Monday, February 8, 2010
Science and Islam: Feb 8 2010
By al-Din on February 9, 2010 1:28 AM
Yang terhormat Tun.
Behind science and discoveries: End of a Malay kingdom
The Melaka kingdom or sultanate lasted just slightly over a century (1402-1511). At its establishment period (by Parameswara), world events elsewhere were already in a state of flux with wars and conquests, coronations, explorations and discoveries, inventions, advances in sciences and humanities.
At the onset of the Malay kingdom, Western Europe was undergoing the Renaissance period when arts and architecture flourished at its centre, Venice. The Ming Dynasty was at its zenith especially in sea power. The Ottomans (Turkish) empire was expanding with a great victory at Kosovo in 1389 which gave them control of the Balkans for the next 500 years. The Tartars under Timur, however curbed the Ottomans by conquering Central Asia beginning in 1395.
The look-East policy by a western nation was first initiated when Portuguese navigators, geographers and seamen were encouraged to make expeditions to the East by Prince Henry ‘The Navigator’. By 1488 Bartholomew Diaz had rounded the southern tip of Africa and named it as the Cape of Good Hope. Their goal to the East was now wide open.
Duarte Barbosa wrote about Melaka as a great centre of eastern trade “Whoever is Lord in Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice”. Melaka had become a trading centre where exotic goods and products from the East were reaching Europe. So much so that the King of Portugal, King Manuel in 1509 dispatched a fleet under Lopez de Sequeira to request for permission from the Sultan to trade.
Melaka was under the reign of Sultan Mahmud Shah (1488-1511), the sixth Sultan of Melaka. The Bendahara was Tun Mutahir, the uncle of the Sultan. Using kris and spears Tun Hasan Temenggong and his warriors managed to repel de Sequiera and his men armed with matchlocks.
World events in science and discoveries 20 years before the fall of Melaka:
1488 - Portugal’s Bartolomeu Dias rounds Cape of Good Hope, opening a new route to India.
1490-2 - German geographer and navigator Martin Behaim (1440-1507) constructs the oldest globe.
1492 -1502 - Voyages by Columbus, the Genoese-born explorer reach Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti), Trinidad and Panama.
1495- Aldine Press in Venice prints the Greek Classics, spreading rebirth of Greek learning.
1495 - First known muzzle-loading rifles made for Maximilian, the Holy Roman Emperor.
1497 - John Cabot, an Italian navigator employed by Henry VII of England, lands in Newfoundland, which he mistakes for China.
1497 - Italian artist and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci paints Last Supper, Mona Lisa in 1502.
1497-8 - Genoese-born explorer makes two voyages in search of a North-West Passage to China and discovers Newfoundland.
1498 - Vasco da Gama of Portugal reaches west coast of India at Calicut after rounding southern Africa.
1499 - Switzerland gains independence from the German Empire.
1499-1501 - Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) explores coast of South America, and gives his name to the continent.
1500 - Portuguese navigator, Pedro Cabral lands on the coast of Brazil and claims it for the Portuguese Crown.
1501 - In Venice, Ottaviano dei Petrucci publishes first printed music.
1506 - St. Peter’s, Rome began to be built.
1509 - Earliest known pocket watch made at Nuremberg, Germany.
1509 - Dutch humanist and scholar Erasmus, the most influential man of letters in northern Europe writes Encomium Moriae (‘In Praise of Folly’).
1509 - Portuguese flotilla under de Sequeira’s arrives in Melaka.
1510 - Venetian Renaissance at its peak.
1511 - de Albuquerque conquest of Malacca and end of the Melaka Sultanate.
In hindsight, we could deduce plausible explanations as to the success and longevity, or failure of a kingdom. External factors as well as internal strength or problems affect the stability and sovereignity of any nation. For the case of Melaka, it was the total lack of science and discoveries that led to its downfall.
Leonardo da Vinci's last words at his death ‘I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.’
Posted by SUSTAINABLE LIVING INSTITUTE (SAVE) at 7:31 PM 0 comments
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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Blair the Liar: Feb 21 2010
By al-Din on February 23, 2010 12:34 AM
Linda S. Heard, Political columnist specialising in Mid-East affairs, Cairo:
"... even the blatant lies that were used to oil the invasion of Iraq are well known and a time when that ravished country stands on the brink of a possible civil war, the US and its sycophants are setting their sights on Iran. They haven't even bothered to come up with new pretexts. Why should they, when the supine Western media, which briefly emerged from its stupor to say its mea culpas over its Iraq reportage, reverts to disseminating government propaganda?"
