Briefly, Arab culture in the development of world civilization. The modern Arab world. The history of the development of the Arab world. Glassware

Arabic culture

medieval culture that developed in the Arab Caliphate in the 7-10th centuries. in the process of cultural interaction of the Arabs and the peoples of the Near and Wed conquered by them. East, North. Africa and Southwest. Europe. In the scientific literature, the term “A. To." it is used both to designate the culture of the Arab peoples proper, and as applied to the medieval Arabic-speaking culture of a number of other peoples that were part of the Caliphate. In the latter sense, the concept “A. To." sometimes identified with the concept of "Muslim culture" (ie, the culture of Muslim peoples) and its use is conditional.

On the territory of the Arabian Peninsula, Arabian culture was preceded by the culture of the pre-Islamic Arabs — a nomadic and agricultural population that was in the transition to an early form of class society. Its speakers were mainly polytheists. In the 4th-6th centuries. she was influenced by the ancient Yemen, Syro-Hellenistic, Jewish, Iranian cultures. A characteristic element of the pre-Islamic culture of this period (the so-called jahiliya) was a developed oral folk literature. The formation of A. k. Proper belongs to the period of the emergence of Islam and (7th century) and the creation of the Caliphate, which, as a result of the Arab conquests (see Arab conquests), turned into a huge state. The state-political community founded by the Arabs, supplemented by a religious, and in most regions and linguistic community, created the conditions for the emergence of common forms of cultural life of the peoples of the Caliphate. In the early stages, the formation of archeology was mainly a process of assimilation, reevaluation, and creative development in the new ideological and socio-political conditions (Islam and the Caliphate) of the heritage of the cultures of the conquered peoples (Ancient Greek, Hellenistic-Roman, Aramaic, Iranian, etc.) ... The Arabs themselves gave A. to. Such components as the religion of Islam, the Arabic language, and the traditions of Bedouin poetry. A significant contribution to agronomy was made by peoples who, having converted to Islam, retained their national independence and then revived state independence (the peoples of Middle Asia, Iran, and the Transcaucasus). An important role was also played by the part of the population of the Caliphate that did not accept Islam (Syrians-Christians, Jews, Persians-Zoroastrians, representatives of the Gnostic sects of Western Asia); with their activities (especially the Syrians-Nestorians and the Sabians of Harran), in particular, the dissemination of philosophical and ethical ideas and the scientific heritage of antiquity and Hellenism is associated. In the 8-9 centuries. many scientific and literary monuments of antiquity, including Greek, Syrian, Middle Persian and Indian, were translated into Arabic. In translations and adaptations, they became part of the Arabic script and contributed to the establishment of a continuous connection with the culture of the Hellenistic world, and through it - with the ancient and ancient Eastern civilization.

From the end of the 7th century. until the middle of the 8th century. Along with Damascus, the capital of the Umayyads (see Umayyads), the main centers that determined the formation of the Armenian culture were Mecca and Medina in Arabia, and Kufa and Basra in Iraq. Religious and philosophical ideas, the first achievements of science, the canons of Arabic poetry, examples of architecture, etc. received distribution and further development in the provinces of the Umayyad Caliphate, in a vast territory from the Pyrenees to the river. Ind.

With the formation of the Abbasid caliphate (See Abbasids) (750) the center of Arab culture in the east of the Caliphate moved from Syria to Iraq, to Baghdad, founded in 762, which for almost three centuries was the center of the best cultural forces of the Muslim East. In the 9-10th centuries. A. k. Reached the highest flowering. Her achievements have enriched the culture of many peoples, in particular the peoples of medieval Europe, and made an outstanding contribution to world culture. This applies primarily to the development of philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, geographical knowledge, philological and historical disciplines, chemistry, mineralogy. The development of material culture and art (architecture, artistic craft) is marked by remarkable monuments. The division of branches of knowledge in academia is conditional, since for her, as well as for other cultures of the Middle Ages, the absence of a clear differentiation of sciences and the encyclopedic character of the education of most of the workers of the academy of sciences are typical. The philosopher and mathematician was often also a major historian, physician, geographer, poet, and philologist.

An important factor in the flourishing of agrarian culture was that the development of science and literature was the property of all the peoples of the Caliphate (both Arabs and non-Arabs). The enrichment of archeology was facilitated by the wide opportunities for communication and mutual exchange of cultural achievements between the peoples of the Muslim East, as well as lively ties with many countries of the East and Europe.

The disintegration of the Abbasid Caliphate (mid-tenth century) in connection with the formation of independent states on its territory led to a narrowing of the sphere of distribution of agrarian culture and a gradual decrease in its role in the general development of world culture. In Muslim Spain, which separated from the Abbasid caliphate back in the 8th century, the so-called. Arab-Spanish culture. In the eastern provinces of the Caliphate at the end of the 9th century. centers of Iranian cultural and national revival are being formed. The Persian language displaces the Arabic language, first from literature and poetry, and then from some of the humanities (history, geography, etc.). The Arabic language retained its significance here as the language of the Qur'an, religious and canonical (law, theology) and a number of natural sciences (medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry), as well as philosophy. The centers of A. k. Moved to Syria, Egypt, Spain.

All in. In Africa, under the Fatimids (see the Fatimids) (10th-12th centuries) and the Ayyubids (see the Ayyubids) (12th-13th centuries), the development of the best traditions of A.C. in the field of science, literature, art, and material culture continued, although with less influence on the general progress of the culture of the peoples of the Muslim East than in the 8th - 1st half of the 10th centuries. By the end of the 10th century. Baghdad ceded the leading role to Cairo.

Significance of A. k. 8-10 centuries. in the history of world culture was determined by the discovery by its creators of new means of scientific, religious-philosophical and artistic knowledge of the world and man. The main efforts of the leaders of the archaeological community of subsequent periods were directed mainly towards the systematization and detailing of this legacy.

Although the scientific and aesthetic traditions of A. k. Were not interrupted, but from the second half of the 13th century. In the creative work of the workers of archeology, the epigone trend prevailed, which was compiled in science and imitative in literature. Individual exceptions could not affect the general state of spiritual stagnation and the increasingly noticeable lag in the development of archeology and culture from the rates of cultural progress in other countries of the Muslim East (Iran, Middle Asia in the 14th and 15th centuries, Ottoman Turkey in the 16th century. ) and in Europe.

The Arab-Spanish civilization experienced a brilliant flourishing in the 10-15th centuries. Its centers were Cordoba, Seville, Malaga and Granada. The greatest advances have been made in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and medicine. The development of the progressive line of Arab philosophy [al-Farabi, about 870 - about 950; Ibn Sina (Avicenna), 980-1037], represented by the works of Ibn Rushd a (Averroes, 1126-1198). In poetry and literature, works were created that were included in the list of the best artistic monuments of A.C. Monuments of Spanish-Moorish architecture and applied art became world famous (see Moorish art).

A major achievement of A. k. In the late Middle Ages was the creation by the historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) historical and philosophical theory of social development.

In the 16th century. Arab countries became provinces of the Ottoman Empire. A. K. fell into decay, although during this period the old cultural centers of Syria, Iraq, and Egypt traditionally retained an attractive force for Muslim scholars.

A qualitatively new period in the development of A. k. Begins in the first half of the 19th century. In the context of the economic and political revival of the Arab countries in modern times, in the conditions of the beginning of the development of the national liberation movement and, finally, the formation of independent Arab states, the formation of modern Arab countries is taking place, mainly within the framework of each of the Arab countries. (See the relevant sections in the articles on individual Arab countries.)

Exact and natural sciences. The center for the development of natural sciences in the Caliphate was originally the territory of Syria and partly South-West. Iran. This was the beginning of translations into Arabic and commentary on the works of ancient authors. Translations from Greek and Syrian, familiarizing scholars of Islamic countries with a significant part of ancient scientific literature, in many cases were the only sources according to which Zap. Europe could get acquainted with ancient science. For example, it is only in the Arabic translation that Heron's "Mechanics" and many treatises of Archimedes have come down to us. Many technical innovations (a compass, an oblique sail, etc.) entered European use through the carriers of archeology, some of which were adopted from China and India.

9-11 centuries. - a period of rapid development of science in the Caliphate. Baghdad is turning into a large scientific center with schools and libraries. Along with the creation of a huge translated literature and comments to it, a scientific direction is already beginning to take shape, closely connected with the solution of applied problems and practical problems of construction, land surveying, and trade. Astronomy and mathematics, mineralogy, and descriptive geography are developing intensively.

In connection with the disintegration of the Caliphate into separate states (10th century), along with Baghdad, new scientific centers arose: Damascus and Aleppo (Aleppo) in Syria, Cairo in Egypt, Maragha in Azerbaijan, Samarkand in Wed. Asia, Ghazni in Afghanistan, as well as the centers of Spanish-Arab culture - Cordoba, and then Seville and Granada. At different times, major scientific centers were Bukhara, Isfahan, where from the end of the 11th century. Persian and Tajik poet and scientist Omar Khayyam worked at the observatory (about 1048 - after 1122), who wrote his scientific treatises in Arabic. In Cairo from the beginning of the 11th century. the "House of Knowledge" functioned, in which the astronomer Ibn Yunus worked (950-1009) and mathematician and physicist Ibn al-Haytham (about 965-1039); in 1004 an observatory was built here.

The formation of mathematics in the countries of Islam, in addition to the Greek heritage, was also greatly influenced by the Indian scientific tradition. The decimal positional number system with the use of zero, which originates from Indian mathematics, has become widespread. The first essay in Arabic devoted to arithmetic is a treatise by the largest representative of the Baghdad school al-Khwarizmi (9th century). In the 15th century. the Samarkand scientist al-Kashi introduced decimal fractions and described the rules for actions on it. In the writings of Abu-l-Vefa (940-998), the Central Asian scholar al-Biruni (973-1048, according to other sources - after 1050), Omar Khayyam, Nasiraddin Tuy (1201-80, according to other sources - 1274 or 1277), Kashi have been developed and systematized root extraction methods with natural indicators. The role of Khorezmi and Omar Khayyam in the creation of algebra as an independent mathematical discipline is extremely important. Khorezmi's algebraic treatise contains a classification of quadratic equations and methods for their solution; Omar Khayyam's treatise - the theory and classification of cubic equations. The computing techniques of Viruni, Kashi, and others have been significantly improved.

Of great interest are the geometric treatises of the brothers "sons of Musa" ("banu Musa") of the 9th century, the works of Abu al-Vefa on practical geometry, the treatises of Ibn Qurra (see Ibn Qurra) (about 836-901), the treatise of Ibn al- Haytham about the quadratures of conic sections and cubatures of bodies obtained from their rotation, research by al-Nayrizi (9-10th centuries), Ibn Qurra, Ibn al-Haytham, Omar Khayyam, Tuy and others on the theory of parallel lines.

Islamic mathematicians have transformed flat and spherical trigonometry from an auxiliary branch of astronomy into an independent mathematical discipline. In the works of Khorezmi, al-Marvazi, al-Battani, Biruni, Nasiraddin Tuyi, all six trigonometric lines in a circle were introduced, dependencies between trigonometric functions were established, all cases of solving spherical triangles were investigated, the most important theorems of trigonometry were obtained, various trigonometric tables were compiled, which differed in a large accuracy.

Astronomy has made significant progress. First, the translation and commentary on the works of Ptolemy and the Indian astronomical works - the siddhanta - were performed. The center of translation activity was the "House of Wisdom" and its observatory in Baghdad. Translations of Indian astronomical treatises were made by al-Fazari - father (died about 777) and son (died about 796), and Yakub ibn Tariq (died about 96). Starting from the Greek methods of modeling the motion of celestial bodies and Indian calculation rules, Arab astronomers have developed methods for determining the coordinates of the luminaries on the celestial sphere, as well as rules for transitioning from one of the three used coordinate systems to another. Even treatises on astrology contained elements of important natural science knowledge. Ziji, a collection of tables and calculation rules for spherical astronomy, became widespread. About 100 Zijs of the 13-15th centuries have come down to us. About 20 of them were compiled on the basis of the authors' own observations in the observatories of many cities: Biruni in Ghazni, Battani in Raqqa, Ibn Yunus in Cairo, Nasiraddin Tuy in Maragha, Kashi in Samarkand, etc. Arab astronomers achieved significant accuracy in measuring the inclination of the ecliptic. Under Caliph Mamun (9th century), the meridian degree was measured to determine the size of the globe.

Further development of the legacy of ancient mechanics continued [Ibn Qurra's treatise on the lever balance - Korastun; treatises by Biruni, Omar Khayyam, al-Khazini (12th century) on the determination of the specific gravity of metals and minerals]. The cycle of works on general questions of mechanics begins with the translation and commentary on the works of Aristotle. Among the commentators on the natural sciences of Aristotle were Biruni and Ibn Sina.

Many scientists worked in the field of mineralogy [works of Biruni, Khazini, scientist and physician ar-Razi].

Information on physics, in particular the physics of the atmosphere and geophysics, is contained in the "Canon of Masud", "Mineralogy" by Biruni, in the "Book of Knowledge" by Ibn Sina. "Optics" by Ibn al-Haytham was widely known in the West. Europe.

Great advances have been made in medicine. Ibn Sina's "Canon of Medicine" has long been the main guide in medical practice both in the medieval East and in the West. Europe. Among the writings of Biruni there is a treatise on pharmacology. The body of medical knowledge ar-Razi is known (864-925). Questions of surgery, ophthalmology, therapy, psychiatry were developed.

Geography. In terms of the abundance of geographical information, the variety of genres and the number of works of Arab geography, literature has no analogy in medieval geography. Arab geographers and travelers left a description of the entire Muslim East, as well as a number of countries, including Europe, North. and Center. Africa, the coast of the East. Africa and Asia up to Korea, the islands of the Malay Archipelago. Their works are the most important, and sometimes the only evidence of many peoples of the Middle Ages. It is characteristic of the Arabian geographical science that in its theoretical constructions it proceeded, contrary to the accumulated real information about the geography of the Earth, from the Ptolemaic picture of the world and its geographical theory. Cartographic material usually reproduced maps of Ptolemy or schematic maps dating back to ancient Iranian prototypes.

The geographic representations of the pre-Islamic Arabs are reflected in ancient poetry and the Qur'an. Appearance at the turn of the 8-9 centuries. translations and adaptations of the astronomical and geographical works of ancient authors, especially Ptolemy, laid the foundation for Arab scientific geography, which applied calculation rules and tables of spherical astronomy. The highest achievement of this branch of Arab geography, along with the works of Battani and Khorezmi, are the astronomical-geographical and geodetic works of Biruni. In the 9th century. the first examples of descriptive geography appeared [the works of Ibn Khordadbeh a (about 820 - about 912/913), Qudama ibn Jafar (1st half of the 10th century), al-Yakubi (died 897 or 905)], as well as travel stories containing fantastic and real information about countries and peoples outside the Caliphate (collection of Abu Zayd al-Sirafi, early 10th century; op. Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, etc.). The genre of travel description developed in the subsequent (notes of Ibn Fadlan a, 10th century, Abu Dulaf, 10th century; travel diaries of Abu Hamid al-Garnati, died 1170, Ibn Jubair a, died 1217, and Ibn Battuta (See), 1304-1377, description of the trip to Russia by Patriarch Macarius of Antioch, etc.).

