Filippo Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi

Born the son of a lawyer in Florence in 1377, Filippo Brunelleschi rejected his father’s choice of a law career and trained as a goldsmith and sculptor. After six years of his apprenticeship he passed the exam and officially became a master in the goldsmith’s guild.

During his apprenticeship, he was a student of Polo Pozzo Toscandli, a merchant and medical doctor, who taught him the principles of mathematics and geometry and how to use the latest technology. Goldsmithing gave him the opportunity to work with clocks, wheels, gears, and weights, a skill that would come in handy for an architect destined to design his innovative dome of the cathedral in Florence.

In 1401–02, he entered a competition for the design of the new Florence Baptistery doors, but he was defeated by another goldsmith and sculptor, Lorenzo Ghiberti. This failure led him to architecture in addition to his artistic career.


In 1418 he entered another competition to design the dome of the Cathedral Maria del Fiore, (also known as the Duomo), in Florence. His design for the octagonal ribbed dome, not finished until 1434, is the work for which he is best known and one of his most important contributions to architecture and construction engineering. Brunelleschi designed special hoisting machines to raise the huge wood and stone elements into place.

He solved the duduk perkara of constructing a huge cupola (dome) without a supporting framework and invented a belt-like reinforcement of iron and sandstone chains to stabilize the outward thrusts at the base of the great dome. His innovative brick-laying techniques were refined in response to the requirements of the steep angles of the vaulting in the dome. It remains the largest masonry dome in the world.

In 1430 and again in 1432 Brunelleschi visited Rome with his friend, Donatello, where he became interested in Roman engineering, especially the use of vaulting and proportion. Influenced by Roman architecture, he used ancient principles in his projects, using Corinthian columns, geometrical balance, and symmetrical order.

the dome of the Cathedral Maria del Fiore

Brunelleschi’s oeuvre includes the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital, 1419–45), the reconstruction of San Lorenzo (1421–60), the Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo (1421), the New Sacristy at San Lorenzo (now known as the Old Sacristy; 1428), the Pazzi Chapel in the Cloisters of Santa Croce (1430), and Santo Spirito (1436).

These works renewed the appearance of Florence. His architectural works in other cities include the Ponte a Mare at Pisa, Palazzo di Parte Guelfa (1425), the unfinished Rotonda degli Angeli (1434), and the Pitti Palace (commissioned by Luca Pitti in 1440 when Brunelleschi was 60 years old) in Rome.

Brunelleschi’s design for the Ospedale degli Innocenti is mathematically based on repeated squares, and by a series of arches supported on columns—a motif later widely borrowed by renaissance architects. Brunelleschi often used the simplest materials: local gray stone (pietra serena) and whitewashed plaster.

The sober, muted colors give an air of peaceful tranquility to the walls of Brunelleschi’s buildings. Brunelleschi reintroduced the pendentive dome (developed long before by the Byzantines) in the Old Sacristy. The arched colonnade from the Ospedale degli Innocenti is again repeated inside the Church of San Lorenzo.

After his death in 1446, Brunelleschi was buried in Santa Maria del Fiore in a tomb that, though it lay unrecognized for centuries, was identified in 1972. There is also a commemorative statue of the architect in the Piazza del Duomo, facing the cathedral. He was a well-known and widely respected designer during his lifetime, and his fame continued long after his death.

Giotto di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone

The early life, artistic training, and attributed works of Giotto di Bondone (commonly referred to as Giotto) are all shrouded in mystery and legend. In his Lives, Vasari provided the first biography and chronicle of the works of Giotto. Giotto was born in 1276 in the village of Vespignano outside of Florence to a farmer named Bondone.

While still a boy Giotto developed the ability, without formal training, to draw from nature using whatever material was available, such as the ground, stones, or sand. Giotto would make these drawings to pass the time while tending to his flock of sheep.

Vasari tells us that his natural talent was so great that when Cimabue spotted his works while passing through his village he immediately sought the permission of Giotto’s father to take the 10-year-old Giotto to Florence to study with Cimabue as a member of his workshop.


Giotto has received credit from art historians as being among the first to abandon the medieval artistic tradition in favor of the early development of naturalism—a style that would be fully realized during the Italian Renaissance. Giotto received praise by such luminaries as Dante Alighieri in Divine Comedy, Giovanni Boccaccio in Decameron, and Vasari for breaking from what Vasari refers to as the “crude manner of the Greeks.”

In his Lives, Vasari recounts two stories that illustrate the talent of Giotto. According to Vasari, Pope Benedict IX sent an emissary to Tuscany to see Giotto and to judge his fitness for a papal commission. The courtier asked Giotto for a small drawing to take to the pope.

Giotto, without using a compass or moving his arms, drew a perfect circle and instructed the shocked courtier to take that simple drawing back to the pope. Pope Benedict immediately recognized Giotto’s greatness and sent him papal commissions. This story is also credited with giving birth to the Italian proverb “Thou art rounder than Giotto’s circle.”

The second story recounted by Vasari supports the claim that Giotto had a great gift for naturalism. As a boy in Cimabue’s workshop, Giotto painted a fly on the nose of a figure painted by Cimabue. Upon his return to the workshop Cimabue tried to shoo the fly away before realizing that it was just a painting.

One of the earliest works successfully attributed to Giotto is the crucifix (c. 1295) of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Giotto’s crucifix followed the design seen in Cimabue’s earlier crucifix with Christ flanked by images of the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist.

Giotto deviated from Cimabue with form clearly moving toward three-dimensional in its effect. The figures are also imbued with a humanity and emotion missing from earlier works. Italian Renaissance art historian Bernard Berenson credits him with the birth of modern painting particularly with regard to the portrayal of the human form.

Throughout his career Giotto received commissions from patrons in Rome, Naples, Ravenna, and Padua. In 1305 he executed frescoes commissioned by Enrico Scrovegni for his chapel commonly known as the Arena Chapel. While the entrance wall is covered by a fresco of the Last Judgment, a popular theme in medieval Italy, the remainder of the walls are devoted to a series of frescoes illustrating scenes of the life of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.

In these frescoes Giotto employed simple but dramatic architectural and landscape elements to focus our attention on the massive forms and the story being told. This simple, but dramatic, style would influence future fresco painters such as Michelangelo.

Art historians have long debated whether or not Giotto is responsible for the frescoes chronicling the life of St. Francis at his basilica in Assisi. As early as 1313 a chronicle written by Riccobaldo attributes the St. Francis cycle to Giotto. The attribution to Giotto was further supported in later centuries by the writings of Lorenzo Ghiberti in the 15th century and Vasari in the 16th century. In addition to painting, Giotto was also an architect and sculptor.

As an architect, he is credited with the initial design and construction of the campanile of Saint Maria del Fiore (also known as the Duomo) in Florence. Giotto’s involvement with the construction ended upon his death, and construction continued under his former student Taddeo Gaddi. Giotto died in 1336 and was buried with honors within Saint Maria del Fiore.

Bantu

Bantu

The Bantu people of the African continent include some 400 different ethnic groups that cover most of sub-Saharan Africa and speak a tongue from a common language group. The first time the word Bantu (meaning “people” in many Bantu languages) was used in its current sense was by Dr. Wilhelm Bleek in his book A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages (1862).

