Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm tra c e
Speaker 2: V Wilson, and I'm Holly Frye. I talked in a
Speaker 2: recent behind the scenes edition of the show that I
Speaker 2: had started playing Assassin's Creed Mirage at this point. I
Speaker 2: have finished playing Assassin's Creed Mirage because it's not that
Speaker 2: long of a game, and it also did not take
Speaker 2: long at all playing that game for me to encounter
Speaker 2: something that I wanted to talk about on the podcast.
Speaker 2: That was the Badu Musa. These were brothers who lived
Speaker 2: in Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, and that's the
Speaker 2: setting for Assassin's Creed Mirage. I also kept triple and
Speaker 2: quadruple checking whether these guys had come up on the
Speaker 2: show before, because we've done some previous episodes on figures
Speaker 2: from the Islamic Golden Age. The Banu Musa also created
Speaker 2: a number of automata, and we've talked about automata in
Speaker 2: some other episodes. All my digging through old notes though,
Speaker 2: suggest that no, apparently we never have. And also, just
Speaker 2: to be super clear, this is not a sponsored episode.
Speaker 2: I just got inspired by a video game. So the
Speaker 2: Islamic Golden Age is a term that was coined in
Speaker 2: the nineteenth century to describe a period of artistic and
Speaker 2: intellectual flourishing in the Muslim world. So as with terms
Speaker 2: like the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, this is a
Speaker 2: construct that's just meant to help us conceptualize the past.
Speaker 2: The Islamic Golden Age is usually described as starting with
Speaker 2: the founding of the House of Wisdom in the eighth
Speaker 2: century and ending with the siege of Baghdad by Mongol
Speaker 2: forces in twelve fifty eight. This was a period of invention, creativity,
Speaker 2: and discovery, as well as of preserving the knowledge of
Speaker 2: earlier eras. This does not, to be clear, mean that
Speaker 2: it was always peaceful or stable, and we'll get into
Speaker 2: some of that later. So this period began not long
Speaker 2: after the Abbasid Kaliphate took control from the Umayad Caliphate
Speaker 2: in the year seven fifty. I feel like we have
Speaker 2: always said this either as caliphate, caliphate or kaliphate on
Speaker 2: the show. They take a more Arabic pronunciation in this
Speaker 2: video game, and so it's always like Halif. The halifit
Speaker 2: the second Abbasid Caliph al Mansour moved the capital from
Speaker 2: Damascus to Baghdad. Then the fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al Rashid,
Speaker 2: established the Bite al Hikma, or the House of Wisdom there. Initially,
Speaker 2: the House of Wisdom, which is also sometimes called the
Speaker 2: Academy of Science, mainly functioned as a library and a
Speaker 2: translation center.
Speaker 1: Initially, most of the translation work done at the House
Speaker 1: of Wisdom was from Persian into Arabic because the Abbassied
Speaker 1: court drew a lot of influence from Persia. But the
Speaker 1: seventh Abbasid caliph, known as alma Mun the scope and
Speaker 1: roll of the House of Wisdom. It became an academy
Speaker 1: and intellectual center, and much of the translation work shifted
Speaker 1: to texts in Greek philosophy and mathematics, as well as
Speaker 1: works in other languages. While this was a Muslim dynasty,
Speaker 1: scholars of a range of faiths worked at the House
Speaker 1: of Wisdom, including Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism. A
Speaker 1: lot of ancient works that we still have today exist
Speaker 1: only because they were preserved and translated in the House
Speaker 1: of Wisdom, and this focus on translation was part of
Speaker 1: a whole movement one that collected and translated works from
Speaker 1: all across the known world into Arabic. This work happened
Speaker 1: not just at the House of Wisdom, but also in
Speaker 1: other cities in the Kliphate. The Banu Musa lived in
Speaker 1: the ninth century, and we don't know much about the
Speaker 1: details of their personal lives. Their father was Musa ibn Shakir,
Speaker 1: who was probably Persian. In air naming, Ibn means son
Speaker 1: of So. Musa was the son of Shakir, and Banu
Speaker 1: means sons of So. The Banu Musa were the sons
Speaker 1: of Musa, and when described as individuals, their names would
Speaker 1: end in ibn Musa or ibn Musa ibn Shakir. This
Speaker 1: makes Banu Musa Brothers, which shows up in articles from
Speaker 1: time to time, a little bit wonky. It's not exactly wrong,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of redundant. You're basically tacking English words
Speaker 1: onto words that already say the same thing in another language.
