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son of a Jewish pharmacist

became a doctor

converted to Islam at 30

"he not only went on military campaigns with Ghazan Khan against the Mamluks and arranged peace negotiations in Syria, but also resolved long-standing financial problems."

There was a feud between

he was executed in 1318

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Baghdad is the capital of present-day Iraq and is located on the Tigris River. it is located 330 miles from the Persian Gulf which is considered the heart of ancient Mesopotamia, Baghdad is Iraq's largest city and one of the most populous urban areas of the Middle East. The city was founded in 762 as the capital of the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, for the next 500 years it was the most significant cultural center of Arab and Islamic civilization and was considered one of the greatest cities in the world. In 1258, Baghdad was conquered by the Mongol Empire led by the leader Hulegu. As a provincial capital of Iraq in 1920 while under the Ottoman Empire, over the next 50 years, the city grew substantially and took on the characteristics of a modern metropolis.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Baghdad

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source:(Ottoman Empire - WWI, Decline & Definition | HISTORY)

The Ottoman Empire, also commonly called the Turkish Empire, was an Islamic superpower (whose leader was the Sultan, wielding total control) that amassed control over large areas of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North Africa, for over 600 years. Considered a threat by many at the time, historians see the Ottoman Empire as time of stability and security, advancing science, the arts, religion, and culture.

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Origins of the Ottoman Empire

Osman I, a leader of the Turkish tribes in Anatolia, founded the Ottoman Empire around 1299. The term "Ottoman" is derived from Osman's name, which was "Uthman" in Arabic.

The Ottoman Turks set up a formal government and expanded their territory under the leadership of Osman I, Orhan, Murad I and Bayezid I.

In 1453, Mehmed II the Conqueror led the Ottoman Turks in seizing the ancient city of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire's capital. This put an end to the 1,000-year reign of the Byzantine Empire.

Sultan Mehmed renamed the city Istanbul and made it the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul became a dominant international center of trade and culture.

Mehmed died in 1481. His oldest son, Bayezid II, became the new Sultan.

Rise of the Ottoman Empire

By 1517, Bayezid's son, Selim I, brought Syria, Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt under Ottoman control.

The Ottoman Empire reached its peak between 1520 and 1566, during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. This period was marked by great power, stability and wealth.

Suleiman created a uniform system of law and welcomed different forms of arts and literature. Many Muslims considered Suleiman a religious leader as well as a political ruler.

Throughout Sultan Suleiman's rule, the empire expanded and included areas of Eastern Europe.

What Countries Were Part of the Ottoman Empire?

At its height, the Ottoman Empire included the following regions:

Ottoman Art and Science

The Ottomans were known for their achievements in art, science and medicine. Istanbul and other major cities throughout the empire were recognized as artistic hubs, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent.

Some of the most popular forms of art included calligraphy, painting, poetry, textiles and carpet weaving, ceramics and music.

Ottoman architecture also helped define the culture of the time. Elaborate mosques and public buildings were constructed during this period.

Science was regarded as an important field of study. The Ottomans learned and practiced advanced mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, physics, geography and chemistry.

Additionally, some of the greatest advances in medicine were made by the Ottomans. They invented several surgical instruments that are still used today, such as forceps, catheters, scalpels, pincers and lancets.

Fratricide

Under Sultan Selim, a new policy emerged, which included fratricide, or the murder of brothers.

When a new Sultan was crowned, his brothers would be imprisoned. When the Sultan's first son was born, his brothers and their sons would be killed. This system ensured that the rightful heir would take the throne.

But, not every Sultan followed this harsh ritual. Over time, the practice evolved. In the later years, the brothers would only be put in prison-not killed.

Topkapi

A total of 36 Sultans ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1299 and 1922. For many of these years, the Ottoman Sultan would live in the elaborate Topkapi palace complex in Istanbul. It contained dozens of gardens, courtyards and residential and administrative buildings.

Part of the Topkapi palace included the harem, a separate quarters reserved for wives, concubines and female slaves. These women were positioned to serve the Sultan, while the men in the harem complex were typically eunuchs.

The threat of assassination was always a concern for a Sultan. He relocated every night as a safety measure.

The Ottoman Empire and Other Religions

Most scholars agree that the Ottoman Turk rulers were tolerant of other religions.

Those who weren't Muslim were categorized by the millet system, a community structure that gave minority groups a limited amount of power to control their own affairs while still under Ottoman rule. Some millets paid taxes, while others were exempt.

Devshirme

In the 14th century, the devshirme system was created. This required conquered Christians to give up 20 percent of their male children to the state. The children were forced to convert to Islam and become slaves.

Although they served as slaves, some of the converts became powerful and wealthy. Many were trained for government service or the Ottoman military. The elite military group, known as the Janissaries, was primarily made up of forced Christian converts.

The devshirme system lasted until the end of the 17th century.

The Decline of the Ottoman Empire

Starting in the 1600s, the Ottoman Empire began to lose its economic and military dominance over Europe.

Around this time, Europe had strengthened rapidly with the Renaissance and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Other factors, such as poor leadership and having to compete with trade from the Americas and India, led to the weakening of the empire.

In 1683, the Ottoman Turks were defeated at the Battle of Vienna. This loss added to their already waning status.

Over the next hundred years, the empire began to lose key regions of land. After a revolt, Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830.

In 1878, the Congress of Berlin declared the independence of Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria.

During the Balkan Wars, which took place in 1912 and 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost nearly all its territories in Europe.

When Did the Ottoman Empire Fall?

At the start of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was already in decline. The Ottoman army entered the war in 1914 on the side of the Central Powers (including Germany and Austria-Hungary) and was defeated in October 1918.

Following the Armistice of Mudros, most Ottoman territories were divided between Britain, France, Greece and Russia.

The Ottoman Empire officially ended in 1922 when the title of Ottoman Sultan was eliminated. Turkey was declared a republic on October 29, 1923, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938), an army officer, founded the independent Republic of Turkey. He then served as Turkey's first president from 1923 until his death in 1938, implementing reforms that rapidly secularized and westernized the country.

Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide was perhaps the most controversial and damning event associated with the Ottomans.

In 1915, Turkish leaders made a plan to massacre Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Most scholars believe that about 1.5 million Armenians were killed.

For years, the Turkish government has denied responsibility for the genocide. In fact, it's illegal, even today, to talk about the Armenian Genocide in Turkey.

The Ottoman Legacy

After ruling for more than 600 years, the Ottoman Turks are often remembered for their powerful military, ethnic diversity, artistic ventures, religious tolerance and architectural marvels.

The mighty empire's influence is still very much alive in the present-day Turkish Republic, a modern, mostly secular nation thought of by many scholars as a continuation of the Ottoman Empire.

Sources

The Ottoman Empire, BBC.
History, TheOttomans.org.
Ottoman Legacy in the Turkish History, Turkey.com.
8 Things You Need to Know About the Mass Killings of Armenians 100 Years Ago, CNN.

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Ottoman Empire - WWI, Decline & Definition

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The Ottoman Empire, an Islamic superpower, ruled much of the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe between the 14th and early 20th centuries.

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Hardline Reformist Sunni theologian from Syria

Most famous for his belief that the Mongol's impiety stemmed from their adherence to non-Islamic rituals and laws that went against shari'a

Believed that not only could the non-believer Mongols be killed, but anybody who associated with them, to include fellow Muslims.

Had a restrictive interpretation of Islam that many disagreed with; he believed in the rejection of dancing, worship of relics, and music (143).

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Launched multiple attacks against the Muslim World and Gu ̈chlu ̈g Khan, and eventually conquered it. Many historians think that while text present him as a liberator to the Muslim world from Gu ̈chlu ̈g Khan and his Buddhist rule, they believe this to be done by Muslims working for Chinggis.

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Can in many way be credited with reintroducing the buddhist and Muslim worlds.

Coverted from Christianity to Buddhism due to his wife.

Launched a brutal campaign against the Muslim World.

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• The military slaves of the Samanid dynasty established themselves as the Ghaznavid dynasty (994 – 1186 C.E.)

• The area they established in is what is now Afganistan and Pakistan

• First native dynasty to arise after the Muslim Arab conquest

• The Samanid has control over the most important silver producing veins of Central Asia, which made possible the development of the coinage system

https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/default/files/knowledge-bank-article/vol_IVa%20silk%20road_the%20samanid%20state.pdf

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The Ghurids started out as a group of local chiefs with incredible military skill residing in what is now Afghanistan. The Ghurid empire held power from the mid 12th century to the early 13th century. They quickly became a dynasty of conquerors and warriors stretching their empire West across Iran and East across the Northern section of India. They were attempting to take control of Persia as well until the leader of the Ghurids was captured and his territories were overthrown.

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GHURIDS (or Āl-e Šansab), a medieval Islamic dynasty of the eastern Iranian lands. They began as local chiefs in Ḡūr (q.v.) in the heartland of what is now Afghanistan, but became a major power from the mid-12th century until the opening years of the 7th/13th century. Ḡūr was then the nucleus of a vast but transient military empire which at times stretched from Gorgān (q.v.) in the west to northern India in the east, only to be overwhelmed by the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs (q.v.; see also CHORASMIA ii) and to disappear, as far as the eastern Iranian lands were concerned, on the eve of the Mongol cataclysm.

The Ghurids came from the Šansabānī family. The name of the eponym Šansab/Šanasb probably derives from the Middle Persian name Wišnasp (Justi, Namenbuch, p. 282). After the Ghurids had achieved fame as military conquerors, obsequious courtiers and genealogists connected the family with the legendary Iranian past by tracing it back to Żaḥḥāk, whose descendants were supposed to have settled in Ḡūr after Ferēdūn had overthrown Żaḥḥāk's thousand-year tyranny. The Šansab family was then brought into the framework of Islamic history by the story that its chiefs received Islam from the hands of Imam ʿAlī, subsequently aiding Abū Moslem Ḵorāsānī's uprising against the Omayyads and having its power legitimized by being invested with Ḡūr by the caliph Hārūn al-Rašīd (Jūzjānī, Ṭabaqāt I, pp. 318-27, tr. Raverty, I, pp. 300-16, citing a versified genealogy of the Ghurids compiled for Sultan ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn Jahānsūz by Faḵr-al-Dīn Mobārakšāh b. Ḥosayn Marvrūdī, q.v.). It goes without saying that we have no concrete evidence for any of this. The chiefs of Ḡūr only achieve firm historical mention in the early 5th/11th century with the Ghaznavid raids into their land, when Ḡūr was still a pagan enclave. Nor do we know anything about the ethnic stock of the Ḡūrīs in general and the Šansabānīs in particular; we can only assume that they were eastern Iranian Tajiks.

Table 1. Geneological table of the Šansabāni family (the Ghurids).

There were at least three raids by the early Ghaznavids into Ḡūr, led by Sultan Maḥmūd and his son Masʿūd, in the first decades of the 5th/11th century; these introduced Islam and brought Ḡūr into a state of loose vassalage to the sultans (ʿOtbī, II, pp. 122-25; Bayhaqī, 113-21; Jūzjānī, I, p. 330, tr. I, p. 329; Nāẓim, pp. 70-72; Bosworth, 1961, pp. 122-23, 127-28). The Šansabānīs were only one amongst several chieftains at this time, and topographical gleanings from Bayhaqī (pp. 114-20), plus various details from Jūzjānī, show that they were petty rulers of the district of Mandēš on the upper Harīrūd near modern Āhangarān (see map in Ḥodūd al-ʿālam2, tr. Minorsky, Second Series of Addenda, p. xxix and the detailed discussion of the locations mentioned in Ḡūr at text, p. 110, comm. pp. 342-44). During the second half of the 5th/11th century, the Šansabānīs were squabbling amongst themselves but also trying to extend their power beyond Mandēš and to crush other chieftains; at one point, dissident Ḡūrī leaders appealed to the Ghaznavid Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd (q.v.) to intervene against the oppressive Šansabānī ʿAbbās b. Šīṯ (Jūzjānī, I, p. 332, tr. I, pp. 331-32; Bosworth, Later Ghaznavids, p. 69), and Moḥammad b. ʿAbbās was set up as chief by the sultan. Moḥammad's son, Ḥasan, was the first Šansabānī known to have an honorific title, namely Qotb-al-Dīn, but the history of the Ghurid dynasty, as it may now be fittingly styled, only becomes reasonably well known with the accession of ʿEzz-al-Dīn Ḥosayn b. Ḥasan (493-540/1100-46).

By now, Ghaznavid influence within the Ghurid lands was giving place to that of the Saljuqs, for Sanjar was able in 512/1118 to place his own nominee, Bahrāmšāh b. Masʿūd (q.v.), on the throne in Ḡazna. Already in 501/1107-8 Sanjar had raided Ḡūr from Khorasan (Jūzjānī, tr. Raverty, p. 336 n. 4), and ʿEzz-al-Dīn (493-540/1100-1145) now became his vassal, sending as part of the stipulated tribute mailed coats and the local breed of fierce dogs (Jūzjānī, I, p. 335, tr. I, pp. 336-37). Sayf-al-Dīn Sūrī b. ʿEzz-al-Dīn Ḥosayn succeed in 540/1146 in Ḡūr, but shared out his lands with his brothers on the basis of Ḡūrī tribal and patrimonial practice. He himself clashed with the Ghaznavids, and after an abortive attack on Ḡazna, was killed by Bahrāmšāh; this marked the beginning of a deep hatred between the two families. On his accession, his son ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn (544-56/1149-61) avenged the two of his brothers killed by Bahrāmšāh by declaring war on the Ghaznavids. In a great battle in Zamīndāvar and then another at Ḡazna itself, he defeated Bahrāmšāh and drove him into India. Ḡazna and Bost suffered frightful sackings by ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn, in which colleges and libraries were despoiled, and the buildings of previous sultans destroyed (Jūzjānī, pp. 343-45; Čahār maqāla, ed. Qazvīnī, p. 31), earning him the uneviable epithet of Jahānsūz (world incendiary). The Ghurids made no attempt to annex the Ghaznavid provinces of eastern Afghanistan, and soon afterwards Bahrāmšāh returned from the Punjab; but ʿAlaʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn does seem to have sought a higher status for himself. Not content with being a mere malek or amir, according to Ebn al-Aṯīr (Beirut, XI, p. 166), he now styled himself, after the Saljuqs and Ghaznavids, al-solṭān al-moʿaẓẓam and adopted the čatr (q.v.) or ceremonial parasol as one of the insignia of royalty (in fact, the designation al-solṭān al-aʿẓam already appears on the coins of his predecessor in Fīrūzkūh, Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Sām b. Ḥosayn, r. 544/1149; Sourdel, p. 114, nos. 1258-60). He also aspired to cast off his subordination to the Saljuqs, but was defeated by Sanjar in 547/1152, and spent his last years extending Ghurid power into northern Afghanistan and southwards to the Helmand valley (Jūzjānī, I, pp. 346-48, tr. pp. 347-62; Ebn al-Aṯīr, Beirut, XI, pp. 164-66).

ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn's expansionist policies raised the Ghurids into a power of significance well beyond Ḡūr itself. Latterly, he was able to take advantage of a certain power-vacuum in the eastern Islamic world which had arisen through the decay of the Ghaznavids and the collapse of Saljuq power in Khorasan consequent on Sanjar's defeat and capture by the Ḡozz (q.v.) in 548/1153. The expansion of the territories controlled by the family facilitated a division of the patrimony amongst its various branches, so that, henceforth, the senior branch ruled over the heartland, Ḡūr, from the capital Fīrūzkūh (q.v.) on or near the upper Harīrūd. Fīrūzkūh was originally founded by Qoṭb-al-Dīn Moḥammad as the seat of his appendage of Waršāda, continued as the capital of ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn, and then expanded by the building activity of Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn Moḥammad b. Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Sām (Jūzjānī, I, pp. 335-36, 353, tr. I, pp. 339, 370), which included the famed minaret of Jām, which was constructed either at the fortress of Fīrūzkūh itself or nearby. After Ḡazna had been finally taken from the Turks who had occupied it after the last Ghaznavids (579/1183-84), another branch was established there under Moʿezz-al-Dīn or Šehāb-al-Dīn Moḥammad b. Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Sām, and this branch used Ḡazna as a launching-pad for expansion into northern India. Finally, Faḵr-al-Dīn Masʿūd b. ʿEzz-al-Dīn Ḥosayn was installed in newly conquered Bāmīān (q.v.), and his branch expanded into northern Afghanistan as far as the Oxus and beyond it into Čaḡānīān (q.v.) and Waḵš (Jūzjānī, I, p. 385, tr. pp. 423-24).

Under the two brothers Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn and Moʿezz-al-Dīn in Fīrūzkūh and Ḡazna respectively (558-99 /1163-1203 and 569-99/1173-1203), the Ghurid empire reached its greatest territorial extent and apogee of power. Although the earlier history of the Šansabānī family had been full of feuds and disputes, the brothers maintained a partnership, with mutual amity and a division of spheres of activity and influence. Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn was broadly concerned with expansion westwards into Khorasan and with checking the ambitions there of the Ḵwārazmšāhs, whilst Moʿezz-al-Dīn led raids into India.

In the west, Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn, often in concert with his brother, extended his suzerainty over the maleks of Nīmrūz or Sīstān and even over the Kermān branch of the Saljuqs. Turkish amirs in Herāt and Balḵ were humbled, but the main thrust of Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn's efforts was in western Khorasan, where the Ghurid came to clash with the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs under Il-Arslan and Tekeš. The Ḵᵛārazmšāhs aimed at capturing Khorasan, backed at times by their suzerains the pagan Qara Khitay. The Ghurids adopted the role of defenders of Sunnism. They had cordial relations with the ʿAbbasids in Baghdad, frequently exchanging embassies (Jūzjānī's father took part in one of the last, Jūzjānī, I, p. 361, tr. p. 383). Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn was admitted to al-Nāṣer's fotūwa order, and the caliph more than once urged the Ghurids to halt the advance into western Persia of the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs (Jūzjānī, I, 302, tr. I, p. 243). The actual fighting in Khorasan at this time was largely between the Ghurids and Tekeš's brother Solṭānšāh, who had carved out for himself personally a principality in western Khorasan, until in 586/1190 Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn and Moʿezz-al-Dīn defeated Solṭānšāh near Marv in 588/1192, captured him, and took over his territories (Jūzjānī, I, 303-4, tr. I, pp. 246-47). When Tekeš died in 596/1200 (Ebn al-Aṯīr, Beirut, XII, pp. 156-58), Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn was able to take over most of the towns of Khorasan as far west as Besṭām in Qūmes. At the same time, the Bāmīān branch of the dynasty under Bahāʾ-al-Dīn Sām b. Šams-al-Dīn Moḥammad (588-602/1192-1206) secured Balḵ and Ṭoḵārestān after the death of its Turkish governor, a vassal of the Qara Khitay (Jūzjānī, I, p. 389, tr. p. 431).

Moʿezz-al-Dīn, installed at Ḡazna since 569/1173-74 with the title also of sultan, began raiding through the Gomal Pass into India, capturing Moltān and Uččh (570/1175) and compelling the Sumerās in Lower Sind to acknowledge his suzerainty (578/1182). He was repulsed from Gujarat, hence turned to northern India, finally extinguishing the Ghaznavids in Lahore (582/1186) and then advancing down the Ganges valley to defeat various Hindu princes and to occupy Delhi, Ajmer, and Gwalior. Moʿezz-al-Dīn himself returned to Khorasan to aid his brother against the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, but his conquests in India were carried on by his Turkish commander Qoṭb-al-Dīn Aybak (q.v.) and, expanding as far east as Bengal, by Eḵtīār-al-Dīn Moḥammad Ḵaljī. It was Aybak who at Delhi built the Qowwat-al-Eslām mosque (588/1192) and at Ajmer converted into the Arhāʾī-Dīn-kā-jhompŕā mosque (comp. 596/1200) a former Hindu college as visible signs of Ghurid might in India (Burton-Page, "Dilhi," p. 259 with the plan of Qowwat-al-Eslām mosque; idem, "Hind," p. 442).

For three years until his own death in 602/1206, Moʿezz-al-Dīn was supreme ruler, but in fact followed earlier practice by allotting appanages to members of the family, including Fīrūzkūh to Żīāʾ-al-Dīn or ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Moḥammad b. Šojāʿ-al-Dīn ʿAlī, and southern and western Afghanistan to Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn Maḥmūd b. Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn Moḥammad; the latter, however, very soon took control of Fīrūzkūh once Moʿezz-al-Dīn had died. Moʿezz-al-Dīn's last years had been characterized by failure in the west. Ghurid rule in Khorasan proved oppressive and unpopular; according to Jovaynī (II, pp. 51-52, tr. Boyle, II, p. 319), Moʿezz-al-Dīn required forced sales and confiscated for his army grain which had been stored in the shrine of the Imām ʿAlī al-Reżā at Mašhad-e Ṭūs. An attempted pursuit of the army of the new Ḵᵛārazmšāh ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Moḥammad ended disastrously for the Ghurids, who were halted by flooding of the Chorazmian countryside and then routed at Andḵūy (q.v.) on the Oxus by the Qara Khitay (601/1204; Jovaynī, ed. Qazvīnī, II, pp. 57, 89, tr. Boyle, I, pp. 321-24; Barthold, Turkestan 2, pp. 349-51). Moʿezz-al-Dīn escaped personally, but all Khorasan except Herāt was lost, and a year or so later the sultan was assassinated in India.

After this, the Ghurid empire rapidly fell apart. Ḡīāṯò-al-Dīn and Moʿezz-al-Dīn had skillfully maintained the unity of the realm and had kept firm control over the various elements of which the multi-ethnic Ghurid army was composed. Dissension now broke out within the Šansabānī family, with military factions taking sides. Thus the Ḡūrī troops supported for succession to the sultanate the Bāmīān line of the family, whereas the Turks favored Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn Maḥmūd, who in the end prevailed at Fīrūzkūh. In Ḡazna, power was seized by the Turkish commander Tāj-al-Dīn Yïldïz (Īldūz), legitimized by Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn's grant to him of its governorship (602-11/1206-15). The last Ghurids were puppets of the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, until in 612/1215 ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Moḥammad deposed the last sultan in Fīrūzkūh; the Bāmīān line was likewise suppressed; and Yïldïz was driven out of Ḡazna. Thus all the Ghurid lands, except those in northern India, fell under Choarazmian control, although it was not long before Sultan Moḥammad himself was overwhelmed by the Mongols (Jovaynī, ed. Qazvīnī, II, 108-16, tr. Boyle, II, pp. 327-86; Jovaynī, II, p. 85, is wrong in making the conquest of Ḡazna after the death of Yïldïz).

