Post classical china map

Mathematics vs religion and al-Ghazali's work

1. The reading does not specifically say that the Islamic religion is for or against the sciences. It instead states that religion and sciences serve two different purposes. The reading seams to have a slight negative opinion although beause of the lack of faith those that practice the sciences have. The reading states that because they practice sciences they come to the conclusion that everything must have a reasonable and logical explanation while religion requires some faith and because those who practice the sciences don't have that faith you get the sense from the reading that there is a slight dislike of the sciences.

2. Yes religion and mathematics should be separated because neither effects the other. Mathematics is based on facts that "once known and understood, can not be refuted" while religion is based on faith. Al-Ghazali also explains that in the Islamic religion there is no law that condemns the sciences. Because the fact that neither effects each other and they are able to coexist Al-Ghazali believes that the religions should be separated. 


The truth about Plato and Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali and Plato both talked and taught about how to find truth and exactly what reality was. Both men taught that you must question everything in order to find the truth and that you are not able to rely on your sense to determine what is real or not. This evident by Plato's cave in which he explains that men are bound to rocks and forced to look at shadows on the wall. There perception of reality is based solely on what they see and hear and it is no where close to what is really true as discovered by one who escapes the cave and visits the outside world. Al-Ghazali version of this is that life and the world is the cave, we are misguided by the things around us and that the only way to truly discover the truth is through death.

Constantinople vs Baghdad

Benjamin of Tudela got around, visiting some of the greatset cities of his time including Constantinople and Baghdad. Both cities where similar in size, Constantinople coming in at 18 miles in circumference and Baghdad at 18 miles circumference. Both cities attracted much trade and business due to their size and as a result they became very wealthy. In bothe cities there are buildings with gold and silver columns, a representation of wealth and power. In his descriptions of both cities he mentions Constantinople's entertainment system and Baghdad's Caliph. In Constanitiople they have a place called the Hippodrome where there are many different forms of entertainment preformed. In order to impress the emperor. Benjamin describes the Caliph in his description of Baghadad. The Caliph is the head of the Muslim religion and he lives in a grand palace. The Caliph providspes hospitals for his people and all of his actions are good. Baghadad also has palm trees and fantastic gardens and vegetation.

Maps, Expansion and contraction of Byzantine empire, expansion of dar-al-Islam

Compare and contraste the qurans teaching with other religions

The relastionship between Allah and human beings is similar to the views of Zorastrianism, Judaism and christianism in its belief of a paradise after death and different in that Zoroastrianism had several different dieties. All four religions foused on and idea of a paradise after life that one can get to if they practiced good moral behavior. They also believed in a hell which you would go to if you were evil. The religions empazied that the behavior that was appropriate to practice in order to get to heaven was dictated by their supreme deity and there for they should follow him and be subbisive to him as stated in the Quran, "men and women who have come to submission". The religions differe in one aspect which is that Zoroastrianism believes in several dieties not just one all powerful. This probably came from the fact that it was the earliset and it's roots are planted it early Persian religions that involved many dieties for different things.

Byzantine questions, women and Justinian

The Byzantine Empire, much like the rest of the world during its time, was a highly patriarchal society. Women had little to no rights and men dominated society. Their job was to take care of the house and children as well as be subservient to their husbands and other men. We can tell this because, as mentioned before, the Byzantine empire was similar to Rome in it's culture and home life, and we know that Rome was a patriarchal society as well. Also the Justin's code is very biased towards men ands shows the unfairness in the law towards women.

Justin's background is important because it gives a sense of where he is coming from and what might have influenced his decisions as emperor. He was born a pheasant so unlike many other emperors he has the background of what it is like to be the lowest of the low. This would influence his decisions because he is going to attempt to make the lives of the poor better because he has sympathy for them. He was also soldier so he has the strict military lifestyle behind him as well, which might have led to his want for a orderly set of laws to govern the empire