Canteen From the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington Dc
Trade in much of Europe declined after the fall of Rome, and towns and cities declined in size, roads were non safe, and feudal manors were an important and self-sufficient unit. Urban life remained active in the eastward, where cities grew especially with the rise of Islam, when Muslim societies—though not unified in a single empire—spread from the borders of China to the Iberian Peninsula in Europe on the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The Crusades did not mark the beginning of merchandise between Muslim and Christian lands in Europe. Italian merchants traded across the Mediterranean with Constantinople, Syrian arab republic and Egypt, and Spanish Muslims and Christians traded actively and produced fine goods for auction. Sicily, under Muslim rule and and so under Norman rule, was a source of contact and production of goods. Among the most precious articles of trade were metal wares, silk textiles, and glass, too as some food stuffs, dyes and perfumes.
The contribution of the Crusades was that trade increased as Europeans traveled and became more than familiar with exotic goods. Increased contact and trade was part of the reason for the rise of towns and cities in western Europe, starting in Italian republic.
Despite warfare during the long menstruation of the Crusades, Italian merchant cities like Amalfi, Genoa, Venice and Florence strengthened trade ties with ports in the Levant (eastern Mediterranean coast), where they allied with crusader states to gain access to ports such every bit Latakia, Tripoli, Acre, Alexandria, and Damietta. Every bit trade increased with demand and production in northern Europe, trade routes on the Atlantic and the North Sea joined with Mediterranean routes, and carried trade goods in to Europe by river trade and beyond the Alps.
Merchandise and travel meant people saw, heard, tasted and touched new things, and influences in the arts and lifestyles moved with them, bringing new styles of building, ornament, wear, cooking and music—for those wealthy plenty to afford the new things. In the following sections, read nearly some objects of fine living that entered Europe in office every bit an event of the exchanges during the Crusades.
Map source: http://academic.udayton.edu/williamschuerman/Trade_Routes.jpg
Spanish Muslim Traveler Ibn Jubayr Speaks about Armies and Caravans in the twelfth Century
From Muhammad ibn Ahmad Ibn Jubayr, (Roland Broadhurst, translator), Travels of Ibn Jubayr: Being the Chronicles of a Medieval Spanish Moor Concerning His Journey to the Egypt of Saladin, the Holy Cities of Arabia, Baghdad the City of the Caliphs, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily (London: Cape, 1952), pp. 300–301.
Introduction
Ibn Jubayr (b. 1145) was a resident of al-Andalus, or Muslim Kingdom of spain, during the 12th century. His journey was the event of an unfortunate incident at the courtroom of his ruler. Information technology seems that the ruler forced the pious scholar Ibn Jubayr to taste an alcoholic drinkable in jest. Ibn Jubayr was so disturbed that it caused the ruler to regret his actions. To make up for the outrage, he is said to accept given Ibn Jubayr a quantity of gold. To atone for his sin of weakness, Ibn Jubayr vowed to use the money for a Hajj, or pilgrimage journeying to Makkah. He did and so, and made a bout of several other places around the Mediterranean. Historically, his travel account is especially interesting since he traveled during the Crusades, at the time of Salah al-Din (Saladin). He was an excellent observer of his fourth dimension.
From Ibn Jubayr's Travels in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria:
One of the astonishing things that is talked of is that though the fires of discord fire betwixt the ii parties, Muslim and Christian, two armies of them may encounter and dispose themselves in battle array, and yet Muslim and Christian travelers will come and go between them without interference. In this connection nosotros saw at this time, that is the calendar month of Jumada al-Ula [in the Islamic calendar], the departure of Saladin with all the Muslims troops to lay siege to the fortress of Kerak, 1 of the greatest of the Christian strongholds lying astride the Hejaz route [the pilgrimage road to Makkah] and hindering the overland passage of the Muslims. Between it and Jerusalem lies a twenty-four hour period'south journey or a fiddling more than. It occupies the choicest part of the state of Palestine, and has a very broad dominion with continuous settlements, it being said that the number of villages reaches iv hundred. This Sultan invested it, and put it to sore straits, and long the siege lasted, but all the same the caravans passed successively from Egypt to Damascus, going through the lands of the Franks without impediment from them. In the same way the Muslims continuously journeyed from Damascus to Acre (through Frankish territory), and besides not one of the Christian merchants was stopped or hindered (in Muslim territories).
