A couple of interesting articles on the the Abbasids’s view of the Chinese and the Vikings.
10 Replies to “A Step into Time”
The Abbasids weren’t paying much attention.
In 1258, the Mongols sacked Baghdad and not just ended the Abbasid dynasty but also ended “Islam’s Golden age” but virtually destroyed Islam as well.
As Tarek Fatah has commented, Islam had to start agin from scratch.
Although the Mongols adopted Islam (in a way), it was as a convenience for absolute control.
13th Warrior is fiction, a good yarn, and a riveting sword opera….
Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, although a historical figure, was more an Islamic missionary than an adventurer….who never got much further than Kiev….an achievement in itself.
Black extremists calling for Race War and a new homeland well i say give thema home IN AFRICA
Historical accounts of Arabs meeting Vikings haven’t put Vikings in a favourable light.
I wonder how modern-day Arabs living amongst the descendents of the Vikings would interpret Abbasid’s views today.
Fascinating.
And, legend has it that the disciple Andrew also wandered among the Scythians in the Kiev and south region.
Scythian burial mounds are scattered all over the region.
Don’t think its a particularly well written, its seems more of a promo for Abbasids and their short lived place of importance in the overall scheme. Just another society that lived off the back of previous societies accomplishments. Travel and trade was widespread way way before their little blip in history, as were the mapping of roads and routes, boats plied trade and it was recorded at least back to the early days of the Egyptian and Assyrian Empires.
It maybe a shock but the world was a far more “civilised” before the destructive forces of Islam than after.
The following quotes from the article:
“it was the most important religious, intellectual and scientific centre of that part of the world,” Van Berkel says. “Geographers knew in detail about the Dar al Islam (home or abode of Islam), a vast area that extended from what is now Spain to Pakistan and Afghanistan. They mapped the roads and rivers, the cities, the natural environment, the administration, the people…. They were also pretty knowledgeable about India but much less so about Europe.”
I mean really. Just think about what is that saying ?
“In some ways the Arab explorers lived in a better world than ours”.
The writer drops that sentence in, then goes on to describe how Rhino’s were more plentiful.
“Trade contacts in the early Middle Ages are still very much underestimated,” says historian Dr Karl Heidecker of Groningen University. “Numerous objects from the Middle East, Africa and even Afghanistan were encountered in Viking sites”.
Its a good quote and true but its just left hanging.
“One of the biggest surprises of the Arab travel accounts is the sophistication of Vikings, Turks, Chinese, Indians and the Abbasids, more than a millennium ago”.
Well thats a no shit sherlock comment.
Oh and sorry but obviously I got out of bed the wrong side this morning, just a pre-coffee rant.
Ha, a Viking probably stole her from Arabia, during the Viking raids at their peak, as a bed mate.
The woman was lucky. The Vikings were a blood thirsty crowd, did not take prisoners.
Read two volume book from a lady by the name of Undsen, she wrote about the Danes, though they were in the same bag as Vikings.
They killed just about anybody that looked at them sideways.
Researchers especially Scandinavians downplay their fierce and brutal relatives from history, always pointing out the obvious that some stayed home to tend the livestock. Juxtapose that with Islam where they proudly celebrate their savage conquerers from the past.
Actually Scandinavians…not just Viking were very active slavers. Habitual traders, Viking treated slavery as just another commerce.
However, slavery was incidental, in Viking culture, rather than institutional as with the Islamics.
Also Genocide was an institution with Islam….an unexpressed “pillar” of Islam.
How interesting! I had no idea there was a member of Abba named “Sid”.
The Abbasids weren’t paying much attention.
In 1258, the Mongols sacked Baghdad and not just ended the Abbasid dynasty but also ended “Islam’s Golden age” but virtually destroyed Islam as well.
As Tarek Fatah has commented, Islam had to start agin from scratch.
Although the Mongols adopted Islam (in a way), it was as a convenience for absolute control.
13th Warrior is fiction, a good yarn, and a riveting sword opera….
Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, although a historical figure, was more an Islamic missionary than an adventurer….who never got much further than Kiev….an achievement in itself.
Black extremists calling for Race War and a new homeland well i say give thema home IN AFRICA
Historical accounts of Arabs meeting Vikings haven’t put Vikings in a favourable light.
I wonder how modern-day Arabs living amongst the descendents of the Vikings would interpret Abbasid’s views today.
Fascinating.
And, legend has it that the disciple Andrew also wandered among the Scythians in the Kiev and south region.
Scythian burial mounds are scattered all over the region.
Don’t think its a particularly well written, its seems more of a promo for Abbasids and their short lived place of importance in the overall scheme. Just another society that lived off the back of previous societies accomplishments. Travel and trade was widespread way way before their little blip in history, as were the mapping of roads and routes, boats plied trade and it was recorded at least back to the early days of the Egyptian and Assyrian Empires.
It maybe a shock but the world was a far more “civilised” before the destructive forces of Islam than after.
The following quotes from the article:
“it was the most important religious, intellectual and scientific centre of that part of the world,” Van Berkel says. “Geographers knew in detail about the Dar al Islam (home or abode of Islam), a vast area that extended from what is now Spain to Pakistan and Afghanistan. They mapped the roads and rivers, the cities, the natural environment, the administration, the people…. They were also pretty knowledgeable about India but much less so about Europe.”
I mean really. Just think about what is that saying ?
“In some ways the Arab explorers lived in a better world than ours”.
The writer drops that sentence in, then goes on to describe how Rhino’s were more plentiful.
“Trade contacts in the early Middle Ages are still very much underestimated,” says historian Dr Karl Heidecker of Groningen University. “Numerous objects from the Middle East, Africa and even Afghanistan were encountered in Viking sites”.
Its a good quote and true but its just left hanging.
“One of the biggest surprises of the Arab travel accounts is the sophistication of Vikings, Turks, Chinese, Indians and the Abbasids, more than a millennium ago”.
Well thats a no shit sherlock comment.
Oh and sorry but obviously I got out of bed the wrong side this morning, just a pre-coffee rant.
Ha, a Viking probably stole her from Arabia, during the Viking raids at their peak, as a bed mate.
The woman was lucky. The Vikings were a blood thirsty crowd, did not take prisoners.
Read two volume book from a lady by the name of Undsen, she wrote about the Danes, though they were in the same bag as Vikings.
They killed just about anybody that looked at them sideways.
Researchers especially Scandinavians downplay their fierce and brutal relatives from history, always pointing out the obvious that some stayed home to tend the livestock. Juxtapose that with Islam where they proudly celebrate their savage conquerers from the past.
Actually Scandinavians…not just Viking were very active slavers. Habitual traders, Viking treated slavery as just another commerce.
However, slavery was incidental, in Viking culture, rather than institutional as with the Islamics.
Also Genocide was an institution with Islam….an unexpressed “pillar” of Islam.
How interesting! I had no idea there was a member of Abba named “Sid”.