Fake miniatures depicting Islamic science are now found in the most august of libraries, museums, and history books
Monday, September 24, 2018
Jihad Watch : The achievements of Islamic scientists are widely touted in the West
today.
Many people have pointed out that much of this is trumped-up,
with the innovations of dhimmi Jews and Christians living in Islamic
societies being touted as achievements of Islam, and with some supposed
Islamic achievements simply being fabricated. This article reveals that
this fabrication is actually an entire industry, and has fooled
reputable authorities all over the West, so avid is today’s
establishment Left to make people think well of Islam and not be
concerned about jihad and Islamization.
“Forging Islamic science: Fake miniatures depicting Islamic science
have found their way into the most august of libraries and history
books. How?” by Nir Shafir, Aeon, September 11, 2018 (thanks to the Geller Report): As I prepared to teach my class ‘Science and Islam’ last
spring, I noticed something peculiar about the book I was about to
assign to my students. It wasn’t the text – a wonderful translation of a
medieval Arabic encyclopaedia – but the cover. Its illustration showed
scholars in turbans and medieval Middle Eastern dress, examining the
starry sky through telescopes. The miniature purported to be from the
premodern Middle East, but something was off.
Besides the colours being a bit too vivid, and the brushstrokes a
little too clean, what perturbed me were the telescopes. The telescope
was known in the Middle East after Galileo developed it in the 17th
century, but almost no illustrations or miniatures ever depicted such an
object. When I tracked down the full image, two more figures emerged:
one also looking through a telescope, while the other jotted down notes
while his hand spun a globe – another instrument that was rarely drawn.
The starkest contradiction, however, was the quill in the fourth
figure’s hand. Middle Eastern scholars had always used reed pens to
write. By now there was no denying it: the cover illustration was a
modern-day forgery, masquerading as a medieval illustration. The fake miniature depicting Muslim astronomers is far from an
isolated case. One popular image floating around Facebook and Pinterest
has worm-like demons cavorting inside a molar.
It claims to illustrate
the Ottoman conception of dental cavities, a rendition
of which has now entered Oxford’s Bodleian Library as part of its
collection on ‘Masterpieces of the non-Western book’. Another shows a
physician treating a man with what appears to be smallpox. These
contemporary images are in fact not ‘reproductions’ but ‘productions’
and even fakes – made to appeal to a contemporary audience by claiming
to depict the science of a distant Islamic past.
I do not aim to please anyone. This is my blog, there is no blog like this. I am not mainstream. Read my disclaimer before posting comments and threatening me. Not to worry, I will not quiver in my boots. If you are not happy, no problem, just take a hike!!
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I do not aim to please anyone. This is my blog, there is no blog like this. I am not mainstream. Read my disclaimer before posting comments and threatening me. Not to worry, I will not quiver in my boots. If you are not happy, no problem, just take a hike!!