The constituting of the Ghurid empire was a remarkable achievement for a family of petty chiefs from a backward region like Ḡūr, which henceforth was to play no significant role in Islamic history. The sultans' military strength was based on both the indigenous Ḡūrī mountaineers and Ḵaljīs from eastern Afghanistan plus the recruitment of Turkish military slaves, but these resources were not in the end adequate to withstand the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs, who had the manpower resources of the Inner Asian steppes behind them. It was, of course, in India that the Ghurid legacy was to be the most lasting, for it was the Turkish and Ḵaljī commanders of Moʿezz-al-Dīn who laid the foundations of the Delhi Sultanate (q.v.), in many ways a successor-state to the Ghurids, and who permanently implanted Islam in northern India.

Although the Ghurid empire was not a durable one, it seems possible to speak of a distinct Ghurid ethos and culture. Continuing the attitudes of the Ghaznavids, the Ghurids were strong upholders of the orthodox Sunni form of Islam, once the Šansabānī family had emerged from its pagan past. Ismaili propagandists from northern Persia penetrated into Ḡūr during the later years of ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn, and received some encouragement from the sultan; but his son Sayf-al-Dīn Moḥammad took strong measures to extirpate it (Jūzjānī, I, pp. 349-51, tr. I, pp. 361, 365-66). Of more lasting significance for the religious complexion of Ḡūr was the wide sympathy there for the pietistic, ascetic Sunni sect of the Karrāmīya (q.v.), which had arisen in Nīšāpūr during the 4th/10th century and had been patronized by the early Ghaznavid sultans. It may be, though the sources are not explicit, that this group,which placed a strong emphasis on missionary work (see daʿwa), was active in the 5th/11th century in spreading Islam in Ḡūr. Certainly, in the following century, the majority of the inhabitants of Ḡūr are said to have been adherents of the Karrāmīya, and it was only Ḡīāṯò-al-Dīn Moḥammad and Moʿezz-al-Dīn Moḥammad who changed over to the mainstream Shafiʿite and Hanafite law schools respectively (Bosworth, 1961, pp. 128-33). As noted above, these two sultans were certainly aware of orthodox, caliphal approval for their authority and the advantages of close diplomatic contacts with the ʿAbbasids.

Literary and artistic activities under the Ghurids likewise followed on from those of the Ghaznavids. The sultans were generous patrons of the Persian literary traditions of Khorasan, and latterly fulfilled a valuable role as transmitters of this heritage to the newly conquered lands of northern India, laying the foundations for the essentially Persian culture which was to prevail in Muslim India until the 19th century. ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn Jahānsūz reportedly was also a fine poet; his poetry, of which only a few lines have been preserved, was widely appreciated in Afghanistan and northern India. Moḥammad ʿAwfī had seen a copy of his dīvān in Samarqand ( Lobāb, ed. Browne, I, pp. 38-39, ed. Nafīsī, pp. 39-40; Jūzjānī, pp. 343-45; Ṣafā, Adabīyāt II, pp. 53-55). The contemporary Neẓāmī ʿArūżī mentions as eulogists of the Ghurids such poets as Abu'l-Qāsem Rāfeʿī, Abū Bakr Jawharī, ʿAlī Ṣūfī, and himself ( Čahār maqāla, p. 28, tr. p. 30). But while we have surviving several fairly complete dīvāns of the Ghaznavid poets, none of those from the Ghurid period have survived. It is clear, however, that all this literature was in Persian, and claims which were made in Afghanistan some decades ago (e.g., Ḥabībī in his ed. of Moḥammad Hōtak) of the existence of poetry in Pashto from the Ghurid period remain unsubstantiated. Of Ghurid prose literature, including history and genealogy, mention should be made of Faḵr-al-Dīn Mobārakšāh Moḥammad b. Manṣūr, known as Faḵr-e Modabber, the author of a genealogical work, Baḥr al-ansāb, and a treatise on kingship and statecraft, the Ādāb al-ḥarb wa'l-šajāʿa (q.v.). The great historian of the Ghurids, without whose information our knowledge of the dynasty would be much sparser, was Menhāj-al-Dīn-e Serāj-al-Dīn Jūzjānī (q.v.; d. the second half of the 7th/13th century), who was a diplomatic envoy for the sultans and who composed his Ṭabaqāt-e nāṣerī, in form a general history but in a large measure a special history of the dynasty.

So far as can be discerned from the exiguous surviving examples of Ghurid art and architecture, there was a continuity here with the Ghaznavid age, since some of it cannot easily be separated stylistically from that of the preceding period. The city of Ḡazna rose again from the ashes of its destruction by ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Ḥosayn, and a unique type of glazed tile work has been ascribed by Umberto Scerrato to the Ghurids of the later 6th/12th century. The splendid minaret of Jām (q.v.) is the prime extant example of Ghurid architecture, but there are other remains in Herāt and ruins of a mosque and madrasa at Češt (q.v.) on the upper Harīrūd dating from the reign of Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn Moḥammad (cf. Sourdel-Thomine). In the sphere of secular architecture, the extensive palace buildings at Laškarī Bāzār (q.v.) on the Helmand river near Bost seem to show a continuity from early Ghaznavid to Ghurid and Mongol times. Nevertheless, it does seem possible, according to Janine Sourdel-Thomine, to speak of the evolution of a distinctive Ghurid architectural style.

Bibliography:

Primary sources. The principal source is Jūzjānī (who drew on the lost Qeṣaṣ-e Nābī of Ebn Hayṣam Nābī), Ṭabaqāt I, pp. 318-414; tr. Raverty, I, pp. 300-507.

See also: Moḥammad ʿAwfī, Jawāmeʿ al-ḥekāyātwa lawāmeʿ al-rewāyāt, analysis in M. Nizámu'd-Dín, Introduction to the Jawámiʿu'l- ḥikáyát, GMS, London, 1929.

Čahār maqāla, ed. Qazvīnī; tr. E. G. Brown as The Chahár Maqála of Niẓámí ʿArúḍí Samarqandí, London, 1921.

Ebn al-Aṯīr, X-XI, who does not name his sources. Faḵr-al-Dīn Mobārakšāh, Ādāb al-molūk wa kefāyat al-mamlūk, ed.

A. Sohaylī Ḵᵛānsārī as Ādāb al-ḥarb wa'l-šajāʿa (incomp. ed.), Tehran, 1346 Š./1967.

Jovaynī, ed. Qazvīnī, II, pp. 49-86, tr. Boyle, I, pp. 315-36.

Šehāb-al-Dīn Moḥammad Nasavī, Sīrat-e Solṭān Jalāl-al-Dīn, ed. and tr. O. Houdas, Paris, 1891-95, pp. 22, 140-41, tr. pp. 38-39, 233-34; ed. M. Mīnovī, Tehran, 1965, index.

Moḥammad ʿOtbī, Taʾrīḵ al-yamīnī, with commentary of A. Manīnī, 2 vols., Cairo, 1286/1869; tr. Nāṣeḥ b. Ẓafar Jorfādaqānī as Tarjama-ye Tārīḵ-e yamīnī, ed.

J. Šeʿār, Tehran, 1345 Š./1966, pp. 312-14.

Studies. Barthold, Turkestan 2, pp. 31, 338-53, 372, 374.

C. E. Bosworth, "The Early Islamic History of Ghūr," Central Asiatic Journal 6, 1961, pp. 116-33.

Idem, "The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World (A.D. 1000-1200)" in Camb. Hist. Iran V, pp. 157-66.

Idem, "Ghūrids" in EI2 II, pp.1099-1104.

Idem, The New Islamic Dynasties, Edinburgh, 1996, no. 159 (chronology).

J. Burton-Page, "Dilhi" in EI2 II, pp. 255-66. Idem, "Hind vii. Architecture" EI 2 III, pp. 440-52.

M. A. Ghafur, "The Ghurids," Ph.D. thesis, Universität Hamburg, 1959.

S. Gūyā Eʿtemādī, "Tajammol wa tamaddon-e Ḡūrīān" Ārīānā 1/1, 1321 Š./1942, pp. 3-7.

Ch. Kieffer, "Les Ghorides, une grande dynastie nationale," Afghanistan 16/4, 1961, pp. 37-50; 17/1, 1962, pp. 10-24; 2, pp. 40-56.

A. Maricq and G. Wiet, Le minaret de Djam: La découverte de la capitale des sultans ghorides (XIIe-XIIIe siècles), MDAFA 16, Paris, 1959 (historical survey of the dynasty, pp. 31-54).

R. J. Majumdar, ed., The History and Culture of the Indian People V: The Struggle for Empire, Bombay, 1957, pp. 117-25 (campaigns in India).

M. Nāẓim, The Life and Times of Sultan Maḥmūd of Ghazna, Cambridge, 1931.

ʿA. Parvīz, "Ḡūrīān," Barrasīhā-ye tārīḵī 6/1, 1350 Š./1971, pp. 143-76.

M. Rowšan-żamīr, "Pažūheš-ī dar tārīḵ-e sīāsī wa neẓāmī-e dūdmān-e Ḡūrīān," Barrasīhā-ye tārīḵī, 11/3, 1355 Š./1976, pp. 257-300; 12/5, 1356 Š./1977, pp. 127-72.

Idem, "Āṯār-e Ḡūrīān," Barrasīhā-ye tārīḵī, 13/4, 1357 Š./1978, pp. 13-40.

U. Scerrato, "Islamic Glazed Tiles with Moulded Decoration from Ghazni," East and West, N.S., 13/4, 1962, pp. 263-87.

D. Sourdel, Inventaire des monnaies musulmanes anciennes du Musée de Caboul, Damascus, 1952.

J. Sourdel-Thomine, "L'art ġūride d'Afghanistan à propos d'un livre récent," Arabica 7, 1960, pp. 273-80.

(C. Edmund Bosworth)

Originally Published: December 15, 2001

Last Updated: February 9, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. X, Fasc. 6, pp. 586-590

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The Encyclopaedia Iranica is a comprehensive research tool dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent

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"The Ilkhanids (1256-1335 CE) were a Mongol dynasty that ruled over present-day Iran, most of Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and western Pakistan."

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The Ilkhanids (1256-1335 CE) were a Mongol dynasty that ruled over present-day Iran, most of Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and western Pakistan. Founded by Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, the Ilkhanids (meaning subordinate khan which refers to their early dependancy upon the Golden Horde) converted to Islam late in the 13th century CE although the Crusaders had hoped that they would become Christians (Hulegu's mother was a Nestorian).

In their reign the Ilkanids virtually ended the Abbasid Caliphate, controlled the Seljuks as a vassal state, waged war with the Mamluks, and unified Persia as a territorial and political entity, paving the way for the Safavids. The Il-khans were enthusiastic patrons: during their rule there was a proliferation of arts and architecture (which had Far Eastern influences) as well as in the sciences. Furthermore, ancient trade routes, notably the Silk Road, reopened in this period as the 14th century saw the reemergence of world systems.

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The Ilkhanids (1256-1335 CE) were a Mongol dynasty that ruled over present-day Iran, most of Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and western Pakistan. Founded by Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, the Ilkhanids (meaning subordinate khan which refers to their early dependancy upon the Golden Horde) converted to Islam late in the 13th century CE although the Crusaders had hoped that they would become Christians (Hulegu's mother was a Nestorian).

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Taj al-Din Ali Shah, a vizier

Oxford Languages definition vizier: "a high official in some Muslim countries, especially in Turkey under Ottoman rule."

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Uyghur Muslims are a Turkic-speaking people of interior Asia. They are located in mostly China, in the Xinjiang Autonomous region, along with parts of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan in the early 21st century. Their language is part of the Altaic languages and are among the oldest Turkic-speaking peoples in Asia. The Uyghurs are mentioned in Chinese records from the 3rd century and they first rose to prominence in the 3rd century, when they established a kingdom along the Orhon river in what is now north-central Mongolia. In 840 this state was overrun by the Kyrgyz, however, the Uyghurs migrated southwest around Tien Shan. There the Uyghurs formed another kingdom in the Turfan Depression region but were ultimately overthrown by the expanding Mongols in the 13th century

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uyghur

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The Liao Dynasty was a civilization in China that lasted from 907-1125. It was formed by the nomadic Khitan tribes in much of what is now Manchuria and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. The Khitan created a dual government to rule their conquests, the Southern part of the empire was ruled with a governmental structure that was modeled on the government of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) which the Liao Dynasty (Khitan Tribes) defeated. The northern part was set up on a tribal basis, ruled over by Nomads of the Inner Asian steppes. Many people argue that the Liao dynasty started in 907, but Chinese historians believe that it started in 916, when Yelu Yi (or Abaoji) established himself as emperor.

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Muslim monarch in the late 1200s and 1300s

Taj al-Din Shah was accused of poisoning him

he proved that he did not

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It was the last great dynasty that ruled over parts of the Middle East (Iran, Iraq) and India. Its origins come from Mongolians (remnants of Genghis Khan’s army) who settled with Central Asia Turks, adopting Islam and much from Persian high culure. Persian was the language of administration and literary culture.

It was founded by the legendary conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) in the 14th century (1300s). Culture, art, and architecture flourished.

In the 16th century (1500s), the prince Babur invaded India and founded the Mughal Empire which would rule until its demise by the British Raj during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

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The Timurids, self-designated Gurkānī descent, whose empire included the whole of Central Asia, Iran, modern Afghanistan, and Pakistan, as well as large parts of India, Mesopotamia, and Caucasus. It was founded by the legendary conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) in the fourteenth century.

In the sixteenth century, Timurid prince Babur, the ruler of Ferghana, invaded India and founded the Mughal Empire, which ruled most of the Indian subcontinent until its decline after Aurangzeb in the early eighteenth century, and its eventual demise by the British Raj after the Indian rebellion of 1857.

After establishing their rule in India, the Timurids became great patrons of culture They gave the world one of its most beautiful feats of architecture, the Taj Mahal, and fused Persian and India styles to produce new art-forms, and a new language, Urdu. At times, followers of different faiths under Timurid rule enjoyed religious freedom and non-Muslims held senior posts in the Timurid administration. The positive aspect of their legacy still contributes to interfaith harmony in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, but the negative aspect fuels inter-community (communitarian) hatred and even violence. Lessons can be learned from the legacy of Timurid rule on how to govern multi-racial, multi-religious societies.

The origin of the Timurid dynasty goes back to the Mongolian nomadic confederation known as Barlas, who were remnants of the original Mongol army of Genghis Khan. After the Mongol conquest of Central Asia, the Barlas settled in Turkistan (which then became also known as Moghulistan-"Land of Mongols") and intermingled to a considerable degree with the local Turkic and Turkic-speaking population, so that at the time of Timur's reign the Barlas had become thoroughly Turkicized in terms of language and habits. Additionally, by adopting Islam, the Central Asian Turks and Mongols also adopted the Persian literary and high culture which has dominated Central Asia since the early days of Islamic influence. Persian literature was instrumental in the assimilation of the Timurid elite to the Perso-Islamic courtly culture. Timur was also steeped in Persian culture and in most of the territories which he incorporated, Persian was the primary language of administration and literary culture. Thus the language of the settled "diwan" was Persian, and its scribes had to be thoroughly adept in Persian culture, whatever their ethnic origin.

Founding the dynasty

Timur conquered large parts of Transoxiana (in modern day Central Asia) and Khorasan (parts of modern day Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) from 1363 onwards with various alliances (Samarkand in 1366, and Balkh in 1369), and was recognized as ruler over them in 1370. Acting officially in the name of the Mongolian Chagatai ulus, he subjugated Transoxania and Khwarazm in the years that followed and began a campaign westwards in 1380. By 1389 he had removed the Kartids from Herat and advanced into mainland Persia from 1382 (capture of Isfahan in 1387, removal of the Muzaffarids from Shiraz in 1393, and expulsion of the Jalayirids from Baghdad). In 1394/95, he triumphed over the Golden Horde and enforced his sovereignty in the Caucasus, in 1398 subjugated Multan and Dipalpur in modern day Pakistan and in modern day India left Delhi in such ruin that it is said for two months "not a bird moved wing in the city." In 1400/01, conquered Aleppo, Damascus and eastern Anatolia, in 1401, destroyed Baghdad and in 1402, triumphed over the Ottomans at Ankara. In addition, he transformed Samarkand into the Center of the World. An estimated 17 million people may have died from his conquests.

After the end of the Timurid Empire in 1506, the Mughal Empire was later established in India by Babur in 1526, who was a descendant of Timur through his father and possibly a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother. The dynasty he established is commonly known as the Mughal Dynasty. By the seventeenth century, the Mughal Empire ruled most of India, but later declined during the eighteenth century. The Timurid Dynasty came to an end in 1857 after the Mughal Empire was dissolved by the British Empire and Bahadur Shah II was exiled to Burma.

Due to the fact that the Persian cities were desolated by previous wars, the seat of Persian culture was now in Samarkand and Herat. These cities became the center of the Timurid renaissance

Although the Timurids hailed from the Barlas tribe which was of Mongol origin, they had embraced Persian culture and Persian art (distinguished by extensive adaptations from the Chinese, and also Chagatay Literature, converted to Islam and resided in Turkestan and Khorasan. Thus, the Timurid era had a dual character, which reflected both the Turco-Mongol origins and the Persian culture as well the Persian language. The Persian language was also the state language (also known as Diwan language) of the dynasty.

Literature

Timurid literature in Persian language

Persian literature, especially Persian poetry occupied a central place in the process of assimilation of the Timurid elite to the Perso-Islamic courtly culture. The Timurid sultans, especially Šāhru kh Mīrzā and his son Mohammad Taragai Oloğ Beg, patronized Persian culture. Among the most important literary works of the Timurid era is the Persian biography of Timur, known as "Zafarnāma," written by Sharaf ud-Dīn Alī Yazdī, which itself is based on an older "Zafarnāma" by Nizām al-Dīn Shāmī, the official biographer of Timur during his lifetime. The most famous poet of the Timurid era was Nūr ud-Dīn Jāmī, the last great medieval Sufi mystic of Persia and one of the greatest in Persian poetry. The most famous painter of the Timurid court, as well as the most famous of the Persian miniature painters in general, was Ustād Kamāl ud-Dīin Behzād. In addition, the Timurid sultan Ulugh Beg is known as a great astronomer, building a "observatory that was a marvel of the age." Daniel says that the Timurid's were "distinguished as patrons of Islamic scholarship, literature, art] and architecture" and that several Timurid rulers were 'accomplished in these fields themselves."

BaySanghur Shahnameh

Baysanghur commissioned a new edition of the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi and wrote an introduction to it. According to T. Lenz:

It can be viewed as a specific reaction in the wake of Timur's death in 807/1405 to the new cultural demands facing Shahhrokh and his sons, a Turkic military elite no longer deriving their power and influence solely from a charismatic steppe leader with a carefully cultivated linkage to Mongol aristocracy. Now centered in Khorasan, the ruling house regarded the increased assimilation and patronage of Persian culture as an integral component of efforts to secure the legitimacy and authority of the dynasty within the context of the Islamic Iranian monarchical tradition, and the Baysanghur Shahnameh, as much a precious object as it is a manuscript to be read, powerfully symbolizes the Timurid conception of their own place in that tradition. A valuable documentary source for Timurid decorative arts that have all but disappeared for the period, the manuscript still awaits a comprehensive monographic study.

National literature in Chagatay language

The early Timurids played a very important role in the history of Turkic literature. Based on the established Persian literary tradition, a national Turkic literature was developed, written in the Chagatay language, the native tongue of the Timurid family. Chagatay poets such as Mīr Alī Sher Nawā'ī, Sultan Husayn Bāyqarā, and Babur encouraged other Turkic-speaking poets to write in their own vernacular in addition to Arabic and Persian.

The Bāburnāma, the autobiography of Bābur, as well as Mīr Alī Sher Nawā'ī's Chagatay poetry are among the best-known Turkic literary works and have fascinated and influenced many others world wide. The Baburnama was highly Persianized in its sentence structure, morphology or word formation and vocabulary.

During the reign of Timurid rule, the golden age of Persian painting was ushered. During this period as well as the Safavid dynasty, Chinese art and artists had a significant influence on Persian art. Timurid artists refined the Persian art of the book, which combines paper, calligraphy, illumination, illustration and binding in a brilliant and colorful whole. It was the Mongol ethnicity of the Chaghatayid and Timurid Khans that is the source of the stylistic depiction Persian art during the Middle Ages. These same Mongols intermarried with the Persians and Turks]] of Central Asia, even adopting their religion and languages. Yet their simple control of the world at that time, particularly in the thirteenth-fifteenth centuries, reflected itself in the idealized appearance of Persians as Mongols. Though the ethnic make-up gradually blended into the Iranian and Mesopotamian local populations, the Mongol stylism continued well after, and crossed into Asia Minor and even North Africa.

Architecture

Timurid architecture

In the realm of architecture, the Timurids drew on and developed many Seljuq traditions. Turquoise and blue tiles forming intricate linear and geometric patterns decorated the facades of buildings. Sometimes the interior was decorated similarly, with painting and stucco relief further enriching the effect. Timurid architecture is the pinnacle of Islamic art in Central Asia. Spectacular and stately edifices erected by Timur and his successors in Samarkand and Herat helped to disseminate the influence of the Ilkhanid school of art in India, thus giving rise to the celebrated Mughal (or Mongol) school of architecture. Timurid architecture started with the sanctuary of Ahmed Yasawi in present-day Kazakhstan and culminated in Timur's mausoleum Gur-e Amir in Samarkand. Timur's Gur-I Mir, the fourteenth century mausoleum of the conqueror is covered with "turquoise Persian tiles." Nearby, in the center of the ancient town, there is a Persian style Madrassa (religious school) and a Persian style Mosque built by Ulugh Beg. The mausoleum of Timurid princes, with their turquoise and blue-tiled domes remain among the most refined and exquisite Persian architecture. Axial symmetry is a characteristic of all major Timurid structures, notably the Shāh-e Zenda in Samarkand, the Musallah complex in Herat, and the mosque of Gowhar Shād in Mashhad. Double domes of various shapes abound, and the outsides are perfused with brilliantly colors. Timurs dominance of the region strengthened the influence of his capital and Persian architecture upon India.

