This book reflects on debates among historians of science, medicine and technology as well as Islamicate societies about fundamental questions of how we think and write about the intellectual and technological past in cultures to which we... more
This book reflects on debates among historians of science, medicine and technology as well as Islamicate societies about fundamental questions of how we think and write about the intellectual and technological past in cultures to which we do not belong any longer or never were a member of. These debates are occasioned by the manner in which amateurs have taken bits and pieces from our academic narratives and those of our predecessors, stripped them of their richness in detail and their often agonizing efforts to interpret these details, and rearranged them in simplifying and often misguided fashion as outdated stories about glory, success, priority and progress. Our texts are accompanied by reflections of professional curators and museum directors about the difficulties of translating academic research into representations that attract different groups of visitors. They are followed by experiences in northern Europe with Islamophobic adversaries of any narrative about Muslim contributions to the sciences, medicine and technologies, and in one of the Gulf States with alleged reformers of the political, economic and educational landscape of the sheikhdom and their use of such amateurish narratives for blocking efforts of critical questioning of such self-congratulatory representations.
This is a pre-published version with proofreading marks of the book 1001 Distortions edited by Taner Edis, Lutz Richter-Bernburg und myself. please, do not quote from it.
This paper consists of two parts: in the first half I share my thoughts about the purposes of the open texts and the corresponding projects and their historical basis; in the second I sketch an idea about a research of particular texts... more
This paper consists of two parts: in the first half I share my thoughts about the purposes of the open texts and the corresponding projects and their historical basis; in the second I sketch an idea about a research of particular texts with the tools of the contemporary Digital Humanities.
The text was presented at Greek and Latin in an Age of Open Data Workshop, Leipzig, December 2014.
The treasure of Buseyra is preserved in the museum of Deir az-Zour in Syria. The coins in the hoard cover a large period from the Sassanian Sovereign Khusrô II (590/1-628) until the terminal date 331H/ 941. These coins offer precious... more
The treasure of Buseyra is preserved in the museum of Deir az-Zour in Syria. The coins in the hoard cover a large period from the Sassanian Sovereign Khusrô II (590/1-628) until the terminal date 331H/ 941. These coins offer precious information, not only about a large number of mints but about the periods and quantities of minting activity.
This treasure is important because it is the first complete hoard of the 10th century discovered in the al-Djazīra area. According to Tomas Noonan, the Middle East and Central Asian hoards only amount to ten per cent of the treasures found in northern and eastern Europe and the Nordic countries. In comparing contemporaneous 10th-century silver hoards, and especially the relation between the numbers of coin dies and their representation of their products, we can obtain insights into the flows of money and the balance of payments for each area and each minting city.