The Christians impose a taxation on the Muslims in their country which gives them full security; and likewise the Christian merchants pay a tax upon their appurtenances in Muslim lands. Agreement exists between them, and there is equal treatment in all cases. The soldiers engage themselves in their war, while the people are at peace and the world goes to him who conquers. (Ibn Jubayr, built-in 1145) (Commendation: pages 300–301)
Metalwork
Ayyubid Canteen with Christian and Islamic Motifs
The Freer Canteen is one of the finest examples of Islamic metalwork from the eastern Mediterranean. It is made of contumely inlaid with silvery and a black substance chosen niello to highlight the design. It is large, about 37 cm (1 human foot) in bore. The blueprint is based on units of three bands, circles, and scenes. At the center on the domed top is the Madonna and Christ Child enthroned with angels property up the throne above and below, attended by two men praying, one with a turban and the other a halo. Three looped circles contain animals, fish, and birds, and betwixt them are scenes from Jesus' life: his birth or nativity scene, presenting him in the temple, and Christ's entry into Jerusalem.
On the shoulder of the canteen are bands with an inscription in Arabic, with a blessing wishing the possessor glory, security, prosperity and good fortune, also equally victory and enduring power, "everlasting favor and perfect honor." The eye ring is an animated inscription formed by a procession of real and fantastic creatures, human horsemen and camels whose bodies make up the strokes of the Arabic letters. This extremely intricate inscription reads: "Eternal glory and perfect prosperity, increasing good luck, the chief, the commander, the most illustrious, the honest, the sublime, the pious, the leader, the soldier, the warrior of the frontiers." (Atil, p. 124) The lowest band is a series of thirty roundels with a hawk attacking a bird, and seated figures of musicians and figures drinking, and bowls of fruit. The bottom of the canteen has twenty-five continuing figures divided past pillars. They represent saints in robes with books, censers and others testify soldiers with weapons. Ane prepare may show Mary and the Affections Gabriel. The central ring on the bottom shows a scene of knights in a tournament. Even the cervix of the canteen has intricate inlaid inscriptions and designs.
The patron who deputed this remarkable slice from a Syrian or Iraqi artisan was a Christian familiar with knightly endeavors—peradventure a Crusader. The bottle is 1 of the nearly spectacular examples of this kind of Islamic metalwork.
Image credit: CANTEEN, Ayyubid period, mid-13th century, Mosul Schoolhouse, http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/object.php?q=fsg_F1941.ten.
Brass, silver inlay, DIMENSION(S) H 10 W (overall): 45.2 x 36.7 cm (17 13/16 ten xiv seven/xvi in), Syrian arab republic or Northern Iraq, Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment, Freer Gallery of Fine art, ACCESSION NUMBER F1941.10
Source for text: Esin Atil, Westward. T. Hunt, Paul Jett, Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art, 1985), pp. 125–33 (canteen); pp. 137–43 (Bowl).
Ayyubid Basin with Christian and Islamic Motifs
This example of inlaid brass and silver Islamic metalwork was created during the reign of Sultan al-Malik al-Salih Najmuddin Ayyub. He was the son of al-Malik al-Kamil and the last Ayyubid ruler, who reigned from 1240–1249. Information technology was commissioned for the Sultan, co-ordinate to inscriptions on the interior and outside of the basin. The basin is busy with both Islamic and Christian themes, so it might have been deputed either by a wealthy Muslim or Christian patron, to demonstrate religious tolerance in Ayyubid Syria during that time, standing the legacy of the Sultan's father, al-Kamil.
