Foundry Lessons from Islamic Empires

Research and Development

This article was in part inspired by and will reference:

Islamic Empires by Justin Marozzi

Islamic Empires goes over a few things in regard to his studies about Islamic Empires he chooses to mention here

RANT: I want to warn anyone and everyone: he does come off as wanting to make certain that Dark skin african people have little to nothing to do with civilized society as it is defined today. It speaks to a common theme today with the new focus on Palestine. The focus on Palestine is well warranted, but the subtle theme is centered around deconstructing white supremacy while finding subtle ways to uphold black inferiority. A quick example of how this plays out: In museums, you'll find paintings from the renaissance with a black man on the ground in front of white guests. A quick glance will lead you to believe its a slave on the ground in front of his master, but if you look at the details, you will notice "the slave" is wearing fancy jewelry. It makes one think about what is going on behind the scenes. In Justin's case, he goes out of his way to separate North Africa and mention slaves as "dark skin Africans." I do not know the color of the people or the ethnic background of any of the cities he mentions outside of this particular book, but its definitely noteworthy and something to keep in mind in the few times it does come up in the book.

I think a theme that we'll see throughout the book is the polytheistic nature of many of these places and how the mixing of cultures may have led to more growth and development. Note: I have not read too much on this, but the idea of Egypt is said to be the origin of a blending of cultures as well. Very much notable. Unfortunately, we had to run up against a dark possibility that many of these places were able to develop from killing and robbing from other groups of people.

The book also talks about how the cities we hear in history are giving us idealism and focus around places and cultures that may not have been nearly as big on a world stage. Mosques and cities were bigger and more uniquely designed in many cases.