Ya’qub Ibn Al-Laith Al-Saffar was the founder of the Saffarid Dynasty of Sistan. He lived from A.D. 840 to 879, and rose from humble origins in Afghanistan to conquer an immense area comprisi...
Theodore Roosevelt was going to Cuba when war with Spain broke out, and no power on earth was going to stop him. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he had fought, schemed, and maneuvered to ge...
If we accept the premise that personal sufferings and misfortunes provide excellent grist for philosophy’s mill, then we must concede that Solomon Ibn Gabirol was provided with incomparable ing...
https://qcurtius.com/2022/09/17/ibn-gabirol-discusses-the-virtues/
Only one name in European history unites the realms of religion, mathematics, and philosophy, and that name is Pythagoras. Yet it is this very achievement that so torments posterity when assess...
https://qcurtius.com/2022/09/03/pythagoras-an-introduction-to-his-life-school-and-ideas/
The motivations of intrepid travelers are not difficult to discern. The desire to get out, to get away from everything that reeks of contemptible familiarity, to smash through obstacles and bar...
https://qcurtius.com/2020/07/03/the-travels-of-benjamin-of-tudela/
She was born in 1689 in Thoresby in Nottinghamshire, the eldest daughter of Evelyn, Duke of Kingston, and Lady Mary Fielding. When she was only four years old, her mother died, and this event b...
https://qcurtius.com/2020/06/27/the-travels-and-philosophy-of-lady-mary-wortley-montagu/
Of all the great and sanctified names of Mount Athos, few inspire more veneration than that of Athanasios. He lived from about A.D. 925 to 1001, and occupies a central place in the development ...
https://qcurtius.com/2018/11/15/the-wisdom-and-character-of-athanasios-of-athos/
Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (known in the West by his Latinized name Rhazes) is considered one of the most original and accomplished of the medieval Muslim physicians. An impres...
https://qcurtius.com/2018/05/23/be-scrupulous-about-what-you-write-the-lesson-of-rhazes/
Travelers and explorers march on; and I march on with my retellings of their adventures and philosophies. I suspect that few readers will have heard of the great English traveler and philanthro...
The name Muhammad al-Salami (محمد السلامي) (A.D. 948–1003) is nearly unknown in the West, but occupies a prominent position in medieval Arabic poetry. The genius of his metaphors, ...