On the outside of the large basin (l cm/20 inches in diameter) are scenes from Jesus' life: the Annunciation, the Virgin and Child enthroned, the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, Christ'due south entry into Jerusalem, and a scene that might represent Christ's Last Supper with his disciples. Other designs on the outside of the bowl show a polo game and a procession of realistic and imaginary animals. Between them are seated musicians in round medallions. Within the basin, a row of thirty-nine standing figures separated by pillars and arches correspond saints or other important persons. The inscription around the within rim celebrates the ruler Najm al-Din Ayyub as "Our main, the illustrious, the learned, the efficient, the defender, the warrior, the supported, the conqueror, the victor, lord of Islam and the Muslims…may his victory be glorious." Whether deputed by a Muslim or Christian patron for the Sultan, the combination implies religious tolerance in thirteenth-century Ayyubid Syria. Najm al-Din lost his life in Egypt in 1249 while fighting confronting the Cause of St. Louis.
Image Credit : Basin, Ayyubid period, Reign of Sultan Najmal-Din Ayyub, 1247–1249, http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/object.php?q=fsg_F1955.10
Brass, inlaid with silver, DIMENSION(S) H x W x D: 22.v x l ten 50 cm (eight vii/eight x nineteen xi/16 x 19 11/sixteen in), Syrian arab republic, Probably Damascus, Freer Gallery of Art, Accretion NUMBER F1955.10 Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Source for text: Esin Atil, W. T. Hunt, Paul Jett, Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Fine art, 1985), pp. 125–33 (bottle); pp. 137–43 (Basin).
Silk Textiles
The secrets of silk cultivation and weaving complex patterns chosen brocades belonged kickoff to China. Silk weaving spread along the Silk Roads to Byzantine and Sassanian Persian royal workshops before the rising of Islam, and was adopted by the Muslim Abbasid caliphs, who established their own caliphal workshops. Such royal fabrics were possessed only by the most aristocracy of rulers and courtiers. Their designs reflected symbols of the ruler in the shape of mythic animals, and Muslim caliphs ofttimes wove Arabic inscriptions of blessings and of their names. They were given as gifts of robes of honor to bear witness purple favor. Information technology was the ultimate in "power dressing" to exist able to vesture such a garment.
The technology of silk cultivation, dyeing, and complicated brocade looms spread across the Mediterranean with Islam, carried to Egypt and across North Africa, Spain, and Sicily. Brocade workshops expanded beyond the courtly production and began to produce fine textiles for consign. Medieval churches and nobles imported brocades from Spain, Sicily, and Fatimid Arab republic of egypt for wall hangings, church building ornamentation and vestments (priestly garments worn while celebrating mass). When Sicily barbarous to the Normans, they inherited silk production centers. As other centers in Italy began to produce silk brocades, they copied the techniques and patterns then well that it is difficult to tell their origin, but imports also continued from the Eastward.
We know what uses these brocades served from paintings made after the thirteenth century in Italy, and later in Espana. Giotto'due south Lives of St. Francis in the basilica at Assisi were the earliest Italian paintings showing imported Islamic silk brocades. The image here shows Saint Francis Appears to Pope Gregory Nine in a Dream, painted between 1296 and 1305, in the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi, Italy. A wall hanging behind the pope has intricate geometric designs in brilliant silk, and a band that imitates Standard arabic script, which in the original would have had a approving or other repeated phrase for the possessor. Another hanging is a canopy over the bed, and these rich cloths cover the bed and a bench in front of it. The fabrics are probably Castilian imports. In Syrian arab republic and Egypt, brute patterns were common, which were ofttimes copied in early Italian brocade workshops. Even sacred paintings of the Madonna and Child showed the Virgin Mary clothed in fabrics with Islamic designs and Arabic script.