Up to that point, few linguists had tried to draw similarities between the different languages in Africa on such a wide scale. Much of what is known about Africa before the 11th century has been surmised by linguistic analysis, which, along with recent archaeology, has shown a clear picture of society and life in prehistoric Africa.

Before the spread of the Bantu much of central and southern Africa is believed to have been populated by the Khoisan-speaking people who still exist around the Kalahari Desert in modern-day Namibia and Botswana, and also in some isolated pockets of modern-day Tanzania.

There were (and still are) pygmies in Central Africa, and the northern and northeastern parts of Africa were dominated by people who spoke Afro-Asiatic languages, who have retained their identity from the Bantu. Gradually from the first millennium b.c.e. to the first millennium c.e., the Bantu spread out throughout much of the African continent.


The origins of the Bantu were first raised by Joseph H. Greenberg (1915–2001) in 1963, based on linguistic theories. Using dictionaries and work lists of these languages, he was able to isolate the 500 different distinct languages of the Bantu subgroup.

Many showed regional and geographical variations—including the names of crops and/or animals not found elsewhere in Africa— and Greenberg’s thesis was that there was an original language, which he called Proto-Bantu, from which the others were derived. As the languages spoken in the southeastern part of Nigeria, and along the border with Cameroon, contain more words similar to those used elsewhere in the continent, and that the Bantu languages spoken further away have more variations, he concluded that the Bantu had their origins along the modern-day Nigeria-Cameroon border.

However, the theories of Greenberg were quickly challenged by Malcolm Guthrie, whose research pointed to the Bantu language having originated in Zambia and the southern part of modernday Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Bantu village

If the origins of the Bantu are disputed, the reason for the migration of the Bantu throughout Africa is generally accepted. George P. Murdock (1897–1985), an American scholar, argued that it was influenced by the availability of crops. Murdock felt that it was the Bantu acquisition of crops from the East Indies—through trade with Madagascar—such as banana, taro, and yam, which helped a spread westwards from the first millennium b.c.e. onwards.

It was the cultivation of these crops, Murdock felt, that enabled the Bantu to start settling in the previously largely impenetrable tropical rain forest of central Africa, and from there southwards, establishing the civilization of Great Zimbabwe in the 10th century c.e. Others saw the migratory route, following the ideas of Greenberg, lay in the move east across the southern area of what is now the Sahara, into southern Sudan, and from there south past the Great Lakes.

If the Bantu originated in the area of southeastern Nigeria and the borders with Cameroon, they would have gradually spread eastwards to the Great Lakes, where, on Lake Victoria, the settlement of Katuruka has been dated to the fifth century b.c.e. A separate group also spread southwards through Gabon and the Congo and to modern-day Angola—the settlement at the Funa River, in modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, dating from 270 b.c.e.

That group gradually spread south into modern-day Angola, while the eastern migration split south of Lake Victoria, with some heading for the coast and establishing a settlement near Kwale, near Mombasa. Another group moved south, along the eastern shores of Lake Nyassa, forming the civilization of Great Zimbabwe by the 10th century c.e., with a third group heading inland, into modern-day Zambia.

The result of this migration was that, by about 1000 c.e., the Bantu dominated central and southern Africa, except for much of modern-day South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. The survival of the Khoisan people in these places is pointed to as further evidence of this migration.

Knowledge about the divisions within Bantu tribes is known from archaeological evidence. The existence of tribal chiefs can be assumed from early settlements where wealth inequality was seen through the existence of larger and smaller residences.

Similarly the objects that were found, made from precious metals, and pots of intricate design, were too few to sustain an entire village with the view adopted by archaeologists that poorer members of Bantu tribes would have had wooden objects that have not survived. However, it is also clear that some tribes, such as the Kikuyu in modern-day Kenya, did not have hereditary chiefs but, rather, a person who assumed the role of an elder and was responsible for tax collection and family counseling.

Unlike the Khoisan and pygmies, the Bantu fought in conflicts and maintained armies. Many of the tribal chiefs maintained large numbers of wives and hence had many children who were often assimilated with commoners. The nature of the rule of the tribes has been surmised through linguistic evidence of the Bantu kinship terminology.

Although some groups, such as the Masai, use the standard patrilineal system, many others follow matrilineal traditions. In addition the Mayombe people of modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo believe that their “blood,” and hence their descent, goes through a woman, with villagers tracing the origin of their village to an ancestress.

This is also believed to be the system used by the Bantu in the Kongo (modern-day Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo). As a result the chief in wartime was often the husband of the senior woman, with the government operating through the female line.

Few archaeological remains have been found of early Bantu civilization, when compared to Europe of the same period. This may have been because of the Bantu use of wood for their buildings. Some 85 million Bantu people now exist in Africa, with most divisions of the Bantu being largely linguistic.

Although the term has been used for 150 years, because of its pejorative use by the apartheid government in South Africa—whereby blacks were designated as “Bantu”—it is not used much today except as a cultural term to describe the great migration that took place in ancient and medieval Africa.

Scientific Revolution

Scientific Revolution

Between 1500 and 1789, especially the period of 1600–1750, there occurred a shift in humans’ thinking from the medieval emphasis on God’s eternal unchanging world, which governed people, the universe, and nature, to an approach that defined knowledge and understanding as derived from the immutable laws of nature independent of received truth.

Knowledge and truth were to be gained by putting forth an idea, testing it, and expressing the results mathematically. The British coined the term empiricism to summarize the concept gained through human interaction with nature and continental Europeans followed the philosopher Descartes who put forth rationalism with its emphasis on knowledge that could be logically and mathematically proved.

Emphasis on Different Sciences

Different sciences came to the fore during these centuries. Physics and astronomy were especially prominent in the latter part of the 16th century and then 17th century; chemistry and biology, in the latter part of the 17th century and 18th century; and mathematics, throughout the period as part of scientific calculations. New methods of thought pushed to the surface.

These new patterns harkened back to the writings of Aristotle and other Greek and Roman philosopher/scientists that emphasized the use of reason in addition to faith in pursuit of knowledge, nature, and contemplating humanity and the universe. The methodology associated with these thoughts came to be called the scientific method and involved two approaches—the deductive and the inductive.


The former, which was associated with the medieval mindset, put the stress on going from a general proposition to particular situations. The inductive method started with an approach to a particular problem, then through testing and observation, the drawing of valid conclusions.

When combined, the two methods formed what came to be known as the scientific method. One would state a general proposition; then investigate through a review of the literature, logic, and experimental research; and then apply the result to a specific proposition or hypothesis.

The hypothesis would then be subject to observation, experimentation, and collection of data as part of a proof. The test result would either be positive or negative. Conclusions would then be reached confirming or denying or declaring the proposition moot or not proved.

The proponents of these combined related approaches to bring about a new scientific revolution were René Descartes and Sir Francis Bacon, respectively. Their seminal writings, published in the 1620s, became the underpinnings for the new way of thinking associated with the scientific revolution.

Descartes (1596–1659), the French philosopher and mathematician, concluded that thought stemmed from the mind. The use of logic would deduce all truths starting with the existence of God and the basic reality of both the material and spiritual worlds.

His grand concept was that of a unified and mathematically ordered universe that ran as a perfect mechanism. Everything could be explained rationally through logic and mathematics. “I think, therefore I am” summarized the approach known as rationalism.

Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626), a politician and scientist, went a step further. He conceived of an approach that later was identified with the inductive method. He presented a system that used human reason to interpret human experiences.

Bacon recommended that facts derived from experiments could be validated through proving the hypothesis. These hypotheses would then be subjected to further experimentation and ultimately be proved so as to reflect fundamental laws of nature.

His approach was validated with the advent of new scientific instruments that could measure the physical world. In the 17th century, the thermometer, barometer, air pump, pendulum clock (grandfather clock), telescope, and microscope became readily available.

Heliocentric Theory

The scientific revolution dates from the work of astronomer Hellenistic Greeks, he advanced the heliocentric or Sun-centered theory of the universe.

His work was reinforced by the observation of Tycho Brahe, who made hundreds of observations via the telescope. Brahe’s data were supported by Johannes Kepler through mathematical calculations that showed that the planets moved elliptically around the Sun and that the Sun exerted a magnetic and gravitational pull on the planets.

Galileo Galilei, the mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, perfected the telescope to investigate the Moon, sunspots, the satellites of Jupiter, and the rings of Saturn. He also did work on physics through his former work from the leaning Tower of Pisa that originated basic laws of physics—the laws of motion and gravitation.

His experiments demonstrated that the velocity of falling bodies was related to the height from which they fell rather than their weight. These observations highlighted the relationship of gravitational pull to moving bodies. Acceleration would be constant no matter what the size or weight.

His experiments, which also involved hydrostatics, optics, and the pendulum, helped to develop his most famous law—the law of inertia—a body at rest or in motion will remain at rest or remain in motion unless affected by an external force such as gravitation.

Galileo and Copernicus suffered for their scientific advances. Both put forth ideas that went against the teachings of the Catholic Church; as a result, both were deemed heretical and had their discoveries challenged not scientifically, but theologically.

In the succeeding years of the 17th and 18th centuries, physicists built on the previous work. The French physicists Blaise Pascal and Jean Gay-Lussac developed laws and mathematical equations on volume, liquids, and gases.

Two professors at the university of Bologna, Mona Agnesi and Laura Bassi, verified Galileo’s work in mathematics and physics, respectively. Christian Huygens developed a wave theory to explain light. Otto von Gernicki proved the material composition of air in terms of its ability to have weight and exert pressure.

Other breakthrough work was done in other sciences. In astronomy, astronomer and mathematician Pierre Laplace discovered that comets were governed by mathematical laws, and that the Sun, which once had been a gaseous mass, threw off the planets as it solidified and contracted.

In biology, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria, protozoa, and human spermatozoa. Robert Hooke discovered the cellular structure of plants. Andreas Vesalius gave detailed drawings of the human anatomy. William Harvey traced the circulation of blood.

Chemistry Advances

Chemistry also saw breakthroughs. Robert Boyle developed an atomic theory and investigated fire, respiration, fermentation, evaporation, and metal rusting. Joseph Priestley also developed ammonia, generated carbon monoxide, and discovered oxygen and offered an explanation of combustion. Henry Cavendish discovered hydrogen. Antoine Lavoisier proved that combustion resulted from a combination of oxygen with other elements.

He also showed that respiration was another form of oxidation. Ultimately, this led to a famous law of conservation—“Matter cannot be created or destroyed.” The supreme thinker of the early scientific age, perhaps, was Johannes Kepler, who developed differential calculus, mathematics of infinity, variables—the bases for modern algebra, geometry, and calculus.

So dominant was Isaac Newton (1640–1727) in the later scientific age that physical science is often characterized as Newtonian, pre-Newtonian, and post-Newtonian. His writing and ideas were so prevalent that ultimately they affected philosophy, religion, and social science. His ideas influenced reformers who believed (based on Newtonian science) that a science of humanity could solve human problems just as natural sciences were beginning to solve the questions of science.

Why was Newton so influential? It was because he was able to synthesize previous discoveries. His law of gravitation stated that all natural objects attract other bodies—inversely, according to the square of their distances and directly in proportion to the products of their masses. Newton had arrived at this conclusion by methods that combined the methods advocated by Descartes and Bacon in his major work, Principia.

In that work, he used mathematical proofs that were tested by observation. He arrived at the conclusion that underlies all modern science—all selesai conclusions have to be based on solid facts. Accordingly, the hypothesis even if supported by mathematics must be rejected if it is not supported by observation or experimentation.

More importantly, his basic premise, based on his own experiments in gravitation, was that laws govern all nature, including the universe. His universal laws were then applied to every area. The result in terms of religion and philosophy was deism. Succeeding philosophers following Descartes and Newton divided reality between mind and matter.

Science assisted human reason in dealing with matter; faith dealt with the truth beyond the natural senses and helped the mind to intuit truth directly from God. Taking the clue from Newton, clergymen subordinated science to faith. The world was run by universal laws, of which the first law was God’s will.

Deism

The greatest influence of science and future events was in the development of deism—a belief held by many of the leading members of the American Revolution such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Even though deists considered themselves Christians, they rejected many tenets of traditional Christianity.

They did accept Jesus Christ but as a great budpekerti teacher rather than as a human savior. The view of most deists was that God was a rather impersonal force—the great physicist or master clock winder in the universe. God set things in motion, but if people behaved according to the golden rule and the Ten Commandments, everything else was left to them.

God proposed; humans disposed. All budpekerti decisions were based on the individual’s reason and conscience. No formal denomination held their allegiance—nature was their church and natural laws were their spiritual guides, even their bibles.

In the 18th century, sciences passed into general acceptance. Kings endowed observatories, cities funded museums, wealthy benefactors established parks and gardens, and learned societies sponsored popular lectures. Learned societies were established, such as the Royal Society of London, the French Academy of Science, and the American Philosophical Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge. The role of the sciences changed markedly in the 18th century.

Benjamin Franklin was lionized on both sides of the Atlantic for his many achievements including the Franklin stove and especially his research and experimentation that proved that lightning was another form of electricity. Whereas scientists such as Giordano Bruno were burned for heresy in 1600, and Galileo was forced by the Inquisition to recall his writings in 1633, the situation was different in the 18th century.

Isaac Newton received a well-compensated paying position, was knighted, and when he died in 1727, received the ultimate accolade—he was buried at Westminster Abbey. Joseph Priestley was a well-respected theologian and high-ranking church official as well as a scientist.

Effects on Technology

Just as the scientific revolution affected society, it also affected technology. Among the consequences was the application of scientific methods to farming. Scientific agriculture including planting with fertilizer and utilizing crops that restored fertilizer to the soil through legumes such as turnips, along with new methods of drainage such as irrigation, became common.

Landowners also began to experiment with cross-breeding so as to improve their livestock. England especially led the way. Jethro Tull plowed land that was planted in rows through the use of a drill he invented. Charles Townshend experimented in restoring soil fertility by applying clay lime mixture as well as planting turnips in crop rotation.

Robert Bakewell developed new techniques of stock raising through selective breeding that not only increased the size of meat cattle, but also increased the milk yield of dairy cows. Arthur Young lectured on the new agriculture and popularized the new method of scientific farming.