Quoted from the foreword in 'The War on Terrorism: The Untold Truths'. Latheef Farook, 2006. SIRD, P Jaya p5
Linda S. Heard, Political columnist specialising in Mid-East affairs, Cairo:
"... even the blatant lies that were used to oil the invasion of Iraq are well known and a time when that ravished country stands on the brink of a possible civil war, the US and its sycophants are setting their sights on Iran. They haven't even bothered to come up with new pretexts. Why should they, when the supine Western media, which briefly emerged from its stupor to say its mea culpas over its Iraq reportage, reverts to disseminating government propaganda?"
Quoted from the foreword in 'The War on Terrorism: The Untold Truths'. Latheef Farook, 2006. SIRD, P Jaya p5
Blair the Liar: Feb 21 2010
By al-Din on February 22, 2010 4:38 PM
British playwrite, Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate Literature 2005 on the US invasion of Iraq:
"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt fo the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate the American military and economic control of the Middle East masqurading - as a last resort - all other justifications having failed to justify themselves - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people."
Quoted from: War on Terrorism: The Untold Truth. By Latheef Farook, SIRD, P Jaya, 2006, p1
British playwrite, Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate Literature 2005 on the US invasion of Iraq:
"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt fo the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate the American military and economic control of the Middle East masqurading - as a last resort - all other justifications having failed to justify themselves - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people."
Quoted from: War on Terrorism: The Untold Truth. By Latheef Farook, SIRD, P Jaya, 2006, p1
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Malaysiakini: Feb 15, 2010
By al-Din on February 18, 2010 12:26 AM
Anti-Semitics?
Noted Westerners who symphatize the Palestinian/Arab struggle or not pro-Jews/Zionists:
William Shakespeare - The Merchant of Venice, Shylock
Sir Richard Burton - adventurer, scholar
Noam Chomsky - world-reknown linguist, scholar, and political analyst. Wrote among others "Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & The Palestinians", South End Press, Cambridge, 1999 (2nd ed); and others
Edward W. Said - scholar, author
Robert Fisk - leading foreign correspondent in the Middle East. Wrote "Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War", Oxford Univ . Press, 1992 (2nd ed); etc
Mohammad Assad - Polish Jew who embraced Islam. Wrote "The Road to Mecca", Dar Al-Adalus, Gibraltar, 1980 (4th ed); etc
Paul Craig Roberts - noted US economist
Lord Galloway, UK - recent Palestina Viva campaign
Gwynne Dyer - international affairs expert. Wrote "The Mess They Made: The Middle East After Iraq", Scribe Publ., Melbourne, 2007; etc
Lawrence of Arabia - see "With Lawrence in Arabia", "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"
David Pryce-Jones - author of many non-fiction and fiction books. Wrote "The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs", Phoenix Press, London, 2002; etc
Karen Amstrong - foremost commentator of religous affairs, awarded the Muslim Public Affairs Council Media Award, 1999. Wrote "Islam: A Short History", 2000; "Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World", 1992, and others
Alijah Gordon (Allahyarhamah)- Malaysian Sociological Research Institute (MSRI). "On Becoming Alijah. Part 1: From the American Revolutionary War through Burma, March 1957", MSRI, K Lumpur, 2002; and other books
Anti-Semitics?
Noted Westerners who symphatize the Palestinian/Arab struggle or not pro-Jews/Zionists:
William Shakespeare - The Merchant of Venice, Shylock
Sir Richard Burton - adventurer, scholar
Noam Chomsky - world-reknown linguist, scholar, and political analyst. Wrote among others "Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & The Palestinians", South End Press, Cambridge, 1999 (2nd ed); and others
Edward W. Said - scholar, author
Robert Fisk - leading foreign correspondent in the Middle East. Wrote "Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War", Oxford Univ . Press, 1992 (2nd ed); etc
Mohammad Assad - Polish Jew who embraced Islam. Wrote "The Road to Mecca", Dar Al-Adalus, Gibraltar, 1980 (4th ed); etc
Paul Craig Roberts - noted US economist
Lord Galloway, UK - recent Palestina Viva campaign
Gwynne Dyer - international affairs expert. Wrote "The Mess They Made: The Middle East After Iraq", Scribe Publ., Melbourne, 2007; etc
Lawrence of Arabia - see "With Lawrence in Arabia", "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"
David Pryce-Jones - author of many non-fiction and fiction books. Wrote "The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs", Phoenix Press, London, 2002; etc
Karen Amstrong - foremost commentator of religous affairs, awarded the Muslim Public Affairs Council Media Award, 1999. Wrote "Islam: A Short History", 2000; "Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World", 1992, and others
Alijah Gordon (Allahyarhamah)- Malaysian Sociological Research Institute (MSRI). "On Becoming Alijah. Part 1: From the American Revolutionary War through Burma, March 1957", MSRI, K Lumpur, 2002; and other books
Malaysiakini: Feb 15, 2010
By al-Din on February 17, 2010 5:04 PM
On the false claim of the Jewish homeland - Mohammad Assad* (Polish Jew who embraced Islam) argued with Dr. Chaim Weizmann, foremost Zionist:
'But it is our country,' replied Dr. Weizmann, raising his eyebrows. 'We are doing no more than taking back what we have been wrongly deprived of.'
