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Author Archives: Ruth
Medieval discrimination against Jewish doctors
Medieval Christians often feared that Jews were not bound by the same moral rules as Christians. Their helplessness in the face of disease or medical hocus-pocus made them suspicious that their medicine might be poison. Leprosy had already established medicine … Continue reading
Posted in Med. and Magic
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My son, the Jewish doctor!
During the Middle Ages, Jews became prominent as doctors, but it took a few centuries for this to happen. There was no real Jewish medical tradition, apart from common sense patient care. The first step toward Jewish medicine was that … Continue reading
Posted in Med. and Magic
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Avicenna
Avicenna was one of the first medieval scholarly medical doctors. “Avicenna” is how his name came into Latin, the way al-Khwarismi came to us as algorithm. It’s a shortening of Ibn Sina, son of Sina, which was actually his family’s … Continue reading
Posted in Med. and Magic, Muslim Empire (old series)
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Dr. Maimonides, 1138-1204
When the Almohad Berber dynasty conquered most of Muslim Spain, their puritanical, tough-nomad attitudes brought persecution on religious minorities. They ended the practice of “dhimmi” minorities as a protected class paying a higher tax. Now, Christians and Jews had to … Continue reading
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Book includes medieval language samples!
This exciting student work/textbook explains how English changed through the medieval period. It even has a section with simple Anglo-Saxon man-on-the-street interviews so you can follow along and hear it spoken. A whole chapter each on the Danish migration and … Continue reading
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Sing the Brain Song!
Ellen’s Basement Workshop song to learn the parts of the brain! “The Brain Song” (Digital Download)
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Thaw, feed, serve: very old worms come back to life!
Worms are amazing creatures! These worms in Siberia were frozen thousands of years ago. In 2018, scientists took over 300 specimens and began carefully thawing them. Two of them came back to life! They began moving and looking for something … Continue reading
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Coda: The Map of Piri Reis, 1517 to 1929
In 1929, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and the new nation of Turkey was going through painful rapid social changes under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Most importantly, they were changing their writing system from Arabic script to Latin. … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Muslim Empire (old series)
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The End of Mamluk Egypt, 1492-1517
1492 was a very bad year in Egypt. It was a particularly bad plague visitation year, in a place with a large aging elite class. The only thing worse than thousands of geezers who still control everything and have all … Continue reading
Posted in Muslim Empire (old series)
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Christian Egypt under Mamluk rule, 1382-1517
In earlier entries, you read about how the Mamluks, slaves raised to fight, became a ruling class with a complete bureaucracy as well as attempts to normalize into a hereditary monarchy. The Kipchak Turk Mamluks had their “Mafia” structure in … Continue reading
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