Science was applied to medicine, which utilized the findings of Vesalius, Harvey, and Leeuwenhoek. Dr. Edward Jenner developed the field of immunology through the injection of cowpox to combat smallpox, which had been the scourge of populations for two centuries.

Scientific knowledge was applied to draining mines, pumping water, drying textile fibers, producing gunpowder, manufacturing pottery, building ships, and improving navigation. The Industrial Revolution began in the first half of the 18th century of the application of science to economic development.

John Kay invented the flying shuttle and James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny. Thomas Newcomen produced the first steam engine; James Watt improved the design and revolutionized both factories and transportation.

Richard Arkwright invented the water frame. Samuel Crompton invented the water mule. Edmond Cartwright invented the power loom. This first stage of the Industrial Revolution in the middle and latter parts of the 18th century stemmed directly from the scientific revolution.

The scientific revolution marked the transition of society from the Middle Ages to modern times. It advanced the perception of people and their place in the universe, the source of knowledge, and the relationship of human society to nature. It led to great advancements in science and mathematics.

Beyond this direct outcome, its emphasis on reason directly led to the Enlightenment, which emphasized the natural rights of all human beings. Its questioning of previously accepted doctrines developed into a skepticism regarding received truth that ultimately led to revolution against the established order.

New technologies transformed economic options and eventually living situations as people moved from the countryside to cities to seek work in the factories based on the scientifically derived inventions that preceded this technology. Above all, the scientific revolution enshrined the spirit of human initiative, innovation, and invention, which has led to change and progress in succeeding ages.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

In the early 17th century, England began acting on its imperial ambitions by chartering business organizations called joint-stock companies, which undertook the actual work and expense of spreading England and its institutions around the world. The system had created the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, and the Council for New England, under the leadership of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.

During the 1620s, one of the council’s patents went to some Dorchester merchants to develop a fishing industry at Cape Ann on the New England coast. By 1626, the effort had failed, although John White, a Puritan minister in England associated with the project, began to see the enterprise as a potential refuge for discouraged Puritans from England.

Unfortunately for White and a group of fellow Puritans who had joined him, the Council for New England had ceased effective operation, and the group instead applied directly to the government for its own charter for the lands it already held. The charter, for a company called The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, was issued in March of 1629.


The company was to be managed by a governor and a council of 18 assistants, who were to be elected by a General Court of investors, which also had the power to legislate for the company. Not part of the charter was the usual requirement that the company conduct its business meetings in England.

This omission, quite possibly done by design, allowed the company to hold its meetings wherever it chose. In late August of 1629, in what is known as the Cambridge Agreement, the company opted to move its operations, including the charter, to New England.

When control of the company quickly passed into the hands of dedicated Puritans willing to leave England, the company started its transformation into a colony. By late 1629, the company had sent out John Endicott to assert its control over a settlement at Salem and had then supported that effort with five more ships and possibly one hundred additional settlers.

City Upon a Hill

Thus, by April of 1630, when a flotilla of 11 ships left England, the Massachusetts Bay Company was already a significant presence on the New England coast, and its conversion into a full-fledged colony assured. John Winthrop, elected the company’s governor, established the character of early Massachusetts in a sermon preached at the outset of the journey.

He stressed that the colony would be created as a covenant with God, and that religious orthodoxy would be maintained by the merging of civil and ecclesiastical power and consolidated in the hands of the colony’s leaders. His reference to Massachusetts as a “city upon a hill” to serve as an example to England of what God intended for his people further solidified the religious nature of the proposed colony.

There is no question about the success of the enterprise. The Company of the Massachusetts Bay was indistinguishable from what came to be called simply the colony of Massachusetts. And the religious nature of the colony was secured by requiring that only male church members could vote in colony elections.

There were challenges to some aspects of the colony from Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Quakers, and the freemen of the colony who demanded an elected body to represent them, but there was never any likelihood in New England that the colony would not succeed.

But that certainty was not the case in England. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, still hanging on to the remnants of the Council for New England, argued that the colony’s charter had been secretly obtained and started a campaign to have it annulled.

To the same end in 1635, the council gave up its own charter and requested that the king reassign the disputed territory to eight members of the former Council for New England. The outbreak of the English Civil War, or Puritan Revolution, in 1640, however, prevented any of the grants except the one for Maine from being made.

By the time of the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, Gorges had died, the Council of New England had passed from the scene, and Massachusetts had become too powerful and too independent to be easily tamed.

Control of Commerce

With the Restoration, England commenced a colonial policy that stressed the importance of commerce in the empire and the necessity of England’s control of that commerce for the greater good of the mother country.

Massachusetts viewed such a policy as interference in its self-styled independence. When England decided to oust the Dutch from New Netherland in 1664, the leaders of the expedition were ordered to investigate the situation in New England. Their report was especially critical of Massachusetts, but through delay and avoidance the colony managed to escape serious ramifications.

England tried again in 1676, when it sent over Edward Randolph. Randolph’s report was more damaging than the previous commissioners’ account, and the English government felt compelled to act.

It ordered the colony to send representatives to negotiate a settlement, but when England determined that the colony had not lived up to its agreements, it commenced legal action against the original charter as the only method whereby Massachusetts could be brought under control.

England completed the effort in 1684, and the courts annulled the original 1629 charter. The colony existed dependently until it was incorporated into the Dominion of New England in 1686. In the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution in England, Massachusetts received a new charter in 1691 as a royal colony, the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

The Puritan old guard were displeased, but by the end of the 17th century the original charter had generally outlived its usefulness, as perhaps demonstrated by the Salem witchcraft trials.

The more practical and forward-looking portion of the colonists recognized that future growth and prosperity lay with a royal charter, the institution of a property qualification for the vote, and a more cooperative relationship with English authority. Those whose ancestors had migrated as Puritans under the 1629 charter had become the Yankees of the 1691 charter. They and their colony were ready for the 18th century.

Francisco de Toledo - Spanish Viceroy of Peru

Francisco de Toledo

The most important reformer of Spanish administration in the newly conquered Andean highlands during the early colonial period, Francisco de Toledo, in his capacity as viceroy of Peru (1569–81), was instrumental in the transition from the violence and tumult of conquest to the emergence of a mature settler society.

Described by supporters and detractors alike as indefatigable, forceful, and ambitious, Toledo arrived in Peru just as the last of the civil wars among Spaniards were ebbing.

His most enduring accomplishment in his 12 years as viceroy was to strengthen and unify the colonial state under a grand design intended to consolidate Spanish rule and lay the foundations for continuing Spanish domination of the Andes and its native inhabitants.


Distinguished Heritage

Born in Andalusia, Spain, around 1520, Toledo hailed from one of the country’s most distinguished noble families. After effectively serving Charles V and Philip II, he was selected as viceroy (supreme direktur and direct representative of the king) of the newly conquered territories of New Castile (Peru). One of his first acts as viceroy was to launch a bold five-year visita, or tour of inspection, of all the Andean dominions subjugated by Spain.

