
A subterranean world of water offers a glimpse of Ramla’s past - hwayern
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170307-an-underground-boat-to-islamic-glory
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Xeoncross
> The Pool of the Arches allows visitors to relive the city’s glorious past.
> Caliph Harun al Rashid, who commissioned the pool, ruled during the Golden
> Age of Islam, when economics, science and culture flourished from the
> western edge of the empire in Spain all the way into Asia. The significance
> and accomplishments of this period became clear as our boat glided through
> the dark water under the tall arches, still standing after more than 1,200
> years.

I know a cistern is a very neat thing to discover. I personally want to see it
now. However, I can't help think that this is blown out of proportions. People
were not idiots 1,000 years (and longer) ago. I'm glad the people of Ramla
were able to build cisterns - but I fail to see how that confirms this shows
"The significance and accomplishments of this period".

edit: Thank you, the click-bait link title has been updated

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trothamel
Compare, for example, the Basilica Cistern.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern)

It was built in Constantinople maybe 2 centuries earlier, and one would think
that the technology persisted.

~~~
11thEarlOfMar
It's so obvious, I'm embarrassed to say it, but I can't help myself. The Mines
of Moria.

~~~
Xeoncross
I don't remember anything in my history book about the Roman / Orc wars.

~~~
foota
Of course, the winners wrote the history books.

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cjcenizal
This article reminds me of a book written by Kim Stanley Robinson, "The Years
of Rice and Salt". It's a historical fiction which explores a history in which
the bubonic plague wiped out Europe, precluding Western civilization as we
know it. The cultural and religious vacuum left behind is filled by Islam,
Buddhism, and the Chinese dynasties. Robinson explores the evolution of
humanity over the next 600 years under these influences in beautiful detail --
it's an amazing read!

~~~
Arizhel
To be pedantic, that's not "historical fiction", that's "alternate history
fiction".

Historical fiction is like the books by Ken Follett, about medieval Europe.
They're set in that time, as we understand it historically, but the characters
and events are fictional.

What you're describing is alternate history: it's fictional work that assumes
something went very differently at some point in the past, and then attempts
to extrapolate from there how history turned out. For instance, suppose the US
had never gotten involved in WWI; how would the later 20th century have turned
out? Or suppose Al Gore had won in 2000; how would things be different now?

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partycoder
In 1258, after the Siege of Baghdad by the mongols, the golden age of Islam
ended. Scholars were killed, buildings were sacked, infrastructure was
destroyed. Islamic Spain (Al-Andalus) survived temporarily.

In Spain, the city of Cordoba in Andalusia was objectively the most advanced
in all of Europe. After Al-Andalus was lost to Europeans, the Latin
translations of the 12th century occurred.

Those Latin translations, which were carried out in great part by the Toledo
School of Translators, were then used by European scholars to establish the
next generation of education: the founders of Oxford, Copernicus, etc. would
not exist as we know them if it wasn't for such translations.

They did a great job in passing the torch of knowledge to the West. Then,
during the Crusades, there was no intention with sympathizing with them, and
their contributions to our culture started being erased from history.

Lately there has been a little bit of more justice in the way history is
presented, but there is work to do. The translations of the 12th century were
necessary for the Renaissance to occur.

~~~
truetraveller
Why is this person being downvoted? Let's face it, the West in general does a
great job of not giving credit to Muslims as it should. Chemistry, Algebra,
Algorithms, Astronomy, the Scientific Method, etc.

~~~
detritus
..and they too in turn should credit the Greeks and Indian cultures whose
knowledge they transcribed!

~~~
partycoder
They did. They preserved authorship in all their works. Their additions were
in the form of footnotes, comments and original works.

They translated works of Ptolomy, Euclid, Archimedes, Aristotle, Galen for us.

They also produced very important works in Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, etc.

I challenge you to find translators for those languages in Medieval Europe
when literacy rate was less than 1%. Their contributions were objectively
important and critical.

~~~
mason240
>I challenge you to find translators for those languages in Medieval Europe

This is the Western European point of view I referenced in my other comment.
These works were also being preserved in Latin and Greek in Constantinople for
the entire duration of the Middle Ages in Western Europe and the rise and fall
of the Golden Islamic Age.

~~~
partycoder
The ones that made it to Oxford and Paris first came from Toledo.

Albert Magnus and his pupil Thomas Aquinas studied from Aristotle translations
made in Toledo.

Nicolaus Copernicus studied from Ptolomy books translated in Toledo.

Roger Bacon studied from translations made in Toledo.

So, stop trying to imply that translations came from Byzantium and not Al-
Andalus.

------
tomhoward
Archive link for UK readers:
[http://archive.is/juV7w](http://archive.is/juV7w)

------
jlebrech
The title should say "Arabic golden age" the secular attributes alone of the
Arab culture created that golden age.

In fact the golden age ENDED for religious reasons (just like the Catholic
church did with Galileo for example) before the Mongols invaded.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwXtTwNvWXc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwXtTwNvWXc)
and [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/marginoferr/2014/06/05/lets-
sto...](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/marginoferr/2014/06/05/lets-stop-talking-
about-the-islamic-golden-age/)

~~~
truetraveller
Note: I'm not taking sides, but just trying to be factual.

This is very misleading. It was, in fact, Islam that was the cause of the
'golden age'. The Arabs existed for centuries with ~nil progress. If you
notice, almost 99% of the inventors were Muslims, and based on their writings,
dedicated ones.

~~~
zeveb
I think it's fairer to say that the conquest of developed (Byzantine) Romans &
Farsis by the newly-Islamic Arabs enabled the conquerors to reap the fruits of
antiquity.

~~~
jlebrech
it should be called "the world's first successful merger"

~~~
zeveb
Hostile takeover, I think.