The flowering of Arab geographical literature falls on the 10th century. Particularly significant were the works of representatives of the classical school of Arab geography, devoted to the description of trade routes and regions of the Muslim world and containing the richest geographical and historical and cultural material (works of al-Istakhri, Ibn Hawqal, 10th century, al-Mukaddasi, 946/947 - about 1000 ). B 11-14 centuries. genres of geographical dictionaries and general descriptions of the Universe arose - cosmography, summarizing the previously accumulated geographical material (dictionaries Yakut a, 1179-1229, al-Bakri, died 1094, cosmography al-Qazvini, died 1283, ad-Dimashki, died 1327, Abu-l -Fids). In Europe, the most famous was al-Idrisi (1100-1165 or 1161). His works with 70 maps were considered the best geographical treatise in the Middle Ages. In addition to describing the Muslim East, it contains a variety of information about the countries and peoples of the West. and Vost. Europe. The subsequent development of geography proceeded mainly along the line of creating extensive compilations, especially cosmographies and historical and topographic descriptions of individual cities and countries (for example, the works of al-Maqrizi). The geographical sections in the works of al-Nuwayri, al-Umari, al-Kalkashandi, and others are of great value. ), summarizing the theory and centuries-old practice of Arab navigation.

Philosophy. The main content of the history of medieval Arab philosophy was the struggle between the Eastern Peripatetics (see Peripatetic School), who proceeded from the Hellenistic heritage, and supporters of religious idealistic teachings. The prehistory of philosophical thought proper in the Arab East dates back to the second half of the 8th century. and is associated with the Mutazilites (See Mutazilis), the early representatives of rational theology (kalama), who, starting with a discussion of questions about divine Attributes and free will, ended up developing concepts that not only went beyond the framework of religious issues, but also undermined faith in some basic tenets of Islam. Thus, consistently pursuing the idea of Monotheism a, the Mu'tazilites rejected the presence of God with positive attributes that complement his essence; denying in it, in particular, the attribute of speech, they rejected the idea of the eternity of the Koran and on this basis they concluded that its allegorical interpretation was permissible. The Mutazilites developed the concept of reason as the only measure of truth and the position of the inability of the creator to change the natural order of things. The idea of the atomic structure of the world was widespread among the Mu'tazilites. Thus, on the one hand, they laid the foundation for rational geology, and on the other, they cleared the ground for the emergence of a purely philosophical free-thinking of the peripatetics.

As a reaction to the ideas of the Mu'tazilites, the doctrine of the Ash'arites (followers of al-Ashari, 873 or 874 - 935/936) developed, who directed rational theology in the mainstream of the philosophical defense of the dogmas of divine providence and miracle (it is with this doctrine that the term "kalam" and the main its representatives are called mutakallim). According to the teachings of the Ashrites, nature turned out to be a heap of atoms and their qualities, unrelated to each other and instantly recreated by God; in the world, they argued, there is no cause-and-effect relationship, for the Almighty is capable of giving any object any form and any movement at any time.

In contrast to both the speculations of theologians and the teachings of the peripatetics, Sufism developed. Using, together with elements of the Muslim worldview, the ideas of Gnosticism a and Neoplatonism a, Sufis developed the doctrine of the ways that lead a person through renunciation of worldly passions and contemplation of God in mystical intuition and final merging with him. At the same time, at some stages of their development, Sufi ideas were interpreted in the spirit of naturalistic pantheism.

The mysticism of the Sufis, which at first was persecuted by the orthodox clergy, was legalized by al-Ghazali (1059-1111), the largest representative of religious idealistic philosophy. In his criticism of the "heretical" and "contradictory" views of the peripatetics, Ghazali defended, along with the mystical Sufism, the position of the Ash'arites, refusing, however, to accept their atomistic theory. Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) can also be considered one of the influential representatives of Sufism.

Eastern peripatetism was based on the philosophy of Aristotle, which was passed to the Arabs through the Syrian translators, partly in the interpretation of the Athenian and Alexandrian schools, as well as other ancient teachings, in particular the political theory of Plato. The interpretations of Aristotle by the Eastern Peripatetics opened the way for atheistic and even materialistic concepts. Thus, the provision on dual truth, which was already contained in the teaching of the Mu'tazilites in a latent form, presupposed allegorical interpretations of the dogmas of Islam.

The founder of Eastern Peripatetism was al-Kindi (about 800 - 879), who was the first in Arab philosophy to set out the content of the main works of Aristotle. He was the first to present (on the basis of the classification of intellects ascending to Alexander the Aphrodisian) rational knowledge as the introduction of the mind of the individual to the universal, deities, reason. Kindi's deism, his concept of God as a faceless "distant cause," developed within the framework of al-Farabi's neoplatonic theory of emanation. Farabi's ontological and epistemological ideas were deepened and detailed by the greatest thinker of the Middle Ages, Ibn Sina, who asserted the eternity of matter and the independence of private phenomena of life from divine providence.

In the 12th century. the center of philosophical thought moves to the west of the Muslim world, to Spain. Here in Andalusia, similar humanistic themes are being developed by Ibn Badj, reflecting on the ability of a person through purely intellectual perfection, without mystical insight, to achieve complete happiness and merge with an active mind, and Ibn Tufayl, in a philosophical Robinson, describing the history of the development and knowledge of nature by humanity, expounding simultaneously in allegorical form of the concept of dual truth. However, Andalusian, and with it the entire medieval Arab philosophy, reaches its peak in the work of Ibn Rushd, who defended the ideas of peripatetism from the attacks of the Ash'arites and Ghazali and created an independent philosophical doctrine. Rejecting the teachings of Ibn Sina about the introduction of forms into matter from the outside, Ibn Rushd made a thesis about the immanence of the forms of matter itself. He also denied the immortality of individual souls, considering only the human intellect to be eternal, joining the active divine mind, which embodies the ultimate goal of human knowledge. An important role in the history of medieval philosophy was played by the development of the concept of dual truth by Ibn Rushd.

Another major thinker of the Arab West was Ibn Khaldun, who is rightfully considered one of the founders of the philosophy of history.

Arab philosophy found a second life in Europe - in the activities of the Averroists (followers of Ibn Rushd, see Averroism) and other fighters against the official ideology of Catholicism.

Historical science. Arabic (Arabic-speaking) historiography emerged as an independent discipline at the turn of the 8th-9th centuries. The first records of historical content date back to the end of the 7th century. The material for the early monuments of historical literature in Arabic was the historical and genealogical legends of the Arab tribes, semi-legendary messages about the pre-Islamic states in the South. Arabia and about the Arab principalities in Syria (Ghassanids) and Iraq (Lakhmids), as well as religious and historical legends about the emergence and spread of Islam, especially about the activities of Muhammad and his associates. The scheme of world history adopted in Arab historiography was influenced by the Koranic view of the past as a sequential series of prophetic missions, and the constructions of Muslim genealogists and exegetes of the 7th-8th centuries, who linked the genealogical tree of the Arabs with the biblical "table of peoples." A significant role in the creation of historiography was played by the development of astronomical knowledge (establishing the chronology of world history) and the use of materials from the Iranian historical and epic tradition (translations of the Book of Kings of Sassanian Iran), as well as apocryphal Judeo-Christian traditions. Medieval Arab historiography proceeds from the theological interpretation of the course of world history as the implementation of a divine plan for the human race. At the same time, she recognizes the responsibility of man for his actions and sees the task of the historian in teaching by historical experience. The idea of the didactic value of history, accepted by the majority of Muslim historians, was especially clearly formulated by Ibn Miskawayh (died 1030). Arab historians did not go further than narrative history, and only Ibn Khaldun made an attempt to move to the presentation of historical events in their causal relationship, having developed an original doctrine of the general laws of the development of human society.

The forerunners of professional Arab historians were connoisseurs and collectors of genealogies and oral tribal traditions. These materials were systematized by Muhammad al-Kalbi (died 763), supplemented and written down by his son Hisham (died about 819). In addition to the monumental collection of genealogies of the Arabs of Hisham al-Kalbi, similar collections were made by Muarrijas-Sadusi (died 811), Suhaim ibn Hafs (died 806), Musab al-Zubairi (died 851), Zubair ibn Bakkar (died 870), Ibn Hazm (died 1030), al-Kalkashandi (1355-1418), etc. The largest figure of the initial period of Arab historiography was Muhammad al-Zuhri (died 741/42), who combined the collection of genealogies and tribal traditions with an interest in the political history of the Caliphate. He owns one of the first records of legends about the military campaigns of Muhammad (the so-called Magazi). The first large historical essay in Arabic (the history of the ancient prophets and the biography of Muhammad) Ibn Ishaq a (about 704-768 or 767) served as a model for subsequent essays on this topic. The most significant are the works of al-Wakidi (747-823), Ibn Sada (died 845), the late compilations of Ibn Said an-Nas, Nuraddin al-Halabi, etc. They are adjoined by hagiographic literature popular in the Middle Ages, mostly fantastic stories about the prophets and Muslim saints.

For the 2nd half of the 8th - mid-9th centuries. characterized by the predominance of historical works devoted to individual events mainly from the history of the Arab conquests and civil wars in the Caliphate of the 7th - early 8th centuries. [Abu Mikhnaf (died 774), Abu Ubaydah (died about 824) and especially al-Madaini (died about the middle of the 9th century)]. Iraq became the center of Arab historiography for a long time. From the 2nd half of the 9th century. essays appear that combine the accumulated material into a coherent historical narrative. The most significant were the works of al-Belazuri (about 820 - about 892); Abu Hanifa al-Dinaweri (see Abu Hanifa al-Dinaweri) (died about 895) and al-Yakubi in general history, which became the leading genre of historiography during its heyday (9th - 1st half of the 11th centuries). More often compiled in the form of annals, they contained an overview of world history from the creation of the world, the initial history of the Muslim community, a description of the Arab conquests and the political history of the Caliphate (the rule of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties). The largest work of this genre is the multivolume History of the Prophets and Kings at-Tabari (838 or 839-923). The general history of al-Masudi (died 956 or 957), Hamza al-Isfahani (see Hamza al-Isfahani) (died in the 2nd half of the 10th century), Ibn Miskawayhah, and later Ibn al-Athir a ( 1160 - 1233 or 1234), Ibn Khaldun and other historians of the 9-10th centuries. they are distinguished by the breadth of their horizons, reflecting the encyclopedic nature of their interests and knowledge (especially Yakubi and Masoudi, who collected material on the history and culture of peoples outside of Muslim countries).

In connection with the formation of local political consciousness in the states that developed on the territory of the Abbasid Caliphate, in historiography from the 2nd half of the 10th century. dynastic and local chronicles predominate, the authors of which are mainly court historiographers (usually officials-secretaries, vezirs, etc.), and not historians-scientists. Biographical chronicles were developed on the history of secretaries, vezirs (for example, al-Ajakhshiyari, died 943; Hilal al-Sabi. 969-1056), judges (Waki al-Qadi, died 918; al-Kindi, died 961; al-Khushani , died 971). Local historiography is represented by works on the history of individual cities, regions and provinces, for example, the history of Mecca - al-Azraqi (died about 858), Baghdad - Ibn Abu Tahir Taifur (819/20 - 893), Egypt - Ibn Abd al-Hakam (about 798 -871), Muslim Spain - Abd al-Malika ibn Habib (about 796-853). Special attention should be paid to the historical encyclopedia of the Yemeni historian al-Hamdani (died in the 2nd half of the 10th century), which contains information on genealogy, history, archeology, geography and literature of the South. Arabia. At a later time, in works of this kind, the main attention was paid to the biographies of local political and religious figures and cultural figures, and many of these biographical works are characterized by a combination of annals with a political biography. This is the story of Baghdad - al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (1002-71), Damascus - al-Kalanisi (died 1160) and Ibn Asakir a (1105-1176), Aleppo (Aleppo) - Ibn al-Adim (1192-1262), Granada - Ibn al-Khatiba (1313-1374). The dynastic history, begun by the works of Ibrahim al-Sabi (died 994) on the history of Buyids (See Buyids) and al-Utbi (961-1022, according to other sources died 1036 or 1040), on the history of the Ghaznavids (See Ghaznavids), received special development in the 12-13th centuries, mainly in Syria, where the center of historical science moved. The local Zengid and Ayyubid dynasties found their historiographers in the person of Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (1125-1201), Ibn Shaddad (1145-1234), Abu Sham (1203-1268) and especially Ibn Wasil (1207-1298). General stories were also created here (Abu-l-Fida, 1273-1331; al-Zahabi, 1274-1353 or 1347; Ibn Kathir, about 1300-1373, etc.). In the 15-16 centuries. the leading place in Arab historiography was occupied by Egyptian historians, authors of works on the history of the Mamluks (see Mamluks), historical encyclopedias (al-Nuwayri, 1279-1332) and general chronicles (Ibn al-Furat, 1334-1405) and especially a galaxy of polyhistoric historians , such as al-Makrizi (1364-1442), al-Aini (1361-1451), Abu-al-Mahasin Ibn Tagriberdi (1409 or 1410-1470) and al-Suyuti (1445-1505), who left multivolume works on political, socio-economic and cultural history of Egypt.

One of the main places in Arab historiography is occupied by biographical literature itself: the general biographical dictionaries of Yakut, Ibn Khallikan (1211-1282) and al-Safadi (1296/97 - 1363), collections of biographies of figures in the field of philosophy, medicine and natural sciences of Ibn al- Kifti (1172-1248) and Ibn Abu Usaybi (1203-1270) and others. Historical works in Arabic were written not only in Arabic, but also in other countries of the Muslim East, including India, Iran, Turkey and the East. Africa. The era of Turkish domination (16th - early 20th centuries) is represented mainly by epigone compilations on general and local history, biographical and historical-bibliographic collections. The most valuable are the history of Andalusia al-Makkari (1591/92 - 1632) and the biographical work of the Egyptian historian al-Khafaji (died 1659).

Literature. Arabic literature is rooted in the oral literature of the tribal society on the territory of the Arabian Peninsula. The earliest records (8-10 centuries) include: from. "The Selected" or "Skewered" ("Mullakat"), composed by Ravi Hammad (694/695 - 772) (includes 7 masterpieces by seven poets); "Mufaddaliyat" and "Asmayyat" by the philologists al-Mufaddal (died 786) and al-Asmai (died about 830); two anthologies "Valor" ("Ha-masa") belonging to Abu Tammam u (about 796-845) and al-Bukhturi (821-897); the sofa of poets from the Khuzail tribe - "The Book of Criticism of Poetry" by Ibn Qutaiba (died 889); Al-Jahiz's Book of Explanation; the anthology "Book of Songs" by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (See Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani) (897-967); sofas of individual poets and collections of proverbs.

