Crusades
Even if the "dark"' Middle Ages in Christian Europe was not as backward as often claimed, the high culture of Islamic countries astonished.
- writings, knowledge from ancient times
- Trade with Africa, India, China
- Promotion of science and art
- Tolerance towards "book believers
provided for a rich culture, which was often adopted by the crusaders.
Cultural Exchange
The crusaders encountered many things in the Orient that they did not yet know. Often they did not invent their own words for new things, but adopted the already existing Arabic word. Many terms show the influence of Arabic on the English language:
ORANGE برتقال |
Datei:Orange Sliced White Background.jpg | fruit, originally from South and East Asia, known in Sanskrit as naranga, which became the Arabic naranj. |
ALCOHOL (الكُحُـــــــــول.) |
Datei:Glencairn Glass-pjt.jpg | an extraction process from a mineral, European chemists began to refer to anything involving extraction/distillation as alcohol. |
ALCHEMY and CHEMISTRY (الكيميـــــــــاء.) |
Datei:Chemistrylogo.svg | put together |
ALGEBRA (الجبــر) |
Datei:Algebra2 sistnlin fig002 prbl.svg | a mathematical discipline |
ARTICHOKE | Datei:Adolphe Millot artichaut de laon.jpg | variety of a species of thistle cultivated as food. |
CANDY (from قندي) |
Datei:Candy in Damascus.jpg | “hard sweets made by boiling cane sugar” |
COFFEE (قهوة) |
Datei:Roasted coffee beans.jpg | for long snubbed by Europeans as the “wine of the infidels”—that is, many centuries before the age of Starbucks and instant coffee! |
COTTON (قُطْـــــــــن) |
Datei:Upland cotton pulled out of a boll before harvest. (24490308693).jpg | soft, fluffy staple fiber used for textiles |
MATTRESS (مطـــــــــــــــــــرح.) |
Datei:Pillowtop-mattress.jpg | large, usually rectangular pad where you can lie and sleep |
part 2
SOFA (الصُفــــــــة)< |
Datei:Sofa Clip Art.jpg | cushioned item of furniture for seating multiple people |
raised, carpeted platform on which people sat. |
SUGAR (سكر) |
Datei:Sugar cubes.jpg | Sanskrit (śarkarā), meaning "ground or candied sugar" | |
CIPHER (صِفـــــــــــــــــــــــــــر) |
Datei:"0" - geograph.org.uk - 2112765.jpg | Arabic word for zero صفر (sifr) | not easily understood, so used for encrypted code |
ELIXIR (الإكسيــــــــــــــر) |
Datei:Three early medicine bottles.jpg | like a syrup | |
SODA (صـــــــــودا.) |
Datei:Gin and Tonic with ingredients.jpg | chemical compounds containing sodium | |
ADMIRAL (أميــــــــر الرحلة) |
Datei:Rear Admiral Suraj Berry.jpg | commander of the fleet | |
ARSENAL ( دار الصناعــــــــــــــــة ) |
Datei:View of the entrance to the Arsenal by Canaletto, 1732.jpg | manufacturing house where weapons for the navy are made | |
MAGAZINE ( مجلة) |
Datei:South African Naval Museum Simon's Town.jpg | store house | |
ASSASSIN (حشَّــــــــــــــاشين”) |
Datei:Assassination.png | hitman, murderer |
Arabic, Latin or Greek?
Some words originated in Greek, were translated into Arabic and found their way into the English language:
Sort the loan words after their original language:
Arabic | guitar | alcohol | cipher | algebra | safran | tariff | tambourine | artichocke | safari |
Greek | philosophy | tragedy | Maths | democracy | monologue | ||||
Latin | cherry | wine | process | jurist | peach | chamber | street |
Sort the following Arabic loan words after topics:
Spice / Fruit Beverages |
coffee | alcohol | lemonade | safran | muskat | orange | sugar | peach |
Textiles | cotton | damast | jacket | Kittel | Mütze | |||
Furniture | Mattress | sofa | mosaik | diwan | baldachin | |||
Music | Lute (German: Laute) |
guitar | tambourine | fanfare trumpet | ||||
Science | cipher | algebra | elixir | azure | algorithm | risk |
counting and calculating
The merchant and mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci from Pisa triggered a mathematical revolution with his book "Liber abaci". He noticed:
- Where do the "Arabic" numbers really come from?
- How do you pronounce 0 in English? Do you know which original language it's from?
- Compare the addition tasks below with each other and then fill in the missing words in the following text.
Roman Numerals
MM
+ XVIII
_____________________
MMXVIII
=================
Arabic Numerals
2000
+ 18
_____________________
2018
=================
The numerical values are the same in both tasks. There are two advantages to written arithmetic with Arabic numerals:
With the Roman numerals, there is no numeral sign for the numerical value zero.
In the spoken form, Roman numerals, like Arabic numerals, are structured according to the ten system. In the written form, however, the Roman numerals lack the division into "ones", "tens", "hundreds", "twos" and "threes". hundreds, etc.
Vocabulary
crusader = Kreuzzügler, Kreuzritter
crusade = Kreuzzug
crusade = religious war to free the Holy Land (= Jerusalem, Palestine)
Why - because pilgrims wanted to visit the place where Jesus had lived.