23 Other Persons
To learn more about other famous people
who lived during Ferdowsi's time (years 940-1020), sselect
from names below names
Raazi 864-930,
Iranian Physician
Raazi, born near modern Tehran, was the greatest physician
of the Medieval Ages, and was the indisputable authority on
medicine up to Seventeenth century. His original work on smallpox,
measles and infectious diseases is still cited in modern textbooks.
Raazi was the first person to introduce the use of alcohol
(Al-Kuhl) for medical purposes. He was also an expert surgeon
and was the first to use opium for anesthesia. As a director
of a hospital he wrote the most complete medicinal encyclopedia.
Raazi was also known as a philosopher and he developed the
atomic theory of the Greek philosopher Democritus.
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Farabi, 869-950. Iranian Philosopher
Farabi (also called Avenasr) was one
of the most famed philosophers. Of Turkish origin he spent
time in Baghdad and at the court of Prince Sayf ad-Dawlah
in Aleppo, Syria. Farabi wrote in the tradition of Aristotle
about metaphysics, politics and music. He was renowned as
an important translator of Greek writings. He demonstrated
how Greek learning could be used to answer questions with
which Moslems were struggling. Farabi saw human reason as
being superior to revelation. He maintained that religion
provided truth in a symbolic form to non-philosophers, who
were not able to comprehend it in its more pure forms.
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Ashari, 874-935. Iranian Theologian
Ashari, a famous Moslem theologian in
Baghdad, was the founder of the Islamic scholastic. He attempted
to surmount the gap between scientific thinking and orthodox
faith. In an early work 'Maqalat al-Islamiyn' he compiled
together the various opinions of scholars on Moslem theological
questions.
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Henry I, 877-936. Germany's King
Henry was chosen king of Germany by
the Franks and Saxons, and he became the founder of the Saxon
dynasty who ruled Germany from 918 until 1024. After the East
Frankish Carolingians became extinct in 911 Conrad of Franconia
was chosen king by the notables of the kingdom. Henry I, as
duke of Saxony, was designated by Conrad as his successor.
Henry regarded Germany a confederation of duchies rather than
a nation. Besides Saxony and Franconia he fought successfully
to bring Swabia and Bavaria into the confederation. He also
struggled against the raiding Magyars and defeated them in
933. The king's last campaign added the territory of Schleswig
to the German state.
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Olga, 885-969. Kiev's Ruler
Olga was the widow of Prince Igor I,
who was assassinated by his subjects. Olga became regent of
the principality of Kiev from 945 to 964. Olga concluded a
trade agreement with Byzanz and opened the Russian state to
Christian influence after her own baptism. Her grandson, Vladimir
I, made Christianity a state religion; together they mark
the transition between pagan and Christian Russia.
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Masoudi, 888-957. Iranian Discoverer
Masoudi was born in Baghdad and is known
as the 'Herodotus of Iran' because he was the first Iranian
to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale
work. He traveled extensively in India, the Middle East, and
Africa. Masudi wrote a 30-volume history of the world and
recounted the experiences of his travels form Europe to India.
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Abdolrahman III, 891-961. Cordoba's Caliph
Abd Ar-Rahman III was the greatest ruler
of the Omayid Arab Muslim dynasty of Spain. The Omayid dynasty
in Spain was established in 756 by the only surviving prince
of the bloodbath that had decimated the Omayids in Damascus
at the hands of the first Abbasids. In 929 Abd Ar-Rahman III
proclaimed himself Caliph, thereby challenging the spiritual
authority of the Baghdad Caliphate. He made Islamic Spain
a cultural center of the world and his capital Cordoba the
largest city in Europe. Here the great optician Al Hassan
investigated the functioning of the human eye and Abu Kasim
wrote the first illustrated book on surgery. Moorish Spain
was the center from which medical education in Europe largely
came from.
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Otto I, 912-973.
