Baghdad and Isfahan

<p>Renowned as great centres of learning, the cities of Baghdad and Isfahan were at<br>the heart of the Islamic civilization as rich capital cities and centres of intellectual<br>thought. Their distinct cultural voices inspired a unique historical dialogue, which<br>finds new expression in Baghdad and Isfahan, the story of how knowledge was<br>transmitted and transformed within Islamic lands, and then spread across Europe.<br>Capturing the history of Baghdad and Isfahan from 750 to 1750, Elaheh Kheirandish<br>draws on the voices of court astronomers, mathematicians, scientists, mystics,<br>jurists, statesmen and Arabic and Persian translators and scholars to document the<br>extensive and lasting contribution of sciences from Islamic lands to the history of<br>science. Kheirandish bases her narrative on a unique medieval manuscript and other<br>historical sources and the result is more than a thousand-year ‘tale of two cities’ – it<br>is a city by city, and century by century, look at what it took to change the world.<br>In a feat of travelogue and time travel, this unique book creates parallel stories<br>with modern and historical characters, crossing cities worldwide, and capturing<br>changes through time. Interweaving multiple narratives, histories, and futures, she<br>charts the possible paths – formalized and serendipitous, lost and recovered – by<br>which knowledge itself is translated and transmitted across time and cultures.</p>