Ancient Arabic literature is original, foreign influences in it are negligible. Most of all, it was cultivated among nomadic pastoralists (Bedouins), but became widespread among the semi-nomadic and sedentary population of agricultural oases and cities. The leading role in it was played by poetry, at the origins of which one can trace labor, lullabies, hunting, caravan songs; The genres of vilification of the enemy (hija), boasting (fakhr), songs of revenge (cap), mourning lamentation, or elegy (rice), as well as elements of love and descriptive lyrics (nasib and wasf), were very old. The rudiments of fiction go back to ancient times: oratory, stories about the battles of tribes (Ayyam al-Arab) and other memorable events.

Poetry of the 5th-7th centuries, when it was flourishing, became in Arabic literature a kind of standard of poetic language, metrics, and aesthetic ideals, defining themes and artistic techniques for a long time.

The central figure in pre-Islamic poetry is the poet himself, who acts as a Bedouin, a patriot of his tribe. The idealized image of the Bedouin poet is revealed against the background of real pictures of nomadic life, battle and hunting scenes, views of the Arabian desert. The main literary forms of ancient Arabic poetry were qasida and an amorphous fragment (kita, mukatta). A characteristic feature of Arabic poetry is monorim; each verse, as a rule, consists of one sentence and is an independent semantic aesthetic unit. The language of ancient Arabic poetry is characterized by a colossal stock of words, flexibility of syntactic constructions, and a variety of specific pictorial means.

Arab tradition has preserved the names of about 125 pre-Islamic poets (late 5th - 1st half of the 7th centuries): Imru-ul-Qais, who is credited with creating the classical typakasida; Tarafa, the author of the wonderful qasida-muallaki; Antara ibn Shaddad, singer of military valor and love; Zuhair and Labid, who are considered the best exponents of the wisdom of life and ethical ideals of Bedouin society; Shanfara and Taabbata Sharran, praising the free life of a lonely robber in the desert; Alqama, Urwa ibn al-Ward, Haris ibn Hilliza and Amr ibn Kulthum, who are the heroes and singers of their tribes; the first court panegyrists - an-Nabiga, Abid ibn al-Abras and Hatim; the wandering poet al-Asha, famous for his satyrs and Bacchic verses; poetess al-Hansa; the Jewish poet Samaual and the Christian Adi ibn Zayd, whose verses combine cheerful motives about wine with sad thoughts about the vanity of the world, etc.

The first monument of Arabic writing was the Koran, which contains the religious sermons of Muhammad, stories on biblical subjects, didactic speeches and legal provisions of the Islamic community and state. The influence of the Quran is felt throughout all subsequent Arabic literature. At first, Muhammad and his followers opposed poetry as the usual form of expression of pagan ideology. For a short time, the development of poetry was weakened, only its traditional, artistic conventions were preserved, and the ideological content underwent slight changes under the influence of a new faith - Islam. Syria and Iraq became the centers of poetry. Outstanding poets, such as al-Akhtal, al-Jarir, al-Farazdak, and others, worked at the Umayyad court.

New phenomena in the poetry of this period are observed in the aristocratic environment of the large urban centers of the Caliphate, where love lyrics in the form of short poems developed. A prominent representative of this genre was Omar ibn Abi Rabia of Mecca (641 - about 712 or about 718). Other poets are also known in Mecca (Ibn Qays ar-Rukayat, Abu Dahbal), Medina (Ahvas) and Damascus (Caliph Walid II). In the Bedouin milieu in Arabia, a galaxy of singers of ideal, or "uzrit" (from the uzra tribe) love, emerged. The poet and his beloved were an unchanging couple, dying of unquenchable love. Later, romantic stories were composed about famous couples (Jamil and Busaina, Majnun and Leila, Qusayir and Azza, etc.). The story of Majnun and Leyla gained worldwide fame.

From the middle of the 8th century. representatives of the conquered peoples are taking an increasing part in the creation of Arabic literature along with the Arabs. In the Caliphate, interest in the study of Arab antiquity increased, theories of language, style and metrics were developed, and the most important works of antiquity were translated into Arabic. Translations from the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) language were of particular importance for the development of prose. Ibn al-Mukaffa (executed about 759) translated Kalila and Dimna (See Kalila and Dimna), which dates back to the Indian collection of Panchatantra, and the Middle Persian collection of epic legends and chronicles Hwadai-namak (Book of Kings). Aban Lakhiki (died 815) transcribed Kalila and Dimna in Arabic verses, books about Mazdak (see Mazdakism) and about Sinbad, etc. The influence of the Near East civilization, primarily Iranian, was felt in poetry, which became predominantly urban. Some renewal of Arabic poetry took place, expressed in the preference for a cumbersome qasida of short graceful poems with an independent theme and in a "new style" (badit), the main feature of which was the use of previously unknown images, tropes and comparisons. The founder of the "new style" was the poet and free-thinker Bashshar ibn Burd (died 783). The love lyrics were continued in an erotic-hedonic direction by a group of poets at the Abbasid court (Muti ibn Iyas, Waliba ibn Khubab, Ibrahim al-Mausili and his son Ishaq, Dibil, etc.). Among them, the magnificent master of verse Abu Nuwas (762-815) stands out. The innovator was Abu al-Atahiya (died 825), who, in his poems imbued with ascetic moods and reflection, deliberately avoided traditional poetic conventions. Gradually, the "new style" gained recognition and found its theorist in the person of Ibn al-Mutazz a (861-908). But even then there were poets who supported the qasid tradition, which was also influenced by the "new style": Marwan ibn Abi Hafsah (721-97), Muslim ibn al-Walid (died 803) and especially poets of the 9th century. Abu Tammam and al-Bukhturi.

Great successes in the 8-9 centuries. reached Arabic prose, the ground for which was prepared by recordings of folklore, the study of the Koran, translations of scientific literature from the Syrian, Middle Persian and Greek languages. The historical literature that was emerging at that time included traditions, legends and descriptions of individual events, and geographical works contained stories of merchants and travelers about distant countries. Fiction was also enriched with epistolary and speech styles: in business correspondence, oratory and sermons, some authors achieved great expressiveness and skill. A mixture of stories on various plots and colorful cognitive and didactic material is represented by the numerous works of the great Arab prose writers al-Jahiz a (767-868) and Ibn Qutaybah (828 - about 889), who systematized a large literary material in the "Sources of News" (10 books) on a thematic basis: about power, about war, about friendship, etc. This essay has become a subject of imitation. In the 9th century. an Arabic translation of the Persian collection "A Thousand Tales" ("Hezar Afsane") appeared - the prototype of the collection "A Thousand and One Nights".

The collapse of the Caliphate contributed to the decentralization of literature. The most important of the local literary centers of the 10th century. became the city of Aleppo (Aleppo). Here, at the court of Hamdanid Saif ad-Daul, the panegyrist poet al-Mutanabbi (915-965) lived. His laudatory and satirical qasids are full of stylistic embellishments, exquisite metaphors, hyperboles and similes; in the finishing of verse, he achieved a sophisticated skill. In the 11th century. the poet and thinker Abu al-Ala al-Maarri (973-1057) lived in Syria. Starting by imitating Mutanabbi, he further refined the verse technique by introducing complicated double rhymes. Prominent prose writers of the 10th century. were Abu Hayyan at-Tawhidi (died 1009) and at-Tanukhi (940-994). Rhymed prose has become widespread in secular literature. Abu Bakr al-Khwarizmi (died 993) wrote the witty Epistles (Rasail) in this form, and Badi al-Zaman al-Hamadani (died 1007) created an original genre - maqamah, which is considered the highest achievement of Arabic prose. Makama Hamadani compiled a cycle of 50 rogue stories, or stories about the adventures and reincarnations of a dodgy vagabond. Makams have infiltrated literature from urban folklore. However, if Hamadani's Arabic prose retained liveliness and spontaneity, then among his numerous imitators (including al-Hariri, 1054-1122) it degenerated into stylization.

The Arab literature in Andalusia (Arab Spain), closely associated with the Maghreb, stood apart. In the 8-10th centuries. Culturally, Andalusia remained a province of the Caliphate, the norm for its poetry was the patterns that developed in the east of the Caliphate. Andalusian poetry was represented by: the refined lyricist and author of epic poems about the conquest of Spain by the Arabs al-Ghazal (770-864); compiler of the popular anthology "The Only Necklace" and author of anacreontic poems Ibn Abd Rabbihi (860-940); the composer of about 60 qasids Ibn Hani (died 972), and others. However, gradually in Andalusian lyric poetry, not only the local flavor appeared, but also the stanza forms muvashshah (belted) and zadzhal (melody), until then alien to Arabic poetry, arose. They were born in the common people as a result of the interaction of the culture of the Arabs, Berbers and the local Romanesque population. Muvashshah, first mentioned at the end of the 10th century, having penetrated into literature, spread to the east of the Caliphate, and by the 13th century. took on frozen forms, becoming the subject of formalistic exercises. Zajal avoided stylization and remained a favorite folk genre in Muslim and Christian Spain, ended up in other Arab countries and, apparently, influenced the development of early Provencal poetry. The sofa of the largest representative of this genre, Ibn Kuzman (about 1080-1160), has survived. Andalusian poetry flourished in literary Arabic in the 11th century, when the Caliphate of Cordoba split into several emirates. In each of them, court literary circles arose. Panegyric, erotic and Bacchic poetry prevailed everywhere. Seville became a major center with its patron poets al-Mutadid (1012-1069) and al-Mutamid (1040-1095). The latter ended his life in Morocco while in captivity; his voluntary companion in captivity was the famous lyric poet from Sicily Ibn Hamdis (1055-1132). The last major Arab poet of Cordoba, Ibn Zaidun (1003-1071), lived in Seville. Many Andalusian poets of the 11-13th centuries. became famous for their elegies on the fall of Arab dynasties and cities under the blows of the Reconquista (See Reconquista) (Ibn Abdun, al-Wakashi, Ibn Khafaj, Salih ar-Rondi, etc.). In prose, Ibn Hazm, who created the "Necklace of the Dove", a kind of treatise on love, and Ibn Tufayl (circa 1110-1185), the author of the philosophical novel "Alive, son of the awake", stand out.

From the middle of the 11th century, despite its quantitative growth, Arabic literature bears the stamp of decline. Mysticism begins to predominate in poetry, didactics in prose. Mystical poetry is characterized by a combination of bacchic and erotic motives with ecstatic appeals to the deity. Its prominent representatives were the Andalusians Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240), al-Shushtari (died 1269) and the Egyptian Omar ibn al-Farid (1182-1235). The Sicilian Ibn Zafar (died 1169) took timid steps to create historical novellas. The Syrian emir Osama ibn Munkyz (1095-1188) wrote the only fictional autobiography in medieval Arabic literature, The Book of Edification. Ibn Arabshah (1392-1450), taken by Timur from Baghdad to Samarkand, in his didactic anthology "Pleasant Fruit for Caliphs". reworked the northern Iranian tales in an ornate style.

With the decline of written literature, which served the cultural and aesthetic needs of large feudal lords and a narrow circle of educated people, oral poetry began to flourish. In Egypt and Syria, where after the Mongol invasion (13th century) the center of Arab literature finally moved, the muvashshah and zajal genres spread. Sufi poets and even the court poet Bahaaddin Zuhair (1187-1258) strove to write in a language close to the vernacular; Ibn Daniyal (13th century) in Egypt recorded popular prints for the shadow theater. They became widespread in the 13-15 centuries. and later, original folk works in the genre of sira (literally - "biography"), that is, cycles of stories on heroic and love stories associated with historical and fictional persons and events. European terminology classifies them as romances of chivalry. These works were performed by storytellers-actors in the streets and squares. The most important sires: about the poet-warrior of the 6th century. Antara and his beloved Abla, about the Mamluk Sultan Beybars, about the resettlement of the Banu-Hilal tribe to Egypt and North. Africa, about Dhu-l-Himme. Some of them began to take shape, apparently, very early. Popular memory carried them through the centuries, and the storytellers of each generation layered new episodes and details, introducing anachronisms and contradictions into them. The sires reflected the events of the era of the Crusades (heroes usually perform feats in battles against the "infidels" - "Franks" or "Rums"). The collection of fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights" belongs to the same type of folk literature, in which, along with folklore and literary materials, the sirah about Omar ibn al-Numan was completely included.

Arabic literature of the 16th and 18th centuries, constrained by scholasticism and traditional frameworks, was of limited importance; only the continuous handwritten tradition is important, which has preserved many monuments of the past to this day.

Architecture, fine and decorative arts. The art of Arab countries is complex in its origins. In southern Arabia, they go back to the cultures of the Sabaean, Minea and Himyarite states (1st millennium BC - 6th century AD), associated with the Mediterranean and the East. Africa. Ancient traditions can be traced in the architecture of the tower-like houses of Hadhramaut and the multi-storey buildings of Yemen, the facades of which are decorated with colored relief patterns. In Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Maghreb, styles of medieval Arabic art were also formed on a local basis, experiencing some influence from Iranian, Byzantine and other cultures.

Architecture. The main religious building of Islam was the mosque, where the followers of the prophet gathered for prayer. Mosques, consisting of a fenced courtyard and a colonnade (which laid the foundation for the "courtyard" or "column" type of mosque), in the 1st half of the 7th century. were created in Basra (635), Kufa (638) and Fustat (40s of the 7th century). The Arabian column mosque received a high artistic solution in Damascus, the capital of the Umayyads: the builders of the Damascus mosque (early 8th century) perfectly used local Hellenistic and Syro-Byzantine architectural traditions and decorated the building with polychrome mosaics depicting an architectural landscape. The mosques are majestic in Kairouan (Sidi-Okba, 7th-9th centuries) and Cordoba (8th-10th centuries). The column type for a long time remained the main one in the monumental religious architecture of the Arab countries (mosques: Ibn Tulun in Cairo, 9th century; Mutawakkilia in Samarra, 9th century; Hasan in Rabat and Koutoubia in Marrakesh, both 12th century; Great Mosque in Algeria, 11 century, etc.) and influenced the Muslim architecture of Iran, the Caucasus, Wed. Asia, India. Dome buildings also developed in architecture, an early example of which is the octahedral Qubbat al-Sakhra mosque in Jerusalem (687-691). Later, various cult and memorial buildings are crowned with domes, most often crowning with them the mausoleums over the graves of famous persons.

Under the Umayyads, great secular construction was carried out: cities were fortified, country palaces and castles of the caliphs were erected (Mshatta, Quseir Amra, Qasr al-Kheir al-Garbi and Qasr al-Kheir al-Sharqi, Khirbet al-Mafjar), decorated with round sculpture, carvings, mosaics and wall paintings.

Under the Abbasids, large urban planning works were carried out. Baghdad, founded in 762, like Hatra and Ctesiphon, was a city round in plan; in the center was a palace and a mosque, and the perimeter was surrounded by a double ring of defensive walls. In Samarra (the capital of the Caliphate in 836-892), stretching along the river. Tiger, rectilinear layout prevailed; the ruins of huge brick-built palaces and houses of the nobility, which had rectangular courtyards and vaulted reception halls, whose walls were covered with carved ornaments and polychrome paintings, have survived. Samarra mosques had ziggurat-shaped minarets.