German Emperor
Otto I, the Great, was the most powerful
western European ruler after Charlemagne. He was the first
king to become Holy Roman Emperor. Otto followed his father,
Henry I, as king of Germany in 936. Otto dealt successfully
with several revolts of his family members, of the Slavs in
Poland and Bohemia, and most of all with the incursions of
the raiding Magyars. He crushed the Magyars decisively at
the battle of Lechfield in Swabia. In 961, Otto crossed the
Alps to put down an anti-papal uprising in Rome. For this
service, Otto was crowned Holy Roman emperor.
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Miezko I, 920-992. Poland's King
Miezko I united several Slavic tribes,
converted them to Christianity and established the Polish
state. He accepted Christianity directly from Rome in order
to resist forced conversion by the Germans and the incorporation
of Poland into the Holy Roman Empire. He expanded Poland to
the Baltic Sea and into Galicia.
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Roswitha, 935-1000. German Poet
Roswitha, or Hrosvitha, is regarded
as the first German woman poet. She wrote two verse chronicles:
one about the history of the Benedictine convent of Gandersheim
where she lived as a nun and the other about the emperor Otto
the Great. She also wrote six comedies in Latin in an effort
to counteract the pagan morality expressed in classical works.
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Sylvester II, 943-1003. Pope Gerbert
of Aurillac became as Sylvester II the
first French pope. Gerbert was a learned scholar in France
and a student of Arab scholars in Spain. He traveled to Rome
in 970, where he made such an impression with his knowledge
of mathematics that the emperor Otto I appointed him tutor
to his son. He was elected pope in 999. As pope he was renowned
for his scholarly achievements, politically he consolidated
papal influence over Poland and Hungary.
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Hugh Capet, 944-996. French King
Hugh Capet was a duke who controlled
estates around Paris and Orleans. Hugh was allied with the
German emperors and exercised greater influence than the weak
Carolingian king Lothair. After Lothair and his son died the
archbishop of Reims convinced an assembly of nobles to elect
Hugh Capet king. Elected and crowned king with the assistance
of the pro-German party in Paris. Hugh Capet initiated a hereditary
line of French kings, the Capetians.
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Vladimir I, 950-1015. Russian Ruler
Vladimir I created a united Russian
state and introduced Christianity as a state religion. Vladimir,
son of the prince of Kiev, became ruler of Kiev and Novgorod.
He consolidated the Russian lands from the Ukraine to the
Baltic. Vladimir aided the Byzantine emperor to fight a rebellion
in exchange for the emperor's sister in marriage. He also
consented to become a Christian, after which he ordered the
Christian conversion of Kiev and Novgorod.
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Basil II, 958-1025. Byzantine's Emperor
Basil was crowned emperor in Constantinople
in 960. Under Basil II the Byzantine power reached its greatest
expansion. He fought in Syria against aggression by the Fatimid
dynasty in Egypt, and he extended Byzantine rule in the Balkans,
Mesopotamia, Georgia, and Armenia. His nickname "Slayer of
Bulgars" derives from a ruthless campaign waged against the
Bulgarian kingdom which was incorporated into the Byzantine
Empire. (140,00 Bulgarian prisoners were blinded).
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Leif Ericsson, 961-1021. Icelandic Mariner
Leif was the first Norseman to seek
out the coast of North America. Leif Ericsson was the son
of Eric the Red, the first European colonizer of Greenland.
Leif sailed from Greenland to Norway in 1000 where he was
converted to Christianity. According to the 'Saga of Erik'
he sailed off course on the return voyage and landed on the
coast of North America, probably Nova Scotia which he called
'Vinland'. He made it to Greenland briefly, but returned to
lead an expedition to the new land. (Archaeological remains
show that the expedition visited Newfoundland and many believe
that this was a stopover on their journey farther south to
what Ericsson called Vinland, which was probably near the
Gulf of St. Lawrence in New Brunswick).
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Birouni,
973-1048.
