particularly prevalent in Uzbekistan. The brilliant
blue tiled dome of the Mosque o f Bibi Khanum,
Temur‘s (Tamerlane) favorite wife, catches the
v isitors eye in Samarkand. Here, as well as in the
complex o f tombs called Shah-I-Zinda (the Living
Prince), much of the old beauty is being returned
to its former elegance through restoration
e. Al-Idrisi, a twelfth century scientist living in Sicily
was commissioned by the Norman King, Roger II,
to compile a world atlas, which contained seventy
maps. Some o f the areas were therefore uncharted.
Called Kitabal-Rujari (Roger‘s book), Idrisi‘s work
was considered the best geographical guide of its
time.
f. The ancient oriental people were pioneers in botany.
In the twelfth century an outstanding reference
work, Al-Filahat by Ibn al-Awam, described more
than five hundred different plants and methods of
grafting, soil conditioning, and curing o f diseased
vines and trees.
g. Al-Haytham (known in Europe as Alhazen)
wrote a book in the tenth century on optics, Kitab
A1 Manazir. He explored optical illusions, the
rainbow, and the camera obscura (which led to
the beginning of photographic instruments). He
also made discoveries in atmospheric refractions
(mirages and comets, for example), studied
the eclipse, and laid the foundation for the later
development of the microscope and the telescope.
h. Among the well-known philosophers of the
medieval world were al-Kindi, who contributed
to the work o f Plato and Aristotle; al-Farabi, who
made a model of Man‘s community; Avicenna (Ibn
Sina), who developed theories on form and matter
that were incorporated into medieval Christian
Scholasticism; Ibn Khaldun, who expounded the
cycles of a state in his Muqqadimah (Introduction).
1 6
Scale Up
8
Work in pairs. Underline the unknown words
11
Write the main components of an article
and guess their meanings from the context.
review.
9
Discuss the importance of oriental input to the