The buildings of the Fatimid Cairo (founded in 969) represent a special school of Arab architecture. The city walls erected from stone form a square in the plan; Several 11th-century gates have survived, to which the main streets of the city led. The fortress architecture was distinguished by the expressiveness of simple monumental forms. Fatimid Cairo was decorated with palaces, caravanserais, baths, shops, residential buildings, as well as buildings of mosques, from which the grandiose al-Hakim and al-Azhar survived, as well as al-Akmar and al-Salih-Talai decorated with elegant stone carvings ...

From the 13th century. until the beginning of the 16th century. the architecture of Egypt and Syria was closely intertwined. A large fortress construction was carried out: citadels in Cairo, Aleppo (Aleppo), etc. high drums carrying domes. The majestic buildings of the four-aivan are under construction (see Ivan) type (previously known in Iran): the maristan (hospital) of Kalawna (13th century) and the Hasan mosque (14th century) in Cairo, mosques and madrasahs (theological schools) in Damascus and other cities of Syria. Numerous domed mausoleums are being built, sometimes forming a picturesque ensemble (Mamluk cemetery in Cairo, 15-16 centuries). To decorate the walls outside and in the interior, along with carving, inlay with multi-colored stones is widely used. In Iraq in the 15-16 centuries. the decor uses colored glaze and gilding (mosques: Musa al-Kadim in Baghdad, Hussein in Karbala, Imam Ali in Najef).

It flourished in the 10-15th centuries. Arabic architecture of Maghreb and Spain. In large cities (Rabat, Marrakesh, Fez, etc.), Kasbahs were built - citadels, fortified with powerful walls with gates and towers, and medina - trading and craft quarters. The large columnar mosques of the Maghreb with multi-tiered, square minarets are distinguished by an abundance of intersecting naves, richness of carved ornamentation (mosques in Tlemcen, in Taza, etc.) and are magnificently decorated with carved wood, marble and mosaics of multi-colored stones, as well as numerous madrasahs 13-14 centuries in Marocco. In Spain, along with the mosque in Cordoba, other outstanding monuments of Arab architecture have been preserved: the minaret "La Giralda", erected in Seville by the architect Jeber in 1184-96, the gate to Toledo, the Alhambra palace in Granada - a masterpiece of Arab architecture and decorative art 13- 15th century Arabic architecture influenced the Romanesque and Gothic architecture of Spain ("Mudejar style"), Sicily and other Mediterranean countries.

The capture of Arab countries by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century. brought the forms of Ottoman architecture, especially to the cult architecture. But in secular architecture, local building and artistic traditions continued to live and develop.

Applied and fine arts. In Arab art, the decorative principle characteristic of artistic thinking in the Middle Ages was vividly embodied, which gave rise to the richest ornament, special in each of the regions of the Arab world, but connected by general laws of development. Arabesque (See Arabesques), dating back to antique motifs, is a new type of pattern created by the Arabs, in which mathematical rigor of construction is combined with free artistic imagination. An epigraphic ornament also developed - calligraphic inscriptions included in a decorative pattern.

Ornament and calligraphy, widely used in architectural decoration (carving on stone, wood, knocking), are also characteristic of applied art, which reached a high flowering and especially fully expressed the decorative specificity of Arab artistic creativity. Ceramics were decorated with colorful patterns: glazed household dishes in Mesopotamia (centers - Raqqa, Samarra); vessels painted with golden, different shades of chandeliers, made in Fatimid Egypt; Spanish-Moorish luster ceramics of the 14-15th centuries, which had a great influence on European applied art. Arab patterned silk fabrics - Syrian, Egyptian, Moorish - also enjoyed world fame; the Arabs also made pile carpets. Artistic items made of bronze (bowls, jugs, incense burners and other utensils) are decorated with the finest embossing, engraving and inlay of silver and gold; products of the 12-14 centuries are distinguished by special craftsmanship. the city of Mosul in Iraq and some handicraft centers in Syria. The Syrian glass covered with the finest enamel painting and Egyptian products decorated with exquisite carved patterns made of rock crystal, ivory, and expensive types of wood were famous.

Art in the countries of Islam developed, interacting with a complex religion. Mosques, as well as the holy book of the Koran, were decorated with geometric, floral and epigraphic patterns. However, Islam, unlike Christianity and Buddhism, refused to widely use the visual arts in order to propagate religious ideas. Moreover, in the so-called. authentic hadiths, legalized in the 9th century, contain a prohibition to depict living beings and especially humans. Theologians of the 11-13th centuries (Ghazali and others) declared these images a grave sin. However, artists throughout the Middle Ages depicted people and animals, real and mythological scenes. In the first centuries of Islam, while theology had not yet developed its aesthetic canons, the abundance of realistic pictorial and sculptural images in the Umayyad palaces testified to the strength of pre-Muslim artistic traditions. In the future, the figurativeness in Arab art is explained by the presence of anticlerical aesthetic views in their essence. For example, in the "Epistles of the Brothers of Purity" (10th century), the art of artists is defined "as imitation of the images of existing objects, both artificial and natural, both people and animals."

Fine arts flourished in Egypt in the 10th-12th centuries: images of people and genre scenes adorned the walls of buildings in Fustat, ceramic dishes and vases (master Saad and others), woven into patterns of bone and wood carvings (11th century panels). from the Fatimid palace in Cairo, etc.), as well as linen and silk fabrics; bronze vessels were made in the form of figures of animals and birds. Similar phenomena took place in the art of Syria and Mesopotamia of the 10th-14th centuries: courtiers and other scenes were included in the exquisite chased with inlaid ornament of bronze items, in the pattern of paintings on glass and ceramics.

Arabic book miniatures occupy a prominent place in the history of world art. In Egypt, miniatures of the 9-10th centuries. (originating from Fayum) and 11-12 centuries. stylistically related to Coptic art. The Byzantine influence is noticeable in the painting of Syrian miniatures. The art of book miniature reached a great height in Iraq in the 12-13th centuries. There were several styles here. One of them (possibly North Iraqi) is distinguished by lush and colorful court scenes; the other is represented by laconic illustrations in scientific treatises (for example, sheets from the Pharmacology of Dioscorides, rewritten by Abd Allah ibn Fadl in 1222, kept in various museums around the world). The true pride of the Iraqi school of miniaturists is the illustrations for Hariri's "Makams" that have come down in several manuscripts, full of vivid observations, conveyed in expressive figurative language, sonorous painting in colors (the 1237 manuscript miniatures stand out, the artist Yahya ibn Mahmud from Wasit, 13th century, belonging to the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies). Miniatures underwent a new upsurge in Iraq at the end of the 14th century, when the outstanding artist Junaid Sultani, author of miniatures with the Hamsa manuscript, Haju Kermani 1396 (British Museum, London) worked in Baghdad.

The pictorial principle was less developed in the art of the countries of the Arab West. However, decorative sculptures in the form of animals, patterns with motives of living creatures, as well as miniatures (manuscript "The History of Bayad and Riyad", 13th century, Vatican Library) were also created here.

Arab art as a whole was a bright, distinctive phenomenon in the history of world artistic culture of the Middle Ages. His influence extended to the entire Muslim world and went far beyond its borders.

Music. Arab music was formed as a result of the fusion of Arab art proper with the art of the conquered countries. The early, "Bedouin" period in its development is characterized by the unity of music and poetry. Preserved information about the ancient Arab professional singers-poets (shairs), about song genres - hida (caravan songs), khabab (horsemen's songs), about musical instruments - duff (small square tambourine), mizhar (primitive lute with a leather soundboard), rebab (a kind of one-string violin).

After the conquest of Iran, part of Byzantium and the establishment of dominance over Cf. In Asia and Egypt, the Arabs assimilated the traditions of more developed cultures (the foundations of Greek musical theory were adopted; under the influence of Persian and Byzantine melody, the Arabic scale expanded to two octaves, some of the Arabic modes and instruments were influenced by Iranian influences). The flowering of classical Arabic music begins at the end of the 7th century. It is based on 7-step frets, in which, along with the main sounds, intermediate intervals are used - commas (less than 1/8 of a whole tone). The fretting features of Arabic music determined a peculiar manner of singing, in which gliding (sliding from sound to sound) is widely used. Arabic music is characterized by flowery melismatics, giving the music an original flavor. Classical Arabic music is predominantly vocal. The most common genre is a vocal-instrumental ensemble, in which the leading role belongs to the singer. The largest singers of the Umayyad period are Ibn Musajikh, Muslim ibn Mukhriz, the singer Jamila and her students were also famous. During the Abbasid dynasty, the musicians Ibrahim al-Mausili (742-804) and his son Ishaq al-Mausili (767-850), the founder of the Baghdad school, as well as Mansur Zalzal stand out. The Arabian musical science has reached a high level. Among the outstanding music theorists of the Middle Ages: al-Kindi, who developed and applied to Arab music the metaphysical doctrine of the "harmony of the Universe" of the Neoplatonists; al-Isfahani (897-967), author of The Big Book of Songs; Safi-ad-din Urmavi (about 1230-1294), who wrote a treatise on acoustics and harmonic relations "Esh-Sharafiyya", is an outstanding work of the medieval oriental science of music. The most important information about the music of the East is contained in the works of al-Farabi - the author of the "Great Treatise on Music", Ibn Sina and others. In the Middle Ages, Arab music influenced the musical art of Spain, Portugal, and the formation of some European musical instruments.

In the history of great cultures, the classical Arab-Muslim culture occupies one of the most important places. At one time, this highly developed, distinctive culture flourished in the vast expanses from India to Spain, including the Near and Middle East and North Africa. Its influence was and is being felt now in many parts of the world; it was an important link between the cultures of antiquity and the medieval West, the uniqueness of this culture is due to the peculiarities of Islam, which is not just a world religion, but an integral culture - law and state, philosophy and art, religion and science, which have their own uniqueness. And although Islam is historically close to many European cultural traditions, a comparative analysis of these differences, which are not obvious at first glance, shows the greatest remoteness of Islam from the European standard and its certain similarity with Chinese religious and doctrinal norms.

Islam is one of the universal world religions, a religion of revelation that grew up in the 7th century. from the traditions of such monotheistic religions as Christianity and Judaism, having adopted many of their main provisions and dogmas. Islam itself recognizes the essence of these religions as identical with its own dogma, however, human imperfection led to the fact that Jews and Christians misunderstood the meaning of the revelation of the same god. Only the Prophet Muhammad came with a true revelation, correcting the mistakes of his predecessors.

To the extent that, however, the initial principles of Islam are similar to the foundations of Christianity and Judaism, the development of the basic ideas of Islam took completely different paths. Simple ideas, born among the nomads and merchants of the Arabian Peninsula, overgrown with new layers in the conditions of developing feudalism in the Middle East. Therefore, Islam itself, being in essence a religion, turned into the principles organizing the entire early world of the then societies subordinate to the rule of the Caliphate. Islam has become the law that defines the social structures and morals of society, the rationale for which is found in the Holy Qur'an. Since Allah is absolute perfection, then the morality and laws given to him have absolute truth, eternity and immutability and are suitable "for all times and peoples."

While Muhammad was alive, he ruled over the Muslim community, but when he died, it turned out that the instructions contained in the Koran were far from sufficient to resolve all state and public issues - naturally, he could not leave instructions for all occasions. In this regard, two currents arose in Islam: Sunnism and Shiism, differing in the interpretation of the Sunna. In a broad sense, Sunnah - a set of customs and rules of conduct for the ancient community - meant the practice and theory of Muslim orthodoxy; it was transmitted orally and served as a supplement to the written law.

We can say that under the banner of Islam, the Arab people began their great history full of successes, created a vast empire, a brilliant Arab-Muslim civilization and culture. The Arabs became the heirs of such great states as Byzantium and Persia.

In later times, other peoples entered the orbit of Islam - Persians, Turks, Mongols, Indians and Malays, so that Islam became a world religion. Islam played a huge role in the life of these peoples, changing their spiritual appearance and creating a new historical era. Thus, a single, albeit consisting of many peoples, large "Muslim community" arose - the ummah Islamiyya, which, despite the heterogeneity of its followers, is characterized by a certain monolithicity. This is due to the fact that Islam had a strong influence on its adherents, forming in them a certain specific Muslim mentality, regardless of their previous folk, cultural and religious traditions.

In accordance with the hadith tradition attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, Islam from the very beginning very strongly supported science and education, prescribing "the search for knowledge from cradle to grave."

The Arabic language and the Koran are two main elements of the emerging new Arab-Muslim civilization and culture: science, philosophy, art and other manifestations of Arab and Muslim culture bear the imprint of these two factors.

From the beginning of its development, in the classical era, in the centuries of brilliant development (IX-XII centuries) and in the post-classical era (XIII-XIV centuries), the Arab-Muslim culture was at a high level, leaving far behind the then European science and culture. Arabs, Persians and representatives of other Islamized peoples took part in the creation and development of this culture as members of a single great Muslim society. Its successful development was facilitated by the fact that the Arabic language was the single language that all Muslim scholars, regardless of their origin, used in presenting their works, and not only Arabs. It was in this language that almost all scientific, philosophical and literary works were written, not to mention the religious and legal works that were created in the Islamic region during the classical era of Arab-Muslim culture. It should be added that the Arabic alphabet was used as an ornamental motif in Muslim art and architecture, especially in sacred architecture.

First of all, it should be borne in mind that at the heart of Islam was concern for the faithful in this earthly world, and various scientific disciplines provided significant assistance here. Exact sciences, mathematics and astronomy, as well as medicine and pharmacology were very useful for the development of civilization, because they raised the standard of living of the population and did not threaten the ideology of Islam. All this led to the development of scientific disciplines without any special obstacles, to their attainment of a high level.

In the field of the exact sciences, the achievements of Arab scholars were enormous. It is common knowledge that the Arab counting system, whose roots go back to India, was adopted and spread in Europe. Arab scientists (Muhammad al-Khwarizmi and others) made a great contribution to the development of algebra, spherical trigonometry, mathematical physics, optics, astronomy, and other scientific disciplines. Astronomy and astrology have been very popular among the Arabs since ancient times, even in the pre-Muslim era; adopted by Islam, they received widespread support from Muslim rulers.

smelting steel, dyeing fabrics and leather, glass production, etc. In general, we can say that Arab scientists in the field of chemistry discovered sulfur oxide, nitric oxide, nitric silver and other compounds, as well as distillation and crystallization.

Medicine had a very high level among the Arabs; its achievements in various fields have fed European medicine for a long time. One of the first famous doctors al-Razi (IX century) was the greatest clinician in the world of Islam, many of his works are real medical encyclopedias. A major encyclopedia in the field of medicine is also the "Canon of Medicine" by the famous Ibn Sina (Avicenna). The greatest surgeon of the Arab world, az-Zahrawi, raised surgery to the rank of an independent science, his most important treatise "Tashrif" laid the foundation for illustrated works on surgery. He began to use antiseptic agents in the treatment of wounds and cutaneous injuries, invented sutures for surgical sutures, as well as about 200 surgical instruments, which were later used by surgeons in both the Muslim and Christian world. Another famous pioneer of medicine was Ibn Zuhr (Aven-zohar), one of the largest Arab physicians in Spain (1094-1160). He was the first to describe pneumonia, stomach cancer, etc .; it is considered a harbinger of experimental medicine.