Mughal architecture

After the foundation of the Mughal Empire, the Timurids successfully expanded the Persian cultural influence from Khorasan to India, where the Persian language, literature, architecture, and art dominated the Indian subcontinent]] until the British conquest. The Mughals, Persianized Turks who invaded from Central Asia and claimed descent from both Timur and Genghis-strengthened the Persianate culture of Muslim India.

The Mughal period marked a striking revival of Islamic architecture in northern India. Under the patronage of the Mughal emperors, Indian, Persian, and various provincial styles were fused to produce works of unusual quality and refinement.

The Mughal emperor Akbar the Great constructed the royal city of Fatehpur Sikri, located 26 miles west of Agra, in the late 1500s. The most famous example of Mughal architecture is the Taj Mahal, the "teardrop on eternity," completed in 1648 by the emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal who died while giving birth to their 14th child. The extensive use of precious and semiprecious stones as inlay and the vast quantity of white marble required nearly bankrupted the empire. The Taj Mahal is completely symmetric other than the sarcophagus of Shah Jahan which is placed off center in the crypt room below the main floor. This symmetry extended to the building of an entire mirror mosque in red sandstone to complement the Mecca-facing mosque place to the west of the main structure. Another structure built that showed great depth of Mughal influence was the Shalimar Gardens.

As Muslims, the Timurid rulers did much to promote Islam, building mosques and sponsoring scholarship. However, Muslims were always a minority within the Mughal Empire. Non-Muslims were at times treated harshly; both Babur and Aurangzeb destroyed Temples. Akbar, however, fused Christianity, Hinduism and Islam into a single God-centered religion, Din-i-Ilahi. At other times, their rule was marked by a high degree of religious tolerance when non-Muslims held high positions of state, no tithe was levied on non-Muslims and many people participated in religious festivals of traditions other than their own. Without denying that persecution of non-Muslims did occur under Timurid rule, Dutt says that "many Hindu and Muslim scholars studied each other's religions, while the common people existed peacefully." Many Timurid rulers were advocates of the Sufu doctrine of wahdat-al-wajud, the "unity of God and the created world, which was given creative expression by a new breed of poets."

Life under Timurid rule was for much of the time politically stable, with many citizens enjoying peace and prosperity within secure borders. Perhaps the Timurids greatest achievement was their fusing of Persian and Indian forms, as Dutt comments, "the fusion of two cultures gave rise to new styles of art, architecture and music and to a new language, Urdu."

The positive aspects of the Timurid legacy still contributes to interfaith harmony in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but the negative aspect fuels inter-community (communitarian) hatred and even violence. Lessons can be learned from the legacy of Timurid rule on how to govern multi-racial, multi-religious societies.

Rulers of the Timurid Empire

Timur (Tamerlane) 1370-1405 (771-807 AH)-with Suyurghitmiš Chaghtay as nominal overlord followed by Mahmūd Chaghtay as overlord and finally Muhammad Sultān as heir

Pir Muhammad bin Jahāngīr 1405-1407 (807-808 AH)

Rulers of Herat

Shāhrukh 1405-1447 (807-50 AH) (overall ruler of the Timurid Empire 1409-1447)

Abu'l-Qasim Bābar 1447-1457 (850-61 AH)

Shāh Mahmūd 1457 (861 AH)

Ibrāhim 1457-1459 (861-863 AH)

Sultān Abu Sa'id Gūrgān 1459-1469 (863-73 AH) (in Transoxiana 1451-1469)

Yādgār Muhammad 1470 (873 AH)

Sultān Hussayn 1470-1506 (874-911 AH)

Badi ul-Zamān 1506-1507 (911-912 AH)

Muzaffar Hussayn 1506-1507 (911-912 AH)

Herat is conquered by the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani

Rulers of Samarkand

Khalīl Sultān 1405-1409 (807-11 AH)

Mohammad Taragai bin Shāhrukh-I 1409-1449 (811-53 AH) (overall ruler of the Timurid Empire 1447-1449)

'Abd al-Latif 1449-1450 (853-854 AH)

'Abdullah 1450-1451 (854-55 AH)

Sultān Abu Sa'id Gūrgān 1451-1469 (855-73 AH) (in Herat 1459-1469)

Abu Sa'id's sons divided his territories upon his death, into Samarkand, Badakhshan and Farghana

Sultān ibn Abu Sa'id 1469-1494 (873-899 AH)

Sultān Mahmūd ibn Abu Sa'id 1494-1495 (899-900 AH)

Sultān Baysunqur 1495-1497 (900-902 AH)

Mas'ūd 1495 (900 AH)

Sultān Alī Mīrzā 1495-1500 (900-905 AH)

Samarkand is conquered by the Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani

Rulers of Mughal Empire

Zahiruddin Babur Mirza 1526-1530 (933-937 AH)-established Mughal Dynasty in India (Mughal Empire)

Nasiruddin Humayun Mirza 1530-1556 (937-963 AH)-ruler of Mughal Empire, son of Babur

Kamran Mirza 1530-1557 (937-962 AH)-ruler of Kabul and Lahore, son of Babur

Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar Mirza (Akbar the Great) 1556-1605 (963-1014 AH)-greatest ruler of Mughal Empire, son of Humayun

Abul Qasim Muhammad bin Kamran 968 AH

Suleiman Mirza 936-92 AH

Shahrukh III 983-87 AH-son of Ibrahim

Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir 1605-1627 (1014-1036 AH)-ruler of Mughal Empire, son of Akbar and Rajput Princess Mariam Zamani

Shahbuddin Muhammad Shah Jahan (Shah Jahan I) 1627-1658-ruler of Mughal Empire, son of Jahangir and Rajput Princess Manmati

Mohiuddin Mohammed Aurangzeb (Aurangzeb Alamgir I) 1658-1707-ruler of Mughal Empire, son of Shah Jahan

Bahadur Shah I (Shah Alam I) 1707-1712-son of Aurangzeb

Jahandar Shah]], b. 1664, ruler from 1712-1713

Furrukhsiyar, b. 1683, ruler from 1713-1719

Rafi Ul-Darjat, ruler 1719

Rafi Ud-Daulat (Shah Jahan II), ruler 1719

Nikusiyar, ruler 1719

Muhammad Ibrahim, ruler 1720

Muhammad Shah, b. 1702, ruler from 1719-1720, 1720-1748

Ahmad Shah Bahadur, b. 1725, ruler from 1748-1754

Alamgir II, b. 1699, ruler from 1754-1759==son of Jahandar Shah

Shah Jahan III, ruler 1759

Shah Alam II, b. 1728, ruler from 1759-1806

Akbar Shah II, b. 1760, ruler from 1806-1837

Bahadur Shah II (Bahadur Shah Zafar) 1837-1857-last ruler of the Timurid Dynasty

Heads of the Timurid Dynasty

Bahadur Shah II (1857-1862)

Shahzada Muhammad Hidayat Afshar, Ilahi Bakhsh Bahadur]] (1862-1878)

Shahzada Muhammad Sulaiman Shah Bahadur (1878-1890)

Shahzada Muhammad Kaiwan Shah Gorkwani, Suraya Jah Bahadur (1890-1913)

Mirza Salim Muhammad Shah Bahadur]] (1913-1925)

No recognized head of the family (1925-1931)

Shahzada Muhammad Khair ud-din Mirza, Khurshid Jah Bahadur (1931-1975)

Mirza Ghulam Moinuddin Muhammad, Javaid Jah Bahadur (1975-Present)

References

Canfield, Robert Leroy. 1991. Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective. School of American Research advanced seminar series. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521390941.

Chaliand, Gérard, and A.M. Berrett. 2004. Nomadic Empires: From Mongolia to the Danube. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9780765802040.

Chandra, Satish. 1999. Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals. New Delhi, IN: Har-Anand Publications. ISBN 9788124105221.

Dale, Stephen Frederic. 2004. The Garden of the Eight Paradises: Bābur and the Culture of Empire in Central Asia, Afghanistan and India (1483-1530). Brill's Inner Asian library, v. 10. Leiden, NL: Brill. ISBN 9789004137073.

Daniel, Elton L. 2001. The History of Iran. The Greenwood histories of the modern nations. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313307317.

Dutt, Sagarika. 2006. India in a Globalized World. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719069000.

Fletcher, Banister, and Dan Cruickshank. 1996. Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture. London, UK: Architectural Press. ISBN 9780750622677.

Kennedy, Hugh. 2007. The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World we Live in. Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo. ISBN 9780306815850.

Manz, Beatrice Forbes. 1989. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521345958.

Marozzi, Justin. 2006. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306814655.

Norwich, John Julius. 1975. Great Architecture of the World. New York, NY: Random House. ISBN 9780394498874.

Onians, John, and Oxford University Press. 2004. Atlas of World Art. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195215830.

Roxburgh, David J. 2005. The Persian Album, 1400-1600: From Dispersal to Collection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300103250.

External links

All links retrieved April 30, 2023.

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The Timurids, self-designated Gurkānī descent, whose empire included the whole of Central Asia, Iran, modern Afghanistan, and Pakistan, as well as large parts of India, Mesopotamia, and Caucasus. It was founded by the legendary conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) in the fourteenth century.

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The Mongol dynasty first emerged in 1206, when Ghengis (Chinggis) Khan unified all the Mongols north of China under his leadership. Together, they took over the Jin Dynasty capital of Yanjing (present-day Beijing). This dynasty eventually controlled all of China, finishing with the Southern Song dynasty in 1279. Earlier in 1271, Genghis' grandson Kublai took the helm and the dynasty was renamed Yuan.

The Mongols of this dynasty never fully "Sinicized," or integrated into Chinese culture, and continued to remain separate from the natives as well as hiring foreigners to work in the government. After a series of revolts in the 14th century, the Yuan dynasty was overthrown and became the shortest-lived dynasty in China. It was succeeded by the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911).

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Yuan dynasty, Wade-Giles romanization Yüan, also called Mongol dynasty, dynasty established by Mongol nomads that ruled portions and eventually all of China from the early 13th century to 1368. Mongol suzerainty eventually also stretched throughout most of Asia and eastern Europe, though the Yuan emperors were rarely able to exercise much control over their more distant possessions.

History

The emergence of the Mongol dynasty dates to 1206, when Genghis Khan was able to unify under his leadership all Mongols in the vast steppe lands north of China. Genghis began encroaching on the Jin dynasty in northern China in 1211 and finally took the Jin capital of Yanjing (or Daxing; present-day Beijing) in 1215. For the next six decades the Mongols continued to extend their control over the north and then turned their attention to southern China, which they completed conquering with the defeat of the Nan (Southern) Song dynasty in 1279. The final consolidation came under Genghis's grandson Kublai Khan (reigned 1260-94).

The Mongol dynasty, which had been renamed the Yuan in 1271, proceeded to set up a Chinese-style administration that featured a centralized bureaucracy, political subdivisions, and a rationalized taxation system. Yuan was the first dynasty to make Beijing (called Dadu by the Yuan) its capital, moving it there from Karakorum (now in Mongolia) in 1267. The Yuan rebuilt the Grand Canal and put the roads and postal stations in good order, and their rule coincided with new cultural achievements including the development of the novel as a literary form. The vast size of the empire resulted in more-extensive foreign trade and foreign intercourse than at any other time before the modern period.

Unlike other rulers of China, the Mongols were never totally Sinicized, which proved to be an important factor in their downfall. They continued to maintain their separateness from the native population and utilized foreigners, such as the European traveler Marco Polo, to staff the government bureaucracy. Revolts in the mid-14th century led to the final overthrow of the Yuan in 1368, making it the shortest-lived major dynasty of China. The administrative centrality of the Yuan was continued by the succeeding Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911/12) dynasties, giving those later Chinese governments a more authoritarian structure than that of previous Chinese dynasties.

Cultural achievements

In the previous ages of the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, art had been encouraged by the state. During the Yuan, however, artists-especially those native Chinese who steadfastly refused to serve their conquerors-had to seek inspiration within themselves and their traditions. Those painters sought in their art a return to what they viewed as more ideal times, especially the Tang and Bei (Northern) Song periods. Artists such as Zhao Mengfu and the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty ( Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, Wang Meng, and Wu Zhen) thus firmly fixed the ideal of "literati painting" ( wenrenhua), which valued erudition and personal expression above elegant surface or mere representation. There was also an emphasis on stark and simple forms (e.g., bamboo or rocks) and on calligraphy, often with long complementary inscriptions on the paintings themselves. Against that radical new direction of the native Chinese in pictorial art, there was a conservative revival of Buddhist art (painting and sculpture), which was sponsored by the Mongols as part of their effort to establish authority over the Chinese.

In addition to a renewed emphasis on traditional craft arts (silver, lacquer, and other materials), there were important developments in ceramics. Various earlier traditions were continued, but there was also interest in producing new shapes, decoration, and glazes. Of special merit was the first appearance of blue-and-white ware-consisting of white porcelain with blue underglaze-which was to become so popular in later periods and among Western collectors.

Under Yuan rule the regional music drama that had gone two separate ways during the Song dynasty was intermixed as yuanqu, or "Yuan drama." Popular song styles became freer than before, and several forms of dancing and acrobatics were added to popular entertainment. Poetry emphasized sanqu ("nondramatic songs"), and vernacular fiction grew in popularity. Dramatists-including at least a dozen prominent Sinicized Mongols-wrote romantic plays of four or five acts in vernacular, with several songs in each act. The new literary genre attracted many men of letters, as well as large audiences.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Amy McKenna.

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Yuan dynasty | History, Achievements, Art, & Facts

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Yuan dynasty, established by Mongol nomads that ruled portions and eventually all of China from the early 13th century to 1368. Mongol suzerainty eventually also stretched throughout most of Asia and eastern Europe, though the Yuan emperors were rarely able to exercise much control over their more distant possessions.

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The Seljuk Turks (The Seljuk Empire) (7)

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The Seljuk Turks (The Seljuk Empire) (7)

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They were a medieval Turkish empire in central Anatolia that ruled Asia Minor from the 1070s to 1300.

Descended from the Oghuz Turkish tribe

They brought Turkic culture and Islam into Anatolia

While the empire was ethnically Turkish, the Seljuk Turks had to rely on educated Persians to administer the empire and Muslim Arabs to provide religious legitimacy.

They met their demise in the 1240s when the Mongols entered Anatolia and wiped out their Turkish tribes. Many of the Turkish tribes remained in small groups, until the Osman Turkish Tribe united their nation and conquered Constantinople. At this point, they formed the Ottoman Empire.

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The Seljuk Empire (1050­-1300 AD) was a medieval Turkish Empire based in central Anatolia. Learn about the rich historical legacy they left in Turkey.

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Pictured: Mandala of Jnanadakini. The mandala is "the central component of tantric practice" (Elverskog 132).

Also known as Vajrayana or Esoteric Buddhism, the system is partly based on Buddhist Tantras, or esoteric texts,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tibetan-Buddhism

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tantra-religious-texts

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eighth ruler of Iran

he was baptized a Christian and given the name Nicholas by his mother

then converted to Buddhism

then converted to the Sunni sect of Islam

he died under the medical care of Taj al-Din Shah

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Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Öljeitü (born 1280-died December 16, 1316, Solṭānīyeh, near Kazvin, Iran) eighth Il-Khan ruler of Iran, during whose reign the Shīʿite branch of Islam was first proclaimed the state religion of Iran.

A great-grandson of Hülegü, founder of the Il-Khanid dynasty, Öljeitü was baptized a Christian and given the name Nicholas by his mother. As a youth he converted to Buddhism and later to the Sunni branch of Islam, taking the name Moḥammad Khudābanda. After the death (1304) of his brother Maḥmūd Ghāzān, the seventh Il-Khan, he disposed of his rivals easily and acceded to a relatively peaceful reign. In 1307 the Caspian province of Jilan was conquered, strengthening Il-Khanid rule, and a potentially dangerous rebellion was crushed in Herāt (now in Afghanistan). The traditional hostility between the Il-Khans and the Mamlūks of Syria and Egypt persisted, however, and a badly organized invasion of Mamlūk territory took place in 1312. The expedition had to be abandoned after expected help from European princes failed to materialize.

Öljeitü changed his religious affiliations several times. His conversion to Sunni Islam is attributed to one of his wives. During the winter of 1307-08 there ensued a bitter religious feud between the adherents of the Ḥanafīyah and Shāfiʿīyah schools of Sunnite Islamic law, so disgusting Öljeitü that he considered converting back to Buddhism, a course that proved politically impossible. Greatly influenced by the Shīʿite theologian Ibn al-Muṭahhar al-Ḥillī, he came to embrace Shīʿism; and on his return from a visit to the tomb of ʿAlī in Iraq (1309-10), he proclaimed Shīʿite Islam to be the state religion of Iran.

An active patron of the arts, Öljeitü built a new capital at Solṭānīyeh that required the efforts of many artists, who made it a masterpiece of Il-Khanid architecture. He lent vital encouragement and support to Rashīd al-Dīn's monumental world history and to the endeavours of Iranian poets.

Amy Tikkanen.

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Öljeitü | Mongol Empire, Ilkhanate, Persian Empire

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Öljeitü eighth Il-Khan ruler of Iran, during whose reign the Shīʿite branch of Islam was first proclaimed the state religion of Iran. A great-grandson of Hülegü, founder of the Il-Khanid dynasty, Öljeitü was baptized a Christian and given the name Nicholas by his mother. As a youth he converted to

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Kirakos was a Christian Armenian historian and author of the 13th century. He is the author of the History of Armenia, a detailed account of when he lived on this earth from 1202 until he died in 1271.

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four largest city in Iran

the city where Taj al-Din Shah was decapitated for days while people cheered,‘‘This is the head of the Jew who abused the name of God: may God’s curse be upon him!’’

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The wheel of life is most commonly used in Buddhist practices, its purpose is to give visual representation to the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The wheel is held by the wrathful god, Yama, who is meant to remind people that death is not evil, only inevitable. The circle in the very center of the wheel contains a cock, a snake, and a pig which represent greed, anger, and ignorance. The first ring around the center is half black and half white: the white half depicts gods and humans which are on the more positive side of rebirth, and the black side depicts demons and animals which are on the negative side of rebirths. The second ring contains six sections: the realm of gods, the realm of asuras, the realm of hungry ghosts, the hell realm, the animal realm, and the human realm. The outer ring contains sections that each depict a "link of dependent origination" which are forces that come with life until one reaches Nirvana. Everyone resides within a section of this wheel until we reach enlightenment and escape the wheel.

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The rich iconography of the Wheel of Life can be interpreted on several levels. The six major sections represent the Six Realms. These realms can be understood as forms of existence, or states of mind, into which beings are born according to their karma. The realms also can be viewed as situations in life or even personality types-hungry ghosts are addicts; devas are privileged; hell beings have anger issues.

In each of the realms, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara appears to show the way to liberation from the Wheel. But liberation is possible only in the human realm. From there, those who realize enlightenment find their way out of the Wheel to Nirvana.

The gallery shows sections of the Wheel and explains them in more detail.

The Wheel of Life is one of the most common subjects of Buddhist art. The detailed symbolism of the Wheel can be interpreted on many levels.

The Wheel of Life (called the Bhavachakra in Sanskrit) represents the cycle of birth and rebirth and existence in samsara.

This gallery looks at different parts of the Wheel and explains what they mean. The main sections are the hub and the six "pie wedges" depicting the Six Realms. The gallery also looks at the Buddha figures in the corners and at Yama, the fearsome creature holding the Wheel in his hooves.

Many Buddhists understand the Wheel in an allegorical, not literal, way. As you examine the parts of the wheel you might find yourself relating to some of it personally or recognizing people you know as Jealous Gods or Hell Beings or Hungry Ghosts.

The outer circle of the Wheel (not shown in detail in this gallery) is the Paticca Samuppada, the Links of Dependent Origination. Traditionally, the outer wheel depicts a blind man or woman (representing ignorance); potters (formation); a monkey (consciousness); two men in a boat (mind and body); a house with six windows (the senses); an embracing couple (contact); an eye pierced by an arrow (sensation); a person drinking (thirst); a man gathering fruit (grasping); a couple making love (becoming); a woman giving birth (birth); and a man carrying a corpse (death).

The creature holding the Wheel of Life in his hooves is Yama, the wrathful dharmapala who is Lord of the Hell Realm.

The terrible face of Yama, who represents impermanence, peers over the top of the Wheel. In spite of his appearance, Yama is not evil. He is a wrathful dharmapala, a creature devoted to protecting Buddhism and Buddhists. Although we may be frightened of death, it is not evil; just inevitable.

In legend, Yama was a holy man who believed he would realize enlightenment if he meditated in a cave for 50 years. In the 11th month of the 49th year, robbers entered the cave with a stolen bull and cut off the bull's head. When they realized the holy man had seen them, the robbers cut off his head also.

But the holy man put on the bull's head and assumed the terrible form of Yama. He killed the robbers, drank their blood, and threatened all of Tibet. He could not be stopped until Manjushri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, manifested as the even more terrible dharmapala Yamantaka and defeated Yama. Yama then became a protector of Buddhism.

The Realm of the Gods

The Realm of the Gods ( Devas) is the highest realm of the Wheel of Life and is always depicted at the top of the Wheel.

The Realm of the Gods (Devas) sounds like a nice place to live. And, no question, you can do a lot worse. But even the Realm of the Gods isn't perfect. Those born in the God Realm live long and pleasure-filled lives. They have wealth and power and happiness. So what's the catch?

The catch is that because the Devas have such rich and happy lives they don't recognize the truth of suffering. Their happiness is, in a way, a curse, because they have no motivation to seek liberation from the Wheel. Eventually, their happy lives end, and they must face rebirth in another, less happy, realm.