This illustrates that the beauty and luxury of the fabrics was more important than any religious references. These fabrics are also an important sign of trade beyond the Mediterranean, which just increased as more products from the East became known in Europe.
Image credit: Giotto di Bondone (d. 1337), Dream of Pope Gregory Nine, from the fresco serial of the Fable of St. Francis in the Upper Church, Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi; Date: earlier 1337, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Saint_Francis_cycle_in_the_Upper_Church_of_San_Francesco_at_Assisi.
Source for text: Rosemond Mack, From Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Fine art, 1300–1600 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), pp. 27–22; Alavi and Douglass, Emergence of Renaissance: Cultural Interactions between Europeans and Muslims (Fountain Valley, CA: Quango on Islamic Education, 1999), pp. 263–74.
Madonna and Child
This painting of the Madonna and Child shows the Virgin Mary against a gold background with a halo, in gilt. Italian creative person Giotto (ca. 1266 – 1337), has clothed her in a silken veil and robe with bands of embroidery called tiraz, with Arabic lettering. Such fine veils which covered about of the body were typical for wealthy Muslim women of the courts. The Christ child is also wrapped in a fine material with embroidered bands. The painter has created an image of the well-nigh central figures in Christianity for a setting where worship took identify, using a typical Islamic luxury fabric and style of dress for Muslim women. The embroidery bands in Giotto's painting are non legible, but such tiraz bands had blessings in Standard arabic from the Qur'an, alternating with geometric designs. The cloth was used to create an image of great beauty using the nearly rare and expensive fabrics of the time, which were imported from Due north Africa or the Levant.
This painting is just one of many examples of Madonna and Child paintings, some of which evidence halos modeled on fine Islamic metalwork, with Arabic script engraved around the circles. In this case, the halos contain geometric designs in golden, merely the entrance around the painting shows faint imitations of Standard arabic lettering. The ports and cities that exported these goods from the Eastward were contested between Christian and Muslim armies, but the fabrics and other luxury items were not controversial even in sacred art, only precious and desirable.
Image source: Giotto, Italian (ca. 1266 – 1337), Madonna and Child, painted ca. 1320/1330, tempera on pane Dimensions: 85.5 x 62 cm (33 11/16 x 24 seven/16 in.) framed: 128.3 x 72.one 10 five.1 cm (50 1/ii x 28 3/8 x 2 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Samuel H. Kress Collection, Accretion No.1939.1.256, https://images.nga.gov/?service=asset&action=show_zoom_window_popup&linguistic communication=en&nugget=20008&location=grid&asset_list=20008&basket_item_id=undefined. (expand image to bear witness detail online)
Glassware
About 1260
This beaker was fabricated as part of a set made in Syria during the Crusader period, about 1260. At that place are ii of import features of the beaker. First, its glass is most colorless, which required the addition of certain chemicals. 2d, information technology features colored and golden enamel designs that were applied and then heated once again to fuse them to the glass. Both techniques were adopted past Venetian glassmakers on the famous island of Murano where drinking glass artisans and their secrets were kept. Some other feature of this beaker is that Islamic imagery and Arabic script were combined with an important Christian decorative theme—an image of Jesus entering Jerusalem riding on a grey ass.
Image source: Syria, ca. 1260 (Crusade, glass with gilding and enamel), Walters Fine art Museum, Accession Number 47.eighteen, http://fine art.thewalters.org/item/30828/chalice-2/.
The Crusades and Glassmaking Engineering
In their book Islamic Technology, Donald Hill and Ahmed al-Hassan cite the text of a treaty betwixt Bohemond VII, prince of the Syrian city of Antioch, and the Doge (ruler) of the Italian city-state of Venice:
a treaty for the transfer of technology was drawn upwards in June A.D. 1277. . . . It was through this treaty that the secrets of Syrian glassmaking were brought to Venice, everything necessary existence imported direct from Syria—raw materials as well as the expertise of Syrian-Arab craftsmen. One time information technology had learnt them, Venice guarded the secrets of engineering with smashing intendance, monopolizing European drinking glass industry until the techniques became known in seventeenth century France.
