Introduction

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Classical Arabic

This book investigates how the recursive argument method, the actual medieval “scientific method,” was transmitted along with the college to medieval Western Europe from Classical Arabic civilization, and how the Muslims of Central Asia had earlier adopted both from Buddhist Central Asian civilization. It analyzes the recursive argument method and gives examples showing its formation and development at each stage and in each of the relevant languages. This chapter considers the recursive argument method and related issues, especially the colleges, in the context of the full scientific culture that developed in medieval Western Europe in connection with the transmission of these two cultural elements.

Islamization in Classical Arabic Central Asia

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Persian Empire ◽  
Intimate Contact ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Classical Arabic

This chapter examines Islamization in Classical Arabic Central Asia. The Arab Empire founded by the prophet Muhammad expanded rapidly, defeating the Byzantine Empire and capturing Syria (637) and Egypt (640). At the same time, the Arabs defeated the Sasanid Persian Empire (637) and raced across Persia into Central Asia. Within a very short time, early Arab Islamic culture came into direct, intimate contact with several major civilized areas, including the Graeco-Roman-influenced cultures of the Levant and North Africa, Persian culture, and the Buddhist cultures of Central Asia. From them the Muslims adopted various cultural elements. This chapter considers when, where, and how the Muslims acquired the recursive argument method and the Islamic college or madrasa. It shows that the recursive argument method is used in Arabic works by the Central Asian scientist and philosopher Avicenna.

Warriors of the Cloisters

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
Natural Philosophers

This book tells how key cultural innovations from Central Asia revolutionized medieval Europe and gave rise to the culture of science in the West. Medieval scholars rarely performed scientific experiments, but instead contested issues in natural science, philosophy, and theology using the recursive argument method. This highly distinctive and unusual method of disputation was a core feature of medieval science, the predecessor of modern science. We know that the foundations of science were imported to Western Europe from the Islamic world, but until now the origins of such key elements of Islamic culture have been a mystery. This book traces how the recursive argument method was first developed by Buddhist scholars and was spread by them throughout ancient Central Asia. It shows how the method was adopted by Islamic Central Asian natural philosophers—most importantly by Avicenna, one of the most brilliant of all medieval thinkers—and transmitted to the West when Avicenna's works were translated into Latin in Spain in the twelfth century by the Jewish philosopher Ibn Da'ud and others. During the same period the institution of the college was also borrowed from the Islamic world. The college was where most of the disputations were held, and became the most important component of medieval Europe's newly formed universities. As the book demonstrates, the Islamic college also originated in Buddhist Central Asia. Using in-depth analysis of ancient Buddhist, Classical Arabic, and Medieval Latin writings, this book will help to transform our understanding of the origins of medieval scientific culture.

Conclusion

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Ideal Structure ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Classical Arabic ◽  
The Ideal

This chapter raises three objections about the development of a full scientific culture and examines the modern descendants of the recursive argument method. It suggests that colleges and the recursive argument method, though they had developed together in Buddhist Central Asia, and continued to develop in Islamic guise when that region converted to Islam, seem to have been focused mainly on theology and religious jurisprudence in Classical Arabic civilization. It also discusses the difference between a civilization that has a few scientists and some science, and a civilization that has a full scientific culture. Finally, it considers the scientific method, the use of the recursive scientific method in modern science, experimental psychology, and the ideal structure of a modern humanities dissertation.

scholarly journals ROADS OF CENTRAL ASIA. THE NEW INTERNATIONAL TRANSIT PROJECTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-60
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Borisova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Western China ◽  
State Budget ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
International Transport ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Central Asian Republics

The development of international trade implies the use of the territory of Central Asia as a transit zone, through which the routes China–Europe, China – the middle East should be laid. The existing communication capabilities are not enough, so new directions are being developed (Railways “China–Kazakhstan – Turkmenistan–Iran”, “Turkmenistan– Afghanistan–Tajikistan”, ”China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan”; multimodal transit corridors” Lazurit”,” TRANS – Caspian international transport route”; such highways as “Western China– Western Europe”). However, paved roads, both rail and road, do not always meet expectations in terms of the volume of cargo passing through them (projects “China – Kazakhstan – Turkmenistan – Iran” and the Lapis lazuli corridor). Their loading is delayed “until better times” either due to the unstable political background, or due to the lack of necessary commodity flows in both directions. In some cases, there is a lack of political will to make appropriate decisions. Finished projects are unprofitable. None of the international transit projects announced or even completed over the past 20 years through the Central Asian republics has been fully operational. Meanwhile, international transit allows not only to fill the state budget, but also to solve issues of internal connectivity of territories. This task is most relevant today for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which have become hostages of their own geography, with localities separated by impassable mountain ranges.

scholarly journals Some Information About The History Of The Formation Of Historical-Geographical Views About Central Asia In Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 250-253
Author(s):  
A.A.Erkuziev
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Political Economic

Central Asia has played an important role in the political, economic and cultural relations of different nations and countries since ancient times as one of the centers of the world civilization. The Great Silk Road, which passed through this region, brought together the countries on the trade routes, the peoples living in them, and served to spread information about their traditions, lifestyles, location, historical events. These data, in turn, brought different peoples closer and served as the basis for the establishment of mutual economic and cultural relationships between them. One of the important scientific issues here is the study of the spread of information about the Central Asian region, where most of the Great Silk Road passed, to Western Europe through other countries.