Accompanied by the pomp and majesty appropriate to his office, Toledo undertook a census of the entire colony; ordered the reducción (forced resettlement) of surviving Indian communities into Spanish-style towns under the rule of Spanish and native authorities; directed the collection of testimonies on the injustice and tyranny of Inca rule with the intention of ratifying the morality of the Spanish invasion and conquest; abolished the Inca system of mita labor in the Andean highlands and in its stead imposed a new and even more onerous system of obligatory native labor and tribute; reorganized and streamlined the territory’s bureaucracy and administration; revitalized the emergent mining economy, particularly the vast silver mines of Potosí and the mercury mines of Huancavelica; and issued a vast corpus of laws and decrees that effectively limited the autonomy of colonial officials, encomenderos, and other elites while linking their fortunes ever more tightly to the well-being of the colonial state.

Intolerant of dissent or sustained challenge to Spanish rule, he also directed the invasion and destruction of the neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba, hidden for decades in one of the remotest and most inaccessible corners of the eastern highlands.

His decision to execute by beheading the kingdom’s captured ruler, Philip, who declared in a letter to Toledo that “some things about the execution would have been better omitted.”

All of these and related measures, commonly referred to as the Toledo reforms, had the effect of centralizing and strengthening the colonial state and laying the groundwork for a mature colonial economy and society that for the next two and a half centuries would ensure Spanish domination and funnel untold riches into Spain, thus marking Toledo as one of the most important actors in all of Peruvian history. In 1581, at the conclusion of his tenure as viceroy, Toledo returned to Spain. He died in Seville three years later.

Aurora

Aurora plane

Following the initial query too evolution of a hypersonic “scramjet”-powered aircraft inwards the early on 1980s, too the funding of the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) inwards 1984 (often mischaracterized equally the “Orient Express”), rumors began to swirl that either the Air Force or the National Aeronautics too Space Administration (NASA) had already funded a secret, ultrafast aircraft code named “Aurora.” Adding to the rumors, the SR-71 Blackbird was retired inwards the 1980s, leaving the U.S. ostensibly alongside no human-piloted supersonic spy aircraft.

Popular Science oftentimes ran artists’ illustrations of a “secret, hypersonic jet” that was supposedly based at Area 51 close Groom Lake, Nevada— the site of the Defense Department’s most classified projects. The aircraft’s proposed propulsion was equally shrouded inwards mystery equally its existence.

NASP was to role a supersonic combustion ramjet, which requires no moving parts to plough over compression of the air equally a turbojet does, precisely instead relies on the forrard speed of air coming through the intake to a funnel to compress the air, known equally “scramjet.”


This itself constituted a major obstruction inwards the program, because no air current tunnel fifty-fifty existed to exam whatever article at a speed beyond Mach 8, piece tunnels capable of testing larger articles for longer times could entirely generate winds upwards to Mach 5. (NASP was intended to wing at Mach 25, piece Aurora, according to the periodical accounts, was supposedly capable of Mach 10.) Thus, the concept for edifice the aerospace bird equally an entire aircraft organisation inwards the kickoff house rested, inwards part, on the premise that to “test it yous had to wing it.”

The “Pumpkin Seed,” to a greater extent than or less other propulsion organisation linked to Aurora, involved a shock-wave pulse engine inwards which the exploding fuel propelled the aircraft through the heaven at hypersonic speeds yesteryear exerting describe per unit of measurement area on the aircraft’s flattened body, equally when i squeezes a pumpkin seed betwixt the pollex too forefinger. The “Pumpkin Seed” supposedly released a telltale vapor trail of smoke inwards puffs, much similar a cigarette, rather than a steady stream.

The to a greater extent than widely held sentiment of the propulsion organisation of whatever hugger-mugger spy bird involved the scramjet, which needed to a greater extent than or less other engine to larn it upwards to supersonic speeds, at which indicate the scramjet could accept over. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 scramjet, inwards the most simplistic sense, is a funnel that compresses air going into the intake. The compression of the air forces it through the engine at vastly faster speeds, similar putting one’s pollex over the destination of a hose to accelerate the current of water.

Igniting too combusting the fuel is a monumental task, compared to lighting a jibe inwards a hurricane. To facilitate combustion too airflow, the entire aircraft must conk business office of the engine design, alongside the forebody an intake too the aft department an exhaust. Eventually, most experts agreed a “lifting body” pattern (wide too flat, alongside short, stubby wings) was desirable.

If observers reported seeing a “Pumpkin Seed” aircraft that supposedly was the Aurora, to a greater extent than or less other variant of the “secret hypersonic jet” story involved diverted funding from the NASP program. According to this well-circulated view, NASP was a front end programme to channel coin to the existent hypersonic program, the Aurora. In this theory, NASP was deliberately underfunded too thence equally to hold it barely operable piece the existent back upwards went to the dark hypersonic program.

Artist conceptions of Auroras appeared, commonly alongside text claiming they were already inwards beingness too conducting spy operations. Most of these reports placed the speeds at betwixt Mach half dozen too Mach 10. And yet to a greater extent than or less other variant of the story had the Aurora equally a stealth aircraft— something extremely hard to accomplish at the speeds credited to it.

Meanwhile, NASP establish its funding cutting repeatedly, until the goal of constructing an actual aircraft—even a subscale vehicle, which partially used rocket power—was abandoned. By that time, the Air Force too NASA soundless struggled alongside a scaled-down projection to wing a scramjet atop a Minuteman missile, too fifty-fifty that was canceled.

When NASP ended inwards 1995, it had failed to build whatever full-sized scramjet engines, allow lone an aircraft powered yesteryear a scramjet. The NASP/scramjet engineering was divided into iii smaller programs, including the X-33 too Hyper-X programs.

Rumors, however, continued to circulate nearly a novel hypersonic spy bird called the Aurora. As early on equally 1992, the Wall Street Journal ran the headline “Evidence Points to Secret U.S. Spy Plane,” too a twelvemonth later, Popular Science touted a “Secret Mach half dozen Spy Plane.” Starting inwards 1994, Popular Science oftentimes ran articles on “the Secrets of Groom Lake.”

That year, the Federation of American Scientists alleged that NASP coin was diverted for Aurora, claiming that Aurora’s budget was “hidden inwards apparently sight” alongside the aerospace plane. In fact, the NASP budget was minuscule compared to the technological challenge. By 1990, according to the master 1986 plans, the programme was to receive got been at $1 billion per twelvemonth too was increasing.

Instead, it was at $250 1000000 too falling—an sum that could non fund whatever serious technology, allow lone a “super hugger-mugger spy plane.” Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 to a greater extent than meaning trial for the proponents of the Aurora to address was the lack of progress on whatever variety of scramjet engines. Numerous tests, at dozens of Air Force too NASA labs associated alongside NASP yesteryear 1995, had yet to larn scramjet engines to generate thrust over drag.

Moreover, the tests that had been conducted involved running scramjets at fractions of seconds. Whereas the Blackbird utilized existing technology, improved yesteryear of import innovations, moving an aircraft to the Mach 6–Mach 10 levels would receive got required an order-of-magnitude boundary inwards engineering non acquaint inwards U.S. aeronautics inwards the 1990s.

Operation Paperclip

Operation Paperclip

Between 1945 as well as 1955, to a greater extent than than 1,600 German linguistic communication as well as Austrian technicians as well as scientists were brought to the US through a projection codenamed Operation Paperclip as well as a serial of sis programs.