The Devas are perpetually at war with their neighbors on the Wheel, the Asuras. This depiction of the Wheel shows the Devas charging the Asuras.

The Realm of Asuras

The Asura (Jealous God) Realm is marked by paranoia.

Asuras are hyper-competitive and paranoid. They are driven by a desire to beat their competition, and everyone is competition. They have power and resources and sometimes accomplish good things with them. But, always, their first priority is getting to the top. I think of powerful politicians or corporate leaders when I think of Asuras.

Chih-i (538-597), a patriarch of the T'ien-t'ai school, described the Asura this way: "Always desiring to be superior to others, having no patience for inferiors and belittling strangers; like a hawk, flying high above and looking down on others, and yet outwardly displaying justice, worship, wisdom, and faith - this is raising up the lowest order of good and walking the way of the Asuras."

Asuras, who are also called "anti-gods," are perpetually at war with the Devas of the God Realm. Asuras think they belong in the God Realm and fight to get in, although here it seems the Asuras have formed a line of defense and are fighting the attacking Devas with bows and arrows. Some depictions of the Wheel of Life combine the Asura and God realms into one.

Sometimes there is a beautiful tree growing between the two realms, with its roots and trunk in the Asura Realm. But its branches and fruit are in the God Realm.

The Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Hungry Ghosts have huge, empty stomachs, but their thin necks don't allow nourishment to pass. Food turns to fire and ash in their mouths.

Hungry Ghosts (Pretas) are pitable things. They are wasted creatures with huge, empty stomachs. Their necks are too thin to allow food to pass. So, they are constantly hungry.

Greed and jealousy lead to rebirth as a Hungry Ghost. The Hungry Ghost Realm often, but not always, is depicted between the Asura Realm and the Hell Realm. It is thought the karma of their lives was not quite bad enough for a rebirth in the Hell Realm but not good enough for the Asura Realm.

Psychologically, Hungry Ghosts are associated with addictions, compulsions and obsessions. People who have everything but always want more may be Hungry Ghosts.

The Animal Realm

Animal Beings (Tiryakas) are solid, regular and predictable. They cling to what is familiar and are disinterested, even fearful, of anything unfamiliar.

The Animal Realm is marked by ignorance and complacency. Animal Beings are stolidly un-curious and are repelled by anything unfamiliar. They go through life seeking comfort and avoiding discomfort. They have no sense of humor.

Animal Beings may find contentment, but they easily become fearful when placed in a new situation. Naturally, they are bigoted and likely to remain so. At the same time, they are subject to oppression by other beings -- animals do devour each other, you know.

The Human Realm

Liberation from the Wheel is possible only from the Human Realm.

The Human Realm is marked by questioning and curiosity. It is also a realm of passion; human beings (Manushyas) want to strive, consume, acquire, enjoy, explore. Here the Dharma is openly available, yet only a few seek it. The rest become caught up in striving, consuming and acquiring, and miss the opportunity.

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The rich iconography of the Wheel of Life can be interpreted on several levels. The six major sections represent the Six Realms. These realms can be understood as forms of existence, or states of mind, into which beings are born according to their karma.

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Bukhara, a city in south-central Uzbekistan, is located about 140 miles west of Samarkand. The city lies on the Shakhrud Canal in the delta of the Zeravshan river, at the centre of Bukhara oasis. Bukhara was already a major trade center along the Silk Road when it was captured by Arab forces in 709. It was the capital of the Samanid Dynasty in the 9th and 10th centuries, and was later seized by the Qurakhanids and Karakitais before falling to Genghis Khan in 1220 and to Timur in 1370. In 1506 Bukhara was taken by the Uzbek Shaybanids, which became the capital of their state in the 16th century, which ultimately became known as the khanate of Bukhara.

Bukhara attained its biggest importance in the late 16th century, when the Shaybanids' land consisted of most of Central Asia, as well as Northern Persia and Afghanistan.

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Mongols were banned from making "three dimensional Idols" as it was haram, but wondered if they could make two dimensional representations of Muhammad's journey (Along the Silk Road 163)

They had a huge emphasis on "abstract ornamentalism" in their paintings instead of what was in the real world.

The many Mongol art wasn't preserved as they were kept in tents. They didn't create much to be preserved

They started around 1290-1308 and there are about 4 Manuscripts that were made: Manafi‘ al-Hayawa, Athar al-Baqiya, Shahname, and Miraj Name.

They each mean (On the Usefulness of Animals, The Chronology of Ancient Nations, Book of Kings, and Muhammad's journey. (Along the Silk Road 162)

There was also a huge imitation on Chinese Garden Painting as the Mongols did "imitate Chinese Culture." (Along the Silk Road 165).

All of Muhammad interpretations represent either "Sunni or Shi'as views of Islamic Culture" (Along the Silk Road) 165.

Surprisingly, Muslims took inspiration from "Christian Nativity to create a representation on the "Birth of Muhammad" (Along the Silk Road, 173).

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Nomadic people that ruled from 1120-1226 c.e. in Central Asia.

The Qara Khitai practiced Buddhism and spoke Khitan.

Adopted Chinese customs during their rule of north China.

Renamed the Qara Khitai after fleeing to the Mongolian steppe and gathering vast amounts of Mongolian and Turkic followers.

Not eager to embrace Islam.

The Qara Khitai reinvigorated the Central Asian economy.

Conquered by Chinggis Khan and the Mongols.

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Chess game between al-Thaʿālibī and Bakhazari, Ludwig Deutsch (1896).

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Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī was a prominent poet and writer in the Islamic world in the 4th/10th century (Islamic calendar/Gregorian calendar). Most notably, his work titled "Book of Curious and Entertaining Information" covers a lot of ground in the Chinese atmosphere, talking about their new developments, like asbestos napkins, and their skill in sculpting. This is particularly intriguing given that Islam is not often appreciative of sculpture, given the taboo nature of three-dimensional depictions of Allah's creations.

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Güyük the grandson of Genghis Khan (one of many) born in 1206 CE and died in 1241 he was the son of Ögödei the direct successor of Genghis Khan (who is responsible for greatly expanding the Mongolian empire). Güyük was elected to the throne in 1246, partly through the maneuvering of his mother. He was a Christian who specifically followed Nestorianism a practice considered heresy or just bogus by Western Christians because the believers did not accept the basic belief that the human and divine natures of Christ were united from the instant of the Word's conception in the womb of Mary. They believe that Jesus was the union of 2 separate beings a human person and a divine person. Güyük election pissed off his cousin Batu the conqueror of Russia but Güyük short life was probably a reason why the feud did not end up in a war.

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The school was founded by the teachings of the theologian Imam Abu Hanafi as spread by his disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. It became the dominant system of Islamic administration for the Abbasids and Ottomans. The school of religious law incorporates the legal options of the ancient Iraqi schools of Kufah. The Hanafi school is the largest of the four traditional Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The school believes in prioritizing personal reasoning and opinion.

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Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, founded the Il-Khanid dynasty three years after he and the Mongol army set out a task to capture Iran by the paramount Mongol chieftain Mongke. Two years after the dynasty was born, Mulegu and his henchmen captured Baghdad and all of Iran. Hulege aims to consolidate its position in Iran and reunite the region as a political and territorial entity after centuries of fragmented rule by petty dynasties. The dynasty ended in 1335 after the death of the last il Khan, Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, due to the ravaging Black Death, a.k .a. the bubonic plague persisted. Not soon after, the Il-Khalid disintegrated.

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The Heart Sutra

Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, meditating deeply on Perfection of Wisdom, saw clearly that the five aspects of human existence are empty*, and so released himself from suffering. Answering the monk Sariputra, he said this:

Body is nothing more than emptiness,
emptiness is nothing more than body.
The body is exactly empty,
and emptiness is exactly body.
The other four aspects of human existence --
feeling, thought, will, and consciousness --
are likewise nothing more than emptiness,
and emptiness nothing more than they.

All things are empty:
Nothing is born, nothing dies,
nothing is pure, nothing is stained,
nothing increases and nothing decreases.

So, in emptiness, there is no body,
no feeling, no thought,
no will, no consciousness.
There are no eyes, no ears,
no nose, no tongue,
no body, no mind.
There is no seeing, no hearing,
no smelling, no tasting,
no touching, no imagining.
There is nothing seen, nor heard,
nor smelled, nor tasted,
nor touched, nor imagined.

There is no ignorance,
and no end to ignorance.
There is no old age and death,
and no end to old age and death.
There is no suffering, no cause of suffering,
no end to suffering, no path to follow.
There is no attainment of wisdom,
and no wisdom to attain.

The Bodhisattvas rely on the Perfection of Wisdom,
and so with no delusions,
they feel no fear,
and have Nirvana here and now.

All the Buddhas,
past, present, and future,
rely on the Perfection of Wisdom,
and live in full enlightenment.

The Perfection of Wisdom is the greatest mantra.
It is the clearest mantra,
the highest mantra,
the mantra that removes all suffering.

This is truth that cannot be doubted.
Say it so:

Which means...
* Emptiness is the usual translation for the Buddhist term Sunyata (or Shunyata). It refers to the fact that no thing -- including human existence -- has ultimate substantiality, which in turn means that no thing is permanent and no thing is totally independent of everything else. In other words, everything in this world is interconnected and in constant flux. A deep appreciation of this idea of emptiness thus saves us from the suffering caused by our egos, our attachments, and our resistance to change and loss.

Note: Perfection of Wisdom is a translation of Prajnaparamita. The full title of this sutra is The Heart of Prajnaparamita Sutra.

[This is an interpretation based on many others. All errors are mine alone.]

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The Heart Sutra Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, meditating deeply on Perfection of Wisdom, saw clearly that the five aspects of human existence are empty*, and so released himself from suffering.

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One of the greatest artistic achievements during the Yuan Dynasty. The depictions often showed daily life of people, and the vibrancy of life. Depictions could also include dragons or colorful and vivid shapes.

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To create art out of lacquer is a very time-consuming process, as you have to pile hundreds of layers onto of one another, letting each layer dry for about 24 hours before putting on the next layer. The earliest records of lacquer use date back to ancient China, around 7000 BCE. Lacquer was initially extracted from the sap of the lacquer tree and used primarily for decorative purposes, such as coating pottery and wooden objects. Lacquer became very poised in China, and also sounding countries such as Korea,Japan, and even began to spread into Southeast Asia. Modern techniques allow for syntheticc lacquer to be produced, but the traditional way of making lacquer still exist in China and other Asian countries.

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 Zij-i Ilkhani, the 'Astronomical tables of the Ilkhans' (5)

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 Zij-i Ilkhani, the 'Astronomical tables of the Ilkhans' (5)

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The multicultural effort of the astronomers working together under Hulegu's order. This equated the different dating systems of many cultures, (Chinese, Muslims, Persians, Nestorian Christians etc.) and challenged some of the ancient Macedonian Greek thinker Ptolemy's ideas.

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The Mongol Empire accepted and promoted many other cultures. Historians often talk about cultural exchange across Asia in the Mongol Empire as something that was just facilitated by peace and stability across such a huge area - the 'Pax Mongolica'. However, the Mongols were active agents in this process, trying to use the many cultures of their empire(s) to expand and consolidate their rule.

Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227) conquered much of Asia in his lifetime, and his heirs continued the job. After the death of Genghis' successor, there was a brief succession dispute, and Möngke Khan (r. 1251-1259) took over as Great Khan. Möngke was the son of Genghis' youngest son, Tolui, so Möngke's family were called the Toluids.

After the civil war, the different khans took on separate identities & policies.

The previous Great Khans had already taken over what is now eastern Iran and northern China, but the Mongol Empire was not done yet. They had never established firm rule in Iran and much of the territory was effectively ruled by rival warlords. Meanwhile, there was plenty of room for expansion south into China and Tibet. Möngke and his brother Kublai Khan (r. 1260-1294) had their hands full leading campaigns into East Asia, so in 1253 Möngke sent another brother, Hülegü (1217-1265), to pacify Iran. Hülegü not only destroyed one of the greatest powers in the land, a kind of Shia sect called the Ismailis, but continued on into what was left of the Abbasid Caliphate. By 1258 CE, he had captured Baghdad.

A year later, Möngke died, and civil war between the Mongols broke out. Kublai eventually won (1264) and became the Great Khan. The various Mongol rulers still saw themselves as part of the same empire, but after the civil war, the sense was much looser and the different khans took on separate identities and policies. Now we can talk of successor states. Kublai's state was the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol rule of China, and Hülegü Khan's was the Ilkhanate, encompassing modern Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and eastern Turkey.

These two had a special relationship. Both dynasties were of Toluid lineage, and they had to show unity against the non-Toluid rulers of the other Mongol states. What's more, they both implanted themselves in rich, highly sophisticated urban societies with roots far back into antiquity. The traditionally nomadic Mongols were suddenly at the head of powerful cultures. This was a great challenge, but also an opportunity. They used multiculturalism in three ways: to help run the empire, to obtain unique services, and to display the far reach of their power.

Administration

In the Yuan Dynasty, Chinese institutions were made to serve their new Mongol rulers. Bolad Aqa (d. 1313) was the son of the ba'urchi of Börte, Genghis' chief wife. Ba'urchi literally means cook, but this was a very high-status position in Mongol society. It needed the utmost trust from the master or mistress and gave them control of the household, as well as frequent personal access. Bolad's record on the Yuan court rolls is Po-lo, which historians have long mistaken for Marco Polo (1254-1324). In some ways, though, Bolad is like a real version of the mythologised Marco. He was a close associate of Kublai Khan, and he did have a career that took him across the Silk Road. Incidentally, Bolad and Marco may even have met, for both were at the Yuan court in the late 1270s and early 1280s.

Bolad grew up speaking Chinese and his fluency helped him collaborate closely with Chinese officials. Together they founded several Chinese-style institutions to serve the new dynasty and also revitalised some that had lost prestige with the conquest. For example, Bolad persuaded Kublai to increase the powers of the Office of the Grand Supervisors of Agriculture - originally founded all the way back to the Han Dynasty (202 BCE to 220 CE) - and reinstate its ceremonies. Then, in 1273, he began work on the Imperial Library Directorate, dedicated to preserving Chinese documents, maps, and pictures, including books of forbidden magic. Here was a Mongol, serving a Mongol Khan, using Chinese resources to rule China.

Sometimes, the Mongols faced the problem of trying to rule many, various cultures all at once, which called for truly multicultural solutions. One problem that Hülegü had was that the people of the Ilkhanate used very different dating systems. No one could know exactly when something happened or was going to happen if the Chinese, Nestorian Christians, Muslims, and Persians all used different methods of figuring out the date. (Although the Persians were predominantly Muslim, many preferred the old Zoroastrian calendar, referring to the ascension of a Sassanian king Yazdegerd III in 632 CE.) For Hülegü, the solution was astronomy. He was keenly interested in the subject and saved all the astronomical instruments from an Ismaili fortress he captured, as well as the Ismaili mathematician Nasir al-Din Tusi.

A story from the time runs that, after losing a battle to the Mamluks in 1260, Hülegü ordered every Mamluk in the realm killed. However, one man managed to save himself simply by saying he was an astronomer, at which he was immediately let go. That certainly accords with Hülegü's next move. He founded an observatory at Maragheh, near the capital Tabriz, and furnished it with books and instruments from across Eurasia. Then, he gathered a crack team of astronomers from all the different traditions, headed by Nasir al-Din Tusi and a Chinese counterpart from Yuan. They worked at Maragheh, under tight security to prevent anyone stealing their cutting-edge discoveries, until they had compiled the Zij-i Ilkhani, the 'Astronomical tables of the Ilkhans', which equates all the dating systems. In addition, this multicultural collaboration produced results that challenged the ancient orthodoxy of Ptolemy, so much so that some historians have called it a scientific revolution.

Specialist Services

The Mongols knew that the innovations of their subject peoples could give their empire a strategic advantage which no lesser empire could match. This was a virtuous circle: the more people, the more power, the more growth, the more people.

When Hülegü first arrived in Iran, he brought Chinese siege engineers with him. Sieges had always been a problem for the lightning-fast tactics of Mongol warfare, so rulers quickly got others to do it for them, especially the northern Chinese. Guo Kan (1217-1277) was one such siege engineer, present at the conquest of Baghdad in 1258. He was the distant descendent of Guo Baoyu, who had finally suppressed the An Lushan rebellion in the 9th century. According to the rather exaggerated dynastic history, Guo Kan more than matched him. He allegedly ran the Iran campaign almost entirely by himself and conquered far further west than Hülegü's armies ever went.

Guo Kan supposedly even captured the caliph of Baghdad by laying a floating bridge across the river to prevent an escape by boat. This is all embellishment, but the role of Chinese siege engineers was indeed vital. A floating bridge device did indeed capture the caliph's dawadar (chancellor), and Chinese engineers almost certainly designed it - it is even plausible that Guo Kan himself did. Some historians have argued that they brought gunpowder, but this is unlikely. What the Chinese had to offer was specialism in siege engineering and the creation of war machines.

There were other contingents aside from the Chinese. Auxiliaries and allies played a crucial role in the war machine. At the Battle of Homs against the Mamluks in 1281, the Ilkhanate brought contingents from Armenia, Georgia and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, their tributary states. They were also assisted by the Knights Hospitaller. The knights were there because Christian Armenian notables had presented the pagan Mongols as spiritually acceptable allies to Latin Christian audiences. They stressed that the Mongols treated Christians in their realms well (which was reasonably true), that they were close to baptism (which was a stretch), and even that great Mongols had converted to Christianity in the past (which was a lie). These confidence-building exercises by subjects of the Mongols were vital to their military endeavours - even if, in the case of the Mamluks, they were not successful.

Yuan divination embraced horoscopes drawn from Chinese & Islamic traditions.

For the Mongols, spiritual and magical power was just as important as material, and just as useful in their campaigns of conquest. The Yuan Dynasty deliberately united many forms of magic. Bolad helped reinstate ritual sacrifices at the Chinese temples of Heaven, Earth, and Grain, but now the officiate would sacrifice an animal, Mongol style. Yuan divination embraced horoscopes drawn from Chinese and Islamic traditions. Heavenly events were thought to be omens, so astronomy-astrology particularly appealed to the Yuan elite. In fact, astrologers would compete to predict lunar eclipses the most accurately, and the best would get the favour of the ruler. Still, the Khans complemented all this with their own traditional Mongol forms of divination: a Tölgechin (diviner) might see the future through the cracks in burnt sheep bones, by rolling dice, or looking at the flight trajectories of birds. The English monk and scientist Roger Bacon (1219-1292) thought that these eclectic divinations gave the Mongols a better look into the future than anyone else, which explained their exceptional military success.

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Another prominent form of magic was geomancy. Mongol warriors were experienced strategists and nomadic herders, traits which gave them a particular sensitivity to toponymy. They believed lands had magical properties, alongside their material ones, and these could be manipulated to gain their favour. One story goes that Kublai smoothed a map - the representation of the land - with his hand and thereby came up with a winning strategy. In other words, the land let Kublai's plan work because it had been symbolically placated. The Yuan court also made extensive use of both Chinese 'wind and water' (better known as feng shui) and Islamic ' science of sand' geomantic techniques.

Display of Power

Grand displays of multiculturalism could show the wealth, size and magnificence of the Mongol Empire. This certainly was showing off, but it was more than that, too. Mongol ideology, developed in the time of Genghis Khan, was that Heaven had appointed the Mongols to rule over the entire world. They could make their claim to universal rulership visible by gathering representations of many, diverse cultures. In addition, they may have believed this had a magical effect. Steppe societies, as well as the Chinese, had long believed that a microcosm might influence a macrocosm, so the stability of the empire might be ensured by showing the harmony of symbols of its many cultures.

Yuan cuisine was a combination of a startling variety of styles from across Asia. The recipe book called the Yin-shan Cheng-yao (Eugene Anderson's translation: "Proper and Essential Knowledge About Drinking and Feasting") puts paid to the idea that the Mongols kept their own fare while the rulers of China then retreated to the steppes without leaving a trace on the local habits. Instead, they blended Chinese and Mongol cuisine, like seasoning Mongol barbequed sheep with Chinese spices and serving it with local vegetables. Of 98 recipes in the first part of the book, 28 are Mongol-Turkic, 33 are West Asian with Chinese influences, three are Chinese, and one is Kashmiri. There are also 28 of a combined type - what today we would call fusion - that are unknown outside of this recipe book. Some of the Yin-Shan Cheng-yao 's ingredients are distinctively West Asian, like pomegranates, walnuts, and chickpeas.

The Khagan emperors of Yuan even employed a sherbetchi. The clue is in the name, for the job of this official - always a Nestorian Christian - was to make the Mongols' favourite Iranian import: sherbet. This was a high-status, high-influence kind of job, as we know from Marco Polo's meeting with Kublai's sherbetchi. The expense of such ingredients and experts, along with the deliberate fusion, suggest the Yuan Dynasty was creating its own haute cuisine to display its vast wealth and far-reaching power over many cultures and climates, as well as filling their bellies in style. It is also worth considering that the dinner table may be an excellent example of a microcosm of the Mongol Empire. Perhaps bringing together all the cuisines of the Khagan's subjects before him and blending them into new dishes helped unite and harmonise the whole empire.

