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Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013.However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters.<br/><br/> The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.
The Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the middle period of the Northeastern Iranian branch.<br/><br/> Because Bactrian was written predominantly with the Greek alphabet, Bactrian is sometimes referred to as 'Greco-Bactrian', 'Kushan' or 'Kushano-Bactrian'.<br/><br/> More than a hundred Bactrian documents, written in cursive script on leather, cloth or wood were discovered in the last decade of the 20th c. Before that the corpus of Bactrian was effectively limited to a single inscription from Surkh Kotal and the short legends on coins and seals. Almost all other texts were either illegible, incomprehensible, or both.
The Hephthalites (or Ephthalites), also known as the White Huns, were a nomadic confederation in Central Asia during the late antiquity period. The Hephthalite Empire, at the height of its power (in the first half of the 6th century), was located in the territories of present-day Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India and China.<br/><br/> The Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the middle period of the Northeastern Iranian branch.<br/><br/> Because Bactrian was written predominantly with the Greek alphabet, Bactrian is sometimes referred to as 'Greco-Bactrian', 'Kushan' or 'Kushano-Bactrian'.<br/><br/> More than a hundred Bactrian documents, written in cursive script on leather, cloth or wood were discovered in the last decade of the 20th c. Before that the corpus of Bactrian was effectively limited to a single inscription from Surkh Kotal and the short legends on coins and seals. Almost all other texts were either illegible, incomprehensible, or both.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013.However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013.However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013. However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013. However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013. However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013. However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013. However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013.However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
The Nüshu script is used to write a local dialect of Chinese known as Xiangnan Tuhua (湘å—土è¯, 'Southern Hunanese Tuhua') that is spoken by the people of the Xiao and Yongming River region of northern Jiangyong County, Hunan.<br/><br/> In addition to speaking Tuhua, most local people in Jiangyong are bilingual in the Hunan dialect of Southwestern Mandarin, which they use for communication with people from outside the area that Tuhua is spoken, as well as for some formal occasions. If Hunan Southwestern Mandarin is written, then it is always written using standard Chinese characters, and not with the Nüshu script.<br/><br/> In the sex-segregated world of traditional China, girls and women did not have the same access to literacy as boys and men, though throughout China's history, there were always women who could read and write; by late imperial times, women's poetry became a matter of considerable family pride in elite circles. It is not known when or how nüshu came into being, but, because it is clearly based in the standard Chinese script, hanzi, nüshu could not have been created before standardization of hanzi (circa 900).<br/><br/> Many of the simplifications found in nüshu have been in informal use in standard Chinese since the Song and Yuan dynasty (13th - 14th century). It seems to have reached its peak during the latter part of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).<br/><br/> The script was suppressed by the Japanese during their invasion of China in the 1930s-40s, because they feared that the Chinese could use it to send secret messages; and also during China's Cultural Revolution (1966–76). The last original writers of the script died in the 1990s (the last one in 2004). It is no longer customary for women to learn Nüshu, and literacy in Nüshu is now limited to a few scholars who learned it from the last women who were literate in it.<br/><br/> Unlike the standard written Chinese, which is logographic (with each character representing a word or part of a word), Nüshu is phonetic, with each of its approximately 600-700 characters representing a syllable. Nüshu characters are an italic variant form of Kaishu Chinese characters. The strokes of the characters are in the form of dots, horizontals, virgules, and arcs. The script is written from top to bottom or, when horizontal, from right to left, as is traditional for Chinese. Also like standard Chinese, vertical lines are truly vertical, while lines crossing them are angled from the perpendicular. Unlike Chinese, Nüshu writers value characters written with very fine, almost threadlike, lines as a mark of fine penmanship.