We are also indebted to Arab scientists for the creation of pharmaceuticals as a recognized profession; pharmacology has become an independent science, independent of medicine, although related to it. They attached great importance to chemotherapy, many medicinal herbs of the Arabian pharmacopoeia are still used in treatment: knotweed and others. Arab geographers and naturalists enriched zoology and botany, studying the flora and fauna of many countries.

The Arab art of healing was known for water therapy, psychotherapy and healing diet. It should be noted that many hospitals were built in the Arab world, including special hospitals for the mentally ill; often these hospitals were associated with scientific institutions. Usually, in accordance with the tradition of Arab-Muslim construction, a mosque, a hospital and a school or other public institutions were erected in the new city, which contributed to the physical and spiritual health of a person. It can be said that Arab scientists have added to the sum of human knowledge with new and original information discovered in the field of natural science and medicine, thereby enriching all of humanity.

Arab-Muslim culture did not create plastic arts - painting and sculpture in the European or ancient understanding of art. After all, Islam had a negative attitude towards the depiction of any living creature in painting and sculpture, therefore they were represented by ornamental, abstract motives. In other words, artistic calligraphy and miniature painting were the equivalents of plastic arts in Arab-Muslim culture. The art of calligraphy in the world of Islam was considered the most noble art, and calligraphers had their own "academies" and were highly respected. a feeling of the fragility of the world, the capacity of thought and action, a sense of rhythm. Another typical example of Arab-Muslim culture is the arabesque, a specific Muslim ornament in which logic is associated with the living integrity of rhythm.

The contribution of Arab-Muslim culture to the treasury of world culture is very significant. The achievements of Arab science on a global scale have already been mentioned above. Existing for over a thousand years, from Spain to India, the art of Islam has played an important role in the art of the world, especially the art of handicrafts and textiles.

The contribution of the Arab civilization to world culture cannot be overestimated.

Robert Blifault (historian): "If it were not for the Arabs, modern European civilization would never have acquired the character that allowed it to overcome all phases of evolution; and although there is not a single sphere of human activity in which the decisive influence of Islamic culture is not felt, nowhere it is not expressed as clearly as in the natural sciences and the scientific spirit. This spirit was introduced into the European world by the Arabs. "

Medieval Arab culture means the culture of the tribes that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula, as well as those countries that, as a result of the wars, were subjected to Arabization and adopted Islam. By the beginning of the VIII century A.D. the Arabs subjugated Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, part of the territory of North Africa, Transcaucasia, Spain. However, having absorbed the culture of the Persians, Syrians, Jews, and other peoples who inhabited the conquered lands, the Arab-Muslim culture remained unified. Islam was the leading link.
II. Culture of the East.

Since the main part of the Arabian Peninsula was steppes, deserts and semi-deserts, very little of the land was suitable for agriculture. The bulk of the population was made up of Bedouin nomads who called themselves Arabs. The horse and camel troops of the Bedouin nomads were a formidable force that the locals reckoned with. Plundering caravans of townspeople, attacking villages, nomads considered the plundered property as their legal prey. However, the harsh natural conditions demanded from both of them the maximum exertion of forces in order to survive, and the main values in life were activity, enterprise and the ability to deny oneself in everything. Among the nomadic tribes at the beginning of the 7th century AD. and Islam was born - a world religion that spread very quickly and was accepted by all the inhabitants of Arabia.

The founder of Islam is a real person - the prophet Muhammad (Magomed, Muhammad), whose biography every Muslim knows.
Muhammad was orphaned early, and he was raised first by his grandfather, then by his uncle, who was a wealthy merchant. At the age of 25, Muhammad began working for a 40-year-old widow with several children. The woman was engaged in trade - she organized caravans with goods to sell them in neighboring countries. They were soon married. It was a love marriage and they had four daughters.
Muhammad received his first revelations in a dream - in one night he visited Jerusalem and returned back, ascended to heaven and performed many other miracles. Muhammad received from the angel Jabrail, the Messenger of Allah, the Koran, along with the ability to read it. Muhammad justified all his actions with revelations received from Allah in a state of ecstasy or in visions. Revelations became more frequent, and in 610 he first preached in Mecca. The number of his associates grew slowly; in 622. Muhammad left Mecca and, together with his followers, moved to Medina, the city of the prophet. From this moment the Muslim chronology begins. The inhabitants of Medina immediately recognized Muhammad as their religious and political leader and supported him in their quest to defeat Mecca. In 630, after the complete victory of Medina, Muhammad returned to Mecca, which became the center of Islam. Having spent many campaigns of conquest, the formed theocratic state - the Arab Caliphate - significantly expanded its territory and quickly spread Islam there. Islam becomes the state religion of the Arab East.
Every Muslim, both educated and illiterate, knows the basics of religion. The shortest summary of the main dogma of Islam is contained in Sura 112 (chapter) of the Koran: “In the name of Allah, the merciful, the merciful! Say: “He is the only Allah, Allah is mighty. He did not give birth and was not born, and there was no one like him, never ”. According to the Muslim doctrine, people who do not profess Islam are “infidels”, among them Jews and Christians stand out as ahl al - kitab, that is, “people of the Book”. According to the Koran, they supposedly believe in the same god as Muslims. This god also sent them his messengers - Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Moses (Musu), David, Solomon, Jesus (Isa), who carried the word of God to people. But people have distorted and forgotten what they were taught. Therefore, Allah sent people to Muhammad, his last prophet, with the word of God - the Koran. It was, as it were, the last attempt to instruct people on the righteous path, the last warning, after which the end of the world and Judgment must come, when all people will be rewarded according to their deeds - they will fall into the Gardens of Eden or into hellish fire. Almost every Muslim knows the “five pillars” of Islam, the five main responsibilities of a believer. One of them is prayer (salat), which consists of a series of bows accompanied by the recitation of various religious formulas. Muhammad borrowed the custom of prayer from the Jews. A Muslim is prescribed five prayers a day; They can be performed at home, in a mosque, and in the field. Prayer is preceded by a ritual ablution. For this, it was enough to touch the water, sand, earth. Friday is a day of universal prayer, when all Muslims must gather for collective prayer at the main mosque of the city, village, and district.
Another ritual duty of a Muslim is fasting (saum) during the month of Ramadan. It consisted in abstaining from food, drink and entertainment. All the time of every Muslim should be devoted to Allah, busy with prayers, reading the Koran and religious writings, pious reflections. It was the main and obligatory for all believers, except for the sick, traveling, etc. The end of the month of Ramadan and, accordingly, the month of fasting is celebrated with the holiday of breaking the fast, the second most important holiday in Islam.
In addition to the restrictions associated with fasting, in Islam there are a large number of prohibitions that regulate various aspects of a Muslim's life. A Muslim is forbidden to drink alcoholic beverages, eat pork, and gamble. Islam forbids usury. The duty of every Muslim (with the proviso - if he has a physical and material opportunity for that) is also a Hajj - a pilgrimage to Mecca, primarily to the Kaaba, the main shrine of Islam. Kaaba is a small building, in the south-western corner of which a "black stone" (a meteorite kept here since ancient times) is embedded - according to legend, sent by Allah from heaven to people as a sign of his power and benevolence.
The pilgrimage takes place in the month of Dhu - l - hijja, which, like Ramadan, is a month of the lunar calendar and therefore falls on different times of the year. Pilgrims, wearing special white clothes and having passed the ceremony of ritual purification, make a solemn walk around the Kaaba, drink water from the nearby sacred spring Zamzam. This is followed by solemn processions and prayers near the hills and valleys around Mecca, associated with the legend of the stay in those places of the forefather Ibrahim, the first preacher of monotheism.
These are the Sacred Kaaba in Mecca and the Forbidden Mosque around it.

The Hajj ends with the holiday of Eid al - Adha, during which sacrificial animals are slaughtered in memory of the sacrifice made by Ibrahim to Allah. The end of the Hajj is the main Muslim holiday celebrated with prayers and sacrifices throughout the Muslim world. People who have performed the Hajj bear the honorable nickname of Hajj or Hajji and are respected by their relatives in their native places.
The Koran, overflowing with a mass of truly wonderful moral teachings, everyday rules suitable for every occasion of life, involuntarily attracted the hearts of people. On its basis and taking into account pre-Islamic traditions, the law of inheritance, guardianship, as well as the rule of marriage and divorce were developed.
For the middle class, monogamy was the norm. Noble and wealthy people had many slave-concubines, which was not considered shameful. All caliphs of the IV (X) century. mothers were slaves. Nobody forbade widows to remarry, but public opinion looked at it extremely disapprovingly. According to old Arab customs, girls were not counted when indicating the number of children in a family, but it became customary to wish for happiness at the birth of a daughter. The poet Bashar mourned the death of his daughter in touching verses:

Oh, daughter of one who did not want to have a daughter!
You were only five or six when you rested
from breathing. And my heart broke with longing.
You would be better than the boy who
he drinks in the morning, and at night he is depraved.

The man was considered the absolute leader. God's blessing lay on the sons, therefore, only after the birth of a son was a person considered complete. The man had to take care of the elders and the younger, he had to be persistent, purposeful, generous, be ready for any adversity and trials, be able to love and have fun.
It can be said with certainty that the costume of a Bedouin Arab is still the same as it was in ancient times: rough sandals, a sling, a bow and a spear make up the main parts of his necessary accessories. However, in the cities, things were different. The general desire of Asians for luxury influenced the Arabs at that time. Conquering, they began to use the crafts of the vanquished. Having established new trade relations, the Arabs received rare materials and fabrics from China and India, furs from Russia, skins, peacock feathers, ivory from Africa, and gold and precious stones from Spain. The local manufacture of silk, linen, paper yarns and fabrics performed miracles. The Arabs were the first to introduce neatness in clothing, using a lower, washable linen dress. Representatives of the government wore several clothes, which differed from the representatives of the lower classes. On their heads they wore a turban, which was very skillfully wrapped around the head, and the ends sometimes fell over the shoulders. The panache was limited to the high cost of the fabric, not the style of the dress. And the main chic was the frequent changing of clothes during the celebrations. Clothes were sometimes changed up to seven times per celebration. The man cared first of all about his hair and weapons, from the jewelry he wore only a ring. The respect that the peoples of the East have for a man's beard is the merit of Mohammed. Any insult to her was considered the most terrible insult. But the Arabs began to shave their head, leaving only a bunch of hair on the crown.

Despite the prohibition of the Quran, dice were played everywhere. At that time, theologians were already reconciled with chess, but cursed backgammon because of their passion. The saying of the Prophet was often quoted: and "Three funs are accompanied by angels: communication between a man and a woman, horse racing and shooting competitions." Theologians recognized horse racing - but only without a sweepstakes! And the most noble sport was, as in our time, polo - a ball game on horseback, which allows you to demonstrate the virtuoso skill of horse control. The passion for hunting never subsided: noble people hunted lions, which were enough in Iraq and Egypt.
Also, despite the prohibitions of Islam, wine was always drunk in all regions. About Caliph al-Wasik it is mentioned in passing that when his beloved slave died, he grieved so much for her that he did not even drink wine. But even the most immoral people could not admit that wine can be drunk during dinner: drinking wine was not considered part of the meal. The places where alcoholic beverages were sold (the so-called "zucchini") were kept mostly by Christians. They drank even in the highest religious circles. Periodically, a wave of piety was found throughout the Islamic world: the caliphs suddenly forbade the sale of wine, and the Hanbalis walked around the city and smashed the taverns and houses of those people who found alcoholic drinks.But such an orthodox reaction was short-lived.
The feast usually opened with snacks - olives and pistachios, sugar cane soaked in rose water, apples. The art of cooking was a huge success. Already at that time, the first books on cooking and diet were written and were widely distributed. The basis of the diet was wheat bread, milk and meat - lamb. The most common fish were sturgeon and tuna, from fruits - grapes, apples, pomegranates, but lemons with oranges were very rare. Dates were also grown and consumed and exported in huge quantities.
Syria and North Africa supplied the entire Muslim world with olive oil.