While the Yuan Dynasty was making their claim to empire in their bowls, the Ilkhans were doing it in their books. Rashid al-Din (1247-1318), a physician and convert to Islam from Judaism, became a minister of the Ilkhan Ghazan (r. 1295-1304) and later for Öljeitu (r. 1304-1316). As a major government official, he worked with Bolad on a number of cultural exchanges between Mongol Iran and China, for both men seemed to share a sense of the opportunity that Mongol rule of Eurasia afforded. Rashid al-Din's greatest contribution to history, though, was his own history, the Jami al-Tavarikh (1308), or Collection of Chronicles. In his own words:

Until now, no work has been produced in any epoch which contains a general account of the history of the inhabitants of the regions of the world and diﬀerent human species... Today, thanks to God and in consequence of him, the extremities of the inhabited earth are under the dominion of the house of Chinggis Qan [Genghis Khan] and philosophers, astronomers, scholars and historians from North and South China, India, Kashmir, Tibet, the Uighurs, other Turkic tribes, the Arabs and Franks, belonging to different religions and sects, are united in large numbers in the service of majestic heaven. And each one has manuscripts on the chronology, history and articles of faith of his own people and each has knowledge of some aspect of this. Wisdom, which decorates the world, demands that there should be prepared from the details of these chronicles and narratives an abridgement, but essentially complete [work] which will bear our august name. (Allsen, 83)

This structure was novel. Rather than framing the history around a single tradition, like the account of history by the prophet Muhammed, the Jami al-Tavarikh included Chinese, Jewish, Indian, European, and Islamic history without centering any one of them. Rashid al-Din's research methods were also unusual. He had a large team of assistants and made ample use of local experts to gather his narratives, like Kalamashri the Kashmiri monk and, of course, Bolad. Additionally, he somehow managed to get access to the Altan Debten (Golden Register), a compilation of fragments about the history of the Mongol conquest kept under lock and key in the Ilkhan's treasury.

This alone should show that the Jami al-Tavarikh had the support of the Ilkhans, but any project on such a vast scale could not have been made without their patronage. Ghazan and Öljeitu wanted this book because a universal history befits a universal society. The history of the Ilkhanate had to fit into the histories of all of its subjects in order to justify its rule in their eyes. They had to see their own cultures as branches of the same society ruled legitimately by the Ilkhans. What the Jami al-Tavarikh did was to show how all these histories led quite naturally up to the unity of the world under the Mongols.

Mongol rulers embraced, rather than suppressed, other cultures in order to demonstrate that they were destined to rule over them. This inevitably worked two ways, for the Mongols were fitting themselves to others just as they were fitting others to themselves. Over time, multiculturalism created a new kind of Mongol rulership in both Yuan and the Ilkhanate and new patterns of thinking that influenced the imperial ideologies of their successor empires, like the Ottomans and Safavids.

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The Mongol Empire accepted and promoted many other cultures. Historians often talk about cultural exchange across Asia in the Mongol Empire as something that was just facilitated by peace and stability...

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The Kanjur (literally, "translated words") is the Mongolian translation of the Tibetan bKa’-’gyur (the collected teachings of the Buddha).

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84000 Translating The Words of The Budda

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First published 2010. Last updated 4th Aug 2023.

The collected scriptures: the Tibetan translations of the Indian texts that are considered to be the words of the Buddha.

The Kangyur is the principal collection of the Buddhist scriptures in Tibetan. It contains some 900 works in over 100 volumes, all translations into Tibetan of the Indian texts considered to record the words of the Buddha (while its sister collection, the Tengyur, contains translations of the treatises composed by the great Indian Buddhist masters and scholars).

Most Kangyurs (see below) are divided into sections or divisions containing scriptures of different kinds. Their order may differ, but broadly comprise Vinaya (Discipline), Sūtra (Discourses), and Tantra, sometimes with an additional collection of Dhāraṇī (Incantations). The Sūtra section often comprises several separate divisions, which have here been grouped together for clarity under one heading, Discourses, but can be seen as subdivisions within it.

The order of the sections and texts here follows that of the Degé Kangyur, and the individual texts have been numbered according to the widely used Tōhoku catalogue, which also follows the order of the Degé Kangyur and Tengyur (Ui, H. et al. eds. A Complete Catalogue of the Tibetan Buddhist Canons. 1934: Sendai, Japan. Tōhoku Imperial University.)

The word Kangyur ( bka' 'gyur) literally means "the Word" ( bka') "translated" ( 'gyur). Translation of the scriptures brought to Tibet began in earnest in the late 8th or early 9th centuries during the reign of King Trisong Detsen, and continued under his successors Senalek and Ralpachen. Translation in this initial imperial period was a highly organized, state-sponsored project, carried out by learned Indian masters ( paṇḍita) working with trained Tibetan translators ( lotsāwa) under the supervision of a chief editor ( zhu chen).

This prolific "early propagation" ( snga dar) period saw the translation of a large majority of the sūtra works now found in the Kangyur, and the tantras of the early propagation that are now collected in the Nyingma Gyubum ( rnying ma'i rgyud 'bum). It was brought to an end by the 9th century persecutions of King Langdarma, but a second wave of translation activity accompanied the period of the "later propagation" ( phyi dar) starting in the 10th century, and texts brought from India (particularly tantras) continued to be translated for several hundred years.

Early descriptive inventories such as the early 9th century Denkarma ( ldan kar ma) and Pangthangma ( 'phang thang ma, probably a decade or two later) record the titles and other details of the translated texts held in particular libraries, and systematized them into categories. Different collections of sūtras ( mdo mangs), tantras ( rgyud 'bum) and other categories of texts existed in many monasteries, but the Kangyur itself, as a deliberately compiled and edited collection, only gradually took form and was never formally closed to the addition of newly translated texts. Even today, there is no single, authoritative version of the Kangyur. It is perhaps more accurate to speak of "Kangyurs," for the extant versions, while broadly similar in their content, differ considerably in their detail and in the ordering and classification of the texts.

Some scholars hold that most Kangyurs can be traced back to work done in the early 14th century at the Kadampa monastery of Narthang ( snar thang) near Shigatsé, where Chomden Rigpai Raltri ( bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri) and his disciple Üpa Losal Sangye Bum ( dbus pa blo gsal sangs rgyas 'bum) collected and copied the best available copies of texts from many monastery libraries in the region. It may have been on the basis of this collection that two distinct (though later intertwined) lineages or traditions of Kangyurs evolved. One of these started with an edited version of the Kangyur produced at the monastery of Tshal Gungthang in 1347-1351, and is known as the Tshalpa ( tshal pa) Kangyur tradition. The other tradition is called the Thempangma ( them spangs ma), from a manuscript so named that was produced at Gyantsé ( rgyal rtse) in 1431 from sources in the locality; it may have had its roots in another edited and rearranged version developed by the great scholar Butön Rinchen Drup ( bu ston rin chen grub, 1290-1364) and his followers at the monastery of Zhalu ( zha lu) in the mid 14th century and later at Gyantsé, too, although there is direct evidence only of Butön's work on the Tengyur. Butön had earlier (in 1322 or 1323) compiled a list of translated texts (both Buddha-word and treatises) arranged according to a taxonomy of his own devising, and his choice of texts and classification scheme had some influence on many Kangyurs of both traditions.

New Kangyurs were compiled, edited, and copied or printed through the centuries in different places all over the Tibetan cultural area, often as a meritorious action sponsored by a local ruler as well as an opportunity for editorial re-arrangement and improvement. The way the two main traditions of Kangyurs influenced each other in these versions was complex and involved not only the versions and variants of the texts they contain but also‍-independently‍-their classification and the structure of their divisions.

However, with several caveats, it can be said that the manuscript Kangyurs known (usually from their present location) as the Ulan Bator (1671), London (c.1712), Stok Palace ( stog pho brang, 1729), and Tokyo (1858-1878), are closest to the Thempangma tradition, while the Tshalpa tradition is reflected in the xylograph Kangyurs of Yongle (made in Beijing in 1410, the first printed Kangyur) and its "Peking" successor printings the Wanli (1605), Kangxi (several between 1684 and 1720), and Qianlong (1737); the Lithang (1609-1614) and Coné (1721-1731), also xylographs; and the Berlin manuscript (1680).

Almost all of these Kangyurs contained at least some elements of the other tradition, and several of the Kangyurs most used today are conflations to an even greater degree (in various differing ways) of the two traditions. These include the Narthang (1730-1732), Degé (1733), Urga (1908-1910), and Lhasa (or zhol, 1934) xylographs.

Outlying, local Kangyurs have come to light in recent decades (e.g. the Phuktrak, Newark Batang, and Tapho manuscripts) whose contents may reflect earlier stages of the independent circulation of collections of translated texts.

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The collected scriptures: the Tibetan translations of the Indian texts that are considered to be the words of the Buddha.

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source: The Mongolian Big Dipper Sūtra - Heidelberg University

"Based on the text of the Big Dipper Sūtra as found in the Kanjur, the Mongolian translation of the Tibetan bKa’-’gyur (the collected teachings of the Buddha)"..there is a strong belief related to the Big Dipper that was present in Mongolia's Yuan Dynasty and its collective nations, particularly China at this time, originating from a Buddhist-Daoist belief.

"...the Big Dipper in premodern China was both an essential, practical guidance in maritime voyages and a religious symbol that the faithful believed could prolong the human’s lifespan and command the element of water."(mdpi.com)

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Open Access Feature Paper Article

by

Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

In 1976, a shipwreck dated to 1323 was excavated to the southwest of the Korean peninsula. Named after the region where it was found-Sinan-the shipwreck contained more than twenty thousand Chinese ceramics, 28 tons of coins, and even Japanese wooden slippers and Korean spoons ( Choi 1990, p. 83; Yoon 1989, pp. 90-91). The Sinan shipwreck, which sank on its route from Ningbo in southeastern China to Japan, provides valuable information on East Asian maritime trade such as the popular cargo and organizations of long-distance trade ( Murai 2005, pp. 113-43). Besides the precious objects recovered from the shipwreck, the ship itself also has much to tell about the East Asian maritime world, especially people's religious life.

A particularly intriguing part in this shipwreck is an image of seven dots carved into the joint of the keel-the most important beam of the vessel's hull. Located in an invisible place, those seven dots apparently had no practical function, nor were they for decorative purposes. Then, for what reasons did people make efforts to carve this image in such a place?

Comparing this seven-dot image with another well-known seven-dot image-the image of the Big Dipper-this article demonstrates that the seven-dot image on the Sinan shipwreck and similar images on other shipwrecks represent the Big Dipper 1. This article further explores the meaning of the Big Dipper in navigation and religious contexts and argues that not only the practical function but also the religious symbolization of the Big Dipper made it a very auspicious and favorable motif in the rituals of shipbuilding.

1. The Big Dipper in Ships

The seven-dot image so far has been found in at least two shipwrecks: the Sinan shipwreck and a shipwreck discovered in the Quanzhou Bay in southeastern China. Excavated in 1974, the Quanzhou Bay shipwreck was dated to the late thirteenth century, making it a contemporary to the Sinan shipwreck ( Fujiansheng quanzhou haiwai jiaotongshi bowuguan 1987, p. 53).

The structures of those two shipwrecks were almost identical. The Sinan shipwreck has a length of 27.5 m and a width of 10.5 m while the Quanzhou Bay shipwreck is 26.5 m long and 9.5 m wide. Both of them have a V-shape bottom and the most critical point for this article-seven dots carved into the joint of the keel. Both shipwrecks show features of the "Fu ship" (Fuchuan 福船). As a matter of fact, the high similarities between the Sinan shipwreck and the shipwreck in Quanzhou Bay have been used as key evidence in demonstrating that the Sinan shipwreck was originally built in Quanzhou ( Xi 1994, pp. 55-74).

The seven-dot image appeared in a slightly different way on the two shipwrecks. In the Quanzhou Bay shipwreck, the seven dots circled around a larger hole ( Figure 1 and Figure 2), while in the Sinan shipwreck, the seven dots and the larger hole were carved separately in different joints of the keel ( Figure 3).

There have been two major views regarding the meaning of the seven dots: one is that the seven dots symbolize the seven islands (Qizhou 七洲) in the South China sea, and the other view, which is also a more widely accepted view, maintains that the seven dots represent the Big Dipper ( National Research Institute of Maritime Cultural Heritage 2016, pp. 64-65). The former explanation claims that the seven islands in the South China sea were a particularly dangerous place for ships, and carving the image of seven islands could add protection and help the vessel pass that region safely. Those seven islands can be identified in navigation maps. According to The Navigation Maps of Zheng He's Expedition (Zheng He hanghai tu 鄭和航海圖)-a seventeenth-century navigation manual-the seven islands were very close to the east coastline of modern Hainan Island, and they were labeled as "Qizhou" (七洲 seven islands). ( Figure 4).

This "seven islands" theory may not be the most appropriate explanation for the seven-dot image for the following reasons. First, the seven islands were not even on the route of the Sinan shipwreck, since the Sinan shipwreck traded in East Asia while the seven islands are located on the sea routes to Southeast Asia. Although it is possible that the Sinan shipwreck intended to trade in a large region as some scholars suggest ( Kubo 2008, pp. 142-54), or people did not take the future route into consideration when they were building the ship, the image of the seven dots would still lose some power if it could not be applied to all the conditions. Moreover, according to the navigation map, the seven islands were not very close to the sea route, and compared to other islands nearby, they did not seem to be more threatening. Last but not least, the images carved in the ships did not resemble the shape of those seven islands on maps even in a remote way. The similarity is a crucial factor in establishing connections between images, while the seven dots in the ships and the seven islands in maps clearly did not have any.

The theory that the seven dots represented the Big Dipper, contrary to the seven islands interpretation, could gain much support from the resemblance between the images. The seven dots in the shipwreck in Quanzhou Bay were delicately arranged according to the Big Dipper's shape. Both the scoop and the handle are quite discernable, and even the curve is also in a similar angle.

In addition, as we see in both images, a larger hole was found in both shipwrecks, which fits the Big Dipper theory too. The larger hole in the whole image can be interpreted as representing the moon. Additionally, neither the carved dots nor the hole was empty-coins were found in the seven dots, and a mirror was recovered from the larger hole.

The excavated coins further strengthened the connection between the seven dots and the Big Dipper. Carving a hole in the keel and filling it with coins was a more common practice, which can be seen in other shipwrecks, and the hole is usually called the "hole for ensuring longevity" (baoshoukong 保壽孔). Shipwrecks dated to a later period contained coins that bear the motif of the Black Warrior (xuanwu 玄武) or even coins with the Big Dipper ( Fu 2003, p. 39). The Black Warrior, which is comprised of a turtle and a snake, represents the north in the traditional Chinese geomancy-the direction that the Big Dipper indicates. The coins with special motifs have only been recovered from the single hole carved in ship keels, and none were found in the Sinan and Quanzhou Bay shipwrecks. Perhaps, to simplify the shipbuilding procedures, the function of the carved seven dots was transferred to the specially made coins, which bore the image related with the Big Dipper.

2. The Big Dipper in Navigation Maps

The Big Dipper was probably the most important part of navigation maps. The significance of the Big Dipper to sailors who took long-distance voyages has long been acknowledged.

As early as the second century B.C., Chinese people had already begun to use the Big Dipper to identify directions in voyages: "when the people on ship cannot tell the east or the west, they only need to find the Big Dipper and the Pole Star, and then they will understand" (Huainan zi, p. 776). In the fourth century, Ge Hong 葛洪, a famous Daoist, wrote: "Those who are sailing in the enormous sea have to rely on the Big Dipper and the Pole Star to find their way back" (Baopuzi waipian, p. 61). When the famous Buddhist monk Faxian 法顯 recorded his journey from China to India and Sri Lanka in the fifth century, he recalled: "The sea is so vast that it does not have any boundaries, so one cannot tell where the east is and where the west is. They can only depend on the sun, the moon, and the stars to tell the direction of their voyages. If it is cloudy or raining, the ship may be blown away by the wind and lose its direction.... Only until it clears up can people tell the direction again and continue their journeys" (Foguoji zhuyi, p. 141). Faxian's account not only depicted people's dependence on the celestial observation during sea voyages at that time but also revealed the immediate dangers once they lost the sight of those stars.

With the navigation technologies developing, by the early twelfth century, people could use the compass as an auxiliary to identify directions. However, it is evident that the celestial observation was still preferred. The importance of the Big Dipper was emphasized repeatedly. Learning from his father's tenure as an official in the busy international port Guangzhou in southern China from 1099 to 1102, Zhu Yu 朱彧 gave an account of the navigators at that time: "when the navigators need to figure out the geographical circumstance, they observe stars during the night, watch the sun during the day time, and use the compass if it is cloudy" (Pingzhou ketan, p. 26). Xu Jing 徐兢, who went to the Korean peninsula as an ambassador by the sea route in 1124, also recorded: "when people are sailing on the sea, they cannot stop [during the night], so they have to keep going by observing the stars and the Big Dipper. If it is cloudy, they use compass to tell the north and the south" (Xuanhe fengshi gaoli tujing, p. 72).

The Big Dipper performed two significant functions in sea voyages. First, sailors used the Big Dipper to tell the direction. The Big Dipper itself was an indication of course and can also guide people to locate another important star-the Pole Star. The Pole Star frequently appeared in historical records, and it formed one line with the first two stars of the Big Dipper. Therefore, if one connected the first two stars of the Big Dipper and extended the line, one could find the Pole Star easily-the distance between the Pole Star and the first star of the Big Dipper is about five times that between the first and the second stars of the Big Dipper.

Moreover, sailors also used the Big Dipper and the Pole Star to calculate the latitude and obtain more precise information on their location. The tools that sailors in premodern times used to calculate the latitude were designed to measure the relative distance between the Big Dipper and the horizontal line or that between the Pole Star and the horizontal line. During his journey from Quanzhou to Persia, Marco Polo recorded the Pole Star position whenever it was visible, together with the height between the star and the horizontal line. One bamboo ruler was excavated from the section of stern rudder in the site of the Quanzhou Bay shipwreck ( Han 1987 p. 112). Considering that the section of the stern rudder was the workplace of navigators, and the scale of this ruler was different from that of ordinary rulers, this ruler was likely for measuring the height of stars, which was recorded in historical texts as a "ruler for measuring the celestial realm" (liangtian chi 量天尺). The ruler also demonstrates that the documented historical methods were indeed put into practice.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Big Dipper took up a prominent place in navigation maps. The Navigation Maps of Zheng He included four maps in total to explain how the celestial observation can give directions for sea voyages, and every map placed the Big Dipper in a very conspicuous position ( Figure 5 and Figure 6). Furthermore, the short passage of instruction on each map always started with the relative location of the Big Dipper, which once again confirmed that the height of the Big Dipper and the Pole Star was the upmost crucial information in navigation. These instructions also suggest that when people were using those maps, they were supposed to first locate the position of the Big Dipper.

The Big-Dipper images on navigation maps were usually carefully drawn to present the Big Dipper as accurately as possible. Sometimes, the images were rotated to a certain angle to present the real situation that sailors would see. It is important to note that the seven-dot image on the shipwrecks bears a high resemblance to the Big Dipper image on the navigation maps. The Big Dipper images in a religious context, as the following section will show, were different and contained their own characteristics.

3. The Big Dipper in the Religious Context

The Big Dipper was a prevalent theme in a religious context. Many believed that the Big Dipper was the superintendent of human destiny, who was able to ensure the prolongation and preservation of the lives of the faithful ( Mollier 2008, pp. 134-35). Worship of the Big Dipper has a long tradition in Daoism. Probably around the eighth century, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-756) of the Tang dynasty, Buddhism absorbed the Big Dipper into its texts ( Mollier 2008, p. 145). The images of the Big Dipper in the Daoist context and those in Buddhist context were not much different. Still, the discrepancy between the images in the religious context and those in ships or navigation maps is too distinctive to overlook.

In Daoism, the visualization of stars was a way to "enable the adept to integrate self and Dao, body and cosmos on a higher level" ( Huang 2012, p. 38). Shih-shan Susan Huang divides the images of the visualization of stars into four subcategories: narrative illustrations of the adept's journeys to the Big Dipper, imaginary star maps, stars in the human body, and star divinities as iconic form. She emphasizes particularly that "the common ground for these images highlights the role of the Big Dipper, one of the most important constellations in Chinese visual culture" ( Huang 2012, p. 38).

The Big-Dipper images in navigation maps and those in the religious context are different in two significant aspects. First, the Big Dipper images in the religious context were sometimes comprised of nine stars instead of seven, while the nine-star image was never seen in navigation maps or ships. The nine-star Big-Dipper image existed as early as 1116 and kept appearing in Daoist images afterward. The eighth star, the Fu star, is the companion of the sixth star, and the ninth star, the Bi star, is near the handle of the Dipper. While the Fu star is discernible under very particular conditions-on specific days with a very clear sky-the Bi star is entirely invisible. A well-accepted belief among the adepts says: "those who manage to glimpse these two stars are rewarded with a prolongation of three hundred years of life for the eighth and six hundred years for the hidden ninth star" ( Mollier 2008, p. 162). For Daoism, the goal was to conceive the essence of the stars, so people were rewarded with more credit if they managed to see things essentially invisible. People clearly understood that the eighth and ninth stars were different from the original seven ones. For example, in thirteenth-century paintings of the Big Dipper deities, there are seven deities dressed in white and another two dressed in red robes ( Huang 2012, p. 48). The sharp contrast in color drew a clear boundary between those two groups. Some images consist of eight stars-including the theoretically visible star but not the completely invisible one. The nine or eight star images were not exclusive to Daoism: in the most popular sutra related to the worship of the Big Dipper-Sutra on Prolonging Life through Worship of the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper, Preached by the Buddha (Foshuo beidou qixing yanming jing 佛說北斗七星延命經)-an illustration shows the Big Dipper made up of eight stars and their corresponding deities ( Figure 7).

Second, the Big-Dipper images in the religious context varied significantly from each other. Differing from the almost identical images in navigation maps, the Big Dipper was depicted in vastly different ways and sometimes even took up multiple shapes in one image. The Big Dipper was often drawn in a very abstract and stiff way. For example, in Figure 7, the seven stars simply aligned in two parallel lines. Furthermore, the shape of the Big Dipper could be altered for practical reasons. To acquire longevity, the adepts needed to practice certain rituals, some of which symbolized ascension in heaven. One practice was "lying down in the Dipper". The practitioner must stretch out on a map of the constellation: the head was placed on the axis of the third star, with the feet on the eighth and ninth stars, the left hand touching the second star and the right hand touching the fourth ( Mollier 2008, p. 163). To make this ritual practice possible for practitioners, the manual instructions changed the image of the Big Dipper significantly to accommodate body limitations.

In the religious context, the utmost importance of the Big-Dipper image lies in its essence, so neither the Daoists nor the Buddhists showed much concern about the accuracy of the images. The images were frequently presented in an abstract way, and the variations were entirely acceptable, if not preferable.