Despite the fact that many of those scientists—among them Wernher von Braun, the manful mortal raise of the U.S. rocket program—were rumored to hold upwards Nazi state of war criminals, U.S. authorities as well as military machine officials allegedly concealed information most many of them inwards a major cover-up attempt aimed at facilitating their legal entry into the United States. U.S. officers identified the chosen German linguistic communication scientists past times attaching a paperclip to their personal file.

Even earlier the halt of World War II, U.S. scientists as well as military machine personnel had begun the search for German linguistic communication scientists nether Operation Paperclip’s predecessor, Project Overcast. They felt the bespeak for German linguistic communication expertise because outstanding German linguistic communication blueprint as well as technology had oftentimes offset Allied advantages of manpower during the war.


Therefore, they were peculiarly interested inwards locating experts inwards rocketry, aircraft design, as well as aviation medicine, to work their capabilities to shorten the state of war against Japan. Hundreds of Germans were taken to query centers, amidst them many of the scientists who had been engaged inwards developing the V2 rocket at the Peenemünde missile base of operations on the Baltic Sea nether Wernher von Braun.

Other prominent German linguistic communication scientists included von Braun’s unopen associate, General Walter Dornberger; the latter’s wartime master copy of staff, Herbert Axter; the deputy technical director, Arthur Rudolph; as well as an aviation doctor, Hubertus Strughold.

The grouping included other scientists non involved inwards rocketry, such equally infectious diseases goodness Walter Schreiber, desalinization specialist Konrad Schaefer, as well as Kurt Blome, who was engaged inwards biological warfare research.

U.S. authorities agencies decided that the US should secure their services permanently as well as permit them to immigrate. The reasons for the apparent willingness of authorities as well as Earth forces officials to overlook as well as actively conceal data most German linguistic communication scientists’ active involvement inwards state of war crimes were manifold.

In add-on to exploiting German linguistic communication technical know-how, the procedure assured that Deutschland could non work its scientists as well as their noesis to rebuild its forces. Finally, an intense contest for German linguistic communication technical expertise, non alone amongst the Soviet Union, but equally good amongst French Republic as well as Great Britain, triggered a policy of denial born out of the fearfulness that America’s competitors could tip the strategic residual inwards their favor.

Therefore, the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee formulated the policy newspaper SWNCC 257/5, which allowed the admittance of specialists from Deutschland inwards the national interest. This required a special policy equally U.S. immigration constabulary forbade the entry of members of fascist organizations. Official Paperclip policy prohibited the utilization of state of war criminals or active Nazis, but did non explicitly dominion out nominal political party members.

According to Linda Hunt, a onetime CNN investigative reporter, who was the kickoff researcher to own got access to formerly closed material, the kickoff background checks of possible candidates for Project Paperclip past times the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA)—the means nether the Joint Chiefs of Staff responsible for the implementation of the operation—revealed that many had participated inwards brutalized slave labor as well as experiments on humans, as well as had committed other crimes.

Therefore, State Department officials, especially the liaison to the JIOA, Samuel Klaus, refused to pick out many of the applicants, believing that Nazi state of war criminals constituted a threat to U.S. security.

In reaction to this deadlock betwixt the State Department as well as the JIOA, the latter patently advised the Earth forces to withhold or modify incriminating dossiers most German linguistic communication scientists. The written report on Wernher von Braun from September 1948, for example, described him equally a potential safety threat. Five months later on the Earth forces had upgraded his classification to the work of a mere opportunist.

The expertise the Germans brought amongst them played a vital work inwards the U.S. infinite program, inwards detail inwards the evolution of the Saturn rockets as well as the astronauts’ grooming for high-altitude flying. For decades, authorities agencies as well as the world were non concerned that alleged Nazi state of war criminals lived inwards the US as well as were employed inwards authorities programs as well as individual corporations.

The mid-1970s saw the kickoff legislative investigations into the matter, partly due to a growing awareness that the concluding survivors of the Holocaust as well as slave labor would popular off soon. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee nether the leadership of Joshua Eilberg (D-PA) held hearings inwards 1977 as well as 1978.

Its members concluded that authorities agencies had been to a greater extent than concerned most Communist propaganda than bringing these criminals to justice. Partly equally a effect of these deliberations, the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) was founded inwards 1979, amongst the destination to locate as well as essay Nazi state of war criminals living inwards the United States.

It renewed its efforts after the opening of Russian archives to U.S. OSI researchers inwards the early on 1990s, but due to the expiry of most suspects their investigations are destined to hold upwards curt lived. As most Germans who participated inwards Operation Paperclip entered the US legally, none of them own got been prosecuted.

War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748)

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession was primarily between the Austrian Empire and Prussia, although several other European countries were eventually brought into the conflict. There were underlying causes that led to this renewal of European hostilities aside from the question of the Austrian succession.

The Treaty of Utrecht, which was signed in 1713 to end the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–13), did not settle the underlying problems between ambitious powers seeking to extend their influence in Europe and the world.

Before the War of the Austrian Succession began, British and Spanish antagonism was prominent in European society. The British were furious with the Spanish over the limited amount of trade the Asien to Privilege, which was signed in 1713, granted the British with Spanish colonies in the Americas.


British captains attempted to get around this agreement by resorting to smuggling, which resulted in the Captain Jenkins Incident. Captain Jenkins claimed he was captured by the Spanish, who cut off one of his ears, which he kept to show to the British parliament. The British government declared war on Spain in October 1739 and commenced hostilities against the Spanish fleet in the Caribbean, but they were defeated.

Despite hostilities between Spain and England, the immediate cause of the War of the Austrian Succession was the death of Charles VI of Austria in 1740, which gave his daughter, Maria Theresa, control over Austria.

When Maria came to the throne, the Austrian military and bureaucracy were in a weakened state. With regard to trade, Austria was a very weak country because its mercantile system was centered predominately on a rural base, which failed to generate a significant degree of revenue.

Austria had fought a bitter war against the Ottoman Empire that drained the treasury, leaving only 90,000 gulden for government spending. This war also angered many Hungarians since they were responsible for quartering the Empire’s soldiers.

This financial burden and discontent were domestic issues with which Maria Theresa was forced to deal when she assumed the throne in 1740. These problems created a great deal of instability in Austria, and many countries hoped to divide up Austrian territory for their own benefit.

An anti-Austrian coalition was formed, as neighboring countries were interested in seizing Austrian lands. This is evidenced by the fact that Prussia was interested in acquiring Silesia, France was interested in the Austrian Netherlands, Spain wanted to acquire more territory in Italy, and Piedmont-Sardinia wanted Milan.

Frederick the Great, the ambitious king of Prussia, struck quickly against the Austrians by sending troops into Silesia in December 1740. Frederick the Great attempted to turn Prussia into a powerful country through the creation of a strong military and a centralized government that could effectively generate revenue through taxation.

The Austrian government faced larger problems as the Bohemian nobles were unhappy with Habsburg rule and revolted since they wanted to be placed under the control of the elector of Bavaria.

At this point, war enveloped the European continent as British and Austrian governments sided together to counter the ambitious design of the French, Prussian, Bavarian, and Spanish governments. Many of the European countries became concerned about the balance of power since they did not want one country to become too powerful in Europe.

