How a Rare Islamic Astrolabe Helped Muslims, Jews and Christians Tell Time and Read Horoscopes (www.scientificamerican.com)
from throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to archaeology@mander.xyz on 27 Mar 2024 02:13
https://lemmy.nz/post/8495794

#archaeology

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Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works on 27 Mar 2024 02:53 collapse

I do not understand why religions are mentioned here. No one says the Christian invented steam engine helped the Muslims and Jews. WTF Scientific America as religion has little to do with smart people making cleaver devices.

rockSlayer@lemmy.world on 27 Mar 2024 02:56 next collapse

The Islamic Golden Age isn’t called that just because scientific advancement happened in the Middle East.

Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works on 27 Mar 2024 02:59 collapse

It is just a label though. We could have easily called the British empire or the American the a Christian Golden Age, but we do not as religion has little to do with scientific advancement.

rockSlayer@lemmy.world on 27 Mar 2024 03:03 collapse

The Islamic Golden Age was deeply intertwined with religion though. In this case considering it’s discovery location, mentioning the religion is highly relevant.

Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works on 27 Mar 2024 03:13 collapse

Yet the same can be said about many cultures throughout time as religion was the government so I understand what you are saying, but religion is still not worth mentioning. It would be like saying the CPU was made by a Democratic nation and enjoyed by fascists, authoritarian governments etc etc.

rockSlayer@lemmy.world on 27 Mar 2024 03:36 next collapse

There are, genuinely, artifacts from the Western world where the religion and culture are also highly relevant to the discovery and attribution. Perhaps in the future, it will be highly relevant to identify the political attribution to an artifact. That’s certainly the case with civilizations that interacted with Rome.

nooneescapesthelaw@mander.xyz on 28 Mar 2024 03:35 collapse

Islam and islamic research into astronomy is mainly motivated by religion. A large motivator of research during the golden age is islam

nooneescapesthelaw@mander.xyz on 28 Mar 2024 03:36 collapse

The astrolabe’s ability to tell the time during day or night made it an important part of medieval worship, Morrison says. This was especially true for Muslims, who—in addition to praying at specific times during the day—also needed to pray facing the specific direction of a sacred building in Mecca called the Kaaba