The power of the image in the religious context also came from the position that it was placed on and the essence of the represented, instead of merely the image itself. The image of the Big Dipper has also been recovered from ritual sites. The most notable example is the case of the Dharma Gate monastery (famensi 法門寺) in Shaanxi, China. In the 1980s, four Buddha finger relics were excavated from the underground crypt of the Dharma Gate monastery; three of them are shadow relics, and the last one is believed to be the genuine relic. The Big Dipper image was carved in the first shadow relic's inner face, a place not easy to see ( Li 2003, p. 25). The whole crypt was a ritual site arranged according to the ritual of the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper homa in Tantrism mandala ( Liang 1993, pp. 55-61). Vajrabodhi (known as Jingangzhi 金剛智, 669-741)-a celebrated monk in the Tang dynasty-promoted the Tantric practice of the Big Dipper. In his Ritual Procedures for Invoking the Seven Stars of the Great Dipper (Beidou qixing niansong yigui 北斗七星念誦儀軌), he advocated the ritual not only as an individual discipline but also as a collective ceremony ( Mollier 2008, p. 146). Under the influence of the famous monk Yixing, who was much devoted to the Big Dipper belief, the Tang emperor Xuanzong facilitated the spread of the Big Dipper ritual and probably also adopted it into the state ceremony. The whole ritual at the Dharma Gate Monastery was centered on the Big Dipper image, praying for the peace and well-being of the nation. The image itself, however, remained in a hidden place to exert its power, just as the seven dots in the keel of ships.

4. Rituals in Shipbuilding

Carving the Big-Dipper image into the ship frame was among many rituals that were performed in the process of shipbuilding. The location at which to carve the image of the Big Dipper, just as the place of the image of the Big Dipper in a state ritual site, was also carefully chosen.

As mentioned above, the seven dots representing the Big Dipper were found in the keel joint, which was the most important part of a ship hull. For the Fu ships, the keel was probably even more important. The shell of Fu ships was unique: a Fu-ship had a V-shaped bottom instead of a flat bottom ( Figure 8). This design allowed the Fu ships to hold more cargo and still make turns quickly, but at the same time, the V-shaped bottom also made the Fu ship vulnerable when sailing in shallow water since a larger portion of the ship hull was underwater. Located at the very bottom and lacking other protection, the keel became extremely important for the Fu ships. Once the keel was damaged, the whole boat would be in a critical condition. Thus, it is only natural that people preferred to add extra protection to the keel. Meanwhile, to have the Big-Dipper image hidden in the keel joint was probably also a way to protect the image, since the image was not exposed to potential damage. Placing the image at the most critical position of a ship might also further strengthen the power of the image, similar to carving the Big-Dipper image on the sacred Buddha relic.

Moreover, the keel also, to a large extent, determined the whole structure of the ship. Shipbuilders needed to decide the length of the keel and its radians as the first step of building a ship, and only after that could other beams and boards be put in place. Therefore, building the keel was the initial stage in building a Fu ship, and connecting different parts of the keel together became the very beginning of the whole process of shipbuilding. Given the location of the Big-Dipper image, carving and sealing this image into the most crucial component of the ship must have been the very first thing that people did when they began building the ship, an activity that symbolized the start of shipbuilding. Some rituals were probably performed accompanying this procedure.

As early as the Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD), people already intentionally chose an auspicious day to start building a ship. In the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), in both official and private shipbuilding factories, installing a keel was always accompanied by a grand sacrifice. In the official shipbuilding factory in Fuzhou, where Fu ships were manufactured, people usually offered two pigs and two sheep at the sacrifice, and the local officials also attended the ceremony ( Chen 1991, p. 163).

The Big Dipper was not the only image that had been applied to shipbuilding. Especially after the Ming dynasty, various images had been added to different parts of ships and assumed different responsibilities. For example, some drawings show that a lion's head was portrayed on the head of ships, which was intriguing since people were more inclined to connect vessels with the image of dragons instead of lions. After all, it was dragons that possessed the ability to manage the water currents, and lions lived on the land. The connection between the lion and the water was later revealed by a type of flag-the "Mazu 媽祖 flag", which depicted a lion squat next to the Chinese sea goddess Mazu. The lion was Mazu's herald ( Yamagata 2004, p. 182). Starting from the Song dynasty (960-1276), the Mazu belief was especially popular in the Fujian province, where many temples were established to worship Mazu. The Song court even bestowed official titles to the goddess Mazu multiple times, recognizing her power of protecting the ships on the sea ( Huang 2017, p. 405). It was interesting that the shipbuilders chose to keep only the image of the lion and skip the image of Mazu, and another set of images actually show a similar pattern.

That set of images on ships was related to the story of the "Eight Immortals" (Baxian 八仙), which told how the Eight Immortals competed with each other and crossed the sea relying on different tools they brought-none of which were regular tools for sea-crossing. This story became quite popular in the Ming dynasty, which probably contributed to the use of the images. The "Eight Immortals," interestingly, did not appear in the images-only the tools they used did. The tools included a sword, a flute, a lotus, a fan, a cucurbit, a basket of flowers, a fish-shape wooden knocker, and a yin-yang plank ( Yamagata 2004, p. 186). By drawing those magic tools on ships, people were probably expressing their wishes that the ships would be just like those tools, carrying the passengers cross the sea safely and smoothly as if the passengers were the immortals.

The image of the Big Dipper, compared to other images applied to shipbuilding, appeared earlier in the course of history and was carved in a more important and secure place. The unique position of the Big Dipper in shipbuilding was likely because of its dual meaning: the Big Dipper possessed both a practical function and powerful religious meaning related to sea voyages, which is rare among the popular images used in shipbuilding.

In terms of the practical function, people's fear about losing sight of the Big Dipper was evident in the abovementioned texts, so perhaps carving the image of the Big Dipper into the ship frame could relieve their anxiety to some extent since the Big Dipper would be accompanying them all the time during the voyage. Probably because the Big Dipper had a practical function, the images of the Big Dipper that were recovered from shipwrecks were relatively accurate, especially if we compare them with the images in the religious context. Sailors needed to rely on the shape of the Big Dipper to guide their voyages and figure out their ship's location. Since navigation required high accuracy, even though the shipbuilders were only carving a symbol for protection and good luck, everyone would try to be serious and careful instead of risking people's life to carve a misshaped and misleading Big Dipper.

The religious meaning of the Big Dipper, as shown above, has mostly been related to the longevity of human beings. The lives of the faithful would be prolonged, as indicated in the sutras on the belief of the Big Dipper. This single point was already appealing to the sailors, whose profession was high-risk in the premodern era. However, the Big Dipper pertained to a more specific and more direct religious connection to sea voyages that has not yet drawn much scholarly attention. In the Five Phases theory that prevailed across social strata in traditional China, every direction was related with a color and a natural element: the east was related to blue and wood, the west with white and metal, the middle with yellow and earth, and the south with red and fire, while the north was related with black and the most critical element for sailing-water. In particular, considering that coins with the Black Warrior motif-the direction symbol of the north-have been excavated from shipwrecks, it is undoubted that shipbuilders did apply the Five Phases theory to their work. Therefore, the connection between water and the Big Dipper undoubtedly made the Big Dipper a powerful image in shipbuilding.

5. Conclusions

For centuries in the premodern era, maritime travelers relied on both technologies and their belief to survive perilous sea voyages. Xu Jing, the twelfth-century ambassador to the Korean peninsula, besides telling us the importance of observing stars, also recorded his awe of the vast sea in a genuine tone: "Drifting among the various perils of the sea in a vessel that is no more than a leaf, it is only thanks to the blessings of the imperial ancestors and the earth gods that the gods of the waves could be pacified and a crossing achieved. Otherwise, how could it be achieved by mere human power!" ( Vermeersch 2016, p. 233).

The dual function of the Big Dipper was well-recognized in traditional China. For example, the famous Daoist Ge Hong, whose words on the importance of the Big Dipper in sailing have been quoted earlier, was from a lineage worshipping the Big Dipper ( Mollier 2008, p. 144). His great-granduncle Ge Xuan 葛玄 was believed to have invented many important rituals to instruct the adepts to worship the Big Dipper, as an image entitled "Sir Immortal Ge's Method of Honoring the Great Big Dipper" in the Dunhuang manuscript depicted.

In sum, the Big Dipper in premodern China was both an essential, practical guidance in maritime voyages and a religious symbol that the faithful believed could prolong the human's lifespan and command the element of water. The dual function of the Big Dipper endowed the Big-Dipper images in ships with a dual meaning and made it particularly auspicious. The Big Dipper's practical function prompted the carvers to present the image accurately, making it distinctive from other Big-Dipper images in the religious context.

Funding

This research was funded by the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee of Hong Kong (Early Career Scheme Grant, CityU 21603719) and the Sumitomo Foundation (No. 188024). The APC was funded by the Sumitomo Foundation (No.188024).

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. Line drawing of the keel joint with the carved seven dots of the Quanzhou Bay shipwreck.

Figure 4. "Qizhou" (Seven Islands) in navigation maps. "Seven Islands" are in the middle of the map, while the dot-line below it indicates the sea route for ships. Zheng He hanghai tu (The Navigation Maps of Zheng He's Expedition), p. 40.

Figure 5. Big Dipper in the navigation maps. The Big Dipper is in the middle of the upper section. The navigation map also contains other asterisms that could help the sailors identify their location. Instructions were added next to each asterism, showing the sailors how to identify their location and direction based on the height of the stars. Zhenghe hanghai tu (The Navigation Maps of Zheng He's Expedition), p. 63.

Figure 6. Big Dipper in the navigation maps. The Big Dipper is on the left of the upper section. Zhenghe hanghai tu (The Navigation Maps of Zheng He's Expedition), p. 65.

Figure 7. Illustration of the Big Dipper deities. The seven larger figures each represents a star deity, whose name was labeled below. From the right to the left, their names are: Tanlang Star, Jumen Star, Lucun Star, Wenqu Star, Lianzhen Start, Wuqu Star, and Pojun Star. The small figure represents deity of the eighth star-the Fu Star, which is discernible only under very particular conditions. From the Sutra on Prolonging Life through Worship of the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper. Taishō shinshü daizōkyō (The Taishō Tripiṭaka), Vol. 21, No. 1307.

Figure 8. The cross-section plan of the Quanzhou Bay shipwreck. Courtesy of Mr. Eason Y. Wang.

AMA Style

Li Y. Navigating Voyages in Real and Religious Life: The Big-Dipper Belief and Shipbuilding in Premodern China. Religions. 2020; 11(8):398. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080398

Chicago/Turabian Style

Li, Yiwen. 2020. "Navigating Voyages in Real and Religious Life: The Big-Dipper Belief and Shipbuilding in Premodern China" Religions 11, no. 8: 398. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080398

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Navigating Voyages in Real and Religious Life: The Big-Dipper Belief and Shipbuilding in Premodern China

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Sailors in premodern China performed various types of rituals to pray for safe voyages. This article investigates a unique seven-dot image discovered from shipwrecks dated to thirteenth- and fourteenth-century China. Comparing the seven-dot image with the Big-Dipper image in premodern navigation maps, this article demonstrates that the seven-dot image represents the Big Dipper.

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Influenced by the ideas of Hinduism, Buddhism seeks enlightenment, following the path taught by the Buddha, born Siddhartha Gautama, a prince who renounced his royal life to find the end of suffering. This enlightenment means leaving the cycle of rebirth and suffering.

Zen Buddhism

"Zen teaches that enlightenment is achieved through the profound realization that one is already an enlightened being. This awakening can happen gradually or in a flash of insight (as emphasized by the Sōtō and Rinzai schools, respectively). But in either case, it is the result of one’s own efforts. Deities and scriptures can offer only limited assistance."

Zen Buddhism | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (metmuseum.org)

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The teacher known as the Buddha lived in northern India sometime between the mid-6th and the mid-4th centuries before the Common Era. In ancient India the title referred to an enlightened being who has awakened from the sleep of ignorance and achieved freedom from suffering. According to the various traditions of Buddhism, buddhas have existed in the past and will exist in the future. Some Buddhists believe that there is only one buddha for each historical age, others that all beings will become buddhas because they possess the buddha nature ( tathagatagarbha).

The historical figure referred to as the Buddha (whose life is known largely through legend) was born on the northern edge of the Ganges River basin, an area on the periphery of the ancient civilization of North India, in what is today southern Nepal. He is said to have lived for 80 years. His family name was Gautama (in Sanskrit) or Gotama (in Pali), and his given name was Siddhartha (Sanskrit: "he who achieves his aim") or Siddhattha (in Pali). He is frequently called Shakyamuni, "the sage of the Shakya clan." In Buddhist texts he is most commonly addressed as Bhagavat (often translated as "Lord"), and he refers to himself as the Tathagata, which can mean both "one who has thus come" and "one who has thus gone." Traditional sources on the date of his death-or, in the language of the tradition, his "passage into nirvana"-range from 2420 to 290 bce. Scholarship in the 20th century limited that range considerably, with opinion generally divided between those who believed he lived from about 563 to 483 bce and those who believed he lived about a century later.

Information about his life derives largely from Buddhist texts, the earliest of which were produced shortly before the beginning of the Common Era and thus several centuries after his death. According to the traditional accounts, however, the Buddha was born into the ruling Shakya clan and was a member of the Kshatriya, or warrior, caste. His mother, Maha Maya, dreamt one night that an elephant entered her womb, and 10 lunar months later, while she was strolling in the garden of Lumbini, her son emerged from under her right arm. His early life was one of luxury and comfort, and his father protected him from exposure to the ills of the world, including old age, sickness, and death. At age 16 he married the princess Yashodhara, who would eventually bear him a son. At 29, however, the prince had a profound experience when he first observed the suffering of the world while on chariot rides outside the palace. He resolved then to renounce his wealth and family and live the life of an ascetic. During the next six years, he practiced meditation with several teachers and then, with five companions, undertook a life of extreme self-mortification. One day, while bathing in a river, he fainted from weakness and therefore concluded that mortification was not the path to liberation from suffering. Abandoning the life of extreme asceticism, the prince sat in meditation under a tree and received enlightenment, sometimes identified with understanding the Four Noble Truths. For the next 45 years, the Buddha spread his message throughout northeastern India, established orders of monks and nuns, and received the patronage of kings and merchants. At the age of 80, he became seriously ill. He then met with his disciples for the last time to impart his final instructions and passed into nirvana. His body was then cremated and the relics distributed and enshrined in stupas (funerary monuments that usually contained relics), where they would be venerated.

The Buddha's place within the tradition, however, cannot be understood by focusing exclusively on the events of his life and time (even to the extent that they are known). Instead, he must be viewed within the context of Buddhist theories of time and history. Among these theories is the belief that the universe is the product of karma, the law of the cause and effect of actions. The beings of the universe are reborn without beginning in six realms as gods, demigods, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings. The cycle of rebirth, called samsara (literally "wandering"), is regarded as a domain of suffering, and the Buddhist's ultimate goal is to escape from that suffering. The means of escape remains unknown until, over the course of millions of lifetimes, a person perfects himself, ultimately gaining the power to discover the path out of samsara and then revealing that path to the world.

A person who has set out to discover the path to freedom from suffering and then to teach it to others is called a bodhisattva. A person who has discovered that path, followed it to its end, and taught it to the world is called a buddha. Buddhas are not reborn after they die but enter a state beyond suffering called nirvana (literally "passing away"). Because buddhas appear so rarely over the course of time and because only they reveal the path to liberation from suffering, the appearance of a buddha in the world is considered a momentous event.

The story of a particular buddha begins before his birth and extends beyond his death. It encompasses the millions of lives spent on the path toward enlightenment and Buddhahood and the persistence of the buddha through his teachings and his relics after he has passed into nirvana. The historical Buddha is regarded as neither the first nor the last buddha to appear in the world. According to some traditions he is the 7th buddha, according to another he is the 25th, and according to yet another he is the 4th. The next buddha, Maitreya, will appear after Shakyamuni's teachings and relics have disappeared from the world.

Sites associated with the Buddha's life became important pilgrimage places, and regions that Buddhism entered long after his death-such as Sri Lanka, Kashmir, and Burma (now Myanmar)-added narratives of his magical visitations to accounts of his life. Although the Buddha did not leave any written works, various versions of his teachings were preserved orally by his disciples. In the centuries following his death, hundreds of texts (called sutras) were attributed to him and would subsequently be translated into the languages of Asia.
Donald S. Lopez

The Buddha's message

The teaching attributed to the Buddha was transmitted orally by his disciples, prefaced by the phrase "evam me sutam" ("thus have I heard"); therefore, it is difficult to say whether or to what extent his discourses have been preserved as they were spoken. They usually allude to the place and time they were preached and to the audience to which they were addressed. Buddhist councils in the first centuries after the Buddha's death attempted to specify which teachings attributed to the Buddha could be considered authentic.

Suffering, impermanence, and no-self

The Buddha based his entire teaching on the fact of human suffering and the ultimately dissatisfying character of human life. Existence is painful. The conditions that make an individual are precisely those that also give rise to dissatisfaction and suffering. Individuality implies limitation; limitation gives rise to desire; and, inevitably, desire causes suffering, since what is desired is transitory.

Living amid the impermanence of everything and being themselves impermanent, human beings search for the way of deliverance, for that which shines beyond the transitoriness of human existence-in short, for enlightenment. The Buddha's doctrine offered a way to avoid despair. By following the "path" taught by the Buddha, the individual can dispel the "ignorance" that perpetuates this suffering.

According to the Buddha of the early texts, reality, whether of external things or the psychophysical totality of human individuals, consists of a succession and concatenation of microelements called dhammas (these "components" of reality are not to be confused with dhamma meaning "law" or "teaching"). The Buddha departed from traditional Indian thought in not asserting an essential or ultimate reality in things. Moreover, he rejected the existence of the soul as a metaphysical substance, though he recognized the existence of the self as the subject of action in a practical and moral sense. Life is a stream of becoming, a series of manifestations and extinctions. The concept of the individual ego is a popular delusion; the objects with which people identify themselves-fortune, social position, family, body, and even mind-are not their true selves. There is nothing permanent, and, if only the permanent deserved to be called the self, or atman, then nothing is self.

To make clear the concept of no-self (), Buddhists set forth the theory of the five aggregates or constituents ( khandhas) of human existence: (1) corporeality or physical forms (), (2) feelings or sensations (), (3) ideations (), (4) mental formations or dispositions (), and (5) consciousness (). Human existence is only a composite of the five aggregates, none of which is the self or soul. A person is in a process of continuous change, and there is no fixed underlying entity.

The belief in rebirth, or samsara, as a potentially endless series of worldly existences in which every being is caught up was already associated with the doctrine of karma (Sanskrit: karman; literally "act" or "deed") in pre-Buddhist India, and it was accepted by virtually all Buddhist traditions. According to the doctrine, good conduct brings a pleasant and happy result and creates a tendency toward similar good acts, while bad conduct brings an evil result and creates a tendency toward similar evil acts. Some karmic acts bear fruit in the same life in which they are committed, others in the immediately succeeding one, and others in future lives that are more remote. This furnishes the basic context for the moral life.

The acceptance by Buddhists of the teachings of karma and rebirth and the concept of the no-self gives rise to a difficult problem: how can rebirth take place without a permanent subject to be reborn? Indian non-Buddhist philosophers attacked this point in Buddhist thought, and many modern scholars have also considered it to be an insoluble problem. The relation between existences in rebirth has been explained by the analogy of fire, which maintains itself unchanged in appearance and yet is different in every moment-what may be called the continuity of an ever-changing identity.

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Buddhism - Buddhism - The life of the Buddha: The teacher known as the Buddha lived in northern India sometime between the mid-6th and the mid-4th centuries before the Common Era. In ancient India the title buddha referred to an enlightened being who has awakened from the sleep of ignorance and achieved freedom from suffering.

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Lin'an/Hangzhou of the Nan Song (1127-1250) (4)

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Lin'an/Hangzhou of the Nan Song (1127-1250) (4)

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The city that Emperor Gaozong, brother of the former Song Emperor Qinzong, chose to be the capital of the Nan [Southern] Song Dynasty in 1127. Surviving the Junchen invasion and the Jingkang Incident, Gaozong went on to "set about maintaining defenses against the hostile North and restoring imperial authority in the hinterland. Gaozong was a conscious admirer and emulator of the highly successful approach of the Han dynasty to the management of civil service, and the empire’s bureaucrats long functioned well." The dynasty was slowing down, but its end was ultimately brought by the Mongolians when they first approached in 1250. Fighting occured until 1276, and finally ended in 1279 when the Song's fleet of ships was defeated, leaving the dynasty to be overtaken by the rule of Chinggus Khan.

During the Nan Song period, use of movable type spread in the 11th century brought greater rates of literacy and learning in this time. Additionally, "the administration developed a comprehensive welfare policy that made this one of the most humane periods in Chinese history."

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Hulegu (1217-1265) was the brother of Chinggus Khan. He ruled the Il-Khannid Dynasty in what is now Iran and the surrounding areas. He was responsible for destroying the House of Wisdom and brutally sacking Baghdad, the religious and cultural capital of Islam, an event which saw the end of the Abbasid Caliph. It was said to have made the river run black and red with the ink and blood shed there.

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Hülegü, (born c. 1217-died Feb. 8, 1265, Jazīreh-ye-Shāhī, Iran) Mongol ruler in Iran who founded the Il-Khanid dynasty and, as part of a Mongol program of subduing the Islāmic world, seized and sacked Baghdad, the religious and cultural capital of Islām. Some historians consider that he did more than anyone else to destroy medieval Iranian culture.

Hülegü, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was appointed by his brother Mangu Khan, the fourth great khan of the Mongols, to extend Mongol power in Islāmic areas. Hülegü destroyed the fortress of the Assassins (a militant Islāmic sect) in 1256 at Alāmut in north central Iran. He then defeated the caliph's army and captured and executed al- Mustaʿṣim, the last of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs, and in 1258 he seized and largely destroyed Baghdad. He captured Syria but was decisively defeated by an Egyptian army in 1260. He then returned to Iran, settling in the province of Azerbaijan.