Text Source: Ahmed al-Hassan and Donald Hill, Islamic Applied science (New York: Cambridge University Press/UNESCO, 1987), p. 153.
Rosamond Mack, in her book From Bazaar to Piazza, describes the Venetian island of Murano where glass-making was isolated both for its fire hazard, but besides to protect its secrets. Mack acknowledges the influence on Venetian glass of Islamic and Byzantine techniques and decorative styles. Before the Crusades, Venetian artisans made glass. During the Crusades, their industry benefitted from trade relations and transfers of material. They imported alkali, an essential ingredient, "through its merchant colonies in the crusader states. A treaty of 1277 between Doge Giacomo Contarini and Bohemond VII, prince of Antioch, mentions duties on broken glass loaded at Tripoli that served equally raw textile in Venice. Production and markets were varied past the cease of the Crusades; "h2o bottles and scent flasks and other such graceful objects of glass" were proudly borne in the countdown procession for Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo in 1268, the Polo brothers opened the Oriental market for Venetian glass beyond the Alps."
Text Source: Rosamond Mack, From Boutique to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Fine art, 1300–1600 [Berkeley: Academy of California Press, 2002], p. 113.)
For more on Islamic glass engineering and its history, run across "Glass" at http://islamicspain.tv/Arts-and-Science/The-Culture-of-Al-Andalus/index.html.
Islamic Artistic Influences in the Basilica of San Francesco
St. Francis'south visit to the courtroom of al-Malik al-Kamil during the Fifth Cause at Damietta, on the Mediterranean coast of Arab republic of egypt has meant unlike things in different eras. Chroniclers of the Crusades, Church biographers of Francis after he was made a saint ranged from his desire to convert the Sultan, to seek martyrdom, to prove that Christianity was the True Religion, and the uncomplicated desire in emulation of Jesus, to end warfare and bring peace. In the 21st century, the Crusades have come to stand for a seemingly unbridgeable separate betwixt East and Westward, Islam and Christianity, even though historians have discovered a parallel history of peaceful exchange during the same menstruum, and later on.
After St. Francis'south death, the simple man whose life was a symbol of richness of spirit and fabric poverty very quickly became a canonized saint. On xvi July 1228, Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in Assisi, and he laid the foundation stone of the new church the following day. The pope bundled to build a worthy tomb and basilica, site of pilgrimage, and a convent as home for the Friars Minor, the Order of the Franciscans. It was designed by Maestro Jacopo Tedesco, the most famous builder of his fourth dimension in Italia, and supervised by Brother Elias, one of St. Francis's get-go followers. It was built between 1230 and 1253, with a Lower Church and an Upper Church, and a crypt in which St. Francis is buried. It became a UNESCO world heritage site in 2000.
Rev. Michael Calabria, scholar of Islamic art, and a Franciscan himself, has studied the Basilica'due south architectures and decorations. The Basilica of St. Francis shows many signs of creative influences from Muslim world that are seldom noticed by historians of Italian early Renaissance art, and may take been conscious or unconscious influences. The Basilica is known as the commencement Italian Gothic building, and its Romanesque and Byzantine elements are also noticed, especially in the burial crypt. It is really most similar to buildings chosen Italo-Islamic, which are found in southern Italy in places influenced past Sicily's Islamic past and the Norman-Islamic forms that followed. These influences in Italy were the result of trade networks between maritime Italian urban center-states such as Venice, Amalfi, and Genoa. Inland Assisi was not part of these networks, just it was located 70 miles from the port city of Ancona, so the merchants and nobles of Assisi were exposed to those networks and the appurtenances and ideas that came through them.