Iranian Scholar
Birouni was one of the most learned
men of his age who corresponded with the great philosopher
Ibn Sina. He spent a large part of his life in Ghazna. In
1017 he traveled to India. Conversant in Turkish, Persian,
Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic; Birouni became the most important
interpreter of Indian science. In astronomical works he discussed
the theory of the earth's rotation on its axis, in physics
he advanced hydrostatic laws and in geography he advanced
the visionary view that the Indus valley had once be a sea
basin.
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Stephen I, 977-1038. Hungary's King
Stephen I was the first king of Hungary.
Stephen, a member of the Magyar Arpad dynasty, united the
princes of Hungary and became thus the founder of the Hungarian
state. On Christmas Day in the year 1000 he was anointed king
of Hungary and is said to have received the famous crown of
St.Stephen from Pope Sylvester II.
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Murasaki Shikibu, 978-1026. Japanese
Poetess
Lady Murasaki Shikibu was a court lady, and author of the
'Genji monogatari' (Tale of Genji, c. 1010), generally considered
the greatest classic Japanese literature, which is thought
to be the world's first novel. The Tale of Genji was called
'a sensitivity to things'; the hero Prince Genji, is not remarkable
for his military exploits but as an incomparable lover, sensitive
to each of the women he wins. The story relates of how each
woman evokes a different response from this extraordinary
complex man.
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Avicena, 980-1037.
Iranian Scientist
Ibn Sina was the most famous philosopher
- scientists. Ibn Sina, or Avicenna, was born in Bukhara
then a leading city in Persia. His youth was spent in the
company of the most learned men of his time and he became
accomplished in all the sciences and arts. Ibn Sina collected
in over 100 books the entire scientific knowledge of his
time and is called the "Prince of Science". He spent the
last years of his life in Hamadan, where he composed the
'Canon of Medicine', which is among the most famous books
in the history of medicine.
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Canute, 995-1035. England, Denmark,
and Norway's Viking Ruler
Canute (or Knut the Great) combined the crowns of England,
Danemark and Norway and he established a short-lived North-Sea
empire. Canute, the son of Sweyn Forkbeard, accompanied
his father on the Danish invasion of England. After his
father's death (1014) he began a struggle with Ethelred
the Unready and Edmund Ironside for the English throne.
He defeated Edmund in 1016 at the Battle of Assandun, secured
Mercia and Northumbria, and became King of all England after
Edmund's death. In 1017 he married Emma of Normandy, the
widow of Ethelred. In 1018 or 1019 he succeeded to the throne
of Denmark and was forced to lead several expeditions to
assert his rights there and in the Danish provinces in Norway.
In 1028, after an uprising had expelled Olaf II of Norway,
Canute was recognized as ruler of that kingdom. Canute strove
to continue English traditions by restoring the church to
high place and codifying English law; he also attempted
to reconcile Nordic and Christian culture. He gave England
peace, and established friendly relations with the Holy
Roman Empire and attended the coronation of Conrad II in
Rome in 1027.
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Guido Arezzo, 995-1050. Italian
Monk
Guido of Arezzo was a monk at the monastery of S.Croce di
Fonte Averllana in Umbria, Italy. Guido invented a novel
form of music notation. He replaced letters with notes,
written on four lines on a sheet of music. He also introduced
the syllables do, re, mi, fa, sol, la which are used today
in Latin countries as the names of the notes from c to a.
Before his time melodies were learned by heart, since symbols
used to annotate them were not precise, but served only
as aids to memory.
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Pi-Cheng, 1016-1076. Chinese Inventor
Pi-Cheng was an obscure commoner
who is the inventor of printing with moveable types. Pi-Cheng
cut characters into cubes of clay and put them into an iron
frame. When the frame was full the whole made one solid
block of type ready to print.
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Ramanuja, 1016-1105. Indian Theologian
The Brahmin Ramanuja was the most influential thinker contributing
to devotional Hinduism. He taught that vedic divinity was
the combination of both the spiritual and material world.
He organized temple worship and provided the intellectual
basis for the practice of 'bhakti' (devotion)
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excerpts from Hyper history
06/26/2000
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