All posts tagged Ptolemy

UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK IV

By | February 8, 2014 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, History, Unseen Egypt | Comments Off on UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK IV

In the 1960s, after the Nasser Regime disastrously insisted on building the Aswan High Dam, Nubia was submerged and with it lost a lot of Nubian heritage and more architectural marvels got buried under water than they were able to save. An international project was initiated by UNESCO in order to save what can be saved. A gargantuan project to say the least! Read more…

AL-KHWARIZMI (9th Century CE – 2nd/3rd Century AH): MATHMATICIAN AND GEOGRAPHER

By | September 23, 2012 | Explorers, History, Pax Islamica | Comments Off on AL-KHWARIZMI (9th Century CE – 2nd/3rd Century AH): MATHMATICIAN AND GEOGRAPHER

By Islam El Shazly

Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi, not a lot is known about his life as a whole, well, except the little fact that he founded Algebra, and introduced the Zero and the Arabic numerals to the world. But he was more than that; he was a mathematician, an astronomer, a geographer, and a cartographer, and he has done a lot more than solve quadratic equations.

Al-Khwarizmi, was born in Khwarizm – Khiva – around 780 CE (164 AH) in modern day Uzbekistan, back then it was part of Greater Khorasan within Persia. He moved with his family to Baghdad, the centre of knowledge and learning in an age that is now known as the Golden Age of Islam, there he would rise in the ranks and eventually be at the head of the House of Wisdom. Read more…