Speaker 1: It's like calling them the sons of Musa brothers. Sources
Speaker 1: describe Musa ibn Shakir as a bandit or a highwayman
Speaker 1: when he was a young man, but later he turned
Speaker 1: away from that life to become an astronomer and astrologer.
Speaker 1: He became friends.
Speaker 2: With Abu Alabas Abdallah alma Ibn al Rashid. This was
Speaker 2: the son of Kleaf Harun al Rashid and half brother
Speaker 2: of Mohammad al Amin. Although al Mamun was older than Alamin,
Speaker 2: al ma Mun's mother was an enslaved concubine and Alamin's
Speaker 2: mother was one of al Rashid's legitimate wives who was
Speaker 2: descended from another caliph, so al Mamin descended from caliph's
Speaker 2: on both sides and born from a marriage, was chosen
Speaker 2: to be his father's successor as caliph, while al Mamun
Speaker 2: was given sovereignty over the Kaliphate's eastern provinces in Khorasan.
Speaker 2: Harun al Rashid informed his sons of these arrangements in
Speaker 2: Ato two while they were performing the Haj to Mecca.
Speaker 2: The timeline is a little bit fuzzy here, but it
Speaker 2: seems like Musa ibn Shakir became part of al ma
Speaker 2: Mun's court while he was governing Khorasan, and he was
Speaker 2: still in that role when Musa died. That left Musa
Speaker 2: Ibn Shakir's three sons, Muhammad, Ahmad and Ala San in
Speaker 2: alma Mun's care, they were sent to the House of
Speaker 2: Wisdom in Baghdad, where they were tutored by an astronomer
Speaker 2: and astrologer named Yayabin Abif Mansur. Caliph Harun al Rashid
Speaker 2: died in Ado nine and soon the relationship between Alamin
Speaker 2: and al Mamun started to deteriorate. These brothers had signed
Speaker 2: formal agreements during their pilgrimage to Mecca, and among other things,
Speaker 2: al Mamun had agreed not to rebel against his brother,
Speaker 2: and Alamine had agreed never to invade alma Mun's territory
Speaker 2: or aid rebels in rising up against him. There's also
Speaker 2: a third half brother who was involved in all of this,
Speaker 2: but was not a major part of it. There was
Speaker 2: other instability going on at the same time as all this,
Speaker 2: but basically, in spite of their earlier agreements, the two
Speaker 2: half brothers started trying to undermine one another and this
Speaker 2: escalated into war. This is known as the Abassid Civil War,
Speaker 2: also called the Fourth Civil War or Fourth FeTNA. Alamine
Speaker 2: and alma Mun were at war with each other from
Speaker 2: eight eleven to eight thirteen, with alma Mun ultimately besieging
Speaker 2: Baghdad and taking control as Caliph. Ala Mun was killed,
Speaker 2: although his brother had apparently wanted him captured. The war
Speaker 2: continued after this among multiple factions, but to return to
Speaker 2: the Baanu Musa. After Almamun became caliph, they continued their
Speaker 2: work at the House of Wisdom, including carrying out commissions
Speaker 2: for him and eventually becoming a major part in the
Speaker 2: scholarly work that was done there. We know very little
Speaker 2: about the details of the three brothers' lives, and multiple
Speaker 2: sources used in this episode describe it as impossible to
Speaker 2: write separate biographies of them. One of the running jokes
Speaker 2: in Assassin's Creed Mirage is that the main character cannot
Speaker 2: tell those three brothers apart. We don't know exact birth
Speaker 2: or death dates for any of them, but since Muhammad
Speaker 2: is usually listed first, it's assumed that he was the oldest.
