The Islamic Golden Age is a historical period lasting from c. 750 CE to c. 1257 CE, during which philosophers, scientists and engineers of the Islamic world are credited with a period of contribution to scientific knowledge, cultural arts, civilisation and architecture, both by developing earlier traditions and by a period of relatively rapid and marked innovation. A substantial degree of historic Islamic intellectual innovation occurred in the so-called Golden age.
Bernard Lewis wrote that Islamic governments inherited:
the knowledge and skills of the ancient Middle East, of Greece and of Persia. They added new and important innovations from outside, such as the manufacture of paper from China and decimal positional numbering from India.
Much of this learning and development can be linked to geography. Even prior to Islam's presence, the city of Mecca served as a center of trade in Arabia and Muhammad was a merchant. The tradition of the pilgrimage to Mecca became a center for exchanging ideas and goods. The influence held by Muslim merchants over African-Arabian and Arabian-Asian trade routes was tremendous. As a result, Islamic civilization grew and expanded on the basis of its merchant economy, in contrast to their Christian, Indian and Chinese peers who built societies from an agricultural landholding nobility. Merchants brought goods and their faith to China (resulting in a significant population of Chinese Muslims with an estimated 37 million followers, mainly ethnic Turkic Uyghur whose territory was annexed to China), India, southeast Asia, and the kingdoms of western Africa and returned with new inventions.
A golden age is a period in a field of endeavour when great tasks were accomplished. The term originated from early Greek and Roman poets who used to refer to a time when mankind lived in a better time and was pure (see Golden Age).
A society's Golden Age marks that period in its history having a heightened output of art, science, literature, and philosophy.
A golden age is often ascribed to the years immediately following some technological innovation. It is during this time that writers and artists ply their skills to this new medium. Therefore, there are Golden Ages of both radio and television. During this nascent phase the technology allows new ideas to be expressed, as new art forms flower quickly into new areas:
At least one technology had its "Golden Age" in its latter years:
Technology and creativity spawn new genres in literature and theatre. The onset of a new genre will be its Golden Age:
The Golden Age of Freethought is regarded the era from about the 1870s through the beginning of World War I in which freethought flourished in the United States. Social trends clashed with religious orthodoxy and caused people to question their traditional ideas about the world.
Neil deGrasse Tyson ( /ˈniːəl dəˈɡræs ˈtaɪsən/ born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He is currently the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. Since 2006 he has hosted the educational science television show NOVA scienceNOW on PBS, and has been a frequent guest on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Jeopardy!. It was announced on August 5, 2011, that Tyson will be hosting a new sequel to Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage television series.
Tyson was born as the second of three children in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, but was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Sunchita Feliciano Tyson, was a gerontologist and his father, Cyril deGrasse Tyson, was a sociologist, human resource commissioner for the New York City mayor, John Lindsay, and was the first Director of HARYOU. Tyson attended the Bronx High School of Science (1972–1976, astrophysics emphasis) where he was captain of the wrestling team and was editor-in-chief of the school's Physical Science Journal. Tyson had an abiding interest in astronomy from the age of eleven, following his visit to the Hayden Planetarium at age nine. Tyson recalls that "so strong was that imprint [of the night sky] that I'm certain that I had no choice in the matter, that in fact, the universe called me." He obsessively studied astronomy in his teens, and eventually even gained some fame in the astronomy community by giving lectures on the subject at the age of fifteen.
Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an American Islamic scholar, and (with Zaid Shakir and Hatem Bazian) is co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States. He is a convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding. He has described the 9/11 attacks as "an act of 'mass murder, pure and simple'". Condemning the attacks, he has also stated "Islam was hijacked ... on that plane as an innocent victim".The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that he "is arguably the west's most influential Islamic scholar" and added that "many Muslims find his views hard to stomach."
Hamza Yusuf was born to two academics in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. Hamza Yusuf spent four years studying in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Middle East. Later he traveled to West Africa and studied in Mauritania, Medina, Algeria, and Morocco under such scholars as Murabit al Haaj; Baya bin Salik, head of the Islamic court in Al-'Ain, United Arab Emirates; Muhammad Shaybani, Mufti of Abu Dhabi; Hamad al-Wali; and Muhammad al-Fatrati of Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.[citation needed] After more than a decade abroad, he returned to the United States and earned degrees in nursing from Imperial Valley College and religious studies at San José State University.[citation needed]
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji;Gujarati:કૃષ્ણા પંડિત ભાનજી; 31 December 1943) is an English actor who has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He is also known for his performances in the films Schindler's List (1993), Sexy Beast (2000), House of Sand and Fog (2003), and Hugo (2011).
Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji in Snainton, North Yorkshire, England, the son of Anna Lyna Mary (née Goodman), an actress and model, and Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, a medical doctor.
Kingsley's father, born in Kenya, is of Gujarati Indian descent; Kingsley's paternal grandfather was a spice trader who had moved from India to Zanzibar, where Kingsley's father lived until moving to England at the age of 14. Kingsley's mother, born out of wedlock, was "loath to speak of her background". Kingsley's maternal grandfather was believed by the family to have been a Russian or German Jew, while Kingsley's maternal grandmother was English and worked in the garment district of East London.
Let me take you down
Deeper than you know
Reality is gone
Yet so much to show
Let me take you down
Let us look inside
There's still so much to come
It's time to say goodbye
Broken dreams
Misery replaced by constant ecstasy
Wide awake open wide
Existence of a better kind
Waits for you waits for me
Our minds become forever free
Free of fear free of rage
The coming of the golden age for all
Let me take you down
Let life fade away
The ritual has begun
Your life begins today
Let me take you down
Explore the other side
Enlightened as we drown
It's time to say goodbye
Broken dreams
Misery replaced by constant ecstasy
Wide awake open wide
Existence of a better kind
Waits for you waits for me
Our minds become forever free
Free of fear free of rage
The coming of the golden age for all
Don't you turn around now
Don't you be afraid now
Just turn another page now
Celebrate the golden age
Broken dreams
Misery replaced by constant ecstasy
Wide awake open wide
Existence of a better kind
Waits for you waits for me
Our minds become forever free
Free of fear free of rage
The coming of the golden age for all
Waits for you waits for me
Our minds become forever free
Free of fear free of rage
The coming of the golden age for all
For all, all, for all
All the screens are filled with heroes and losers
But the sky's still filled with stars
And this junky palace might be on fire
'Til the winners lose desire
Let it go, let it go
So tell me what you see
And tell me what you hear
And if it's the same as me
It's the golden age, it's the golden age
Big brother tries to stitch and bend
But channel surfers find new friends
See freedom's silhouette increase
It's time to claim that sweet release
Let it go, let it go
Now tell me what you see
And tell me what you hear
And if it's same as me
It's the golden age
Now tell me what you see
And tell me what you hear
And if it's the same as me
It's the golden age, ya, it's the golden age
It's the golden age
I can see a purple patch of jacaranda
Framed in eucalypt from this wooden floored veranda
Heading past the watermark, heading for the hills
Heading for the edge of time, heading for the thrills of the golden age
Now tell me what you see
And tell me what you hear
If it's the same as me, it's the golden age
Everybody's talking about the golden age
Yeah, they keep on talking about the golden age
Put your hands on the wheel
Let the golden age begin
Let the window down
Feel the moonlight on your skin
Desert wind, cool your aching head
Weight of the world
Drift away instead
Oh, these days I hardly get by
I don't even try
There's a treacherous road
With a desolated view
As distant lights
They hear their foreign view
Sun don't shine
Even when it's day
Drive all night
Just to feel like you're okay
Oh, these days I barely get by
I don't even try
What machinery can create forcing bodies to the rhythm
Be a part of it it's your machine, life can be forever
Deny all this, you used to live for and let your impulse go
beshelter you grief, last miss the clue
and show your ears to the pain that rose
Now that I can walk this way power in spring
or mine and soon will stay wait for the crying line
All that wasn't fun to be decidable is dead, is gone
Conform a deep respect for personality is right, we're wrong
See my friend, what matters in this grief place is what you feel
Tell me, what do you feel
Just don't ask and try to look behind it all cause money
just not the mountening questions
All that wasn't fun to be decidable is dead, is gone
Conform a deep respect for personality is right, we're wrong
See my friend, what matters in this grief place is what you feel
Tell me, what do you feel
Just don't ask and try to look behind it all cause money
A thousand years or so is said
Gentle breeze of a flowering bed
Children and fairies chattering secrets in pretty ears
Gone are the years
Gone are the years of sorrow and pain
Gone are those years
Barefoot in clean white sand
A kiss on the lips, a kiss on the hand
Heart beat sounding, ricocheting in their cage
Thought I'd lose my balance with the grounds bounce and sway
And all this violence and all this goes away
And the vibes that rise like fireflies illuminate our play
Some light being pulled you up from night?s party
Said, clap your hands if you think your soul is free
And the silence was astounding