The Nüshu script is used to write a local dialect of Chinese known as Xiangnan Tuhua (湘å—土è¯, 'Southern Hunanese Tuhua') that is spoken by the people of the Xiao and Yongming River region of northern Jiangyong County, Hunan.<br/><br/> In addition to speaking Tuhua, most local people in Jiangyong are bilingual in the Hunan dialect of Southwestern Mandarin, which they use for communication with people from outside the area that Tuhua is spoken, as well as for some formal occasions. If Hunan Southwestern Mandarin is written, then it is always written using standard Chinese characters, and not with the Nüshu script.<br/><br/> In the sex-segregated world of traditional China, girls and women did not have the same access to literacy as boys and men, though throughout China's history, there were always women who could read and write; by late imperial times, women's poetry became a matter of considerable family pride in elite circles. It is not known when or how nüshu came into being, but, because it is clearly based in the standard Chinese script, hanzi, nüshu could not have been created before standardization of hanzi (circa 900).<br/><br/> Many of the simplifications found in nüshu have been in informal use in standard Chinese since the Song and Yuan dynasty (13th - 14th century). It seems to have reached its peak during the latter part of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).<br/><br/> The script was suppressed by the Japanese during their invasion of China in the 1930s-40s, because they feared that the Chinese could use it to send secret messages; and also during China's Cultural Revolution (1966–76). The last original writers of the script died in the 1990s (the last one in 2004). It is no longer customary for women to learn Nüshu, and literacy in Nüshu is now limited to a few scholars who learned it from the last women who were literate in it.<br/><br/> Unlike the standard written Chinese, which is logographic (with each character representing a word or part of a word), Nüshu is phonetic, with each of its approximately 600-700 characters representing a syllable. Nüshu characters are an italic variant form of Kaishu Chinese characters. The strokes of the characters are in the form of dots, horizontals, virgules, and arcs. The script is written from top to bottom or, when horizontal, from right to left, as is traditional for Chinese. Also like standard Chinese, vertical lines are truly vertical, while lines crossing them are angled from the perpendicular. Unlike Chinese, Nüshu writers value characters written with very fine, almost threadlike, lines as a mark of fine penmanship.
The Nüshu script is used to write a local dialect of Chinese known as Xiangnan Tuhua (湘å—土è¯, 'Southern Hunanese Tuhua') that is spoken by the people of the Xiao and Yongming River region of northern Jiangyong County, Hunan.<br/><br/> In addition to speaking Tuhua, most local people in Jiangyong are bilingual in the Hunan dialect of Southwestern Mandarin, which they use for communication with people from outside the area that Tuhua is spoken, as well as for some formal occasions. If Hunan Southwestern Mandarin is written, then it is always written using standard Chinese characters, and not with the Nüshu script.<br/><br/> In the sex-segregated world of traditional China, girls and women did not have the same access to literacy as boys and men, though throughout China's history, there were always women who could read and write; by late imperial times, women's poetry became a matter of considerable family pride in elite circles. It is not known when or how nüshu came into being, but, because it is clearly based in the standard Chinese script, hanzi, nüshu could not have been created before standardization of hanzi (circa 900).<br/><br/> Many of the simplifications found in nüshu have been in informal use in standard Chinese since the Song and Yuan dynasty (13th - 14th century). It seems to have reached its peak during the latter part of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).<br/><br/> The script was suppressed by the Japanese during their invasion of China in the 1930s-40s, because they feared that the Chinese could use it to send secret messages; and also during China's Cultural Revolution (1966–76). The last original writers of the script died in the 1990s (the last one in 2004). It is no longer customary for women to learn Nüshu, and literacy in Nüshu is now limited to a few scholars who learned it from the last women who were literate in it.<br/><br/> Unlike the standard written Chinese, which is logographic (with each character representing a word or part of a word), Nüshu is phonetic, with each of its approximately 600-700 characters representing a syllable. Nüshu characters are an italic variant form of Kaishu Chinese characters. The strokes of the characters are in the form of dots, horizontals, virgules, and arcs. The script is written from top to bottom or, when horizontal, from right to left, as is traditional for Chinese. Also like standard Chinese, vertical lines are truly vertical, while lines crossing them are angled from the perpendicular. Unlike Chinese, Nüshu writers value characters written with very fine, almost threadlike, lines as a mark of fine penmanship.