Speaker 2: He died in eight seventy three, and based on what
Speaker 2: we know of his life, he was probably at least
Speaker 2: seventy years old. The brothers do seem to have each
Speaker 2: had a primary focus for their work, Muhammad in astronomy,
Speaker 2: al Hassan in geometry and mathematics, and Ahmad in mechanics. Engineering,
Speaker 2: and the sciences, so they formed an interdisciplinary team, and
Speaker 2: many of their works were credited to all three of
Speaker 2: them collectively. We mentioned earlier that when alma Mun was caliph,
Speaker 2: he expanded the role of the House of Wisdom. Alma
Speaker 2: Mun wanted to put an end to the ongoing sectarian
Speaker 2: rivalries and factionalism within the Caliphate, and his dedication to
Speaker 2: preserving and expanding knowledge was connected to that effort. He
Speaker 2: was not successful at putting an end to all the
Speaker 2: various splits and rivalries, but he did encourage the House
Speaker 2: of Wisdom to take on new translation projects, and he
Speaker 2: founded astronomical observatories and other centers of learning and study.
Speaker 2: The Banu Muso were a big part of the translation
Speaker 2: efforts at the House of Wisdom. They had been orphans
Speaker 2: without a lot of resources when they first arrived there,
Speaker 2: but they became wealthy through their works for the caliphs,
Speaker 2: and they used that wealth to employ a group of translators,
Speaker 2: reportedly spending five hundred dinars a month. They hired people
Speaker 2: to travel into Byzantine territory to are ancient Greek texts
Speaker 2: and bring them back to Baghdad, and they took some
Speaker 2: of those trips themselves. Muhammad is credited with recruiting renowned
Speaker 2: mathematician and translator Tabid iban Kura of Haran in northern
Speaker 2: Mesopotamia to work at the House of Wisdom on one
Speaker 2: of these trips. There are some ancient works that we
Speaker 2: only have today because of translations that the Banu Musa
Speaker 2: commissioned and paid for, including that of the first century
Speaker 2: Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria. In addition to their translation projects,
Speaker 2: the Banu Musa produced work of their own, and they
Speaker 2: did this through the reigns of multiple califs. We will
Speaker 2: talk more about that after a sponsor break. One of
Speaker 2: the things Caleph al Mamun directed the Banu Musa to
Speaker 2: do was to calculate the circumference of the earth to
Speaker 2: check the work of ancient scholars. They did this by
Speaker 2: going to the desert of Alsan Djar in what's now
Speaker 2: in northern Iraq. They measured the highest point of the
Speaker 2: pole star in the sky in the ninth century that
Speaker 2: would have been Polaris in the northern hemisphere as it
Speaker 2: is today. They walked north until the star's highest point
Speaker 2: was one degree higher than it had been. They measured
Speaker 2: the distance that they traveled with ropes. Then they repeated
Speaker 2: the process going south. Using these measurements, they calculated that
Speaker 2: the circumference of the Earth was twenty four thousand miles
Speaker 2: or thirty eight thousand, six hundred kilometers. That is pretty
Speaker 2: close the measurement recognized the day is twenty four thousand,
Speaker 2: nine hundred one miles or forty thousand, seventy five kilometers.
Speaker 2: They also calculated the length of a year at three
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty five days and less than six hours.
Speaker 2: The brothers work in astronomy was built on the framework
Speaker 2: of Alexandrian astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy, who lived around the
Speaker 2: year one point fifty. In the Ptolemaic model, the Earth
Speaker 2: is at the center of the universe, and the Sun, Moon, planets,
Speaker 2: and stars move around the Earth in circular orbits. This
Speaker 2: doesn't line up with how these bodies move when observed
Speaker 2: from the Earth. Ptolemy's explanation for this was that the Sun, Moon, planets,
Speaker 2: and stars were each contained within an invisible sphere, and
Speaker 2: that they moved in spherical epicycles while orbiting the Earth.