The get-go sign of Islamic influence is the use of pointed arches, which are a signature of European gothic architecture. Pointed arches permit wider arches in walls, making room for windows—especially stained drinking glass windows as seen in the image of the interior of the upper church. Pointed arches are constitute in many Islamic buildings, appearing first at 9th century Samara in Iraq, according to Michael Calabria.
Crusaders and travelers would have seen many of these buildings in Palermo, Sicily, in Spain, in the Levant, and in Egypt, such as the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, which dates to the 9th century.
The next element of Islamic influence is establish throughout the Basilica and its frescoes and ornamental features. Information technology is the viii-pointed star. The eight-pointed star originated in the ancient Nigh Eastward, in textiles. In Coptic tradition, the number 8 represents renewal & rebirth, the story of Noah's 8 people surviving the inundation, and Christ rising on the 8th, not the 7th day. In Islamic tradition, the throne of God is supported by 8 pillars, with 8 angels carrying the throne of God, and viii gates to viii Paradises after the Judgment Day. In the Qur'an, the word "Kun!" or "Exist!" is mentioned 8 times—the Give-and-take used past God to bring cosmos into being—how Adam and Jesus were created.
The eight-pointed star appears in many places in the Basilica: on the entrance to the Lower Church, decorating the arches, and equally mosaics on the floors. In the nave, viii-pointed stars, with internal 8-point star, and connected by rectangular & triangular forms with interlaced lines. A variation of the pattern that appears in the basilica is modeled on another Islamic geometric design—the tessellated star and cantankerous pattern—as in these turquoise ceramic tiles from Kashan.
The star and cantankerous pattern appears as well in the textiles and architectural featuers depicted in the frescoes of St. Francis'due south life, the lives of other holy figures. The near spectacular epitome featuring the star and cantankerous motif is in the painting of Francis over the altar, showing Francis enthroned in sky with gilt brocade wear and seated on an Islamic fabric woven in golden brocade.
Basilica of San Francesco
The Meanings of Islamic Influence in the Basilica
Michael Calabria finds that Francis'southward humble encounter with al-Kamil had a deep impact on the expression of his faith. Francis returned from Egypt and wrote a alphabetic character to the rulers, proverb that there should be a sound used to call worshippers to prayer—such bells come from the Franciscan tradition. He was impressed with the participation of all in the five daily Islamic prayers, and with the names of God. He wrote a prayer of supplication to God, unlike whatever other in the tradition of Christian sacred literature at that time. The last gesture of Francis'southward life was that he asked to be laid on the bare ground, mayhap a gesture of submission to God. These are very reminiscent of aspects of Islamic worship he would accept witnessed during his fourth dimension in al-Kamil's presence.
As for the Basilica, the magnificent construction contradicts Francis' message of poverty, merely it is not so ironic that the Basilica has unconsciously possibly, fatigued elements from the Islamic society he visited into the realm of western Christendom. This arose, says Calabria, "not by trouncing or triumphing, or confronting or coercing, just in a seamless blending of styles arising only from a mutual appreciation and sharing what is beautiful. In this fashion the Basilica can be said to be a plumbing equipment reflection of what occurred in Francis' own personal come across with Islam, inspiring his own religion and prayer." What was created, he said, is a common visual language across cultural and religious boundaries. This common vision and language of beauty is too oftentimes forgotten a world that in more recent centuries has accustomed rigid dichotomies of east and west, European and African, European and Asian, Christian and Muslim, to the exclusion of a deeper and more integral unity."
Text and epitome sources: Calabria, Michael D. "Seeing Stars: Islamic Decorative Motifs in the Basilica of St. Francis." Select Proceedings from the Outset International Briefing on Franciscan Studies: The World of St. Francis of Assisi, Siena, Italian republic, July xvi-twenty, 2015. Pp. 63-72; as well, lecture at Georgetown University by Fr. Michael Calabria, "The Confluence of Cultures: Italo-Islamic Art and the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi" (View video lecture at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, August 2014, at http://vimeo.com/226482289).