Since most of the Arab countries are located in a hot climatic zone, the main task in the construction of houses for people was to escape from the low summer heat. Underground floors were built in the houses, supplied with running water, where they moved in the summer. Wet felt was very common: felt screens were stretched, onto which water flowed from above through laid pipes. The water moistened the felt, evaporated and gave coolness. The spoiled residents of Baghdad were even considered unfit for military action, because "they are used to houses on the banks of the river, to wine, ice, wet felt and singers."
The rooms in the houses were practically empty. Of the furniture, there was only a chest used for storing clothes, and many pillows. There were no chairs, of course - they were sitting right on the floor, which is why such great importance was attached to carpets. The table was brought in only during meals, already laid, and often it was a solid slab of beautiful ornamental stone or a rare kind of wood.
Medieval Arab architecture has absorbed the traditions of the countries they conquered - Greece, Rome, Iran, Spain. Actually, starting a conversation about Arab architecture and painting, it should be noted that according to the Koran, the image of any animal form was considered the work of Satan. The lack of depiction of living forms squeezed the artistic freedom of Arab artists. Oriental fantasy, and at the same time, the absence of vivid images of fantasy allowed their artistic thought to play out to the most unbridled grace. From the X century. buildings are beginning to be decorated with graceful and geometric ornaments, which included rhythmically repeating patterns and stylized inscriptions - Arabic script. The Europeans gave this ornament the name "arabesque". The influence of Islam led to the underdevelopment of painting and sculpture in the Arab culture, in connection with which the fine arts went into carpet weaving, the characteristic features of which were patterning and flowery. The favorite color of the Arabs was red - it was the color of women, children and joy; white, black and purple were considered the colors of mourning, green meant exclusive prestige. Gray was despised.
After the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs and the formation of a new caliphate there, the capital of Cordoba, which also became the seat of the new caliphate, quickly transformed and reached the highest degree of prosperity under the rule of the Arabs. All the streets of the city were perfectly paved and illuminated by burning lanterns. Arabs' dwellings with balconies of polished marble hanging over orange gardens, cascades of water, colored glass - Europeans have never seen such a luxury. “The luxury of the Arabs reached the point that in winter the rooms were heated with warm air, perfumed in secret places. Huge chandeliers descended from the ceilings, some of which contained more than a thousand lights. Lemon wood furniture, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory, stood on Persian rugs, interspersed with gorgeous indoor flowers and exotic plants. The libraries contained books decorated with vignettes of extraordinary taste and elegance (miracles of calligraphy, which foreshadowed the popes' book depository with its appearance). Caliph Alhakem possessed a library of such size that one catalog contained forty volumes. The splendor of the court was absolutely fabulous. The reception rooms were often laid out with gold and pearls. The number of servants of the palace was more than 6 thousand people. The caliph's own guard, who wore golden sabers, reached 12 thousand people. The harem women were examples of the beauty of the entire Mediterranean coast. The Arabs were the first gardeners in Europe; all the most valuable fruits were transferred to Europe by them. Fish were raised in artificial pools. They kept huge poultry houses and menageries.
The Arabs caught the art of making weapons in full swing. Damascus steel was already widely known all over the world at that time, and the Arabs, with the imagination inherent in their Asian imagination, had only to take care of the appearance of the weapon. Drawing patterns on steel (damask) increased the value of the weapon many times over.
And the baths were the tradition of the Greco-Roman world, which was picked up by Muslims with special enthusiasm. Baths, in which they went not only to swim, but also to communicate, have become an indispensable part of every city. There were about 5 thousand baths in Baghdad (historians consider the above figures to be clearly overestimated). The interior decoration of these public institutions was far from Muslim, and religious people were clearly suspicious of them and their visitors, considering them breeding grounds for a non-religious and hedonistic spirit. However, Muslim culture retained this custom until modern times.
The science.
In the 30s of the VIII century. Muslims conquered Egypt, most of Byzantium, Iran, and then North Africa and Spain, and advanced to Central Asia and India. The Arabs, who had been in "stagnation" for so long, were suddenly pushed forward. With such a mighty impulse of the nation, science and art flourished, and, moreover, art in the full splendor of a southern flower with all the fantasy of a purely Asian imagination. The war makes the people live more feverishly, the thought to work more energetically. The Arabs moved rapidly forward in mental development.
In the Middle Ages, there were many people who knew the Koran by heart. Every Muslim should read and know this great book, and since it was forbidden to translate from Arabic into others, this led to the spread of the Arabic language, which, along with Islam, is a powerful factor uniting all Arab countries.
Much attention was paid in schools to the study of the native language, and therefore there were so many excellent grammarians among the Arabs. The first Arabic alphabet (South Arabic) dates back to 800 BC. NS. Since then, writing in the South Arabian language has continuously developed up to the 6th century. n. NS. Northern Arabs used the written language Aramaic, akin to Arabic. The earliest North Arabian inscription in the Arabic alphabet is dated 328 AD. NS. The richest poetry existed in the North Arabian language, testifying to the high ancient culture of the Arabs. It was then that the first explanatory dictionaries appeared (sometimes in 60 volumes), which explained the meaning of each word. In poetry, there were all the latest small forms: satire, lyrics, elegy. Thanks to the wealth, luxury and flexibility of the language, the Arabs introduced rhyme into their work. The art of rhyming in big cities has become a court craft. Poets, among whom there were women, sometimes even daughters of the caliphs, also acted as literary critics. In the VIII-X centuries. many works of pre-Islamic Arabic oral poetry have been recorded. In the IX century. 2 collections of "Hamas" ("Songs of Valor") were compiled, which included poems by more than 500 Old Arab poets. For all the Arabs' admiration for poetry, their attitude towards poets was not unambiguous. They believed that the inspiration to help write poetry comes from demons and shaitans: they overhear the conversations of angels, and then tell about them to priests and poets. Because The Arabs were not at all interested in the specific personality of the poet - it was enough to know whether his talent was great and whether his ability to clairvoyance was strong, not all the great poets of the Arab East were preserved complete and reliable information.

An outstanding poet of that time was Abu Nuwas (between 747-762 - between 813-815), who, masterly mastering the form of the verse, sang love, merry feasts and made fun of the then fashionable hobby of the old poems of the Bedouins. It was the time of the courtly culture; the cult of passionate love was maintained at a height both at court and in the circles of the urban intelligentsia. In the love songs of Abu Nuwas, there is a longing for boys as much as for girls. At court, everyone, without exception, was given a passion for boys; fans of Abu Nuwas even indignantly rejected the gossip that he once fell in love with some woman. The fashion for homosexuality flourished.
I would like to note the work of Abu al-Ala al Maari (973-1057 / 58), who was considered the pinnacle of Arab medieval culture. Having recovered from smallpox at the age of 4 and having become blind, he was able to overcome his infirmity: he studied the Koran, theology, Muslim law, Old Arab legends and modern poetry. He also knew Greek philosophy, mathematics, astronomy; colossal erudition is felt in his works. Traveling a lot, he was a constant seeker of truth and justice. The mystery of life and death, the depravity of man and society are the main themes of his lyrics. He considered the presence of evil and suffering in the world as inevitable laws of being (the book of lyrics "Obligation of the optional", "Message of Forgiveness", "Message of Angels").
Gold tint wax candle
In the face of grief, as I am, patient.

For a long time she will smile at you
Although she dies, she is submissive to fate.

And without words she says: “People, do not believe,
That I am crying with fear in anticipation of death.

Doesn't that happen sometimes with you,
That tears of laughter will roll from your eyes? "

The love of the Arabs for fairy tales, which manifested itself in such a luxurious form even under the steppe tents, did not die here either: at the evening fire, wandering storytellers-poets were deployed to the full extent of the eastern imagination, and the folded X-XV centuries. the collection of Arabian fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights" gives us a clear idea of the playfulness of their thoughts. The collection is based on revised plots of Persian, Indian, Greek legends, as well as Arabic fairy tales. These are tales about Ali Baba, Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor. The favorite character of medieval Arabic literature was the Bedouin - daring and cautious, crafty and simple-minded, the keeper of pure Arabic speech.
Enduring world fame was brought to Omar Khayyam (1048-1122), a Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, his rubai - a collection of quatrains that glorified earthly joys and reminders of the frailty of the world. Each quatrain is a laconic and witty discourse about the meaning of life, about the world and about people, often they have an openly God-fighting connotation. Everyone will be able to find lines in Khayyam that are consonant with his own attitude. Here are the most popular and frequently cited rubyes:
*
To live life wisely, you need to know a lot,
Remember two important rules to start with:
You better starve than eat anything
And it is better to be alone than with just anyone.
*
My enemies call me a philosopher,
However - God knows - their judgment is wrong.
I am more insignificant - because nothing is clear to me,
It is not even clear why and who I am here.
*
When you are at the table, like a close family,
Sit down again - I ask you, friends,
Remember about a friend and overturn the cup
I used to be in the place where I sat among you.

Orientalists believe that the dawn of Arab poetry falls on the 7th-9th centuries: during this period, the developing Arab world stood at the head of world civilization. Since the XII century. the level of cultural life is declining.
A significant contribution to many sciences was the research of Arab scholars.
The largest work on optics written in the Middle Ages was the Book of Optics by Ibn al-Haytham. Ibn al-Haytham criticizes the concept of visual rays and proceeds from the fact that rays of light propagate from a light source. Based on the study of the anatomy of the eye, the lens of which was considered the main organ of vision, the scientist examines the mechanism of vision. Further, visual perception and optical illusions are considered, the reflection of light from flat, spherical, cylindrical and conical mirrors and the refraction of light are studied in great detail. Ibn al-Haytham's optical research was based on the extremely high precision of the experiment and on the widespread use of mathematical proofs. In addition to the "Book of Optics", he wrote a number of optical treatises, in particular, "The Book of the Incendiary Sphere", which forms the basis of the theory of lenses. The "Book of Optics" was soon translated into Latin and formed the basis of optical research by scientists of the 13th-14th centuries.
Being engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, the Arabs first of all needed to know the exact timing of various agricultural works, to be able to calculate the size of fields, the volume and area of dams and canals. To this end, they constantly watched the movement and changes in the starry sky. Although the astronomical knowledge of the Arabs was closely intertwined with the religious-astronomical outlook and were under their strongest influence, the Arabs at that time already had a clear idea of astronomical geography. Suffice it to say that most of the star names used by astronomers are garbled Arabic names; Astronomical terms such as zenith, azimuth, almucantarats and alidada were borrowed from the Arabic language, which was the main language of science in the countries of Islam, and some terms, such as the astrolabe or the name of Ptolemy's work “Almagest”, came to us through the Arabs and we use it in a form close to Arabic (asturlab, al-Majisti). The Arabic names of the stars we borrowed are also subdivided into Old Arabic names given to the stars by Arab nomads in the pre-Islamic era, and translations into Arabic of the names of the stars of the constellations of Ptolemy. The first are Tselbalrai ( Ophiuchus) - from kalb ar-ra'y - “the Shepherd's dog” (the Arabs called the star  Ophiuchus the Shepherd), etc.
During the first centuries after the Arab conquest of the territories that became part of the Arab Caliphate, the scientists of the conquered countries could work only in the capital of the Caliphate, Baghdad, or Damascus, which was the capital of the Caliphate before Baghdad. The caliphs of the second dynasty, the Abbasids, al-Mansur and Harun al-Rashid, with deep respect for scholarship, invited foreign sages to Baghdad. From the IX century. in the Arab Caliphate, a kind of mathematical culture began to take shape. Here the methods of Greek mathematics were used to solve astronomical problems. It was the needs of astronomy that led to the rapid development of algebra and trigonometry.
In the VIII-IX centuries. in the Arab Caliphate, the Indian decimal positional system was already used. The Treatise on Indian Accounts is the first Arabic work in which the new Indian numbering was first mentioned; and since it came to Europe through the Arabs, they began to call it Arab. The author of this work was the eminent scholar Muhammad bin Musa al-Khwarizmi. The rules of action with decimal numbers are called "algorithm" - from the Latin form of the name al-Khwarizmi. The foundations of algebra as a science were laid by the work of al-Khwarizmi "Kitab al-jabr wal-muqabala" ("The book on restoration and opposition"). The solution of linear, quadratic, cubic and indefinite equations, the extraction of roots of the third, fourth and fifth degrees became the main achievements of Arabic algebra. Algebraic treatise al-Khwarizmi was also used in life for practical purposes, for example, in the division of property. Muslim law then provided for a complex system of inheritance, according to which the relatives of the deceased received their share of the inheritance depending on the degree of kinship. However, al-Khwarizmi was engaged not only in mathematics. The list of his works also includes a treatise on astronomy, in which he investigates the movement of the Sun, Moon and five planets, gives rules for measuring latitudes and longitudes, determines the size of the solar disk, talks about solar and lunar eclipses.
The famous poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam wrote the algebraic work "A Treatise on Proofs of Problems in Algebra", in which algebra now appears as an independent science. The subject of algebra is declared to be unknown numbers or unknown quantities correlated with known numbers and quantities. Their relationship is written in the form of an equation. Thus, algebra is viewed as the science of equations, which we now call algebraic. In his geometric work, Khayyam examines the theory of parallel lines and the theory of relations. He owns the expression: "If two straight lines approach each other, then they must necessarily intersect."
Arab mathematicians were the first to study all trigonometric functions and compiled tables of sine angles with an interval of 10 ', and with amazing accuracy - up to 1/604. Using trigonometric functions, they investigated the relationship between the sides and angles of triangles.
III. Conclusion.
The entire medieval Arab culture, way of life and way of life of people developed under the influence of Islam, which arose on the Arabian Peninsula.
By creating a common cultural space, Islam and the artistic traditions of the conquered peoples enriched each other. The greatest flowering of Arab medieval culture falls on the 7th - 9th centuries. Various genres of poetry are rapidly developing, such as: qasida, rubai, gazelle, kyta, dastan. Many works of other peoples, in particular, ancient authors, have been translated into Arabic.
The influence of Islam negatively affected the development of the Arab culture of painting and sculpture. Aversion to idols precluded the creation of any animal form; the Arabs renounced the visible image of God once and for all. As a richly gifted people, finding himself deprived of a huge branch of art - sculpture and painting, he realized the whole revelry of his imagination in architecture and ornament.
The Arabs made a significant contribution to the development of sciences: medicine, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy. After the scientific Arabic treatises were translated into Latin, many of the ideas of Muslim scholars became the property of European and then world science.
Islam is the youngest of the three world religions and is growing in importance.

IV. Used Books.

1. P.P. Gnedich: "History of Art from Ancient Times"; Moscow, LLC Publishing House "Letopis-M", 2000, pp. 225-252.
2. A. N. Markova: Textbook on cultural studies, "History of World Culture"; Moscow, Publishing House "Culture and Sport", 2000, pp. 249-261.
3. Zolotko AK, et al .: “2000 great people. Small Encyclopedia of Personalities "; Kharkov, LLC "Torsing", 2001, p. 357, 422, 428.
4. Omar Khayyam: “How wonderful a cute face”, Moscow, Publishing house “Eksmo-press”, 2000, pp. 4-25.
5. Encyclopedia for Children, Mathematics, 11 volume; Moscow, publishing house "Avanta +", 2000, pp. 62-66.

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Already in the Early Middle Ages, the Arabs had rich folklore traditions, they appreciated the spoken word, a beautiful phrase, a good comparison, a proverb uttered to the place. Each tribe of Arabia had its own poet, praising their fellow tribesmen and stigmatizing their enemies. The poet used rhythmic prose, there were many rhythms. It is believed that they were born in a camel's saddle, when the Bedouin sang along the way, adapting to the course of his "ship of the desert" 1.

In the first centuries of Islam, the art of rhyming became a court craft in large cities. Poets also acted as literary critics. In the VIII-X centuries. many works of pre-Islamic Arabic oral poetry have been recorded. So, in the IX century. two collections were compiled Hamas("Songs of Valor"), which included poems by more than 500 Old Arab poets. In the X century. writer, scientist, musician Abu al-Faraj Al-Isfahani a multivolume anthology "Kitab al-Agani" ("Book of Songs") was compiled, including works and biographies of poets, as well as information about composers and performers.

The attitude of the Arabs to the poets, for all their admiration for poetry, was not unambiguous. They believed that the inspiration to help write poetry was given to them from demons, shaitans: they eavesdrop on the conversations of angels, and then tell about them to priests and poets. In addition, the Arabs were almost completely uninterested in the specific personality of the poet. They believed that little should be known about the poet: whether his talent was great and whether his ability to clairvoyance was strong.

Therefore, not all the great poets of the Arab East have survived complete and reliable information.

An outstanding poet was Abu Nuwas(between 747-762 - between 813-815), masterfully mastering the form of verse. He was characterized by irony and

frivolity, he sang love, merry feasts and laughed at the then fashionable hobby of old Bedouin verses.

Abul-Atahiya I was looking for support in asceticism and faith. He penned moral poems about the vanity of everything earthly and the injustice of life. Detachment from the world was not easy for him, as evidenced by his nickname - "not knowing a sense of proportion."

Life Al-Mutanabbi passed in endless wanderings. He was ambitious and proud, and now he praised the rulers of Syria, Egypt, Iran, and then quarreled with them. Many of his poems became aphorisms, turned into songs and proverbs.