Speaker 2: Some descriptions of the Ptolemaic model include another sphere beyond
Speaker 2: the one containing the stars, which is the prime mover
Speaker 2: that powers all the others. Sometimes this is called the
Speaker 2: ninth sphere. This idea might not have come directly from
Speaker 2: the work of Ptolemy, though, but from later scholars who
Speaker 2: produced translations and commentaries on his work. Mohammed eb and
Speaker 2: Musa wrote astronomical texts that explained the motion of the sun, moon, planets,
Speaker 2: and stars, but without that prime mover. Ahmad Eben Musa
Speaker 2: also reportedly wrote a work called Book on the Mathematical
Speaker 2: Proof by Geometry that there is not a ninth sphere
Speaker 2: outside the sphere of the fixed stars. There katab al Hayal,
Speaker 2: translated as the Book of Ingenious Devices or Book of Tricks,
Speaker 2: included one hundred devices along with three others in an appendix.
Speaker 2: This was probably primarily a Mod's work, but it's credited
Speaker 2: to all three brothers. These included descriptions of devices from
Speaker 2: other parts of the world, including Greece and China, as
Speaker 2: well as the Banu Musa's own original designs. Most of
Speaker 2: the devices in this book are jugs, flasks, fountains, and
Speaker 2: oil lamps. There are jugs that can be filled with
Speaker 2: liquids of different colors, which then pour out each of
Speaker 2: the colors separately. Thanks to their inner vessels and plumbing,
Speaker 2: A number of them dispense specific amounts of water or wine,
Speaker 2: or they refill a basin with a set amount of
Speaker 2: a liquid. Once that basin has been emptied, the lamps
Speaker 2: can refill their oil, automatically, trim their wicks, and shield
Speaker 2: themselves from the wind. This book also includes some devices
Speaker 2: that we would describe as automata. So one is this
Speaker 2: arrangement of two basins adjacent to a small animal and
Speaker 2: a lion, and if only the basin adjacent to the
Speaker 2: small animal is filled, nothing will happen. But if the
Speaker 2: basin that's adjacent to the lion is filled, both of
Speaker 2: the animals drink. There's also one that is a drinking bull,
Speaker 2: which makes a sound that indicates that it's thirsty. The
Speaker 2: book also describes one that is a trough filled with water,
Speaker 2: and when the figurines of twenty animals around it drink
Speaker 2: from it, nothing happens, But when a bowl figurine that's
Speaker 2: part of it drinks from it, all of the water disappears.
Speaker 2: The fountains that are described in this work can produce
Speaker 2: streams of water in several shapes, including jets, shields, and lilies.
Speaker 1: Of the valley.
Speaker 2: The lily of the valley had the water going upward
Speaker 2: first and then arcing back down, so making the sort
Speaker 2: of bell like shape of one of those flowers. The
Speaker 2: shield was similar to that, but wider and flatter. There
Speaker 2: are also descriptions and diagrams of all these various objects
Speaker 2: in how they work. They also wrote a treatise called
Speaker 2: a Book on the Description of the Instrument which plays
Speaker 2: by itself. This instrument is described as a hydraulic organ
Speaker 2: or a self playing flute. It used a hydraulic air
Speaker 2: compressor to force air through a nine hold flute with
Speaker 2: levers to cover and uncover the holes. The mechanism connected
Speaker 2: to the levers was a rotating cylinder with adjustable pieces
Speaker 2: to change which holes were open or closed. It was
Speaker 2: a little bit like a music box, although the first
Speaker 2: modern music boxes were not developed until around the seventeen seventies.
Speaker 2: Because the cylinder could be adjusted to make the flute
Speaker 2: play different melodies, this is sometimes described as the first
Speaker 2: programmable machine. The Benu Musa got some criticism for spending
Speaker 2: so much time on these kinds of devices, even though
Speaker 2: a lot of their work on this subject had been
Speaker 2: commissioned by a caliph. People thought these were just novelties
Speaker 2: with no practical purpose, and that the Banu Musa should
Speaker 2: be focusing their clearly noteworthy abilities on something more worthwhile.
