雙語+MP3|美國學生世界歷史46 阿拉伯時代

46
PERHAPS you have read the Arabian Nights. This is the story of
Arabian Days
阿拉伯時代

     In the one hundred years after Muhammad died, the Muslims conquered the Middle East and North Africa. Soon after that, they conquered Persia and lands farther east. Before long, their empire was larger than the Roman Empire had been. For the Middle East and North Africa, the centuries that followed were indeed Arabian Days. Although they failed to conquer most of Europe, over the years people there learned many things from the Muslims.
     The Phoenicians invented our alphabet, but the Arabs invented the figures which we use today in arithmetic. 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on are called Arabic figures. The Romans used letters instead of figures: V stood for 5, X for 10, C for 100, M for 1000, and so on. Think how difficult it must have been for a Roman boy to add such numbers as

     They could not be added up in columns as we do. When you think of multiplying and dividing with Roman numbers, it seems almost impossible, for example:

     Occasionally you may see Roman figures still used-on clock faces, for instance-but all the figures that you use every day in your arithmetic are Arabic figures.
     Another thing:
     The Arabs built many beautiful buildings; these buildings look quite different from those that the Greeks and Romans and Christians built. The doors and window openings, instead of being square or round, were usually horseshoeshaped. On the top of their mosques they liked to put domes shaped something like an onion, and at the corners they put tall spires or minarets from which the muezzin could call aloud the hour for prayer. They covered the walls of their buildings with beautiful mosaics and designs. The Muslims, however, were very careful that these designs were not copies of anything in nature, for they had a commandment in the Qur'an something like the Christian commandment, "Thou shalt not make... any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." Because of this commandment, most Muslims never made drawings or pictures of any living thing, neither of plants nor animals. They thought they would be breaking the commandment if they did. So they made designs out of lines and curves without copying anything from nature. These designs were called arabesques, and although they were not like anything in nature, they were often very beautiful.
     Still another thing:
     In Arabia there grew a little bush on which were small berries with seeds inside. The sheep seemed to like these berries and, when they ate them, became very lively. The Arabs themselves tried eating the seeds of these berries with the same effect. Then they made a drink out of these seeds by roasting and grinding them and boiling them in water. This was coffee-which the Arabs had discovered and which is now drunk all over the world.
     Another drink made from berries, often from grapes, is alcohol. The Muslims did not like what alcohol does to people who drink it, and so they forbade every Muslim from drinking anything containing alcohol, such as wine, beer, or whiskey.
     Still another thing:
     Woolen cloth which people used for clothing was made from the hair of sheep or goats. As it took the hair of a great many such animals to make a very little cloth, woolen cloth was expensive. The Arabs found out a way of making cloth from a plant, the cotton plant, which of course was much cheaper. Then in order to decorate the cloth and make it pretty and attractive, they stamped the plain cloth with wooden blocks shaped in different forms and dipped in color. This printed cloth that the Arabs invented was called calico.
     Still another thing:
     The Arabs made swords and knives of such wonderful steel that the blades could be bent double without breaking. The blades were said to be so keen they could cut through the finest hair if floated on water, a thing that only the sharpest razor will do, and yet at the same time so strong that they could cut through a bar of steel. Such swords were made in the East at a place called Damascus, which is in Syria, and in the West at a place called Toledo, which is in Spain; and so these swords and knives were known as Damascus or Toledo blades. Unfortunately, no one now knows the Arabs' secret for making such marvelous blades. It is what is called a lost art.

Muslim veiled woman standing by Saracenic ornamental arch
站在撒拉遜裝飾風格的拱門旁戴著面紗的穆斯林婦女
     Near where Babylon once was, the Arabs built a city named Baghdad. You have heard of it if you have ever read any of the Arabian Nights, for most of these stories were told about Baghdad. It was the eastern capital of the Muslims. There in Baghdad the Arabs built a great school that was famous for many, many years. At Cordova in Spain was the western capital of the Muslims, and there they built another great school. Later, after Islam spread south of the Sahara Desert to West Africa, Muslims there built another wonderful school in a city called Timbuktu.
     I might tell you many other things these people did-how they made clocks with pendulums to keep time-people had no real clocks before; how they started wonderful libraries of books; and so on-but this is enough for the present to show you what intelligent people they were.
     The Arabs belong to the Semite family, the same family to which the Phoenicians and Jews belong. The Arabs were as clever as their cousins the Phoenicians, who, you remember, were very clever, but they were also as religious as their other cousins the Jews, who, you remember, were very religious.
     The Muslims had ideas about women that are different from ours. Most thought it was immodest for a woman to show her face to men, and so every woman had to wear a thick veil which hid her face-all except her eyes- whenever she went out where there were men. With such a veil she could see but not be seen. Muslims believed their women would be protected by wearing the veil. Muslims also taught that one man might have up to four wives, if he could protect them all and care for them equally.
     One other thing that the Muslims did was to copy and save the writings of the Greek poets and philosophers like Aristotle. Many of these were lost in Western Europe after the fall of Rome. You will see later that Muslim scholars saved these writings and gave them back to Europeans to study centuries later.