The origin of algorithm
Posted: July 28, 2018 Filed under: business, Islam Leave a commentThe word “algorithm” comes up a lot these days. We’ve spoken before about the origin of this word, in the name of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, author of The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.
written around 820 CE in the city of Baghdad.
The man from Khwarizm.

source: Wiki user Fulvio Spada
The Khwarazam region today doesn’t look too great.
Arabic
Posted: January 30, 2017 Filed under: Islam, Islam, Middle East, politics, religion Leave a comment
The challenge:
How to react:
“The messenger of this incredible movement”
Posted: January 23, 2017 Filed under: Islam, politics Leave a comment
Muhammad leads Abraham, Moses and Jesus in prayer. from medieval Persian manuscript Source: ”The Middle Ages. An Illustrated History” by Barbara Hanawalt (Oxford University Press, 1998). Source.
is that
a) how Muhammad is described in the Quran
or
b) how Sean Spicer describes President Donald Trump?
Hadith
Posted: December 12, 2016 Filed under: Islam, Islam, religion 2 CommentsReading some of the sayings of The Prophet, the Hadith, in Thomas Cleary’s translation:
A word of warning for PEOTUS:
Pretty sure Trump is not a Muslim
Posted: September 21, 2016 Filed under: Islam Leave a commentfrom Thomas Cleary’s translation of the Koran / Qur’an, Surah 2 (The Cow), 38.
World’s oldest liberry
Posted: March 4, 2016 Filed under: Africa, books, Islam Leave a commentThe ancient al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez isn’t just the oldest library in Africa. Founded in 859, it’s the oldest working library in the world, holding ancient manuscripts that date as far back as 12 centuries.
so I learn from this interesting thing linked by Tyler Cowen.
The al-Qarawiyyin Library was created by a woman, challenging commonly held assumptions about the contribution of women in Muslim civilization. The al-Qarawiyyin, which includes a mosque, library, and university, was founded by Fatima El-Fihriya, the daughter of a rich immigrant from al-Qayrawan (Tunisia today). Well educated and devout, she vowed to spend her entire inheritance on building a mosque and knowledge center for her community.

picture of Fatima from this strange pseudo wikipedia: http://america.pink/fatima-fihri_1528345.html
Among the library hounds was Ibn Khaldun who wrote Muqaddim, The Introduction, which is full of interesting ideas:
Topics dealt with in this work include politics, urban life, economics, and knowledge. The work is based around Ibn Khaldun’s central concept of ‘‘aṣabiyyah, which has been translated as “social cohesion“, “group solidarity”, or “tribalism“. This social cohesion arises spontaneously in tribes and other small kinship groups; it can be intensified and enlarged by a religious ideology. Ibn Khaldun’s analysis looks at how this cohesion carries groups to power but contains within itself the seeds – psychological, sociological, economic, political – of the group’s downfall, to be replaced by a new group, dynasty or empire bound by a stronger (or at least younger and more vigorous) cohesion.

By م ض – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6287905
Perhaps the most frequently cited observation drawn from Ibn Khaldūn’s work is the notion that when a society becomes a great civilization (and, presumably, the dominant culture in its region), its high point is followed by a period of decay. This means that the next cohesive group that conquers the diminished civilization is, by comparison, a group of barbarians. Once the barbarians solidify their control over the conquered society, however, they become attracted to its more refined aspects, such as literacy and arts, and either assimilate into or appropriate such cultural practices. Then, eventually, the former barbarians will be conquered by a new set of barbarians, who will repeat the process. Some contemporary readers of Khaldun have read this as an early business cycle theory, though set in the historical circumstances of the mature Islamic empire.

By Khonsali – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4550966