China and the culture of Asia

In the Arab Caliphate a new culture took shape that absorbed Greek, Syriac, Persian, Sogdian and Indian learning. In Baghdad at the start of the 9th century the “House of Wisdom” worked, becoming a centre of translation and science especially under Caliph al-Ma’mun. Muhammad al-Khwarizmi (9th century) laid the foundation of algebra, and Indian numerals later spread to Europe as “Arabic numerals”. Abu Bakr al-Razi and Abu Ali ibn Sina became famous in medicine; astronomers in observatories calculated the length of the Earth’s meridian, and globes and astrolabes were used. Al-Mas’udi, Ibn Fadlan and Ibn Battuta wrote travel accounts. The “Thousand and One Nights” is a collection built from travellers’ tales and stories. In architecture the Alhambra in Granada, the mosque of Córdoba, the Hasan mosque in Cairo and the Ismail Samani mausoleum in Bukhara are famous. Books were decorated with ornament and calligraphy: Arabic script has 28 letters and is written from right to left. Indians achieved success in mathematics, astronomy and medicine, and the Ajanta cave temples and monasteries (about 30 caves) are a marvel of architecture. In China paper, woodblock printing, gunpowder and historical chronicles developed, and the Hanlin Academy was established in the 8th century.