'But you have been away from Palestine for nearly two thousand years! Before that you had ruled this country, and hardly ever the whole of it, for less than five hundred years. Don't you think that the Arabs could, with equal justification, demand Spain for themselves - for, after all, they held sway in Spain for nearly seven hundred years and lost it entirely only five hundred years ago?'
Dr Weizmann had become visibly impatient: 'Nonsense. The Arabs had only conquered Spain; it had never been their original homeland, and so it was only right that in the end they were driven out by the Spaniards.'
'Forgive me,' I retorted, 'but it seems to me that there is some historical oversight here. After all, the Hebrews also came as conquerors to Palestine. Long before them were many other Semitic and non-Semitic tribes settled here - the Amorites, the Endomites, the Philistines, the Moabites, the Hittites. Those tribes continued living here even in the days of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. They continued living here after the Romans drove our ancestors away. They are living here today. The Arabs who settled in Syria and Palestine after their conquest in the seventh century were always only a small minority of the population; the rest of what we describe today as Palestinian or Syrian "Arabs" are in reality only the Arabianized, original inhabitants of the country. Some of them became Muslims in the course of centuries, others remained Christians; the Muslims naturally inter-married with their co-religionists from Arabia. But can you deny that the bulk of those people in Palestine, who speak Arabic, whether Muslims or Christians, are direct-line descendants of the original inhabitants: original in the sense of having lived in this country centuries before the Hebrews came to it?'
Dr. Weizmann smiled politely at my outburst and turned the conversation to other topics.
* quoted ad vertim from his book "The Road to Mecca", Dar Al-Andalus Ltd., Gibraltar, 1980 (2nd ed) p95
On the false claim of the Jewish homeland - Mohammad Assad* (Polish Jew who embraced Islam) argued with Dr. Chaim Weizmann, foremost Zionist:
'But it is our country,' replied Dr. Weizmann, raising his eyebrows. 'We are doing no more than taking back what we have been wrongly deprived of.'
'But you have been away from Palestine for nearly two thousand years! Before that you had ruled this country, and hardly ever the whole of it, for less than five hundred years. Don't you think that the Arabs could, with equal justification, demand Spain for themselves - for, after all, they held sway in Spain for nearly seven hundred years and lost it entirely only five hundred years ago?'
Dr Weizmann had become visibly impatient: 'Nonsense. The Arabs had only conquered Spain; it had never been their original homeland, and so it was only right that in the end they were driven out by the Spaniards.'
'Forgive me,' I retorted, 'but it seems to me that there is some historical oversight here. After all, the Hebrews also came as conquerors to Palestine. Long before them were many other Semitic and non-Semitic tribes settled here - the Amorites, the Endomites, the Philistines, the Moabites, the Hittites. Those tribes continued living here even in the days of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. They continued living here after the Romans drove our ancestors away. They are living here today. The Arabs who settled in Syria and Palestine after their conquest in the seventh century were always only a small minority of the population; the rest of what we describe today as Palestinian or Syrian "Arabs" are in reality only the Arabianized, original inhabitants of the country. Some of them became Muslims in the course of centuries, others remained Christians; the Muslims naturally inter-married with their co-religionists from Arabia. But can you deny that the bulk of those people in Palestine, who speak Arabic, whether Muslims or Christians, are direct-line descendants of the original inhabitants: original in the sense of having lived in this country centuries before the Hebrews came to it?'
Dr. Weizmann smiled politely at my outburst and turned the conversation to other topics.