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Hülegü | Ilkhanid Dynasty, Persian Campaigns, Conqueror

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Hülegü, Mongol ruler in Iran who founded the Il-Khanid dynasty and, as part of a Mongol program of subduing the Islāmic world, seized and sacked Baghdad, the religious and cultural capital of Islām. Some historians consider that he did more than anyone else to destroy medieval Iranian culture.

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The Mongol's campaign in Korea stretched from 1231 and 1270. "The Mongols initially invaded in 1231 under Ögedei Khan's orders, leading to the surrender of Goryeo's capital, Gaesong, and demanding significant tributes and resources, including otter skins, horses, silk, clothing, and even children and craftsmen as slaves."

"The third invasion, lasting from 1235 to 1239, involved Mongol campaigns that ravaged parts of Gyeongsang and Jeolla Provinces. Goryeo resisted fiercely, but the Mongols resorted to burning farmland to starve the populace. Eventually, Goryeo sued for peace again, sending hostages and agreeing to the Mongols' terms. Subsequent campaigns followed, but the ninth invasion in 1257 marked the beginning of negotiations and a peace treaty."

The Mongolians would reside in Korea for about 80 more years; rebellions in the Yuan dynasty around 1350 in China marked the decline of Mongol control in Korea.

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Between 1231 and 1270, the Mongol Empire conducted a series of seven major campaigns against the Goryeo dynasty in Korea. These campaigns had a devastating impact on civilian lives and resulted in Goryeo becoming a vassal state of the Yuan dynasty for approximately 80 years. The Mongols initially invaded in 1231 under Ögedei Khan's orders, leading to the surrender of Goryeo's capital, Gaesong, and demanding significant tributes and resources, including otter skins, horses, silk, clothing, and even children and craftsmen as slaves. Goryeo was forced to sue for peace, and the Mongols withdrew but stationed officials in northwestern Goryeo to enforce their terms.

The second invasion in 1232 saw Goryeo move its capital to Ganghwado and build strong defenses, exploiting the Mongols' fear of the sea. Although the Mongols occupied parts of northern Korea, they failed to capture Ganghwa Island and were repelled in Gwangju. The third invasion, lasting from 1235 to 1239, involved Mongol campaigns that ravaged parts of Gyeongsang and Jeolla Provinces. Goryeo resisted fiercely, but the Mongols resorted to burning farmland to starve the populace. Eventually, Goryeo sued for peace again, sending hostages and agreeing to the Mongols' terms. Subsequent campaigns followed, but the ninth invasion in 1257 marked the beginning of negotiations and a peace treaty.

In the aftermath, much of Goryeo was devastated, with cultural destruction and significant losses. Goryeo remained a vassal state and compulsory ally of the Yuan dynasty for about 80 years, with internal struggles continuing within the royal court. The Mongol domination facilitated cultural exchange, including the transmission of Korean ideas and technology. Goryeo gradually regained some northern territories in the 1350s as the Yuan dynasty weakened due to rebellions in China.

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Mongol Invasions of Korea | Map and Timeline

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Between 1231 and 1270, the Mongol Empire conducted a series of seven major campaigns

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This is the holy site of pilgrimage that Muslims are called to visit, at least once in their lifetime. As the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad it holds significance of being where Muhammad received revelation of the Qu'ran from the angel Gabriel.

"According to Islamic tradition, Abraham and Ishmael, his son by Hagar, built the Kaaba as the house of God. The central point of pilgrimage in Mecca before the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the cube-shaped stone building has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. During pre-Islamic times the city was ruled by a series of Yemeni tribes. Under the Quraysh it became a type of city-state, with strong commercial links to the rest of Arabia, Ethiopia, and Europe. Mecca became a place for trade, for pilgrimage, and for tribal gatherings.

The city’s religious importance greatly increased with the birth of Muhammad about 570. The Prophet was forced to flee from Mecca in 622, but he returned eight years later and took control of the city. He purged Mecca of idols, declared it a centre of Muslim pilgrimage, and dedicated it to God. Since then the city has remained the major religious centre of Islam. As the ancient caravan route fell into decline, Mecca lost its commercial significance and has since lived mainly on the proceeds from the annual pilgrimages and the gifts of Muslim rulers.

Mecca was sacked by the Umayyad general al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, and thereafter the city acknowledged the power of the Umayyad caliphate at Damascus and, following the eclipse of that dynasty, of the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. The city suffered great indignity at the hands of the Qarmatians in 930 when that sect’s leader, Ṭāhir Sulaymān, pillaged Mecca and carried off the Black Stone from the Kaaba."

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Arable land and water are scarce, and food must be imported. Vegetables and fruits are brought in daily from the surrounding wadis, such as Wadi Fāṭimah, from the area of Al-Ṭāʾif to the east-southeast, and from the southern agricultural areas, such as Bilād Ghāmid and Bilād Zahrān. Foodstuffs are imported from abroad mainly through the port of Jeddah, 45 miles (70 km) to the west on the Red Sea.

Manufacturing

Industry is limited and includes the manufacture of textiles, furniture, and utensils. The overall urban economy is commercial and service-oriented.

Transportation

Transportation and facilities related to the hajj are the main services. Mecca has no airport nor water or rail transportation. It is well served, however, by the Jeddah seaport and airport and by intercity truck, bus, and taxi services. A local bus system was established in 1979. Paved roads link Mecca with the main cities of Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries.

Because of the improvement of services, the number of pilgrims has increased. This annual influx brings a good income to the city, but it also results in a temporary population of some two million or more, all of whom need accommodations, food, water, electricity, transportation, and medical services. To ease the problem of accommodations, the Saudi government has erected huge tent cities each year for the hajj, although sporadic fires in these camps have caused a number of deaths. In accordance with the prescribed route, all pilgrims have to be transported from Mecca to ʿArafāt, a distance of about 12 miles, during the early morning of the ninth day of the month of Dhū al-Ḥijjah. During the night of the same day, they must travel to Minā, which is almost two miles from Mecca; after three days, all are returned to Mecca. This problem has been met by the construction of a good road network, an adequate supply of vehicles, and traffic control.

Administration and social conditions

Government

The governor of the city is the emir of Makkah minṭaqah idāriyyah (administrative district), who is responsible for the maintenance of law and order in both the city and the administrative district; he is appointed by the king and is immediately responsible to the minister of the interior. The municipal council is responsible for the functioning of the municipality; the council was formed after World War II and has 14 members, who are locally elected and are then approved by the minister of the interior. Mecca is the capital of Makkah minṭaqah idāriyyah, which includes the cities of Jeddah and Al-Ṭāʾif.

Municipal services

Mecca depends on the surrounding wadis for drinking water. The waters of ʿAyn Zubaydah (Zubaydah Spring), built in the 8th century, flow through tunnels from Wadi Nuʿmān, about 20 miles to the southwest. Al-ʿAzīziyyah Spring sends its waters through pipelines from Wadi Al-Shāmiyyah, about 60 miles to the northeast. Water and electricity have reached almost all houses. Electricity is generated at an oil-fueled power station located on the road to Medina.

Education

Free education is provided for both girls and boys from primary to university level. The Umm al-Qura University (founded 1979) is located in Mecca, as are two university colleges-the Madrasat Ahl al-Hadith and the Saudi Arabian Institute for Higher Education.

Health

Health services and medical care are free and adequate. In spite of careful checking by officials, pilgrims may sometimes bring various illnesses, particularly cholera and cerebro-spinal infections, into the city; the health services, however, have been able to keep such problems under control.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

History

Ancient Mecca was an oasis on the old caravan trade route that linked the Mediterranean world with South Arabia, East Africa, and South Asia. The town was located about midway between Maʾrib in the south and Petra in the north, and it gradually developed by Roman and Byzantine times into an important trade and religious centre. Ptolemy's inclusion of Macoraba, a city of the Arabian interior, in his Guide to Geography was long held to show that Mecca was known to the Hellenistic world. Since the late 20th century, however, some scholarship has called the identification of Macoraba with Mecca into question.

According to Islamic tradition, Abraham and Ishmael, his son by Hagar, built the Kaaba as the house of God. The central point of pilgrimage in Mecca before the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the cube-shaped stone building has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. During pre-Islamic times the city was ruled by a series of Yemeni tribes. Under the Quraysh it became a type of city-state, with strong commercial links to the rest of Arabia, Ethiopia, and Europe. Mecca became a place for trade, for pilgrimage, and for tribal gatherings.

The city's religious importance greatly increased with the birth of Muhammad about 570. The Prophet was forced to flee from Mecca in 622, but he returned eight years later and took control of the city. He purged Mecca of idols, declared it a centre of Muslim pilgrimage, and dedicated it to God. Since then the city has remained the major religious centre of Islam. As the ancient caravan route fell into decline, Mecca lost its commercial significance and has since lived mainly on the proceeds from the annual pilgrimages and the gifts of Muslim rulers.
Assʿad Sulaiman Abdo The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mecca was sacked by the Umayyad general al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, and thereafter the city acknowledged the power of the Umayyad caliphate at Damascus and, following the eclipse of that dynasty, of the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. The city suffered great indignity at the hands of the Qarmatians in 930 when that sect's leader, Ṭāhir Sulaymān, pillaged Mecca and carried off the Black Stone from the Kaaba. Beginning in the mid-10th century, the local city rulers were chosen from the sharifs, or descendants of Muhammad, who retained a strong hold on the surrounding area while often paying homage to stronger political entities. The ability of the sharifs, originally moderate Shiʿis, to adapt to the changing political and religious climate ensured their preeminence in local affairs for the next 1,000 years. In 1269 Mecca came under the control of the Egyptian Mamluk sultans. In 1517 dominion over the holy city passed to the Ottoman Empire, with its capital in Constantinople (now Istanbul). With the Ottoman collapse after World War I, control of Mecca was contested between the sharifs and the Āl Saʿūd (the Saud family) of central Arabia, adherents to an austere, puritanical form of Islam known as Wahhābism. King Ibn Saud entered the city in 1925, and it later became part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the capital of Makkah minṭaqah idāriyyah.

Under Saudi rule, Wahhābism was enforced as the state credo, and the facilities for pilgrims were improved. Mecca underwent extensive economic development as Saudi Arabia's petroleum resources were exploited after World War II, and the number of yearly pilgrims exploded. Despite lavish expenditures by the Saudi government to renovate the city and mosque area in terms of both beauty and safety, the overwhelming crush of pilgrims each year has led to tragedy on several occasions, as in 1990, when nearly 1,500 pilgrims were trampled in a pedestrian tunnel, and in 1997, when several hundred more died in a tent city fire and its ensuing panic.

Political turmoil and violence have also often plagued the city. In 1979 a group of militants, mostly Saudi but including many from other Islamic countries, seized the Great Mosque and were evicted only with great loss of life after an assault by the Saudi National Guard. During the 1980s and '90s Iranian pilgrims frequently engaged in political protests that led to clashes with Saudi police, and many deaths and injuries ensued.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Mecca - Pilgrimage, Trade, Finance: Arable land and water are scarce, and food must be imported. Vegetables and fruits are brought in daily from the surrounding wadis, such as Wadi Fāṭimah, from the area of Al-Ṭāʾif to the east-southeast, and from the southern agricultural areas, such as Bilād Ghāmid and Bilād Zahrān.

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"Adding to the list of names among the greatest libraries of the past, the Bayt al-Hikmah (translated as ‘The House of Wisdom’) was established in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire, around the 8th century by Caliph Harun al-Rashid (reign from 786-809 CE) during the time of the Islamic Golden Age. The center continued to flourish under al-Rashid’s son, al-Ma’mun, who is sometimes attributed as the original founder of the House of Wisdom."

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Adding to the list of names among the greatest libraries of the past, the Bayt al-Hikmah (translated as 'The House of Wisdom') was established in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire, around the 8th century by Caliph Harun al-Rashid (reign from 786-809 CE) during the time of the Islamic Golden Age. The center continued to flourish under al-Rashid's son, al-Ma'mun, who is sometimes attributed as the original founder of the House of Wisdom.

This recognition about who was the original founder of the center can become confusing and further details explaining the order of events might assist in this understanding. Al-Rashid was the one who gathered most of the different books, manuscripts and objects coming from his father and grandfather, and started the collection. Eventually this compilation of different materials became so large that al-Ma'mun had to build an extension to the original building, turning it to a large academy which, then, came to be known as the House of Wisdom. It became one of the greatest centers of medieval wisdom and contributed greatly to the scientific movement which had started in the earlier centuries.
Al Ma'mun sends an envoy to the Byzantine Emperor Theophilos ( Public Domain )
The House of Wisdom was originally created in order to house translators and preserve their works but it soon included additional research activities in the areas of medicine, science and astronomy. Two of the most important Caliphs, al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun, had personal interests in scientific works. This library was remarkably well organized, having separate rooms for copiers, binders, librarians, and an astronomical observatory.

Coming of wealth

Compared to its surroundings, Baghdad was a major center for the spreading knowledge in the areas of Arts, Science and Philosophy. It became a great center not only for wisdom but also for material wealth. In addition, charitable donations were encouraged in Islamic law. This created a path to facilitate the sharing of ideas and wealth necessary in order to invest in the continuous expansion of this institution.
13th-century Arabic translation of Materia Medica ( Public Domain )
Works and scholars

Different types of specialists worked under the House of Wisdom: translators, scientists, scribes, authors, researchers of different subjects, and writers. Many manuscripts and books of a variety of philosophical and scientific subjects were translated there and held as of great importance for the community. The House of Wisdom was open to both men and women. Students of all ethnicities and faiths were welcomed, and those scholars who were persecuted by the Byzantine Empires were encouraged to study there. Many different languages were spoken in that facility including Arabic, Farsi, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Greek and Latin.

It should not come as a surprise the implementation of new technological developments since the House of Wisdom was open to a great diversity of cultures and ideas. Brought from China, paper became a new and cheaper material for writing, which was previously done on parchment from the skin of animals, a much more time consuming and expensive process.
The Byzantine embassy of John the Grammarian to Ma'mun (depicted left) from Theophilos (depicted right) ( Public Domain )
Al-Ma-mun, scholar and patron
Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle were highly respected in the medieval Islamic world. ( Public Domain )
Al-Ma'mun was a scholar himself and perhaps this influenced his desire of wanting to make the institute the greatest center for knowledge in the world. On Isabella Bengoechea's words:

Caliph al-Mamun was also himself adept in the branches of knowledge taught at the House of Wisdom, including medicine, philosophy and astrology, and often visited the scholars there to discuss their research. At this time astrology was held in the highest esteem as a science in Arab society. The stars and planets were perceived to influence events on earth and astrology was thus carried out with the greatest attention to detail.

Often, al-Ma'mun would assign handpicked renowned scholars to perform specific translations of works. An example of such was the selection of the famous scholar Abu Yousuf Ya'qoub Al-Kindi, who had an impressive level of qualifications which included being a physician, philosopher, mathematician, geometer, logician, and astronomer, to be the one in charge of translating of the works of Aristotle.

Some records stated that, in order to encourage translators and scholars to add works in Arabic to the library, al-Ma'mun would pay them the equivalent weight of each complete book in gold. Undoubtedly, much knowledge about the past would have been lost if not for the continuous works of translation conducted in the House of Wisdom. Baghdad was a very prosperous and rich city, which allowed Al-Ma'mun to spare no expenses to purchase more works, including those from other countries.

In Subhi Al-Azzawi's words, "It is said that Al-Ma'moun had heard about the magnificent Sicily Library, so he wrote to the King of Sicily asking him for the entire content of the Sicily Library (which was rich in philosophical and scientific books of the Greeks) to incorporate it in the library of the House of Wisdom. The King on the advice of his bishops (that the contents of these books did no good to the people of the Ancient World) sent the content of the Sicilian Library to the Caliph."

The end of the center of knowledge

Unfortunately, Bayt al-Hikmah felt into the hands of the dark destiny which affected many structures of the past. The institution was completely destroyed by the Mongols in 1258 CE. They brutally killed the Caliph's court and almost his entire family.

Hulagu Khan's siege of Baghdad (1258) ( Public Domain )

The Caliph was kept alive and forced to watch all the killing and destruction. They killed the scholars and threw all the books into the Tigris river. It is said that the river flowed black and red for days from the ink and blood.

Top image: Drawing of the house of wisdom. Photo Source: ( muslimheritage)

By Marina Sohma

Resources:

- Cem Nizamoglu, 'The house of Wisdom: Baghdad's Intellectual Powerhouse'.
http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/house-of-wisdom (accessed Dec 10, 2016)

History of Libraries
http://eduscapes.com/history/early/800.htm (accessed on Dec 9, 2016)

Isabella Bengoechea, 'Iraq's Golden Age: The Rise and Fall of the House of Wisdom'
https://theculturetrip.com/middle-east/iraq/articles/iraq-s-golden-age-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-house-of-wisdom/ (accessed Dec 10, 2016)

Mohd Roslan Mohd Nor, 'The Significance of the Bayt Al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Early Abbasid Caliphate'.
https://www.academia.edu/3019719/The_Significance_of_the_Bayt_A_Hikma_House_of_Wisdom_in_Early_Abbasid_Caliphate_132A._H-218A._H_ (accessed Dec 10, 2016)

Steemit , 'House of Wisdom: Ride and Fall of the Ancient Library at Baghdad'.
https://steemit.com/history/@getonthetrain/the-house-of-wisdom-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-ancient-library-of-baghdad (accessed on Dec 10, 2016)

Subhi Al-Azzawi, 'The Abbasids' House of Wisdom in Baghdad'.

http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/abbasids-house-wisdom-baghdad (accessed Dec 10, 2016)

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The House of Wisdom: One of the Greatest Libraries in History

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Adding to the list of names among the greatest libraries of the past, the Bayt al-Hikmah (translated as 'The House of Wisdom') was established in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire, around the 8th century by Caliph Harun al-Rashid (reign from 786-809 CE) during the time of the Islamic Golden Age.

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"Islamic calligraphy was not only acclaimed by the Muslim world, it was also considered a great artistic mode of visual expression."

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Calligraphy is a fundamental element and one of the most highly regarded forms of Islamic Art.

The word calligraphy comes from the Greek words kallos, meaning beauty, and graphein, meaning writing. In the modern sense, calligraphy relates to "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skilful manner." ¹ Islamic calligraphy is one of the most sophisticated in the world and is a visual expression of the deepest reverence to the spiritual world.

The Holy Qur'an mentions, with regard to the revelation of the Holy Qur'an "And we have arranged it in the best form." 2

In this verse, the phrase "in the best form," indicates the putting together of parts to form a strong, integral, consistent whole. Therefore, the Arabic word tartil is translated as a reflective, measured and rhythmic recitation. ³ The Islamic scholar Hafiz Fazle-Rabbi has elaborated that this word, when used in the context of writing, can refer to calligraphy, as a means of beautifying the writing. ⁴

It is narrated by Hazrat Amir Muawiya ra that the Holy Prophet Muhammad sa said, regarding the correct style of Qur'anic writing: "O Muawiya, keep the correct consistency of your ink under the inkpot, make a slanting cut to your pen, write the 'Ba' of Bismillah prominently, also sharply write the corners of the letter 'Seen', do not make an incorrect eye of the letter 'Meem', write the word Allah with great elegance, elongate the shape of the letter 'Noon' of the word Rahmaan, and write Raheem beautifully, and keep the pen at the back of your right ear so you will remember that." ⁵

The act of calligraphy is intriguing in that it leaves a tangible trace of a physical act. But that written trace does not merely record an action. In some Muslim areas, calligraphy was actually considered to leave clues as to the calligrapher's moral fibre. Indeed, the quality of the calligraphy was believed to hold clues as to the character of the calligrapher. The tools used in calligraphy: the paper on which it was written, the writing implements, the gold leaf used in illumination-all required a diverse set of skills. ⁶

Calligraphy holds, perhaps, pride of place as the foremost and most characteristic of the modes of visual expression in Islam. After years of practice, calligraphy becomes second nature to a master calligrapher. However, the dots always allow for a quick assessment as to whether or not the proportions are correct.

It is mentioned in Kanzul-Ummaal, ( Treasure of the Doers of Good Deeds) as narrated by Saeed ibn-e-Sakina, that Hazrat Ali ra saw a person writing Bismillah and then said, "you have to write it in a beautiful manner, because if you do this, then Allah will bless and forgive you." ⁷

The great Egyptian writer, Taha Hussein, once said: "Others read in order to study, while we have to study in order to read." ⁸ His complaint was more than justified. The intricacies of calligraphy can take years to master.
In Praise of Calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy was not only acclaimed by the Muslim world, it was also considered a great artistic mode of visual expression.

Pablo Picasso was so inspired by Islamic calligraphy that he said: "If I had known there was such a thing as Islamic calligraphy, I would never have started to paint. I have strived to reach the highest levels of artistic mastery, but I found that Islamic calligraphy was there ages before I was." ⁹

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, started his creative career inspired by geometry and the art of calligraphy. In his biography it was mentioned that calligraphy workshops influenced Apple's graceful, minimalist aesthetic. These experiences, Jobs said later, shaped his creative vision. ¹⁰ Indeed, in his Stanford commencement address in June 2005, Jobs said: "If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts." ¹¹

Martin Lings, also known as Abu Bakr Siraj ud-Din, was an English writer and scholar who also penned a biography of the Holy Prophet sa. His teaching has guided and inspired the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation in all its work with the sacred arts of the Holy Qur'an. Lings believed that the pinnacle of Islamic art was Arabic calligraphy, which transmits the verses of the Holy Qur'an into visual form. ¹²

Indeed, the history of Arabic calligraphy is inextricably linked with the history of Islam. There is also a close relationship historically between each Arabic script and its common usage. According to the history of written language, Arabic is only second to the Roman alphabet in terms of widespread usage today. ¹³

Pre-Islamic Arabs relied heavily upon oral traditions for the retention of information and for communication. Later, calligraphy became an invaluable tool for communication.
The Alphabet Family Tree
It is very hard to trace the origins of Arabic script, but there is evidence that it was very well-known to the Arabs in Arabia although they did not widely use the script and actually depended instead on verbal and oral traditions. It is believed that the recent Arabic Script was most likely developed from the Nabataean script, which was itself derived from the Aramaic script. It should be noted that all of these Semitic languages (Phoenician, Canaanic, Aramaic, Nabataean, etc.) were not more than slang versions of Arabic which had become separate languages with the passage of time due to limited communication with central Arabia. But Arabia preserved pure Arabic, especially in remote areas. The most interesting and mysterious phenomenon was that Arabic was an incredibly rich language, in stark contrast to the primitive Arabs who used it, indicating that they themselves did not create the Arabic language. This phenomenon supported the theory that the language was not man-made but actually a result of divine revelation. Arabia provided the perfect environment to preserve it because it was less influenced by external factors, unlike other parts of the world. While the Arabic language is very ancient, it was not known to be a written language until perhaps the third or fourth century C.E. Some studies claim that the written scripts of Arabic were known much earlier, around 2500 B.C., but on a smaller scale, as the Arabic language at that time was exactly the same Arabic at the advent of Islam.

