el Shamsy is awesome. Here are some random historical stories he's mentioned to us:
In the 1800s, there was a wealthy American slave owner who was also a missionary. He wished to spread Christianity to Africa, and had a slave who knew Arabic (many did). Therefore, he told his slave that if the slave would translate the Lord's Prayer to Arabic, he would be let free.
We still have the original document. On one side is the Lord's Prayer. On the other side is a chapter of the Qur'an.
The slave owner, of course, had no idea, and thought that the translation was accurate. He then sent his slave to West Africa to convert people to Christianity, at which point the slave simply left.
A similar story, in more modern times:
The Saudi government doesn't like people visiting Sufi shrines, because they think it's worship of humans rather than God. Near a certain mountain housing the shrine of a well-known Sufi, there is an official Saudi sign saying, in Arabic, "Don't go up there, this is un-Islamic" etc etc. The other half of the sign is a Turkish translation that says, roughly, "Go up there! You will receive great blessings from this Sufi shaykh!" (or something along those lines)
Presumably the same thing as in the previous story happened here.
Another story is the origin of coffee, for those of you who may be interested. Coffee was first grown in Yemen, but didn't make its way to the rest of the world until a Yemeni student went to al-Azhar university in Cairo. He spread coffee to the rest of the students there, who used it to stay up late studying (sound familiar?). Eventually authorities caught wind of this drug that made people act hyper, and called it "qahwa," which is one Arabic word for "alcohol" (the other being "alcool"; so we get both our word for "alcohol" and "coffee" from the Arabic word for alcohol).
Then they realized that it wasn't actually alcohol; but it was clearly some sort of mind-enhancing drug, so they had to decide if it was legal by Islamic law. Their solution was to feed a bunch of it to one person and see exactly what the effects were. Although he acted "a little cooky," he clearly wasn't drunk so they figured it was allowed, and it spread throughout the entire Ottoman empire (this decision would later become controversial, mostly because cafes sprouted up and became centers of revolutionary thought).
Then, a few months (or years?) later, the Ottomans were siegeing Vienna. When the siege failed, they left behind a bunch of coffee. The Viennese had no idea what to do with it; first they tried smoking it, which didn't work, then they tried a few other things, and eventually they tried cooking it, which worked and I suppose tasted good. Then it spread to the rest of Europe.
Last story!
When the British occupied areas of the Islamic world, they found certain practices incredibly barbaric, such as amputees. So they revoked all of these policies and replaced them with the death penalty, which is substantially more humane.
In the 1800s, there was a wealthy American slave owner who was also a missionary. He wished to spread Christianity to Africa, and had a slave who knew Arabic (many did). Therefore, he told his slave that if the slave would translate the Lord's Prayer to Arabic, he would be let free.
We still have the original document. On one side is the Lord's Prayer. On the other side is a chapter of the Qur'an.
The slave owner, of course, had no idea, and thought that the translation was accurate. He then sent his slave to West Africa to convert people to Christianity, at which point the slave simply left.
A similar story, in more modern times:
The Saudi government doesn't like people visiting Sufi shrines, because they think it's worship of humans rather than God. Near a certain mountain housing the shrine of a well-known Sufi, there is an official Saudi sign saying, in Arabic, "Don't go up there, this is un-Islamic" etc etc. The other half of the sign is a Turkish translation that says, roughly, "Go up there! You will receive great blessings from this Sufi shaykh!" (or something along those lines)
Presumably the same thing as in the previous story happened here.
Another story is the origin of coffee, for those of you who may be interested. Coffee was first grown in Yemen, but didn't make its way to the rest of the world until a Yemeni student went to al-Azhar university in Cairo. He spread coffee to the rest of the students there, who used it to stay up late studying (sound familiar?). Eventually authorities caught wind of this drug that made people act hyper, and called it "qahwa," which is one Arabic word for "alcohol" (the other being "alcool"; so we get both our word for "alcohol" and "coffee" from the Arabic word for alcohol).
Then they realized that it wasn't actually alcohol; but it was clearly some sort of mind-enhancing drug, so they had to decide if it was legal by Islamic law. Their solution was to feed a bunch of it to one person and see exactly what the effects were. Although he acted "a little cooky," he clearly wasn't drunk so they figured it was allowed, and it spread throughout the entire Ottoman empire (this decision would later become controversial, mostly because cafes sprouted up and became centers of revolutionary thought).
Then, a few months (or years?) later, the Ottomans were siegeing Vienna. When the siege failed, they left behind a bunch of coffee. The Viennese had no idea what to do with it; first they tried smoking it, which didn't work, then they tried a few other things, and eventually they tried cooking it, which worked and I suppose tasted good. Then it spread to the rest of Europe.
Last story!
When the British occupied areas of the Islamic world, they found certain practices incredibly barbaric, such as amputees. So they revoked all of these policies and replaced them with the death penalty, which is substantially more humane.
Hey Mark, Charles is giving me instructions on how to reply on your Blog. Thanks for all your details. Lots of love, Grandma
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