Except some, oh Lord mercy me's
And oh, you can't stop what's comin' up
You?re never gonna stop, gonna live it up
And oh, it's gonna drop, gonna fill your cup
And oh, it's gonna drop, gonna fill your cup
The age of miracles, the age of sound
Well, there's a golden age
Comin' round, comin' round, comin' round
Give it up instead of grabbin? for decay
What we viewed as gold I believe pollutes this space
And its grace ascending like a snake up your tree
Up your happy ending understanding all you're supposed to be
Let it move right in, let it kiss your face
Let it sow your skin in perpetual embrace
Like I said love's light is laughter
Like the sun spittin' happiness into the hereafter
Oh, here it comes like a natural disaster
Oh, blowin? up like a ghetto blaster
Oh, here it comes, bring it faster
Oh, here it comes, bring it faster
The age of miracles, the age of sound
Well, there's a golden age
Comin' round, comin' round, comin' round
Love, don't you falter, burnin? hearts dragged behind
The horses dancing on the altar, hooves breakin' Gods
To diamond dust and stars and there you are
Now we're all allowed to breathe
Walls dissolve with the hunger and the greed
Move your body, you've got all you need
And your arms in the air stir a sea of stars
And oh, here it comes and it's not so far
All light beings, come on now make haste
Clap your hands if you think you're in the right place
Thunder all surroundin'
Oh, feel it quake with the joy resounding
Palm to the palm you can feel it poundin'
Never give it up you can feel it mountin'
Oh, its gonna drop, gonna fill your cup and
Oh, its gonna drop, gonna fill your cup
The age of miracles, the age of sound
Well, there's a golden age
Comin' round, comin' round, comin' round
The age of miracles, the age of sound
Well, there's a golden age
I know how to lie
So why don't we go side by side
I know how to lie
So why don't we turn off the light
Let's start our satellite
So everyone could know tonight
Let's start our satellite
So everyone could see it's bright
Aaaauuuaaauuu
You are the one
To hear the sound
(You hear the sound)
You can jump on the tree
(Jump on the tree)
You come along
Side by side
Away to find yourself
A building filled with a hundred rooms, looms overhead
Behind the glass and curtains, a million lovers beds
They bulldozed that old beerjoint where we drank for free
They put a hotel on the skyline where O. Henry's used to be
Four thousand days ago in a flood of summer rays
These are streets I know back from the golden age
It was dark as night at the crack of noon, Lucky Strikes and gin
The sun goes down, the clock goes round, oh to be twenty one again
Dominoes, the stories go, onto another round
Another day, bills to pay, til the Hilton tore it down
Four thousand days ago in a flood of summer rays
These are streets I know back from the golden age
Sunglasses mask a passing glance as the light begins to fade
Wind blows trash across the street like a mardi gras parade
Staggering like a harlequin I drank at every bar
Finally found my way to sleep in the backseat of my car
Four thousand days ago in a flood of summer rays
Brand new space cyberspace
We can fly through the time we are young and free you
and me
Perfect face cyber race
We can be "V.I.P." and rich flaming son of a bitch
Don't stop don't stop we reach the top
Wide open fast and easy road
Don't stop don't stop don't give up now
Break down!!!
Golden age golden century
Golden pill that you will take
Golden age golden history
It's your time to fly away
Golden age golden century
Golden pill that you will take
Golden age golden history
It's your time to fly away
Interface hyperspace
Just a minute from NEW YORK to TOKYO
That's a trip
Interface aerospace
Never more people sick medicare without trick
Don't stop don't stop we reach the top
Wide open fast and easy road
Don't stop don't stop don't give up now
Break down!!!
Golden age golden century
Golden pill that you will take
Golden age golden history
It's your time to fly away
Golden age golden century
Golden pill that you will take
Golden age golden history
We're living in the golden age of pain
The golden age of pain
There's a wind blowing through my door
And it's never been this cold before
It's the golden age of pain
I tell you that the golden age is here
Everybody's drowning on the tidal wave of tears
And on the little ball in space
Can't nobody win a human race
When the golden age is here
We got to have love, we got to have peace
We got to have trust out on the street, baby
Until the broken hearts all mend
How we ever gonna find the end
Of the golden age of pain
We're living in the golden age of pain
Rich man, poor man, beggar man it's all the same
Because the body don't take the blow
It's the soul of a man that gets laid low
In the golden age of pain
We got to have love, we got to have peace
We got to have trust out on the street, baby
Until the broken hearts all mend
How we ever gonna find the end
Of the golden age of pain
Until the broken hearts all mend
How we ever gonna find the end