Bearing in mind that all of the Semitic civilisations in Levant and ancient Iraq were Arab civilisations, and had been inhibited by Arabs since time immemorial, it is hard to identify exactly when and where the Arabic alphabet originated.

History, then, suggests that it was not Muslims who created the alphabet at the time of the advent of Islam due to the needs of the time. The very fact that the Holy Qur'an was recorded and successfully disseminated in Levant and Iraq without any language barriers posing problems, at the time of the Holy Prophet sa and then the Caliphs after his demise, proves that the Arabic language and alphabet predated them.

However, while there is solid evidence that the Arabic language and script are quite ancient, the accuracy of tracing the history of this rich language is very difficult; especially due to the biased studies and research of many orientalists and scholars who vehemently tried to deny the existence of the Arabs as a nation due to their distinct enmity towards Islam.
The Early Development of Arabic Scripts
If we look into the history of the Arabian Peninsula and the origin of the Arabic language, archaeologists have found inscriptions that show a close relationship between Arabic scripts and some earlier scripts such as the Canaanite, Aramaic and Nabataean alphabet, that were found in the north of the Arabian Peninsula. These inscriptions were dated as far back as the 14th century B.C.E.
Arabic Musnad
The first Arabic script, Arabic Musnad, which probably developed from the above-mentioned languages, does not possess the cursive aesthetic that most people associate with modern Arabic scripts. Discovered in the south of the Arabian peninsula in Yemen, this script reached its final form around 500 B.C.E. and was used until the 6th century. It did not look like modern Arabic, as its shapes were very basic and resembled the Nabataean and Canaanite alphabets more than the Arabic shapes. ¹⁴

During the sixth and seventh centuries, the revelation of Islam had a major impact on the development of Arabic calligraphy. The Arabic alphabet is written from right to left like Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and other scripts from the same linguistic family.
Early Calligraphic Script: Al-Jazm
The first form of an Arabic-like alphabet is known as the Al-Jazm script, which was used by northern tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. Many researchers think the roots of this script originate from the Nabatean script, and yet the early Arabic scripts also seem to have been affected by other scripts in the area, such as the Syriac script.

The Al-Jazm script continued to develop until the early Islamic era in Makkah and Madinah in the west of the Arabian Peninsula.

In the first Islamic century, the art of calligraphy was born. The first formal scripts that emerged were from the Hijaz region of the Arabian Peninsula, most possibly from the city of Madinah. Those are early "Kufic" Qur'anic scripts and with a stately verticality and regularity in them called ma'il.

Other scripts, such as the Mukawwar, Mubsoott, and Mashq scripts, did not survive the progression of Islam, even though they had been used both before and during the early days of Islam. ¹⁵
Other Known Early Islamic Scripts
Over the course of their development, different Arabic scripts were created in different periods and locations.

For example, before the invention of the Kufi script the Arabs had several other scripts, the names of which were derived from their places of origin, such as Makki from Makkah, Hiri from Hira and Madani in Madinah.

It has been narrated by Abu Hakima Abdi, that he used to write various books in Kufi. Once, Hazrat Ali ra should say after, fourth successor to the Holy Prophet sa saw him while he was writing, and said: "Try to write boldly and in a prominent manner, also try to make your pen beautiful," so Abu Hakima cut his pen and started writing again. Hazrat Ali ra continued to stand beside him and then said "use the best ink with the writing pen and make the writing beautiful just as Allah has revealed his beautiful message." ¹⁶

Tumari was another script, which was formulated by the direct order of Muawiya, and became the royal script of the Ummayad dynasty.
Kufi Script
Kufi was invented in the city of Kufa (currently in Iraq) in the second decade of the Islamic reign, taking its name from its city of origin and, as mentioned earlier, was derived from an earlier script call Ma'il.

As a calligraphic historian, the problem remains of identifying calligraphy without dated, signed specimens. While we have the names of scripts such as Mukawwar, Mubsoott, Mashq, Jalil, Ma'il, etc., there is no way to definitively link them to known examples.

In the early stages of its development, the Kufic script did not include the dots that we know from modern Arabic scripts. If we examine Kufic script inscriptions, we notice particular characteristics such as angular shapes and long vertical lines. In addition, the script letters were wider originally, which made writing long content more difficult. Still, the script was used for the architectural decoration of buildings, such as mosques, palaces and schools. ¹⁷

The grand impression in the Dome of the Rock is one example of early Arabic script-this monument, with the earliest examples of Qur'anic script and which was created only seven decades after the Hijra, was inspirational.

The Kufic script continued its development through different dynasties, including the Umayyad (661 - 750 C.E.) and Abbasid (750 - 1258 C.E.) dynasties. On this page, are some examples of Kufic scripts and their different developmental stages:

During the third century, the whole structure of calligraphy in the Islamic domains changed dramatically. Qur'ans were copied in huge numbers with various degrees of artistic skill. The thick, straight, flat Qur'anic scripts were introduced. Once paper was introduced, the use of parchment and vellum died out, along with their characteristic scripts.

When the Dome of the Rock was restored by the order of the Caliph Al-Ma'mun (reigned 813-833 C.E.), a barely visible narrow belt of inscription was added in Thuluth script. This was eventually to become the most important script in calligraphy.
The Baghdad Period
For the historian, facts were better documented at the beginning of the 10th century C.E. Baghdad became the greatest city in terms of art, knowledge and sciences related to Islamic calligraphy. In the over 500-year-history of the Abbasid Caliphate, this city saw the emergence of the art of calligraphy as a fine art and the rise of the great founding teachers, admirers and their followers.

Ma'mun's vizier Umar ibn Musida stated, in praise of Arabic calligraphy: "The scripts are like a garden of the sciences. They are a picture whose spirit is elucidation. The body is swiftness. The feet are regularity. Its limbs are skill in the details of knowledge. Its composition is like the composition of musical notes and melodies." ¹⁸
Pioneers of Islamic Calligraphy and Writing
Writing was very important during the early years of the evolution of Islam.

Some of the captives of the Battle of Badr could not afford to pay ransom to be freed but they could read and write. The Prophet sa told them that they would be freed if they each taught ten Muslim children to read and write. This was beneficial for both the captives and the Muslims. As a result, the captives taught the Companions to read and write in a very short time. By virtue of this initiative, the number of those who were literate in Madinah increased tremendously. ¹⁹ Among them was Zayd bin Thabit ra, who became one of the primary scribes to write down revelations to the Holy Prophet sa and worked on compiling the pages of the Qur'an. Although only a child at the time, the Messenger sa of Allah appointed him to write down revealed verses, which allowed him to later fulfil the duty of the compilation of the Qur'an, enabling the Qur'an to be formatted in the book we see today. ²⁰

Now in a very brief introduction, I will consider three major calligraphers' work and their contribution to Islamic calligraphy.
Ibn Muqlah
Abu 'ali Muhammad Ibn 'ali Ibn Muqlah Shirazi hailed from Iran and was a statesman, poet, and calligrapher living in the late 9 th century. In addition, he served as the vizier, or prime minister, several times under the reign of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad.

One of his most important contributions to calligraphy was recognising that a system of proportion was needed that would allow people to easily copy and replicate scripts, while also making them easier to read and more elegant. His first script, therefore, obeyed strict proportional rules. In his system, the dot that we know today was used for measuring the proportions of the lines, and a circle with a diameter equal to the alif's height as a measuring unit for letter proportions.

Ibn Muqlah's system was incredibly important in the standardising of the cursive scripts. Moreover, his system made prominent cursive styles of writing, making them acceptable-and even worthy-for use in the writing of the Holy Qur'an.

Three elements together form the basis for proportion in Arabic calligraphy. The first is the height of the alif, which is a vertical, straight stroke that can comprise of between three to twelve dots. The second element pertains to the width of the alif, which is formed when the calligrapher presses the tip of their pen to the paper. The square impression left on the paper determines the width of the alif. The final element consists of the hypothetical circle that could be drawn around the alif, with the alif as its diameter. All Arabic letters should fit within this circle.
Ibn Al-Bawwab
Ibn al-Bawwab was an Arabic calligrapher and illuminator of the 11 th century, and lived in Baghdad. He came from a common lineage and was a craftsman in his youth. In time, he also became an important religious figure. It is possible that that he was the first really significant artist in Islam. A skilled painter, he also pursued his artistic talents by both writing the scripts and illuminating his own works, which was rarely done by calligraphers of the era. Not only did he refine the methods of Ibn Muqlah, he also taught many students and is believed to have produced at least 64 written and calligraphied copies of the Qur'an.

In addition, Ibn al-Bawwab also was credited with the invention of both the Muhaqqaq and Rayhani scripts. Because of the consistency and beauty of the scripts, those penned by Ibn al-Bawwab were considered quite valuable and were sold for high prices even while he was alive. Working in all six styles, he is considered to have improved all of them, especially the Naskh and Muhaqqaq scripts.

Ibn al-Bawwab brought an elegance to Ibn Muqlah's system and, while retaining the mathematical accuracy and precision of Ibn Muqlah, added artistic flourish and flair to the system. In this way, he was in part responsible for promulgating the contemporary method, in which the script maintains internal proportion by using the dot-made by the proper pen for the script-as the unit of measurement. Although Ibn al-Bawwab is said to have penned a large number of secular works in addition to the copies of the Qur'an he produced, only fragments of his secular work remain. As far as his Qur'ans, only one-written in the Reyhan script-has survived, which is in the Chester Beatty Collection in Dublin, Ireland.
Yaqut al-Mustasimi
The third great calligrapher was Yaqut al-Mustasimi, from the thirteenth century, also from Baghdad, who was a slave in the house of the last Abbasid caliph, al-Mustasim Billah.

The caliph was so inspired by his work that he gave his surname to him so that when, in the future, people praised his work, they would also remember him.

It is said that he wrote 364 written copies of the Qur'an. He transformed calligraphy yet again, bringing even more elegance to Ibn al-Bawwab's method. Moreover, his "seven students"-the most famous seven of the many that he taught-are said to have disseminated his style (and their own versions of his style) far and wide, thereby making it the new standard. Unlike with Ibn al-Bawwab, he has left a multitude of authenticated works to study.

Committed to his work during the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258, he took refuge in the minaret of a mosque so he could finish his calligraphy practice. Several copies of his work still exist and are highly prized by collectors.
Other New Scripts
Around 1500 C.E, nearly two hundred years after Mustasimi, Turkish calligraphers invented a style called Diwani which was rather difficult to read. In order to set governmental or ministerial documents apart from ordinary documents, they made this script the official script of the Ottoman sultans. The other invention of Turkish calligraphers was a beautiful and decorative shape of twisted letters called Tughra, which was used to form the name of the Ottoman emperor, and was employed to authenticate the Sultan's orders. It was used essentially as a seal or signature.

After the invention of Kufi script in Kufa and the spread of it throughout the Muslim world, the western part of the Islamic world did not experience any equivalent developments on par with the eastern area.

The western region in the Islamic world, including the whole of North Africa, used to be called the Maghreb, consisting of modern Libya, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and even Spain.

It appears that a cultural separation occurred between Maghreb (west) and Mashregh (east) in the Islamic world. This separation is quite visible in terms of calligraphic development. So we have a beautiful Kufi script called Maghrebi Kufi and others, called Kairouani, Sudani and Fasi.
Six Major Scripts
Kufi (Place of development)

Thuluth (Width of the pen)

Naskh (Usage for Qur'an)

Deewani (Writing of the Court)

Riqa (Daily simple use)

Ta'liq (Hanging style script)
Kufic Script
The Kufic script is derived from the Hijazi Script, whose origin may be traced to Hirian, Nabatean and Ma'il, and as mentioned above, derives its name from the city of Kufa in Iraq.

Kufic is noted for its proportional measurements, angularity, and squareness. Kufic is one of the earliest styles to be used to record the word of God in the Qur'an. One of the early Kufic inscriptions can be seen inside the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

During the first three centuries of the Islamic period (7th-9th century C.E.), the Holy Qur'an was written and recorded in Kufic script.
Thuluth Script
The name "Thuluth" (meaning "a third" in Arabic) refers to this style because one-third of each letter slopes and because it refers to the width of the pen used to write the script.

This script is called the king of calligraphy; it was first formulated in the 7th century C.E. and fully developed in the 9th century. Thuluth is a more imposing and impressive style. Not often used for long texts or the body of a work, it most suited titles or epigrams. As it evolved over the centuries, examples of its many forms can be found on architectural monuments of all sorts.
Naskh Script
Naskh means "copy" in Arabic. It is one of the earliest scripts, redesigned by Ibn Muqlah in the 10th century C.E., using the comprehensive system of proportion mentioned above. It is noted for its clarity in reading and writing, and was used to copy the Qur'an. In contrast to the Thuluth script, Naskh script would be used in longer body text.
Diwani Script
The name of this script derives from "Diwan," the name of the Ottoman royal chancery. Created by Housam Roumi, this script was used in the courts to write official documents (as mentioned above) and reached the height of its popularity under Suleyman I the Magnificent in the sixteenth century.

Developed during the 16th century, it reached its final shape in the 19th century.
Ta'liq Script
Ta'liq means "hanging" and refers to the shape of the letters. It is a cursive script developed by the Persians in the early part of the 9th century. It is also known as Farsi (Persian).

The letters are rounded and have a lot of curves. While this makes it less legible, the script is often written with a large distance between lines to give more space for the eye to identify letters and words.
Nasta'liq Script
The Nasta'liq is a refined version of the Ta'liq script. Nasta'liq is the most popular contemporary style among classical Persian calligraphy scripts. Indeed, it is known as "bride of the calligraphy scripts."
Shekasteh script
In the 17th century a more cursive form of Nasta'liq was produced called Shekasteh.
Riqa Script
The word Riqa means "a small sheet," which could be an indication of the medium on which it was originally created. The Riqa style of handwriting is the most common type of handwriting. It is known for its clipped letters composed of short, straight lines and simple curves.

Riqa is a style that has evolved from Naskh and Thuluth.
Other Calligraphic Styles
Tughra was used by the Ottoman sultans as their signature. It was supposed to be impossible to imitate. For this reason, then, the tughra was often used as a stamp of authority and the royal emblem of the sultan. The genius of the tughra was that it was difficult to forge, and that meant that it could be used to authorise and legitimise anything from royal decrees to official coins of the realm. The official emblem would often include the name of both the sultan himself, and that of his father, along with the phrase "eternally victorious."

These calligraphic symbols were so difficult to make that they required a special artist, employed by the court, to design and execute the tughra. An illuminator would then add colour, scroll designs and gold leaf, essentially "decorating" the tughra.

From the use of the first tughra in 1324, these forms became increasingly ornate and elaborate. The tughra shown above belonged to the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-566). It contains three vertical shafts and a number of concentric loops in complex, graceful, flowing lines.
Be sure to read the second part of this series next month in our July edition.
About the Author: Razwan Baig is a scholar, collector, philanthropist and Islamic art critic and researcher. His Islamic art collection includes items as diverse as textiles and ceramics to Qur'anic manuscripts,and has been shown in several major art museums and international exhibitions. His interest in Islamic calligraphy began at age 12 and has run workshops and presented on the art of calligraphy since 1994. He completed his BA (Hons) History of Art & Archaeology of Islamic world, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He also has obtained extensive training in Arabic calligraphy in different styles from Birkbeck College, University of Sunderland as well as from some of the foremost calligraphers from Turkey, Baghdad and Pakistan. He will be exhibiting a portion of his collection this summer at The Review of Religions exhibition at the 50th annual convention of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community on August 12-14, 2016. As one of the largest private collectors of Islamic manuscripts in the U.K., he is also currently showing portions of his collection at the Art of Islam festival at Buckinghamshire County Museum through the end of September 2016.
Endnotes
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calligraphy

2.Holy Qur'an, Surah Al-Furqan, Verse 33.

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarteel
4.A Beginner's Guide To Andalusi Calligraphy: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc_fn-7M0S4.
5.Allama Ala wud Din Ali Bin Husam ud Deen, Kanzul-Ummaal, (Treasure of the Doers of Good Deeds), p486 and ref. no. 29566.

6. http://asiasociety.org/new-york/exhibitions/traces-calligrapher-islamic-calligraphy-practice-and-writing-word-god-calligrap. Accessed June 2016.

7.Allam Ala wud Din Ali Bin Husam ud Deen, Kanzul-Ummaal, p486 and ref no. 69558.

8. http://www.interlinkbooks.com/interlink_schami.pdf

9.Jurgen Wasim Fremgen, The Aura of Aliph: The Art of Writing in Islam, (New York: Prestel, 2010).

10.Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011).

11. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/09/steve-jobs-stanford-commencement-address

12. http://www.spiritilluminated.org/SacredArt.htm

13. Yasin Hamid Safadi, Islamic Calligraphy, Thames and Hudson, London, 1979

14. http://darwinpapasin.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/taking-closer-look-at-arabic-calligraphy.html

15. http://people.umass.edu/mja/history.html. Accessed June 2016.

16.Allama Ala wud Din Ali Bin Husam ud Deen, Kanzul-Ummaal, p.486 and ref no. 29559.

17. http://darwinpapasin.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/taking-closer-look-at-arabic-calligraphy.html

18.http://mohamedzakariya.com/essays/criticism-in-islamic-art/

19. http://darwinpapasin.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/taking-closer-look-at-arabic-calligraphy.html

20. http://www.resulullah.org/en/teacher

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Qur'anic History and the Role of Islamic Calligraphy

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Calligraphy is a fundamental element and one of the most highly regarded forms of Islamic Art. The word calligraphy comes from the Greek words kallos, meaning beauty, and graphein, meaning writing. In the modern sense, calligraphy relates to "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skilful manner."

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 Jami’ al-Tawarikh/ 'World History', Rashid al-Din (9)

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 Jami’ al-Tawarikh/ 'World History', Rashid al-Din (9)

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"The Arabic copy of his Jami’ al-Tawarikh in the exhibition is a history of the world as it was then known, covering not only the history of the Mongols, but also that of the Chinese, Franks and Indians.

Situated in the highly international and multi-cultural city of Tabriz in modern-day Iran, the scriptorium of Rashid al-Din welcomed artists from all parts of the Mongol empire and beyond. Elements of Byzantine, Chinese and other Islamic traditions are all evident in the illustrations."

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Iconic Persian Manuscript in New Exhibition at Main Library: 'The World History of Rashid al-Din, 1314. A Masterpiece of Islamic Painting'
The Centre for Research Collections and the Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World are delighted to announce the opening date for the public exhibition The World History of Rashid al-Din, 1314. A Masterpiece of Islamic Painting at the Main Library, University of Edinburgh.

The exhibition, opening on 2 August, features folios from the Jami' al-Tawarikh (or "World History") of Rashid al-Din: one of the most important illustrated medieval manuscripts to have survived from either East or West.

Datable to 1314, it was produced in the city of Tabriz, a seat of power of the Ilkhanid rulers, descendants of the Mongol Chingiz Khan, who held sway over an empire encompassing Persia and large parts of present-day Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The author, Rashid al-Din, was a physician and court historian to the Ilkhanid court. Born about 1247 AD into a Jewish family, he converted to Islam and served as vizier (prime minister) to the sultan. He met an unhappy end in 1318 AD, being executed on a charge of poisoning his royal master. Before that, however, he wrote what would become one of the world's most important historical and artistic documents. The Arabic copy of his Jami' al-Tawarikh in the exhibition is a history of the world as it was then known, covering not only the history of the Mongols, but also that of the Chinese, Franks and Indians.

Situated in the highly international and multi-cultural city of Tabriz in modern-day Iran, the scriptorium of Rashid al-Din welcomed artists from all parts of the Mongol empire and beyond. Elements of Byzantine, Chinese and other Islamic traditions are all evident in the illustrations. The Jami' al-Tawarikh manuscript demonstrates a profound fusion of techniques, and marks the birth of a new and distinguished style within Persian painting.

The Edinburgh portion of the manuscript made a long journey, from early fourteenth-century Iran to Victorian Scotland. The original manuscript left Iran and eventually passed to the court of the Mughals in India. It was divided into two parts around the mid-1700s, but both sections remained in India until the nineteenth century, when they were acquired by the British. The Edinburgh portion was acquired by Colonel John Baillie(1772-1833) of the East India Company, and together with other Islamic manuscripts, it was passed to Edinburgh University Library in 1876. The other portion was bequeathed to the Royal Asiatic Society and is now in private ownership. The manuscript on display is one of the greatest treasures of Edinburgh University Library.

This exhibition offers a unique chance to view folios of the original manuscript, complemented by loans relating to the material culture of fourteenth-century Iran from the National Museum of Scotland.
The exhibition is free and open to the public from 2 August 2014, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.
Exhibition Opening: 2 August 2014 | Where: Exhibition Gallery, Main Library, George Square | Closing: 31 October 2014 | Curated by: Prince Alwaleed Centre and the Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh
Blog posted by: Emma Smith and Steven Skeldon, Centre for Research Collections. With kind thanks to Andy Grout (Friends of Edinburgh University Library) for contributions, and the University of Edinburgh Digital Imaging Unit.

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The World History of Rashid al-Din, 1314. A Masterpiece of Islamic Painting

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Iconic Persian Manuscript in New Exhibition at Main Library: 'The World History of Rashid al-Din, 1314. A Masterpiece of Islamic Painting' The Centre for Research ...