The Nüshu script is used to write a local dialect of Chinese known as Xiangnan Tuhua (湘å—土è¯, 'Southern Hunanese Tuhua') that is spoken by the people of the Xiao and Yongming River region of northern Jiangyong County, Hunan.<br/><br/> In addition to speaking Tuhua, most local people in Jiangyong are bilingual in the Hunan dialect of Southwestern Mandarin, which they use for communication with people from outside the area that Tuhua is spoken, as well as for some formal occasions. If Hunan Southwestern Mandarin is written, then it is always written using standard Chinese characters, and not with the Nüshu script.<br/><br/> In the sex-segregated world of traditional China, girls and women did not have the same access to literacy as boys and men, though throughout China's history, there were always women who could read and write; by late imperial times, women's poetry became a matter of considerable family pride in elite circles. It is not known when or how nüshu came into being, but, because it is clearly based in the standard Chinese script, hanzi, nüshu could not have been created before standardization of hanzi (circa 900).<br/><br/> Many of the simplifications found in nüshu have been in informal use in standard Chinese since the Song and Yuan dynasty (13th - 14th century). It seems to have reached its peak during the latter part of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).<br/><br/> The script was suppressed by the Japanese during their invasion of China in the 1930s-40s, because they feared that the Chinese could use it to send secret messages; and also during China's Cultural Revolution (1966–76). The last original writers of the script died in the 1990s (the last one in 2004). It is no longer customary for women to learn Nüshu, and literacy in Nüshu is now limited to a few scholars who learned it from the last women who were literate in it.<br/><br/> Unlike the standard written Chinese, which is logographic (with each character representing a word or part of a word), Nüshu is phonetic, with each of its approximately 600-700 characters representing a syllable. Nüshu characters are an italic variant form of Kaishu Chinese characters. The strokes of the characters are in the form of dots, horizontals, virgules, and arcs. The script is written from top to bottom or, when horizontal, from right to left, as is traditional for Chinese. Also like standard Chinese, vertical lines are truly vertical, while lines crossing them are angled from the perpendicular. Unlike Chinese, Nüshu writers value characters written with very fine, almost threadlike, lines as a mark of fine penmanship.
The Nüshu script is used to write a local dialect of Chinese known as Xiangnan Tuhua (湘å—土è¯, 'Southern Hunanese Tuhua') that is spoken by the people of the Xiao and Yongming River region of northern Jiangyong County, Hunan.<br/><br/> In addition to speaking Tuhua, most local people in Jiangyong are bilingual in the Hunan dialect of Southwestern Mandarin, which they use for communication with people from outside the area that Tuhua is spoken, as well as for some formal occasions. If Hunan Southwestern Mandarin is written, then it is always written using standard Chinese characters, and not with the Nüshu script.<br/><br/> In the sex-segregated world of traditional China, girls and women did not have the same access to literacy as boys and men, though throughout China's history, there were always women who could read and write; by late imperial times, women's poetry became a matter of considerable family pride in elite circles. It is not known when or how nüshu came into being, but, because it is clearly based in the standard Chinese script, hanzi, nüshu could not have been created before standardization of hanzi (circa 900).<br/><br/> Many of the simplifications found in nüshu have been in informal use in standard Chinese since the Song and Yuan dynasty (13th - 14th century). It seems to have reached its peak during the latter part of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).<br/><br/> The script was suppressed by the Japanese during their invasion of China in the 1930s-40s, because they feared that the Chinese could use it to send secret messages; and also during China's Cultural Revolution (1966–76). The last original writers of the script died in the 1990s (the last one in 2004). It is no longer customary for women to learn Nüshu, and literacy in Nüshu is now limited to a few scholars who learned it from the last women who were literate in it.<br/><br/> Unlike the standard written Chinese, which is logographic (with each character representing a word or part of a word), Nüshu is phonetic, with each of its approximately 600-700 characters representing a syllable. Nüshu characters are an italic variant form of Kaishu Chinese characters. The strokes of the characters are in the form of dots, horizontals, virgules, and arcs. The script is written from top to bottom or, when horizontal, from right to left, as is traditional for Chinese. Also like standard Chinese, vertical lines are truly vertical, while lines crossing them are angled from the perpendicular. Unlike Chinese, Nüshu writers value characters written with very fine, almost threadlike, lines as a mark of fine penmanship.
The Tibetan alphabet is an abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Denzongkha, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language.<br/><br/> The printed form of the alphabet is called uchen script (Tibetan: དབུ་ཅན་; Wylie: dbu-can; 'with a head') while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê (Tibetan: དབུ་མེད་; Wylie: dbu-med; 'headless'). The alphabet is very closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity. Besides Tibet, it has also been used for Tibetan languages in Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.<br/><br/> The Tibetan alphabet is ancestral to the Limbu alphabet, the Lepcha alphabet, and the multilingual 'Phags-pa script.<br/><br/> The creation of the Tibetan alphabet is attributed to Thonmi Sambhota of the mid-7th century. Tradition holds that Thonmi Sambhota, a minister of Songtsen Gampo (569-649), was sent to India to study the art of writing, and upon his return introduced the alphabet. The form of the letters is based on an Indic alphabet of that period.