Creation Abu al-Ala al Maari(973-1057 / 58) from Syria is considered the pinnacle of Arab medieval poetry, and a magnificent synthesis of the complex and variegated culture of Arab-Muslim history. It is known that at the age of four he suffered smallpox and went blind, but this did not prevent him from studying the Koran, theology, Muslim law, Old Arab traditions and modern poetry. He also knew Greek philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, in his youth he traveled a lot, and in his poems one can feel colossal erudition. He was a seeker of truth and justice, and in his lyrics there are several distinctly dominant themes: the mystery of life and death, the depravity of man and society, the presence of evil and suffering in the world, which, in his opinion, was an inevitable law of being (lyric book “Obligation of the optional "," The Message of Forgiveness "," The Message of the Angels ").

In the X-XV centuries. the collection of Arab folk tales, now famous all over the world, was gradually formed "Thousand and One Nights". They were based on the revised plots of Persian, Indian, Greek legends, the action of which was transferred to the Arab court and city environment, as well as the Arab fairy tales proper. These are tales about Ali Baba, Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and others. The heroes of the tales were also princesses, sultans, merchants, and townspeople. The favorite character of medieval Arabic literature was the Bedouin - daring and cautious, crafty and simple-minded, the keeper of pure Arabic speech.

Enduring world fame brought Omar Khayyam(1048-1122), Persian poet, scientist, his poems are philosophical, hedonic and free-thinking hack:

Delicate woman's face and green grass

I'll enjoy it as long as I'm alive.

I drank wine, I drink wine and I probably will

Drink wine until your fatal moment.

In medieval Arab culture, poetry and prose were closely intertwined: poems were naturally included in love stories, and in medical treatises, and in heroic stories, and in philosophical and historical works, and even in the official messages of medieval rulers. And all Arab literature was united by the Muslim faith and the Koran: quotes and phrases from there were found everywhere.

Orientalists believe that the flourishing of Arab poetry, literature, and culture as a whole falls on the 8th-9th centuries: during this period, the rapidly developing Arab world stood at the head of world civilization. Since the XII century. the level of cultural life is declining. Persecution of Christians and Jews began, which was expressed in their physical extermination, secular culture was oppressed, and pressure on natural sciences increased. Public burning of books has become a common practice. Thus, the main scientific achievements of Arab scholars date back to the early Middle Ages.

The contribution of the Arabs to mathematical science was significant. Living in the X century. Abu-l-Wafa deduced the theorem of sines of spherical trigonometry, calculated the table of sines with an interval of 15 °, introduced the segments corresponding to the secant and cosecant.

Poet, scientist Omar Khayyam wrote "Algebra" - an outstanding essay, which contained a systematic study of equations of the third degree. He also successfully dealt with the problem of irrational and real numbers. He owns the philosophical treatise "On the universality of being." In 1079 he introduced a calendar more accurate than the modern Gregorian.

The outstanding scientist of Egypt was Ibn al-Haytham, mathematician and physicist, author of famous works on optics.

Medicine has achieved great success - it has developed more successfully than in Europe or the Far East. He glorified Arab medieval medicine Ibn Sina - Avicenna(980-1037), author of the encyclopedia of theoretical and clinical medicine, summarizing the views and experience of Greek, Roman Indian and Central Asian doctors "Canon of Medicine". For many centuries this work was an obligatory guide for doctors. Abu Bakr Muhammad ar-Razi, the famous Baghdad surgeon, gave the classic description of smallpox and measles, used smallpox vaccination. Syrian family Bakhtisho gave seven generations of famous doctors.

Arab philosophy developed largely on the basis of the ancient heritage. Scientists-philosophers were Ibn Sina, the author of a philosophical treatise "Book of Healing". Scholars actively translated the works of ancient authors.

Famous philosophers were Al-Kindi, who lived in the 9th century, and al-Farabi(870-950), called the "second teacher", that is, after Aristotle, whom Farabi commented on. Scientists united in a philosophical circle "Brothers of Purity" in the city of Basra, compiled an encyclopedia of philosophical scientific achievements of their time.

Historical thought also developed. If in the VII-VIII centuries. in the Arabic language proper historical writings had not yet been written and there were simply many legends about Muhammad, the campaigns and conquests of the Arabs, then in the 9th century. major works on history are being compiled. The leading representatives of historical science were al-Belazuri, who wrote about the Arab conquests, al-Nakubi, at-Tabari and al-Masoudi, authors of works on world history. It is history that will remain that virtually the only branch of scientific knowledge that will develop in the XIII-XV centuries. under the rule of a fanatical Muslim clergy, when neither exact sciences nor mathematics developed in the Arab East. The most famous historians of the XIV-XV centuries. were Egyptian Makrizi, compiled the history of the Copts, and Ibn Khaldun, the first of the Arab historians to try to create a theory of history. He singled out the natural conditions of the country as the main factor determining the historical process.

Arabic literature also enjoyed the attention of scholars: at the turn of the VIII-IX centuries. an Arabic grammar was compiled, which formed the basis of all subsequent grammars.

The centers of medieval Arabic science were cities Baghdad, Kufa, Basra, Harron. The scientific life of Baghdad was especially lively, where "House of Science" - a kind of association of academy, observatory, library and college of translators:

By the X century. secondary and higher Muslim schools appeared in many cities - madrasah. In the X-XIII centuries. in Europe, the sign decimal system for writing numbers became known from Arabic writings, which received the name "Arabic numerals".

It should be said that medieval Arab architecture developed on the basis of the processing by the Arabs, first of all, of Greek, Roman and Iranian artistic traditions.

The most famous architectural monuments of that time Amra Mosque in Fustat and cathedral mosque in Kufa, created in the VII century. At the same time, the famous Temple "Dome of the Rock" in Damascus, decorated with mosaics and multi-colored marble. From the VII-VIII centuries. the mosques had a rectangular courtyard surrounded by galleries, a multi-column prayer hall. Later, monumental portals appeared on the main facade.

From the X century. buildings are beginning to be decorated with graceful floral and geometric ornaments, in which stylized inscriptions were included - Arabic script. Such an ornament, the Europeans called it arabesque, was built on the principle of endless development and rhythmic repetition of the pattern.

The object of Hajj1 of Muslims was Kaaba - temple in Mecca, shaped like a cube. In its wall there is a niche with a black stone - as believed by modern researchers, probably of meteoric origin. This black stone is revered as a symbol of Allah, personifying his presence.

Islam, advocating strict monotheism, fought against the Arabian tribal cults. In order to destroy the memory of tribal idols, sculpture was prohibited in Islam, depictions of living beings were not approved. As a result, painting did not receive significant development in Arab culture, being limited to ornaments. Since the XII century. art began to develop miniatures, including bookstore.

In general, the fine arts went into carpet weaving, flamboyance and patterning became its characteristic features. The combination of bright colors, however, was always strictly geometric, rational and subordinated to Muslim symbols.

The Arabs considered the best color for the eyes to be red - it was the color of women, children and joy. As much as we loved red, so much was we despised gray. White, black and purple were interpreted as colors of mourning, rejection of the joys of life. Green color was especially prominent in Islam, which had exceptional prestige. For centuries, it has been banned from both non-Muslims and the lower strata of Islam.

16.3. Life and customs of the Arabs

The Koran, in addition to sermons, prayers, incantations, edifying stories and parables, contains both ritual and legal regulations governing various aspects of the life of Muslim society. In accordance with these instructions, the family, legal, property relations of people were built. A set of norms of morality, law, cultural and other attitudes that regulate the entire social and personal life of a Muslim, called sharia1, is the most important component of the system of Islam.

Sharia was formed during the 7th-8th centuries. By the IX century. on the basis of Sharia norms, a grading scale was developed for all actions of believers.

TO obligatory actions, included those, the failure of which was punished during life and after death: reading prayers, observing fasting, various rituals of Islam. In number desired actions included additional prayers and fasts, as well as charity, this was encouraged during life and rewarded after death. Indifferent actions - sleep, food, marriage, etc. - were not encouraged or prohibited. Disapproved although not punishable by deeds, were called deeds caused by the desire to enjoy earthly goods: the culture of the medieval Arab East, prone to luxury, was sensual. This was especially evident in food. In cities, expensive Indian pistachio kernels soaked in pink water, apples from Syria, sugarcane stalks, edible clay from Nishapur were held in high esteem1. Incense used in life played an important role: fragrant oils were prepared from lotus, daffodils, white jasmine, lilies, cloves, roses, baths made of violet oil were popular, etc. prohibited acts included those who were punished both during life and after death: for example, it was forbidden to drink wine, eat pork, gamble, engage in usury, conjure, etc. Despite the prohibitions of Islam, many inhabitants of the medieval Arab East continued to drink wine (especially this was typical for cities), but all other prohibitions - on pork, blood, meat of any animal killed not according to the Muslim rite - were strictly observed.

Based on the Koran and taking into account pre-Islamic traditions, the law of inheritance, guardianship, marriage and divorce was developed. Marriage was seen as the most important event in the life of a man and a woman. The union of a cousin and a sister was considered ideal, and the number of legal wives was limited to four. The subordinate position of women in the family and society was confirmed, and the account of kinship was kept strictly on the paternal side.

The man was recognized as the absolute leader. God's blessing, as believed in the Arab East, lay precisely on the sons, and therefore only after the birth of a son was a person considered complete here. A real man was distinguished by generosity, generosity, the ability to love and have fun, valor, loyalty to a given word. A man was required to constantly assert his superiority, to be persistent, patient and ready for any adversity. He was responsible for the elders and the younger, he had to know his genealogy and ancestral traditions.

Islam had a beneficial effect on the attitude of society towards slaves: the release of a slave was now seen as a humane and desirable act for a pious Muslim. However, throughout the Middle Ages, the number of slaves almost did not decrease, the slave trade was a common occupation for merchants, and slaves were one of the most popular goods in Eastern markets: stable traditions changed slowly.

The traditional norms of behavior in Eastern society were combined with traditional thinking. It, in turn, was largely determined by mythology.

The most important part of it was geninology - the doctrine of the jinn 2. Islam defined their place in the world in this way: genie-demons created from

pure fire, were inferior to man, created by Allah from clay, and, of course, to angels, created from light. All of them - both man and angels and demons - are submissive to the will of Allah.

Djinn-demons are somewhat similar to people: they are mortal, although they can live for a very long time, many hundreds of years, they need food, they can be married to each other or to people. In many ways, however, they were superior to humans: they were able to fly, penetrate deep underground and water, become visible and invisible, and turn around in various people, animals, and plants.

Jinn could be good and bad; the good converted to Islam, the evil remained unfaithful, but a person should be wary of both. The most ferocious demon shaitans were called marids, they had to be especially wary of. In addition, bloodthirsty and malevolent were efreet, - whether evil spirits, or the ghosts of the dead. Hairy werewolves lived in cemeteries and other abandoned desert places. ghouls, always ready to devour a lonely traveler.

In general, in the Arab East, they believed that the jinn lie in wait for a person at every step. Therefore, even in everyday everyday life, you should be on your guard: so, before lighting a fire in the hearth or getting water from a well, you should ask Allah for protection from demons and demons.

Some protection from evil forces was provided by amulets. The most important amulet was a palm made of copper with a blue bead - it was the "palm of Fatyma" - named after the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. It was believed that the "palm of Fatyma", as well as other amulets - flat silver twin frogs, silver brooches, cowrie shells - protected a person from the evil eye.

They were very afraid of the evil eye and explained to them many phenomena in life - from illness to crop failure. It was believed that the power of the evil eye is multiplied if it is accompanied by hostile or, on the contrary, too flattering speeches. So evasiveness in speeches, a tendency to constant reservations: "By the will of Allah", a desire to hide from strangers behind a blank wall, their private family life, were brought up. This also influenced the style of clothing, primarily for women: women wore blank face covers and rather shapeless dresses that almost completely hid their figure.

Dreams were of great importance in the Arab East; they believed in prophetic dreams, and already at the beginning of the XI century. Ad-Dinawari made the first dream book in Arabic. It was not allowed to invent and conjecture dreams: “The one who lies about his dreams will answer on the day of the uprising of the dead,” the Koran says.

Divination dreams were a means of looking into the future. In addition, they wondered by birds, primarily by the flight of ravens and eagles, and were sure that a kite, an ostrich, a dove and an owl portends misfortune. The desire to look into the unknown led to the practice of magic and divination. The attitude towards magic was ambiguous: it was allowed white, or high magic, which pious people have resorted to for noble purposes. In this they were helped by heavenly angels and good genies who converted to Islam. Black magic believed in the Arab East, dishonest people were engaged, and evil shaitans acted as their assistants.

The tendency to fortune-telling, like many other features of the mentality of the inhabitants of the Middle East, was discovered long before the adoption of Islam there and survived the Middle Ages, passing into the New Time, and then the Newest Time.

The Arab medieval culture developed in those countries that underwent Arabization, adopted Islam and in which the classical Arabic language dominated for a long time as the language of government institutions, literature and religion.

The entire medieval Arab culture, everyday life and way of life of people, moral norms in society developed under the influence of the Islamic religion, which arose among the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century.

The greatest flowering of Arab culture fell on the VIII-XI centuries. At this time, poetry developed successfully, giving the world Omar Khayyam and for which a secular, cheerful and at the same time philosophical character was inherent; the famous and now all over the world fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights" were compiled; many works of other peoples, primarily ancient authors, were actively translated into Arabic.

The Arabs made a significant contribution to the world mathematical science, the development of medicine, philosophy. They created such peculiar architectural monuments as mosques and famous temples in Mecca and Damascus, giving significant originality to the buildings, decorating them with ornaments - Arabic script.

The influence of Islam led to the underdevelopment of painting and sculpture in the Arab culture, predetermining the departure of fine art to carpet weaving.

Islam is the youngest of the three world religions and is growing in importance. In the modern world, Islam is the second most followed world religion.

Lekciya 10

CULTURE

CLASSIC ARABIC EAST

Plan

Islam as a cultural phenomenon, its birth and evolution. The flourishing of the Arab-Muslim culture in the IX-XII centuries.

Achievements of Arab Science. Philosophy.

Arab-Muslim art, architecture.

Features of Muslim law and morality. The culture of the Arab East and its influence on world culture.

The devout Muslims who believed that the Koran could not do without the Sunnah were called "Ahl-as-Sunnah" - "people of the Sunnah" or Sunnis. The propagators of the Sunnah were Muhammad's companions, who, in appropriate cases, recalled his actions, words and even silence, serving as an example under certain circumstances. Sunniism is based on the common opinion of the ulama (Sunni scholars), while Shiism is based on the authority of the imam (heir to the prophet's mission). And one more difference: the limits base the Sunnah solely on the authority of the prophet's family, and the faithful Sunnis also recognize the testimony of the ascetics of the Prophet Muhammad. Until now, the entire Muslim world is divided into Shiites and Sunnis;

In the course of the evolution of Islam, Sufism ~ Muslim mysticism arose, which in a certain sense was a reaction of fervent Puritan believers to the process of the beginning of the desacralization of Islam. Sufis - Islamic mystics did not consider it obligatory for themselves the daily norms, rituals and conventions strictly prescribed to devout Muslims. Their life was dedicated to Allah and hence their non-standard behavior - they did not pray five times a day, but performed the rite of falling (dhikr) in various variations - from ecstatic trance to deep inner concentration, close to Indo-Buddhist meditation. The most interesting thing is that the origins of Sufism include the concepts of various cultures, namely: the dogmas of the Koran, the neoplatonism of Plotinus with his thesis about divine emanation, which is reflected in the objects of the world as in a mirror, the position of Indo-Buddhism about the primacy of absolute reality over the phenomenal world sensations and Christian asceticism. The synthesis of these origins on the basis of Islam led to the emergence of Sufism.