Prussian Invasion of Silesia

With the Prussian invasion of Silesia and the revolt in Bohemia, Maria was forced to ask the Hungarian diet for assistance in 1741. The inability of the Austrians to repel the Prussian invasion forced Maria to assemble the Hungarian diet to acquire further assistance in the war effort.

Prussian invasion of Silesia

The diet attempted to assert Hungarian interests over Austrian interests as it demanded the institution of better economic policies, an alteration in the coronation oath, and greater Hungarian control over the region.

Maria agreed to negotiate these terms, with the exception of the demand concerning the coronation oath, in order to acquire further Hungarian assistance in the war, but she refused to honor this agreement in its entirety.

As the war continued to deteriorate for the Austrians, Maria was forced to approach the diet again. She promised to give Hungarians greater control over the administration of Hungary, more Hungarian influence in regard to allocation of tax money, the selection of Hungarians to ecclesiastical offices in Hungary, and the promise to give more territory to Hungarian domains.

The members of the diet accepted this usulan and promised to provide the Austrian empress with at least 4 million gulden and a minimum of 60,000 troops. Despite the fact that Maria considered Hungarian opinion when creating government policies, she failed to implement most of the demands to which the Hungarians agreed.

The Hungarians also fell short on their promises regarding the number of troops they could offer to the service of the Crown, which helps to explain the poor performance of the Austrian war effort.

The Peace of Dresden, which was signed in 1745 between the Prussian and Austrian governments, confirmed Prussia’s control over Silesia. Despite the fact that Prussia and Austria negotiated a peace settlement the conflict still continued among the other European powers.

The British became involved in the war with the fear that the expansion of French influence on the European continent would affect Hanover. George II, who was king of England and elector of Hanover, led an army that defeated the French forces at Dettingen in June 1743, but the threat of an army led by Charles Edward Stuart, who was attempting to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne of England, forced the British to recall a significant portion of their army back to England in 1745.

The invasion failed as Charles could not acquire enough support from the English population, forcing him to give up his march on the English capital.

The remains of the Stuart army were smashed by the duke of Cumberland at Culloden Moor in April 1746. Despite this success by the English at home, the recall of a major portion of the English army allowed the French to capture the Austrian Netherlands.

The war was also fought outside the European continent as the French and British combated with each other for a stronger position on the Indian subcontinent and in North America.

The French were able to launch a successful offensive against the British in India by capturing Madras from the British. The British were able to gain some ground on the French in North America as a coordinated attack by colonists from New England and the Royal Navy captured the French fortress of Louisburg.

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which was signed in 1748, forced England to relinquish control of the fortress of Louisburg in Nova Scotia to the French and in exchange, the French returned the Austrian Netherlands to Austria and Madras to the English. Spain and Piedmont-Sardinia each gained territory as the Spanish acquired Parma, and Piedmont-Sardinia acquired some territory in Milan.

The War of the Austrian Succession was an important step in turning Prussia into a strong European power for the acquisition of Silesia increased the population of Prussia, provided Prussia with an abundant amount of coal and iron, and gave the Prussians a thriving textile industry.

Maria Theresa lost territory, but her husband was acknowledged by the German princes as the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Maria spent the rest of her reign attempting to reacquire Silesia from Frederick the Great as she centralized the Austrian administration and undertook reforms in the Austrian army and economic base to accomplish this goal.

Art and Architecture in the Golden Age of Muslim World

Art and Architecture in the Golden Age of Muslim World

Islamic art and architecture is that of the Muslim peoples, who emerged in the early seventh century from the Arabian Peninsula. The Muslim empire reached its peak during the golden age of Islam from the eighth to the 13th century.

Literary and archaeological evidence reveals that the early architecture of the Muslim communities in Medina and Mecca, presented through the prophet Muhammad’s mosque and residence in Medina and through other smaller mosques, continued the indigenous building style based on a rectangular structure with an open internal courtyard and a covered area. Older structures such as the Ka’aba in Mecca continued the ancient Arab architectural style found among the Nabataeans in Petra, Palmyra, South Arabia, and Hatra in Mesopotamia.

In pre-Islamic times, the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and its surrounding regions lived in scattered minority communities of Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian peoples among a majority of pagans or polytheists.


To these people, great legendary architectural palaces, castles, temples, and churches were still-vivid memories signifying power and prestige. They were recorded in poetry and other literary forms and associated with famous cities such as Petra, Palmyra, Hatra, Hira, Madain Salih, Kinda, Najran, Marib, and Sana.

Pre-Islamic records and literary evidence attest to the existence of visual art forms, especially sculpture and painting, which were employed primarily to disseminate copies of icons and sculptural depictions of the many deities and idols worshipped in the region.

For example monumental statues of major deities like Hubal, Allat, Al-Uzza, and others were still standing in public locations and temples on the eve of the advent of Islam prior to 630. Small-scale statues and figurines were abundantly available among the pre-Islamic population, and makers of images were active in such cities as Mecca and Taif.

Wall paintings from the early Islamic secular buildings in Syria, Jordan, and Iraq reveal important examples of a blending of Mesopotamian, Sassanian, Hellenistic, and indigenous Arab styles. Architectural planning of early Muslim mosques in Egypt and North Africa reveals borrowing from ancient Egyptian architecture.

Early Islamic Art and Architecture

Great Mosque of Damascus

The prophet Muhammad died in 632 and within a few years the newly emerged Islamic state expanded quickly and swiftly claimed the realms of both the Sassanian and Byzantine Empires. In less than 100 years the new politicoreligious model reached the steppes of Central Asia and the Pyrenees in Europe.

As the Muslim community expanded, the need for a central place of worship emerged and was realized by the development of the mosque—a French distortion of the word masjid or “place of prostration.” Islam, a nonclerical, nonliturgical faith, does not employ ritualistic surroundings and the first mosque was actually the open courtyard of the house of the prophet Muhammad in Medina. It functioned as a meeting place and community center.

Later this tradition expanded to the establishment of a central mosque called al-Masjid al-Jami'—“the great mosque”—in every major city. With it developed the characteristics of the mosque and its components: an open courtyard (sahn); a roofed area for prayer (musallah) with a dome (qubba); a niche in the wall of the prayer area (mihrab) to indicate the direction of prayer (qiblat) toward the Ka’aba in Mecca; an elevated platform (mimbar), from which the congregational leader delivered the sermon; a tower (minaret), from which the call to prayer (adzhan) was issued; and an ablution place for performing the ritual washing before each prayer (wudhu).

This basic arrangement of functional space found in early mosques in Basra, Kufa, and Wasit in Iraq, and later in the Great Mosque of Damascus and the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and elsewhere, became the prototype of traditional Islamic mosque architecture.

The rapidly growing state demanded a new Islamic architectural style that developed gradually, acquired new forms, and incorporated diverse methods of visual expression. During the golden age of Islamic civilization a blend of architectural designs and motifs from South and North Arabian, Byzantine, Hellenistic, Indian, Chinese, and other origins was employed in a new building kegiatan throughout the Islamic world.

Whatever the variety of its components, the jawaban result always presented a unique Arab Islamic style, especially in the early period, where the architecture and art were unified by strong Arab characteristics that can be detected in the art of the Umayyads in Syria, the Andalus in Spain, the Abbasids in Iraq, and the Fatimids in Egypt.

