The Islamic Chronicles

2023-04-05 13:45:49 Ibn Battuta narrates:

It is one of the laudable customs of the people of Damascus that not a man of them breaks his fast during the nights of Ramadan entirely alone. Those of the standing of amirs, qadis, and notables invite their friends and a number of faqirs to breakfast at their houses.

Merchants and substantial traders follow the same practice; the poor and the country folk for their part assemble each night in the house of one of their own number or in a mosque, each brings what he has, and they all breakfast together.

When I first came to Damascus, a friendship grew up between the Maliki Professor Nur al-Din as Sakhawi and me, and he urged me to breakfast at his house during the nights of Ramadan.

After I had visited him for four nights I had a stroke of fever and absented myself. He sent out in search of me, and although I excused myself on the ground of illness he would accept no excuse from me, so I went back to his house and spent the night there.

When I wished to take leave the next morning, he would not hear of it but said to me, 'Consider my house as your own, or as the house of your father or brother,' and gave orders to send for a doctor and to have prepared for my use in his own house everything that the doctor should prescribe in the way of medicine or diet.

I remained in his house in this condition until the day of the Feast of the Fast breaking (Eid), when I joined in the festival prayers at the musalla and God Most High healed me of what had befallen me. Meanwhile, all the money I had for my expenses was exhausted. Nur al-Din, learning this, hired camels for me and gave me traveling provisions, etc., and money in addition, saying to me, 'It will come in useful for anything of importance that you may be in need of' - may God reward him well!

Source: The Travels of Ibn Battuta


Support us
https://www.patreon.com/theislamicchronicles Buka / Bagaimana

2023-04-05 13:45:35 Buka / Bagaimana

2023-03-29 18:16:40 Have you ever heard about the Curse of Tamerlane and how it's related to Hitler, the Soviet Union and World War II? Watch here:

https://youtube.com/shorts/OqTSwrM3Hp4?feature=share Buka / Bagaimana

2023-03-22 14:07:32 On this day, March 22, 1394 CE, Timurid emperor, an accomplished mathematician and one of the greatest astronomers in history, Ulugh Beg was born in Sultaniyeh, Timurid Empire, Persia.

The grandson of Amir Timur (Tamerlane) and the son of Shah Rukh, Ulugh Beg made some of the best astronomical observations of his time. Not only for mathematics and astronomy but he is also remembered as a great patron of arts and scholarship.

When his father, Shah Rukh, captured the city of Samarkand, he gave it to his son Ulugh Beg who made it a center of Muslim culture and scholarship. He built an observatory (around the 1420s) at Samarkand.

In his observations, he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2nd-century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, whose figures were still being used. He and his assistants made a catalogue of stars from observations with a large quadrant.

Ulugh Beg is associated with a Persian astronomical handbook called the Zij-i Sultani that stands out for the accuracy with which its tables were computed. It consists of four chapters dealing with chronology, trigonometry and spherical astronomy, planetary positions, and astrology.

In mathematics, Ulugh Beg wrote accurate trigonometric tables of sine and tangent values, correct to at least eight decimal places. Famous mathematician Ali Qushji was a student and co-worker of Ulugh Beg.

Our appreciation for Ulugh Beg’s work increases when we remember that he was working nearly two centuries prior to the invention of the telescope. His work eventually became known in Europe, with the publication of his works in London in 1650 in Latin and later the first of many European editions of his star tables.

Support us
https://www.patreon.com/fiveminthistory Buka / Bagaimana

2023-03-22 14:07:24 Buka / Bagaimana