Speaker 2: But setting aside the perceptions of whether fun is worthwhile,
Speaker 2: these objects were based on a lot of technologies that
Speaker 2: did have practical uses, like self operating valves, timing systems,
Speaker 2: gear and crank systems, pneumatic controls, and ways to detect
Speaker 2: and adjust water levels. A lot of these devices had
Speaker 2: to detect and respond to changes in water pressure or
Speaker 2: water levels, or they had to maintain steady flows of
Speaker 2: water or oil or another liquid, and this was particularly
Speaker 2: important somewhere like Baghdad. Bagdad is surrounded by desert, and
Speaker 2: in the ninth century when the Banu Musa were living,
Speaker 2: an extensive network of canals moved water from the Tigris
Speaker 2: and Euphrates rivers to the city and the surrounding countryside.
Speaker 2: The canals were used for irrigation, drainage, and transportation, and
Speaker 2: it was critically important for the water to get where
Speaker 2: it was supposed to go, but not go where it
Speaker 2: wasn't a whole sophisticated plumbing system was required to do this,
Speaker 2: and the fountains were also highly valued in Baghdad, especially
Speaker 2: by the elite. Fountains were often a focus in gardens
Speaker 2: and courtyards, and they had both an esthetic and a
Speaker 2: practical purpose. They looked and sounded beautiful, and they also
Speaker 2: provided a cooling element in a hot city and a
Speaker 2: source of water. So a lot of these ingenious devices
Speaker 2: were based on technologies that allowed people to move and
Speaker 2: control water in a more immediately practical way. The Banu
Speaker 2: Musa developed other devices as well, including a clamshell grab
Speaker 2: that could kind of scoop up earth and was used
Speaker 2: to dredge rivers and canals, and gas masks and ventilation
Speaker 2: systems used for people who needed to clean contaminated wells.
Speaker 2: Much of the Banu Musa's most well known work took
Speaker 2: place during the rule of tenth Abbasid caliph al Mudawakils.
Speaker 2: Sometimes al Mudawakil is cited as the person who commissioned
Speaker 2: the Book of Ingenious Devices, but other sources credit al Mamun.
Speaker 2: The Banu Musa definitely worked on canals and other public
Speaker 2: works projects that were commissioned by al Mudawakil. This was
Speaker 2: connected to some of the disputes that the Banu Musa
Speaker 2: were involved with, and we will get to that after
Speaker 2: another sponsor break. Tenth Absid caliph al Mudawakhil was more
Speaker 2: dogmatic than some of the earlier Absid caliphs had been.
Speaker 2: He was known for persecuting unorthodox Muslim sects as well
Speaker 2: as Christians and Jews and adherents of other religions, and
Speaker 2: for destroying synagogues and churches. He also revived restrictive rules
Speaker 2: of dress for Christians and Jews. It seems like, at
Speaker 2: least for a time, the Banu Musa were in this
Speaker 2: caliph's favor. He was in power from eight forty seven
Speaker 2: until he was assassinated in eight sixty one, and the
Speaker 2: Banu Musa did a lot of work that he commissioned
Speaker 2: during that time. But one of their last projects for
Speaker 2: him did not go well. He had commissioned a new canal,
Speaker 2: and while the Banu Musa designed it, they hired a
Speaker 2: man called Ahmad Ibn Katir al Farragani to actually do
Speaker 2: the work. Alfragani made an error and how the canal
Speaker 2: was leveled. Al Muduwakil heard about this error and told
Speaker 2: the Banu Musa that if the canal did not work properly,
Speaker 2: he would crucify them next to it. Astronomer and mathematicians.
Speaker 2: Thenad bin Ali was tasked with an investigation, and he
Speaker 2: said the brothers work was good, but the water level
Speaker 2: in the canal was dependent upon the season, and eventually
Speaker 2: it became obvious that it was not built correctly. That
Speaker 2: did not become obvious until about two months after al
Speaker 2: Muduwakil had been assassinated. Though al Mudawakil was also connected
Speaker 2: to a decades long feud that the Banu Musa had
Speaker 2: with polymath and philosopher al Kindi, and explanations are not
Speaker 2: entirely clear about what was really at the root of
Speaker 2: this feud. Some accounts describe it as part of a
Speaker 2: greater intellectual feud between mathematicians and philosophers. Others cite the
Speaker 2: Banu Musa's personal jealousy over al Kindi's private library and
Speaker 2: the number and rarity of texts that he had in it.