Abu Yahya Zakariya' ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (1203-1283) was a Persian physician, astronomer, and geographer from the Persian town of Qazvin. He served as legal expert and judge (qadi) in several localities in Persia and at Baghdad. He travelled around in Mesopotamia and Syria, and finally entered the circle patronized by the governor of Baghdad, ‘Ata-Malik Juwayni (d. 1283 CE).<br/><br/> Al-Qazwini's most famous work was an Arabic cosmography entitled 'Aja'ib al-makhluqat wa-ghara'ib al-mawjudat, or 'Marvels of Creatures and Strange Things in Existence'. This treatise, frequently illustrated, was immensely popular and is preserved today in many copies. It was translated into Persian and Turkish.<br/><br/> Frankincense, also called olibanum (Arabic: lubbÄn), is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly Boswellia sacra. It is used in incense and perfumes.<br/><br/> There are four main species of Boswellia which produce true frankincense and each type of resin is available in various grades. The grades depend on the time of harvesting, and the resin is hand-sorted for quality.
A page from illuminated codex containing a prayer attributed to ‘AlÄ« ibn AbÄ« ṬÄlib, the fourth caliph of Islam, the manuscript by Shaykh KamÄl ibn ‘Abd al-Ḥaqq al-SabzawÄrÄ« of Astarabad (present-day Gorgan, Iran).
The Rabatak inscription is an inscription written on a rock in the Bactrian language and the Greek script, which was found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kanishka, and gives remarkable clues on the genealogy of the Kushan dynasty.<br/><br/> The Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the middle period of the Northeastern Iranian branch.<br/><br/> Because Bactrian was written predominantly with the Greek alphabet, Bactrian is sometimes referred to as 'Greco-Bactrian', 'Kushan' or 'Kushano-Bactrian'.
Miniature from Hafiz-i Abru’s Majma al-tawarikh. “Noah’s Ark” Iran (Afghanistan), Herat; c. 1425. Timur’s son Shah Rukh (1405-1447) ordered the historian Hafiz-i Abru to write a continuation of Rashid al-Din’s famous history of the world, Jami al-tawarikh. Like the Il-Khanids, the Timurids were concerned with legitimizing their right to rule, and Hafiz-i Abru’s “A Collection of Histories” covers a period that included the time of Shah Rukh himself.
Miniature from Hafiz-i Abru’s Majma al-tawarikh. “Noah’s Ark” Iran (Afghanistan), Herat; c. 1425. Timur’s son Shah Rukh (1405-1447) ordered the historian Hafiz-i Abru to write a continuation of Rashid al-Din’s famous history of the world, Jami al-tawarikh. Like the Il-Khanids, the Timurids were concerned with legitimizing their right to rule, and Hafiz-i Abru’s “A Collection of Histories” covers a period that included the time of Shah Rukh himself.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013. However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
The Edwin Smith papyrus, the world's oldest surviving surgical document. Written in hieratic script in ancient Egypt around 1600 BCE, the text describes anatomical observations and the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of 48 types of medical problems in exquisite detail. Plate 6 and 7 of the papyrus, pictured here, discuss facial trauma.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013.However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.
Timbuktu Manuscripts is an umbrella term for what were a large number of manuscripts (estimates range in the hundreds of thousands) which had been preserved by private households in Timbuktu (and some other locations), Mali. A large portion of the manuscripts had to do with art, medicine, science, and calligraphy of the late Abbasid Caliphate, and even multiple priceless old copies of the Quran.<br/><br/> The majority of manuscripts were written in Arabic, but some were also in local languages, including Songhay and Tamasheq. The dates of the manuscripts ranged between the late 13th and the early 20th centuries (i.e., from the Islamisation of the Mali Empire until the decline of traditional education in French Sudan). Their subject matter ranged from scholarly works to short letters. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and were mostly in poor condition. Most of the manuscripts remain unstudied and uncatalogued, and their total number is unknown, amenable only to rough estimates. A selection of about 160 manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu and the Ahmed Baba collection were digitized by the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project in the 2000s.<br/><br/> With the demise of Arabic education in Mali under French colonial rule, appreciation for the medieval manuscripts declined in Timbuktu, and many were being sold off.<br/><br/> Many of the manuscripts were reported destroyed, along with many other monuments of medieval Islamic culture in Timbuktu, by the Islamist rebels of Ansar Dine in the Northern Mali conflict. The Ahmed Baba Institute and a library, both containing thousands of manuscripts, were said to have been burnt as the Islamists retreated from Timbuktu in January 2013.However, a former Malian presidential aide, as well as several other people involved with preserving the manuscripts, claim that the documents had been evacuated into a safe location in 2012 before the fighters invaded Timbuktu.