India, Tibet, China, Byzantium, and Other Control Cases

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Medieval Science ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Constituent Elements ◽  
Classical Arabic

This chapter examines the essential elements that produced a full scientific culture in Western Europe by comparing the constituent elements in the one culture in which it developed with other cultures that had the same constitutive elements but did not develop science. These are the control cases, which include India, Tibet, China, and the Byzantine Empire. The first civilization in the world to develop a full scientific culture was medieval Western Europe. It led directly to the scientific revolution—during which some changes to the details of the constituent elements took place—and continued on down to modern science. The essential elements of medieval science were introduced to Western Europe via Classical Arabic civilization. The chapter describes the appearance of science in Medieval Latin Europe and the decline of science in the medieval Islamic world.

Central Asian Women as Agents of Political Violence in the Islamic State

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatyana Dronzina ◽  
Ilya Roubanis
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Controversial Subject ◽  
Humanitarian Operations ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Central Asian Countries

The investigation, charge, prosecution, and rehabilitation of female terrorists is a controversial subject because patriarchal values widely drive the context of jihadi violence. Thousands of women made their way from over 80 countries worldwide to the Islamic State realms in Syria and Iraq, with Central Asia accounting for 20 per cent of this migration. As the forces of ISIS were retreating – and even before – Central Asian countries were keen to repatriate women and children from Syria and Iraq. In contrast to Western Europe, public opinion was supportive of these humanitarian operations. This study is informed by the debriefing of approximately fifty of these women, in a context in which they have already faced the legal repercussions for “joining” the ranks of ISIS. The women interviewed hail from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan; it is clear women left an overwhelmingly patriarchal context to find a dehumanisingly misogynistic jihadi society. Their agency as second-class ISIS “citizens” needs to be systematically explored to inform effective counterterrorism strategy, be it profiling, legislation, preemptive intervention and rehabilitation policies.

From College and Universitas to University

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter examines the evolution of the college and universitas to university. The madrasa, the medieval Islamic college, appeared in Central Asia at least two centuries before the first college founded in Western Europe. The madrasa is an Islamicized form of the earlier Central Asian Buddhist college, the vihāra. The earliest three “universities”—the universitas guilds of Bologna, Paris, and Oxford—appear at approximately the same time in history, the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. The term “university” replaced studium generale by the end of the Middle Ages, marking the merger of the universitas, the studium generale, and the college into the early modern college-university. The chapter shows that the subsequently founded universities of Europe mostly followed the early Parisian model at first, with a universitas guild of masters plus a number of colleges.

The “Kalgutinsky” Style in the Rock Art of Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 12-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. I. Molodin ◽  
J.-M. Geneste ◽  
L. V. Zotkina ◽  
D. V. Cheremisin ◽  
C. Cretin
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Technological Properties ◽  
Special Group ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Desert Varnish ◽  
Ukok Plateau ◽  
Cave Art

On the basis of petroglyphic sites Kalgutinsky Rudnik (Kalgutinsky mine) on the Ukok Plateau, Baga-Oigur and Tsagaan-Salaa in northwestern Mongolia, a distinct “Kalgutinsky” style of rock art of the Russian and Mongolian Altai is described. The distance between these sites is about 20 km. This group is marked by very specifi c stylistic features, common technological properties, a narrowly defi ned motif, featuring only animals, and a very intense desert varnish. All these features and the proximity of the sites suggest that they should be regarded as a special group, which we term the “Kalgutinsky” style and date to the Upper Paleolithic on the basis of several criteria. Images of mammoths at Baga-Oigur and Tsagaan-Salaa are similar to those known in the classic Upper Paleolithic cave art of Western Europe. An entire set of stylistic features typical of the “Kalgutinsky” canon is seen also in the representations of mammoths, and this manner is consonant with that of European Upper Paleolithic rock art. Our fi ndings suggest that a peculiar “Kalgutinsky” style existed and, moreover, that it represented a separate Central Asian locus of Upper Paleolithic rock art.

scholarly journals Does Turkey have a Central Asian Project?

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-96
Author(s):  
Ali Emre Sucu ◽  
O. I. Iskandarov ◽  
R. B. Mahmudov ◽  
D. N. Chernov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Turkish Foreign Policy ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Eurasian Economic Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Integration Project

Central Asia's importance in Turkish foreign policy has begun to rise since the beginning of the 2010s. Turkey determines its regional policy in the conception of the Turkic world, including Azerbaijan. With this regard, Turkey pays particular attention to the institutionalization of bilateral relations with the regional states. The most successful measure in that direction is the establishment of the Turkic Council. This integration project marks significant progress for the institutionalization of Turkey's Central Asian policy. Turkey is one of the non-regional actors affecting the Central Asian balance of power. However, it has limited influence on regional security and military affairs, which Russia dominates. Turkey is only a secondary non-regional actor in Central Asia. Therefore, it primarily structures its Central Asian policy using common historical and cultural elements. In this study, we investigate whether Turkey has a long-term project in Central Asia. For this purpose, we explore the restrictions of Turkish policy in Central Asia. After that, we compare Turkey's importance for the foreign policies of Central Asian states. Additionally, we evaluate Turkey's interest in non-Western organizations such as the Eurasian Economic Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to transform Turkish foreign policy priorities in recent years. Finally, we show that Turkey has a policy toward Central Asia but not a fully-fledged project for the region.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document