Speaker 2: Eleventh century scholar al Baruni described this feud as so
Speaker 2: intense it would turn children's hair gray. It's also possible
Speaker 2: all of these things were involved in the feud or
Speaker 2: other things that we haven't mentioned here. Whatever the details were,
Speaker 2: the Banu Musa worked with al Mudawakil to seize al
Speaker 2: Kendi's library and have him beaten and expelled from the
Speaker 2: House of Wisdom. After the whole incident with the canal,
Speaker 2: Sanad bin Ali arranged to have the library return to him.
Speaker 2: Sanad bin Ali seems to have had I had a
Speaker 2: complicated relationship with the Banu Musa. They worked against him
Speaker 2: because of his overlap with their own research and his
Speaker 2: work with Alkndi. They tried to keep him isolated from
Speaker 2: the caliph, but he also saved their lives by vouching
Speaker 2: for them during this whole canal situation, and the Batu
Speaker 2: Musa's dislike of al Kindi also had greater political ramifications.
Speaker 2: The assassination of al Mudawakil started a period known as
Speaker 2: the Anarchy at Samara, in which a series of caliphs
Speaker 2: all died by violence. Samara is northwest of Baghdad on
Speaker 2: the Tigris River, and it was established by the Abbasid
Speaker 2: Caliphate as an administrative center and military base. At the
Speaker 2: same time, the Turkish army, which a series of caliphs
Speaker 2: had relied on for military support, was taking more and
Speaker 2: more control over the caliphant so to walk through it,
Speaker 2: Al Mudawakil was murdered by his Turkish guards, possibly with
Speaker 2: the support of his son and successor, Al Mundasir. Al
Speaker 2: Mundasir after six months in power, possibly after being poisoned.
Speaker 2: Then the next caliph, al Mustain, was forced to flee
Speaker 2: Baghdad and was later executed. His successor, al Mutaz, was
Speaker 2: chosen by the Turkish army. Al Mutaz was deposed and killed,
Speaker 2: and his successor, al Mutati was killed after only about
Speaker 2: a year. All of this happened over the span of
Speaker 2: nine years between eight sixty one and eight seventy. If
Speaker 2: you are thinking right about now, this seems like a
Speaker 2: logical fit for a game with assassins in the name
Speaker 2: al Mudawakil is killed during the prologue of Assassin's creed
Speaker 2: kind of sets up the whole thing. The Banu Musa's
Speaker 2: involvement with this extremely chaotic and violent period was after
Speaker 2: the death of al Mutasir, who had not named a successor.
Speaker 2: One of the candidates was al Mustain's brother, who was
Speaker 2: friends with al Kindy, so the Banu Musa, particularly Muhammad,
Speaker 2: worked against him promoted al Mustain instead. After al Mustan
Speaker 2: became caliph, Muhammad worked with him, including being sent to
Speaker 2: estimate the size of the opposing army when Baghdad was
Speaker 2: under siege, so they can take that into account when
Speaker 2: negotiating the terms of al Mustain's abdication. We don't really
Speaker 2: have much detail about the lives and work of the
Speaker 2: Banu Musa after this point, and as we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: the likely oldest of them, Muhammad, died in eight seventy three,
Speaker 2: so that was not long after the end of the
Speaker 2: anarchy at Samara. We know that they wrote at least
Speaker 2: twenty books, but many of those books have not survived
Speaker 2: until today. While the House of Wisdom and the Greater
Speaker 2: Translation Movement are credited with preserving a lot of ancient
Speaker 2: texts we would not have otherwise. A lot of the
Speaker 2: Banu Musa's work was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of
Speaker 2: Baghdad in twelve fifty eight. Works that still exist today
Speaker 2: include three complete manuscripts of the Book of Ingenious Devices,
Speaker 2: several copies of the Book on the Measurement of Plain
Speaker 2: and spherical figures, copies of on Mechanical Devices or on Mechanics,
Speaker 2: and one of Book on the Description of the Instrument
Speaker 2: which sounds by itself. Books that have not survived include
Speaker 2: Book on the Steelyard, the Book of the First Movement
Speaker 2: of the Spheres, the Book of the Beginning of the World,
Speaker 2: and the Book on the Nature of Speech, among others.
