Chapter 3
Illustrations: When Asia Was the World
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3.8. The Astrolabe of Ahmad and Muhammad of Esfahan, dated 984 CE. The earliest extant astrolabe, it calculates the position of thirty-seven stars for five different latitudes. Similar 10th century instruments are known from the Middle East and Spain and are typical of the flowering of scientific knowledge in the 9-13th century Asian world. . Citation: The Museum of Science, Oxford |
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3.9. Written on paper, rather than older materials, this beautiful Koran is from the time Ibn Sina. Paper had arrived from China only two centuries earlier, but local inventors quickly discovered that pounded linen made a superior product - smooth, supple, and tough. Citation: Koran transcribed by Ibn al-Banwab, Baghdad,1000 – 1001. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Is. 1431, fol. 286r |
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3.11. Ibn Sina’s Cannon of medical information, in Latin translation, was one of the most widely used books in medieval Europe. This version was printed in 1476 CE, less than thirty years after the Guttenberg Bible Note the handwritten commentary in the margins by a medieval doctor. Citation: University of Michigan. Special Collections. Incum.129 |