We had an interesting discussion of the conflict in Syria and other Arab countries. In our frustration we may have blamed the problems on Arabian culture, going back a thousands of years. We forget that a thousand years ago, the Arabs were civilized and the Europeans were the barbarians.
Here is a short TED talk about how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown. It reminds us that much of our mathematics come from the Arabians and credits it to the logic of the Arabic language.
The speaker says that Arabic is an extremely precise language, and yet it is so often used in a flowery and exaggerated manner. When responding to an aggressor, Arabs will often go overboard with language as to how they will respond to this aggression, even if obviously they do not have the capacity to follow through. They are also great poets, or at least used to be. What was it that transformed Arabs from the intellectuals of the world into a fairly inconsequential people? After their ouster from Spain in 1492, they graciously welcomed Jews who were also ousted into their African and Eastern countries. And yet these two peoples are now at odds. When did Arabs start treating women subserviently? This certainly was not the case at the time of the start of Islam, Muhammad's wife being a wealthy businesswoman. I don't believe that this treatment of women is supported by the Koran.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem strange that the Arabic language too be considered both precise and flowery. Maybe the language is so precise that it does not take much to be flowery :)
ReplyDeleteI any case the Arabian culture had a far greater impact in Western math than in Western literature.