ with Petrarch. And we may wisely conclude that the medieval period is not a dark era but an era of scientific and moral progress.
To present a good book is a painstaking task. “Eminent Researchers of the Medieval Period” is certainly a good composition and it has been done with care. But it might include more personalities. I sincerely wish it a wide circulation.
Muhammad Shoeb Abedin
Rajshahi, Bangladesh