The Arabic language, derived from the Semitic Aramaic language, played a decisive role in the formation of Islamic culture and art. Arabic was the official and original language of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. Arabic was a powerful cultural and literary vehicle with which to disseminate Arab culture throughout the new and diverse Muslim communities in the recently expanded regions of Central Asia, Anatolia, the Mediterranean coasts, Sicily, and Spain.

Verses of the Qur’an were inscribed in elegant Kufic and Thulth calligraphic styles on the interior and exterior of major mosques in Jerusalem, Damascus, Basra, Fustat, Tunisia, Sicily, and Spain in a variety of techniques such as stucco, wood carving, and ceramic tiles. The mosque thus became a unifying architectural form and symbol of the monotheistic concept of Islam.

Islam adopted an aniconic style in art that does not promote figurative representation. In the Qur’an, the sunna (manners, ethics, behavior, and social practice of the prophet Muhammad), and hadith (collection of sayings of Muhammad pertaining to a variety of topics, and everyday life situations), depiction of living forms is discouraged and according to certain interpretations is banned altogether, especially in religious environments such as mosques.

Sunni orthodox interpretation of figurative representation characterized it as an act of defying the power of God, who alone was ascribed the ability of creation. Furthermore the depiction of human beings was also thought to be reminiscent of and an encouragement of pre-Islamic idol worship.

These sanctions prompted Muslim artists to create a new form of expression based on the use of Arabic calligraphy—literal meaning and visual composition—and decorative ornamentations. The corroboration of these two powerful visual vocabularies with the already developed conventional Islamic components characterized Islamic art distinctly and continuously.

Umayyads: 661–750 c.e.

Borrowing, blending, and modifying motifs, forms, and techniques from Byzantine and Sassanian sources and incorporating them into the indigenous Arabic style characterize the art and architecture of this formative period. This approach was presented through the architectural planning and iconographic design in major buildings, both religious and secular.

Interior of Umayyad mosque

In the eastern Mediterranean region a new blend of styles and motifs was incorporated in the early Umayyad buildings. Mosaic decoration, a preferred Byzantine medium, is evident in the case of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, completed in 692; the Great Mosque of Damascus, completed in 715; and the desert palaces in the Syrian regions.

Presentation of power, triumph of the new religion, and the emphasis on Islamic theology in early Islamic art were realized through the use of monumental architectural forms, calligraphy, and the ornamental aniconic patterns as in the case of the Dome of the Rock, or the figurative representations in painting and sculpture at the desert palaces Qusayr Amra, Khirbat al-Mafjar, and Mshatta in the Syrian region, and during the early Abbasid period in palaces in Samarra and Baghdad in Iraq.

Abbasids: 750–1258 c.e.

Beginning around the 10th century the synthesis of Islam and Arab culture was modified by the emergence of decentralized, mostly non-Arab political powers such as the Samanids in Iran and the Ghaznavids in Afghanistan, the Seljuk dynasty in Anatolia, the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt and Tunisia, and the Almoravid Empire (al-Murabitun) and Almohads (al-Muwahhidun) in the western areas of Islamic lands.

These dynasties and mini independent states contributed to the spread of Islam and consolidated their political power in the Andalus in Spain and established bases in the heart of India with the Delhi Sultanate in 1206. Traders and merchants carried Islam as a religion and culture deep into Africa and Central Asia, and across the sea routes to Indonesia.

These new political powers with their cultural trends added new riches to the diverse collection of Islamic science, literature, art, and architecture. Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid dynasty, became the center of knowledge and scientific development.

The Islamic Renaissance

The Islamic renaissance, which witnessed tremendous advances in every field, prompted architects, visual artists, calligraphers, and artisans of all sorts to collaborate in the production of a vast body of monuments, masterpieces, and manuscripts.

A great number of these manuscripts were embellished and illustrated with fine visual presentations, such as the 13th century Maqamat al-Hariri illustrated by Mahmoud bin Yehya al-Wasiti, whose style set a standard for what is conventionally known as the Baghdad school of al-Wasiti. The diverse cultural input of new ethnic groups from Iran, Anatolia, Central Asia, India, and the Mediterranean region enriched the Islamic art repertoire.

interior of the great mosque of cordoba

Figurative illustrations gradually populated manuscripts, especially those of a literary or scientific nature. Figurative representation was used during the Abbasid, Fatimid, Seljuk, Mamluk, and later periods as well. It is important to note that depictions of human figures, although employed by both Shi’i and Sunni artists and patrons, were most common with Shi’i and Sufiart.

In architecture, a blend of new elements from the recently acquired territories was incorporated in the design of mosques, hospitals (maristan), schools (madrasat), Sufi foundations (khanaqah), tombs, shrines, palaces, and gardens. This incorporation furthered and enhanced the defi nition of a distinct Islamic style. Muslim architects developed and employed the pointed arch as early as 776 at the al-Ukhaydhir palace in Iraq and the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 780.

The pointed arch concentrates the thrust of the vault on a narrow vertical line, reducing the lateral thrust on foundation and allowing for higher walls. The double tier arch and the horseshoe arch were developed and used in the Great Mosque of Damascus in 715 and transmitted later to the Andalus in Spain and employed in the Great Mosque of Córdoba.

The square minaret appeared for the first time at the Great Mosque of Damascus and was transmitted later to North Africa and Spain. The pointed arch, horseshoe arch, and the square minaret impacted European architecture and were adopted in Romanesque churches and monasteries and especially in the Gothic cathedral and its towers. Much of the Islamic golden age achievement passed on to Europe through Sicily, Spain, Jerusalem, and other important centers in the Islamic world.

Muqarnas is probably the most distinct and magnificent architectural decorative element developed by Muslim architects around the 10th century, simultaneously in the eastern Islamic world and North Africa. Muqarnas is a three-dimensional architectural decoration composed of nichelike elements arranged in multiple layers. Soon after its appearance, muqarnas became an essential architectural ingredient in major buildings of the Islamic world in Iran, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Sicily, North Africa, and Spain.

Muqarnas structures, augmented with the elegant Arabic calligraphy, floral design, and geometric patterns typically called arabesque, produced a dazzling visual composition that characterized the beauty of such places as the interior of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem or the Masjid al-Jami’ in Isfahan, among other examples.

This composition, accentuated by bands of the Kufic and Thulth styles of Arabic calligraphy, added spiritual and poetic dimensions to the adorned buildings and objects. Qur’anic texts usually cover the exterior and interior of religious buildings with verses and chapters at various locations in the building.

Poetry, proverbs, and celebrated sayings may cover secular buildings and nonreligious objects such as dishes, plates, and jewelry boxes. The continuous patterns and repetition of ornaments covering walls and ceilings, running along naves, arcades, and archways, echo a rhythmic tone that originates from one pattern and multiplies in endless, complex, repeated, and variant patterns.

It defines the unity in multiplicity of Islamic decorative style. This attractive visual system was so impressive that some early Renaissance artists could not resist copying and imitating bands of Kufic inscriptions to decorate the clothing of the figure of the Virgin Mary and other biblical figures and angels in paintings of the period.

The golden age of Islam witnessed the emergence of elegant visual art and magnificent architectural achievements that had a major influence on succeeding periods, with its characteristics echoing throughout the Safavid, Mogul, and Ottoman periods.