Speaker 2: Their work was really influential during the Islamic Golden Age
Speaker 2: and beyond. They worked with Muhammad ibn Musa al Korizmi,
Speaker 2: also known as the Father of Algebra, at the House
Speaker 2: of Wisdom, although I did find one source that speculated
Speaker 2: that Mohammed ibn Musa al Korismi and Mohammad ibn Musa
Speaker 2: ibn Shakir were the same person, which broke my mind
Speaker 2: a little bit. The Banu Musa's work in mathematics also
Speaker 2: influenced ibanel Hatham and other scholars during the Islamic Golden Age.
Speaker 2: We have done episodes on both Alkorismi and ibenel Hatham.
Speaker 1: In the twelfth century, Gerard of Kremona translated the Banu
Speaker 1: Musa's work on geometry into Latin and Book on the
Speaker 1: Measurement of Plane and spherical figures, translated as Libertrium fredom
Speaker 1: to Geometria, became a standard geometry text in Europe. Leonardo
Speaker 1: Fibonacci's Practica Geometria was influenced by the Banu Mus's geometry work,
Speaker 1: and their ingenious devices likely inspired Leonardo da Vinci.
Speaker 2: Also, in Assassin's Greed Mirage, there's a little quest line
Speaker 2: involving one of them. Also, you can bring them materials
Speaker 2: so they can upgrade your tools. One of their books
Speaker 2: is out there somewhere in the world. I found it anyway,
Speaker 2: I enjoyed that game. Talk about it more and behind
Speaker 2: the scenes probably, And I also have some listener mail
Speaker 2: that is not about this at all. This is from Zach.
Speaker 2: Zach wrote and the subject line is just gospacho. Hi, Tracy.
Speaker 2: I listened to today's behind the scenes episode, and the
Speaker 2: moment you said the word gaspacho, I knew what you
Speaker 2: were going to say. I was also completely charmed by
Speaker 2: the availability of gaspacho in Spanish grocery stores. When I
Speaker 2: visited Barcelona and I went back to Spain last summer,
Speaker 2: I made a point to seek it out as much
Speaker 2: as possible. You can also find it in other cities
Speaker 2: like Sarcoza. It is truly one of the best small
Speaker 2: pleasures of Spain. I wonder if y'all also encountered the
Speaker 2: very strange non alcoholic vermuth for children, which has quite
Speaker 2: a lot of red number five in it, and which
Speaker 2: I haven't seen anywhere but Catalonia. Take care and happy holidays, Zach. So.
Speaker 2: I don't think I encountered any non alcoholic vermuth. I
Speaker 2: feel like it came up in a discussion when we
Speaker 2: were doing the food tour and you were in a
Speaker 2: different group with the yeah guide, But I'm not positive
Speaker 2: I could be misremembering. Yeah, we did experience the beverage
Speaker 2: that is called vermuth in Catalonia, which is a bit
Speaker 2: different from what you might just buy in a bottle
Speaker 2: right in the United States.
Speaker 1: Please refrigerate it.
Speaker 2: Be your bottle of Yeah, A lot of people don't
Speaker 2: refrigerate vermouth.
Speaker 1: You should anyway, I feel strong, yes is shure? Uh So, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think.
Speaker 2: I don't think I encountered a version of vermouth for children.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed the vermouth that we were served in Barcelona
Speaker 2: on our on our tasting tour that we went on.
Speaker 2: We are working on planning the next trip. We are
Speaker 2: not ready to announce anything about it yet, So thank
Speaker 2: you so much.
Speaker 1: Zach for this email.
Speaker 2: And I'm so glad I'm not the only person who's
Speaker 2: just so excited about uh gasbatcha at the grocery store.
Speaker 2: If you would like to write to us about this
Speaker 2: or any other podcast or a history podcast at aheartradio
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