Allah is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language,the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh,which means "the god",and is linguistically related to the Aramaic words Elah and Syriac ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ(ʼAlāhā) and the Hebrew word El (Elohim) for God.
The Arabs,also known as the Arab people,are an ethnic group who identify with each other on the basis of language,culture,history,or ancestry,mainly inhabiting the Arab world,which encompasses Western Asia and North Africa,and to a lesser extent West Africa,the Horn of Africa,and the western Indian Ocean islands. Furthermore,a significant Arab diaspora is also present in various parts of the world,most notably in the Americas,Western Europe,Turkey,Indonesia,and Iran.
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights,from the first English-language edition,which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.
Sheikh —also transliterated sheekh,sheyikh,shaykh,shayk,shekh,shaik and Shaikh,shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language,literally meaning "Elder";in a monarchical context it is also translated as "Lord/Master".
Abūal-Qāsim Khalaf ibn al-'Abbās al-Zahrāwīal-Ansari,popularly known as al-Zahrawi (الزهراوي),Latinised as Albucasis,was an Arab Andalusian physician,surgeon and chemist. Considered to be the greatest surgeon of the Middle Ages,he has been referred to as the "father of modern surgery".
Arabic literature is the writing,both as prose and poetry,produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is Adab,which is derived from a meaning of etiquette,and which implies politeness,culture and enrichment.
Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb was a statesman,historian and physician in Ilkhanate Iran.
Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi ( Arabic:أبوزيدحنينبنإسحاقالعبادي;ʾAbūZayd Ḥunayn ibn ʾIsḥāq al-ʿIbādī was an influential Arab Nestorian Christian translator,scholar,physician,and scientist. During the apex of the Islamic Abbasid era,he worked with a group of translators,among whom were Abū'Uthmān al-Dimashqi,Ibn Mūsāal-Nawbakhti,and Thābit ibn Qurra,to translate books of philosophy and classical Greek and Persian texts into Arabic and Syriac.
An Arabist is someone,often but not always from outside the Arab world,who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and culture.
Islamic literature is literature written by Muslim people,influenced by an Islamic cultural perspective,or literature that portrays Islam. It can be written in any language and portray any country or region. It includes many literary forms including adabs,a non-fiction form of Islamic advice literature,and various fictional literary genres.
The Toledo School of Translators is the group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries,to translate many of the Judeo-Islamic philosophies and scientific works from Classical Arabic into Latin.
Diyāʾal-Dīn AbūMuḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Mālaqī,commonly known as Ibn al-Bayṭār was an Andalusian Arab physician,botanist,pharmacist and scientist. His main contribution was to systematically record the additions made by Islamic physicians in the Middle Ages,which added between 300 and 400 types of medicine to the one thousand previously known since antiquity. He was a student of Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati.
Salim T. S. Al-Hassani is Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering and currently an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester. He is President of the Foundation of Science,Technology and Civilisation (FSTC),founder of the academic portal www.MuslimHeritage.com;and Chief Editor of the 1001 Inventions touring exhibition,built as a global education initiative which includes a book,award winning film and teacher’s pack.
During the High Middle Ages,the Islamic world was at its cultural peak,supplying information and ideas to Europe,via Al-Andalus,Sicily and the Crusader kingdoms in the Levant. These included Latin translations of the Greek Classics and of Arabic texts in astronomy,mathematics,science,and medicine. Translation of Arabic philosophical texts into Latin "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world",with a particularly strong influence of Muslim philosophers being felt in natural philosophy,psychology and metaphysics. Other contributions included technological and scientific innovations via the Silk Road,including Chinese inventions such as paper,compass and gunpowder.
The term Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture,Norman–Sicilian culture or,less inclusively,Norman–Arab culture,refers to the interaction of the Norman,Byzantine Greek,Latin,and Arab cultures following the Norman conquest of the former Emirate of Sicily and North Africa from 1061 to around 1250. The civilization resulted from numerous exchanges in the cultural and scientific fields,based on the tolerance shown by the Normans towards the Latin- and Greek-speaking Christian populations and the former Arab Muslim settlers. As a result,Sicily under the Normans became a crossroad for the interaction between the Norman and Latin Catholic,Byzantine–Orthodox,and Arab–Islamic cultures.
Carool Kersten is a Dutch scholar of Islam and the author and editor of eleven books. Trained as an Arabist,Southeast Asianist and scholar of Religions,he currently is Professor of Islamic Studies at the Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and Emeritus Reader in the Study of Islam &the Muslim World at King's College London. His research interests focus on the modern and contemporary Muslim world,in particular intellectual and political developments in both regional and global contexts.
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific,economic and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam,traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century.