* quoted ad vertim from his book "The Road to Mecca", Dar Al-Andalus Ltd., Gibraltar, 1980 (2nd ed) p95
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Malaysiakini: Feb 15, 2010
By al-Din on February 15, 2010 5:11 PM
The Christians (Europeans) believe that Jews was responsible for the 'crufixation' of Nabi Isa in Jerusalem in 30 AD. This set their persecution of diasporic Jews since then.
The Jews through their financial prowess (Rotschilds, Soros ...) are now the power brokers in the US, Europe and in fact the rest of the world. To bow to their demands if not suffer financial backlash, the West must assiduously atone for their crimes of atrocities committed against the Jews in the past.
The Europeans must cleanse their bloody hands, bury history and shift the burden of guilt to the Muslim world. The Muslims are terrorists. The crusade is against them. The holocaust is on them.
Major flashpoints in anti-Jewish pogroms by Europeans:
70 AD - Roman legions under General Titus sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple while crushing a Jewish revolt.
132-35 - Romans quelled 2nd Jewish revolt.
1096 - a crusader Count on the way to Jerusalem massacred 1000 Jews at Mainz, Germany.
1099 - by the fall of Jerusalem during the First Crusade some 40,000 Jews and Muslims were savagely butchered.
1492 - at the fall of Granada, the last stronghold of Muslim Andalus, King Ferdinand of Spain issued an edict that expelled 100,000 to Portugal. Many fled to Morocco.
WW2 - holocaust, purportedly 6,000,000 Jews sent to the incinerator by the Nazis.
Allah said the Jews are the chosen people. But they are arrogant, committing genocide in Palestine and Lebanon. Allah knows all what's in store for all.
The Christians (Europeans) believe that Jews was responsible for the 'crufixation' of Nabi Isa in Jerusalem in 30 AD. This set their persecution of diasporic Jews since then.
The Jews through their financial prowess (Rotschilds, Soros ...) are now the power brokers in the US, Europe and in fact the rest of the world. To bow to their demands if not suffer financial backlash, the West must assiduously atone for their crimes of atrocities committed against the Jews in the past.
The Europeans must cleanse their bloody hands, bury history and shift the burden of guilt to the Muslim world. The Muslims are terrorists. The crusade is against them. The holocaust is on them.
Major flashpoints in anti-Jewish pogroms by Europeans:
70 AD - Roman legions under General Titus sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple while crushing a Jewish revolt.
132-35 - Romans quelled 2nd Jewish revolt.
1096 - a crusader Count on the way to Jerusalem massacred 1000 Jews at Mainz, Germany.
1099 - by the fall of Jerusalem during the First Crusade some 40,000 Jews and Muslims were savagely butchered.
1492 - at the fall of Granada, the last stronghold of Muslim Andalus, King Ferdinand of Spain issued an edict that expelled 100,000 to Portugal. Many fled to Morocco.
WW2 - holocaust, purportedly 6,000,000 Jews sent to the incinerator by the Nazis.
Allah said the Jews are the chosen people. But they are arrogant, committing genocide in Palestine and Lebanon. Allah knows all what's in store for all.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Islam and Science: Feb 14 2010
al-Deen-amin said...
Al-Fadil ibn Marwan (784-864) - Vizier of Al-Motassim, a Christian who embraced Islam. He said:
"If you must compare a Khatib (scribe) to anything, compare him to a wheel for raising water from a well. He must be constantly kept at work. Otherwise he will cease to function properly."
"Do not attack your enemy when he is advancing. That would be folly; for when he is advancing, he has an advantage over you."
Najm al-Din al-Kubra (-1221)- religous scholar, a poet, writer and orator at al-Khwarizm. When Genghis Khan laid seige and to raze the city of Khwarizm, he sent a message to the the Najm to join him.
He sent back the following message, "If I were to leave my people at this hour of their tragedy, it would be an act remote from virtue and magnanimity."
The Najm's body was found among the slain.
Al-Fadil ibn Marwan (784-864) - Vizier of Al-Motassim, a Christian who embraced Islam. He said:
"If you must compare a Khatib (scribe) to anything, compare him to a wheel for raising water from a well. He must be constantly kept at work. Otherwise he will cease to function properly."
"Do not attack your enemy when he is advancing. That would be folly; for when he is advancing, he has an advantage over you."
Najm al-Din al-Kubra (-1221)- religous scholar, a poet, writer and orator at al-Khwarizm. When Genghis Khan laid seige and to raze the city of Khwarizm, he sent a message to the the Najm to join him.
He sent back the following message, "If I were to leave my people at this hour of their tragedy, it would be an act remote from virtue and magnanimity."
The Najm's body was found among the slain.
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