Other images of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Basilica_di_San_Francesco_(Assisi), Roberto Ferrari from Campogalliano (Modena), Italy under Wikimedia commons; upper & lower churches: Basilica of St. Francis by Berthold Werner (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Mathematical and Scientific Exchanges
Mathematics is role of trade for at least three reasons: (one) It is needed in navigation on the seas, forth with astronomy. (2) Merchants demand to keep records of goods and coin, peculiarly when their routes cover many lands, and when they finance their journeys with other people's money—such every bit families, trade agreements, or lenders. For that, they need accounting, or bookkeeping. (3) Another important use of mathematics is in edifice and technology. When trade grows, people want to build roads, walls to defend their cities, and fine buildings to show off their wealth. Mathematics was also a source of intellectual pride, as rulers and scholars matched wits to solve mathematical problems, out of marvel or the desire to discover new truths. During the period of the Crusades and afterward—particularly during the 12th century and beyond, mathematical cognition from Islamic lands entered Europe through translations, along with many other kinds of scientific and technical knowledge. As y'all may know, one of those innovations was the utilise of Hindi-Arabic numerals. Read about mathematician Fibonacci who helped innovate those numerals for all of the purposes above.
Fibonacci in Northward Africa and His Volume Liber Abaci
Europeans did not proceeds access to the mathematical noesis constitute in Espana and Northward Africa until the twelfth and 13th centuries. It entered Europe both through a translation of Persian mathematician al-Khwarizmi's book on Algebra done in Espana in the 12th century, and through Italy'southward Northward African connections and trade.
Fibonacci
Leonardo of Pisa, who died in 1250, is ameliorate known equally Fibonacci. Leonardo's male parent took him as a child to Algeria where he did business in the Italian merchant community. He studied mathematics with a "marvelous" Muslim tutor, as he remembered. In 1202 he shared what he had learned of the mathematics used in Muslim lands with his book Liber Abaci—The Book of the Abacus. Liber Abaci introduced Hindi-Arabic numerals to Europeans. It became popular and enormously simplified business accounting and trade when they replaced Roman numerals. He, and the translator of al-Khwarizmi too introduced the concept of null—the place holder that allows writing whatsoever possible number using merely ix digits and zero. He explained how to calculate using the numerals, how to write fractions and He goes to bang-up lengths to depict how to do arithmetic with these numerals, and how to utilize fractions and ratios. Leonardo of Pisa became famous, and introduced him to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick 2—the same person with whom al-Kamil negotiated the treaty on Jerusalem. Frederick Two, who besides corresponded with al-Kamil about mathematics, supported Fibonacci later in his life, and helped publish many books on mathematical ideas. was renowned for his thirst for knowledge. In the 15th century, the printing printing spread Hindu–Arabic number organisation throughout Europe and beyond.
Paradigm credits: "Roots: Legacy of Fibonacci," 1228 edition of Liber Abaci and image of Fibonacci at Emma Bell, Chalkdust: a Mag for the Mathematically Curious, http://chalkdustmagazine.com/features/roots-legacy-of-fibonacci/.
To learn virtually many other contributions in mathematics, science, technology and the arts, visit http://islamicspain.idiot box/Arts-and-Science/The-Civilization-of-Al-Andalus/index.html.
Culinary and Agricultural Exchanges from the Crusades
Sugar
Similar all plants, the carbohydrate cane constitute is a grass that articles sugar from sunlight and water. The juice in the stalk is very sweet. People liked its taste and started growing it thousands of years ago in Southeast Asia. Over the centuries, people brought the cognition of how to grow sugarcane to India, then to Persia and across medieval Muslim lands to Spain. Muslim traders and migrating farmers brought sugar to the Mediterranean lands, including the Iberian Peninsula, effectually yard. Europeans became enlightened of the sweet treat through visits to Muslim Spain, and through the luxury merchandise across the Mediterranean, carried on mainly by Italian merchants. Sugar was a rare luxury accessible simply to the rich.
