During the Middle Ages, Europe was in a state of constant war, perpetual squabbles between royal families and the church in Rome, and using an agrarian system that had undergone little change for centuries. At the same time, the Muslims, who had taken control of Spain in 711 CE, were flourishing. They made great advances in the arts, architecture, medicine, exploration technologies, and education. Many inventions that Europeans would later take credit for were actually first conceived by the Muslims. If it were not for the intellect and ingenuity of the Islamic engineers and thinkers of the Middle Ages, the world we know today could have been far less advanced than the one that we are so comfortable with.
The two web sites that I reviewed were Muslim Scientists and Islamic Civilization, and the Islamic and Arabic Arts and Architecture Organization. The former is a web site that I found while looking through the Medieval Sourcebook, which itself is a wonderful hub site. The latter is a web site that I found in the Islam/WWW Virtual Library hub site. The two sites are both quite different, one focuses on the scientific achievements of medieval Islamic figures, and the other displays the art and architecture developed by Muslims and Arabs, much of which can still be seen in Europe today. Both web sites contained many helpful charts, maps, and illustrations, and were very easy to navigate.
Muslim Scientists and Islamic CivilizationThis web site contains a vast amount of information. I spent countless hours reading over it, and studying its many charts and maps. I'm a big history fan, and this site really warmed to me. One of the best features of the site is a chronology of Muslims in Andalusia from 711 to 1790 CE. Andalusia, used in this web site, is used to describe Spain, Portugal, and Southern France, the area in Europe were the Muslims made their largest gains, before the Spanish Inquisition forced their expulsion from the Iberian peninsula. There is also a nice section on the site that contains short biographies of many medieval Muslim scientists, including Arzachel, an astronomer who invented the astrolabe, an instrument used to determine latitude and longitude, which proved very helpful not only to astronomers but seafarers as well. Another interesting biography is that of Geber, the father of chemistry. Geber and Arzachel are both names given to the scientists by Europeans, their true Arabic names were Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Ibn Yahya Al-Zarqali and Jabir Ibn Haiyan, respectively.
There is very little that I would do to change this sight. It is very user friendly, and all of the links are up to date and loads quite quickly. The site is very well organized, and it doesn't use frames, java, or other devices that can cause more harm than good by cluttering up the screen and slowing down loading times.
Islamic and Arabic Arts and Architecture Organization
This site was helpful in finding out information about Islamic architecture. I learned from examining this site that there is no single dominant style of Islamic architecture. Structures developed by the Muslims differed in different regions. There is quite a lot in this web site about theShrines and Palaces of the Islamic world. I have actually visited two of the buildings mentioned in this article, in Cordoba, Spain, and the illustrious Alhambra in Grenada, Spain. The picture at the top of this page is "The Hall of the Two Sisters", located inside the Alhambra. The mosque in Cordoba has interesting history. It was originally used a mosque, then as a synagogue, and finally as a Catholic cathedral, which it is used for today. This web site also contains a nice article about the Influence of Islamic arts and architecture on the West. I found it interesting that British artists and architects in the 18th and 19th centuries drew most of their influence from the Arabs. One British architect, Owen Jones, went so far as to recreate the Alhambra's Court of the Lions at Crystal Palace in Sydenham, England. I enjoyed this web site because I find Islamic architecture quite stunning and beautiful, and I have been able to see a lot of these ancient works in person through my travels to Spain and Morocco.
I did not enjoy this site as much as the Muslim Scientists site, but it was still quite effective. This site was not as "chock-full" of information, and the layout was not as simple as the Muslim Scientists and Islamic Civilization site. I believe, that when a site is to be used for research, it should be laid out like an outline, which is what the Muslim Scientists and Islamic Civilization web site resembles. Still, I found the information that I was looking for, and you can tell that a lot of work was done to make the site look very professional.
This research project has been a very positive experience. I learned a
lot about where much of our technology came from, and we have the Muslims
of medieval times to thank for many things that we take for granted.
Throughout elementary, junior high, and senior high schools, my fellow
classmates and myself were taught that Europeans were responsible for
all the important technological innovations that have been developed
throughout history. I was smart enough to know, however, that this was
not the case, and that many other cultures on Earth are responsible for
the quite comfortable lives that we live now. I learned many things that
I had not previously known while researching for this project. For
example, I had never heard of Muslim-Chinese
relations in the Middle Ages. It amazes me that, without airplanes,
telephones, ocean liners, etc., civilizations that existed halfway around
the world from each other were able to interact and share technology.
Another curious document that I came across was that Muslims possibly arrived in
America before Columbus. I hope that children today are being taught
information such as this. It is important to know that there are/were
other civilizations that contributed as much or even more than what has
been contributed by the Europeans, and the people of the world would get
along a little better if they knew that they had a little more in common
with each other than they thought.