Sufism itself became differentiated within itself. One of its variants was intellectual Sufism, which had a huge impact on the Arab-Muslim culture, let us recall, for example, Sufi poetry. The Sufi strives to God, he chooses the path of love and worship in order to achieve his highest goal - to be altered or reincarnated and thus gain a timeless experience. Love for God allows the Sufi to achieve complete harmony with the absolute, with the help of love, this "sweet madness", he merges with God, in which even the very concepts of "God" and "Man" disappear. The path of love and wisdom allows an individual to achieve power over his body, thoughts and feelings, to create his own paradise in himself, in which he can experience bliss until he plunges into the ocean of eternity. In other words, in mystical self-knowledge, the comprehension of God occurs: “who knows himself, knows God” (Quran).

Another version of Sufism is the Sufism of religious orders, which has tremendous political power and is oriented towards dogmatics of a very harsh, extreme persuasion. Sufi orders in our century play an important role as well, as they influence politics by influencing the religious consciousness of the members of the order and its head, suffice it to mention the orders of Qadiriyya, Senusiyya and others, which still largely control the life of the masses in African countries, Turkey , Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Muslim countries. In addition, one should not forget that the respectful attitude of the Prophet Muhammad towards ascetics, who saw abstinence as almost the highest valor, remains in the social memory of the Islamic society.

Undoubtedly, the influence of Sufism, like Islam in general, on the development of culture and socio-political life of the Muslim East. We can say that under the banner of Islam, the Arab people began their great history full of successes, created a vast empire, a brilliant Arab-Muslim civilization and culture. The Arabs became the heirs of such great states as Byzantium and Persia.

It should be emphasized that Islam significantly contributed to the development of philosophy, art, the humanities and natural sciences, as well as the creation of a refined culture (it is no coincidence that the 7th-8th centuries are called the era of classicism). Caliphs, emirs and governors of various provinces of the colossal Muslim empire were inveterate guardians of science and philosophy, patrons of art and fine literature, especially poetry. They were the initiators and patrons of well-known scientific institutions - the universities and academies of sciences of that time, with which huge libraries at that time were associated, numbering many hundreds of thousands of volumes of religious and secular works. The main centers of medieval culture and science were located in Baghdad, Cairo, Cordoba and other cities of the Arab-Muslim Caliphate. We can say that the Arab-Muslim culture, as follows from the phrase itself, bears the stamp of Islam and Arabism with its spirit of freedom and tolerance, which was preserved in the era of Arab hegemony in the Arab-Muslim society and its state - the Caliphate. It should also not be forgotten that in the medieval Arab-Muslim culture, socio-political ideas were also intensively developed, focused on the search for a supra-religious ideal, involving the destruction of property and religious antagonisms: the search for this kind of social utopian ideal, for quite understandable reasons, caused a certain reaction from orthodox Islam , as a result of which Sufism appeared.

An essential element of the Arab-Muslim culture is the Arabic language, which is inextricably linked with the Koran. After all, the holy book of Islam, according to devout Muslims, was given to the Prophet Muhammad in a "revelation" in the Arabic language (and many of them believe that it is in this form that its original is kept near the throne of the Most High). From this began the interaction of these two essential components of the Arab-Muslim culture. Thus, under the influence of the need to comment on the Koran, philological studies of the Arabic language developed very strongly. In turn, the Koran contributed to the expansion of the sphere of distribution and strengthening of the position of the Arabic language wherever the Arabs and representatives of other peoples converted to Islam appeared. Because all Muslims, regardless of their origin, are obliged to quote the Qur'an in Arabic, know it and understand it. And just as the Arabs (and Muslims) considered the presentation of the Qur'an in Arabic to the world as a “miracle”, so the amazing development of the Arabic language appears before us, which from the Bedouin language of desert Arabia within less than a century turned into the official language of scientists and philosophers.

When simple Bedouins left the Arabian Desert in the first half of the 7th century. to conquer the neighboring countries of the East and West, they carried with them their language, the language of ancient Arabic poetry, the language of the Koran. He was still harsh, not treated by philologists, but potentially rich for further development. They carried with them their religion - Islam, which united them into a single combat formation and united them ideologically. The Arabic language and the Koran are two main elements of the emerging new Arab-Muslim civilization and culture: science, philosophy, art and other manifestations of Arab and Muslim culture bear the imprint of these two factors.

The first centers of science in the Muslim world were mosques - a kind of universities, for they taught all religious and secular sciences. Some of them have gained great prominence in the history of Arab-Muslim scholarship as genuine universities. Suffice it to recall the great Umayyad mosque in Damascus (founded in 732), the famous Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, known in the West, and others. Islam contributed to the flourishing of science, because even the prophet Muhammad said: "Seeing scientists is equal to prayer", and his nephew Ali said: "Get knowledge: they will adorn you if you are rich, and feed you if you are poor." Also noteworthy is the saying “books are the gardens of scientists”.

The tremendous flowering of science and philosophy, literature and art falls primarily on the first period of the rule of the Abassid dynasty with its capital in Baghdad. Already from the end of the VIII century. intensive work began on the translation of the most important Greek, Persian and Indian works into Arabic. The famous enlightened caliph al-Mamun (813-833) especially encouraged science and scientists, allowed freedom of thought. It was in Baghdad in the VIII-X centuries. a genuine enthusiasm for science was born. “The search for knowledge” has become, as it were, the need of the broad masses of adherents of Islam, according to the hadith quoted above. Arab thinkers appeared who brought ancient scientific and philosophical achievements of other peoples to the treasury of Arab-Muslim culture, but also advanced science and philosophy with their original creativity.

Not only in the Arab East, but also in the Arab West, in Arab Spain, called Andalusia, science, philosophy, literature and art developed brilliantly under the patronage of the Umayyad caliphs from Cordoba, and then their successors, the emirs - the rulers of small states. Cordoba, the capital of the "Spanish" Umayyads, became famous as a center of sophisticated culture, not inferior to the Baghdad of the Abassids. Along with Cordova, there were also other centers of high culture: Seville, Toledo, Gromada. Scientists from the Muslim countries of the East, where science and philosophy from the XII century. began to decline, and scientists from Italy, France and England came to these cultural centers to study such secular sciences as astronomy, medicine, geography and other natural sciences.

In this case, the Arab-Muslim culture is seen as intermediate between the cultures of the East and West. The Arab Caliphate included large cultural centers of the Middle East, in which the thousand-year experience of the urban culture of Sumer, Akkad, ancient Egypt, etc. was concentrated. All cultural values crystallized over the millennia by various eastern civilizations and Hellenism were mastered by the Arabs, expressed in Arabic and transferred to Western Europe. The defining features, communicated by the Muslim East to the culture of Western Europe, were scientific character, striving for the joys and beauty of reality. The culture of the Muslim Middle Ages, thus, not only anticipated the culture of the Renaissance in many of its aspects, but also directly prepared its emergence in the era called by the humanists of the 15th century. the era of the middle ages. In the period between the XII century. and during the Renaissance, the works of Arab scholars in all fields of knowledge were translated and copied in Spain, Sicily and Syria, thanks to which most of them became available in Latin translation. Despite the relatively low level of translation and science in the West at that time, these Latin texts contributed to the revival of the thirst for knowledge in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages. The question arises: what is the reason for the flourishing of scientific knowledge in the Arab-Muslim culture? The following factors played a significant role in this. First of all, it should be borne in mind that at the heart of Islam was concern for the faithful in this earthly world, and various scientific disciplines provided significant assistance here. Exact sciences, mathematics and astronomy, as well as medicine and pharmacology were very useful for the development of civilization, because they raised the standard of living of the population and did not threaten the ideology of Islam. All this led to the development of scientific disciplines without any special obstacles, to their attainment of a high level.

Chemistry reached a high level of development among the Arabs. Jabar Ibn Hayyan of Kufa, the creator of the foundations of experimental chemistry, became famous. He was engaged not only in the problems of the theory of chemistry, but also in his numerous experimental studies sought to obtain data for practical application in the processes of steelmaking, dyeing fabrics and leather, glass production, etc. In general, we can say that Arab scientists in the field of chemistry discovered sulfur oxide , nitric oxide, nitric silver and other compounds, as well as distillation and crystallization.

Medicine had a very high level among the Arabs; its achievements in various fields have fed European medicine for a long time. One of the first famous doctors al-Razi (IX century) was the greatest clinician in the world of Islam, many of his works are real medical encyclopedias. A major encyclopedia in the field of medicine is also the "Canon of Medicine" by the famous Ibn Sina (Avicenna). The greatest surgeon of the Arab world, az-Zahrawi, raised surgery to the rank of an independent science, his most important treatise "Tashrif" laid the foundation for illustrated works on surgery. He began to use antiseptics in the treatment of wounds and cutaneous injuries, invented sutures for surgical sutures, as well as about 200 surgical instruments, which were later used by surgeons in both the Muslim and Christian world. Another famous pioneer of medicine was Ibn Zuhr (Aven-zohar), one of the largest Arab physicians in Spain (1094-1160). He was the first to describe pneumonia, stomach cancer, etc .; it is considered a harbinger of experimental medicine.

We are also indebted to Arab scientists for the creation of pharmaceuticals as a recognized profession; pharmacology has become an independent science, independent of medicine, although related to it. They attached great importance to chemotherapy, many medicinal herbs of the Arabian pharmacopoeia are still used in treatment: senna, knotweed, etc. Arab geographers and naturalists enriched zoology and botany, studying the flora and fauna of many countries.

Of interest is the philosophical tradition of the Muslim East, which has two components - Hellenism and Islam, which determines its special features. After all, all types of knowledge, all disciplines for which the Arab classical thought recognized the right to exist, thanks to the Koran, received a religious understanding. For the Quran not only affirmed the unity of Allah, judge and creator, as stated in the revelations of the Prophet Muhammad, not only established a religious connection between the believer and his creator-benefactor, but also gave an impulse to a tireless creative search in all areas of knowledge. It should be borne in mind that specialization in science has never prevented Arab scholars and thinkers from correlating different disciplines with each other and linking different areas of knowledge into a single whole.

All this must be borne in mind when considering the Arab-Muslim philosophy, which clearly differed from the strictly religious aspect of classical Islam. Moreover, she even asserted herself as the visible opposite of this aspect, as evidenced by the constant differences in views on the corresponding role of reason and faith, the division into religious and rational knowledge, rational judgments and judgments of canonical (religious) law. However, philosophy was actually intertwined with theology when it came to ethics, politics and metaphysics, just as canon law used the fields of knowledge that philosophers were engaged in: logic, mathematics, rhetoric, natural sciences. The interpenetration of philosophy and theology can be observed in the works of the Mu'tazilites, supporters of reason in all areas, including religion, as well as in the works of such humanists as ad-Jahiz. This tendency towards synthesis is even more clearly traced in the 10th century. in the works of grammarians, legal scholars, theologians, writers, physicians and such encyclopedists as "The Brothers of Purity." A striking example of such a tendency towards synthesis are the famous fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights", which reflect the thinking of the people, reveal their desires and beliefs of the presentation. This connection between the humanities and literature is found in the works of a number of authors, in particular in the works of the great scientist al-Biruni (d. 1048), whose philosophy in many respects is remarkably similar to that of the 20th century.

At the same time, the process of interpenetration of philosophy and theology was characterized by a constant clash of two main approaches - the rationalistic one, which continued the traditions of the Greek 1; thought, and traditional, which consisted in the direct interpretation of sacred texts (the Koran and hadith). Yet many thinkers have not adhered to such a distinction in their search. Often these were 1 outstanding philosophers, for example, Ibn Sina (Avicenna, d. 1 1037), Ibn Rushd (Averroes, d. 1198), Ibn Khaldun (d. 1 1406). The philosophical thought of Ibn Sina had a strong influence on the philosophy of the Muslim East, while the philosophical thought of Averroes left a deep imprint on medieval European philosophy, where Averroism was a very important philosophical trend. In general, it can be said that Arab thinkers and scientists have had a tremendous influence on the culture of the West, especially in such fields of knowledge as mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy.

It should be noted that the abstractness of Muslim art is far from modern abstractionism. Contemporary artists find in abstraction the answer to irrational subconscious impulses; for a Muslim artist, abstract painting directly reflects unity in diversity. Muslim art consists in reproducing objects in accordance with their nature, and it is saturated with beauty, since it comes from God: there is nothing left to do but to reveal and express this beauty. In the Islamic concept, art in a broad sense is a means of ennobling material. Muslim art (carpet weaving, architecture, painting, calligraphy) is characterized by the repetition of expressive geometric motifs, an unexpected change in rhythm and diagonal symmetry. The Islamic structure of the mind includes a keen sense of the fragility of the world, the capacity of thought and action, a sense of rhythm.

Another typical example of Arab-Muslim culture is the arabesque, a specific Muslim ornament in which logic is associated with the living integrity of rhythm. Elements of Muslim Decorative Arts are borrowed from the historical past common to the peoples of Asia, the Middle East and Northern Europe. Islam assimilates these archaic elements, reducing them to the most abstract and pure definition, to a certain extent neutralizes them and thus deprives them of any magical character. As a result of this synthesis, the arabesque has analogies in Arabic rhetoric and poetry, characterized by a rhythmic flow of thought, filled with strictly connected parallels and inversions. For Muslims, arabesque is not only an opportunity to create art without pictures, but also a means of scattering a picture or whatever corresponds to it in thought. In an arabesque, the reproduction of an individual form is impossible due to the infinity of the canvas.

Calligraphy, the noblest visual art of Islam, has a function similar to that of icons in Christian art, in that it represents the visible body of the divine Word. Arabic words in sacred writings correlate with arabesques, primarily with floral ornaments associated with the Asian symbol of the tree of the world, the leaves of which correspond to the words of the holy book.

In the Arab-Muslim world, calligraphy was widely used in architecture both as a means of conveying text and simply for decoration. Architects sometimes covered entire walls of palaces and mosques with intricate Arabic script, stylized plant motifs and geometric patterns. The architecture itself is also famous, the masterpieces of which are the Taj Mahal, the blue mosque in Istanbul, which is based on a Christian temple, the blue domes of the Samarkand and Isfahan mosques, the Algamora palace in Granada, the palaces and mosques of Cordoba. It is necessary to recall the patterned tiles of Muslim architecture, the ornaments of which later brought fame to Persian carpets.

Many examples of Islamic art can be seen in the Western Hemisphere thanks to the conquistadors. In the Mexican city of Pueblo, the walls of ancient Catholic churches are covered with tiled mosaics with floral ornaments. It turns out that mutually competing cultures and religions are mutually enriching.

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