Crusaders who conquered what became the Latin Crusader States found sugar already beingness cultivated and refined. They learned these techniques from the Arabs and continued its cultivation, with the main center of the industry in Tyre in Lebanon. They also learned to use it in pastries fabricated with fine wheat flour, fruit preservation, and candies, the name coming from the Standard arabic give-and-take qandi. The saccharide that Europeans enjoyed during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries came from the Crusader lands in the Eastward.
Spices
Other items that Europeans learned of during the Crusades, and then began to import in greater amounts were spices and herbs. The near of import was balm (Melissa officinalis), used in church building services. Others were cinnamon, pepper, cloves, cardamom, cumin and diverse Mediterranean herbs such as oregano and sage, which were used in cooking. A merchant'south guide from Florence of 1310–1340 lists 288 "Spices," which included "seasonings, perfumes, dyestuffs and medicinal of Oriental and African origin." Among the long list are chemicals used in coloring cloth and preserving nutrient, such as alum, wax, gallnuts, and indigo, dyes for making blue, red, yellow, and blackness fish glue, glue Arabic, soda ash, and many other things. Amidst the spices we call back of every bit seasonings, they imported citron, fennel, pepper, poppies, sumac, cloves, cinnamon, caraway, cardamom, ginger, mace (nutmeg) cumin, myrrh, frankincense, sandalwood, and rose water, to name just a few.
Rice was commencement grown in tropical Southeast Asia, where it spread to China and beyond in the east, and Bharat and Persia, and Iraq before reaching Mediterranean lands with irrigation systems that would allow it to grow. Rice was non at all common in Europe's common cold climate, but was a rare import. It was listed in the same merchant'due south guide, as a "spice" which seems to have meant something rare and tasty.
Source of text: Wright, Clifford A. A Mediterranean Feast: <> Story of the Nascence of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean, from the Merchants of Venice to the Barbary Crosaird, (Morrow, 1999), http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/brandish.php/topic_id/23/id/99/. ; Robert S. Lopez and Irving W. Raymond, translators, Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World: Illustrative Documents (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), pp. 108-114. Excerpts from book on medieval trade documents (List of 88 "spices").
Macaroni and Pasta
a medieval handbook of wellness
It may exist difficult to imagine Italian cooking without pasta, only the almost mutual form of pasta dough entered Italy around the time of the Crusades. Durum wheat, or semolina, is a type of wheat that is low in moisture, and tin be stored for a long fourth dimension for export. It has very high in gluten protein, which means that when made into dough, it is very stretchy—perfect for rolling into thin pasta sheets or made into many pasta shapes.
The history of pasta is very old, and was made from many types of grain. When the sparse dough was stale, it was easy to store, light to pack for travels, and ready to swallow later boiling in water a brusque fourth dimension. Information technology could be combined with whatever meat, sauce, or vegetable. Information technology could even be eaten sweet, cooked with milk and love. At that place is a popular legend that Marco Polo learned of pasta in China, only it was there before he ever went, even though he surely learned about new types on his 13th century travels to Prc. Durum wheat—semolina—was introduced to Europe through Muslim Spain, and the Crusaders were also exposed to information technology from the 11th century in Syria. Durum wheat itself probably originated in Fundamental Asia, in today's Afghanistan, and spread across Muslim lands, like many other foods.
Source: http://www.katjaorlova.com/PastaClass.html. Epitome from the The Tacuinum Sanitatis, a medieval handbook of wellness, a translation and compilation from the Taqwīm as‑Sihhah (Maintenance of Health), an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad. This is from a Vienna edition, showing pasta being rolled, cut and dried on a rack.
Source: https://www.sultanandthesaintfilm.com/education/cross-cultural-trade-cultural-exchange-crusades/
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