--- title: The Islamic golden age and the wider medieval world — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The Islamic golden age and the wider medieval world», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: While western Europe was building castles, some of the world's greatest centres of learning were in the Islamic world, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / The Islamic golden age and the wider m… # The Islamic golden age and the wider medieval world Lesson 22 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/0/) — While western Europe was building castles, some of the world's greatest centres of learning were in the Islamic world, from Spain to Central Asia. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/1/) — The prophet Muhammad lived in Arabia about 1,400 years ago, and within a hundred years Muslim rulers governed lands from Spain to India, where Arabic became the shared language of learning and trade. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/2/) — In Baghdad's House of Wisdom scholars of many faiths translated Greek, Persian and Indian books into Arabic, much as a group of friends today might translate a game into every language so everyone can play it. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/3/) — Many old Greek books survived only because of those Arabic copies, which were later turned into Latin and reached Europe's universities. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/4/) — Further south, West Africa had rich kingdoms too: Mansa Musa of Mali gave away so much gold on his journey to Mecca that the price of gold fell in Cairo. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/5/) — The prophet Muhammad lived in Arabia about 1,400 years ago, and Islam spread quickly until Muslim rulers governed lands from Spain to India. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/6/) — Arabic became the shared language of learning and trade across this huge area. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/7/) — Baghdad was founded in 762 and became one of the biggest cities in the world, a centre of trade, science and books. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/8/) — In Baghdad's House of Wisdom scholars translated Greek, Persian and Indian books into Arabic, and many Greek works survived this way before being put into Latin. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/9/) — The scholar al-Khwarizmi wrote a famous book on solving equations; the word algebra comes from its title and the word algorithm comes from his name; an algorithm is a list of steps for solving a problem, and every computer program runs on algorithms. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/10/) — The numbers 0 to 9 that we call Arabic numerals were first developed in India and reached Europe through Arabic books. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/11/) — The doctor Ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avicenna, wrote a great medical encyclopedia that European universities used for hundreds of years. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/12/) — Ibn al-Haytham showed that we see because light enters our eyes, not because the eyes send out rays, and he tested his ideas by experiment. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/14/) — In Muslim Spain, called al-Andalus, cities such as Córdoba had great libraries, and Granada has the palace of the Alhambra; Muslims, Christians and Jews often lived side by side there. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/15/) — Muslims learned papermaking from China and built paper mills in Baghdad and later in Spain, so books became cheaper. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/17/) — Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa, made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 and gave away so much gold that its price fell in Cairo. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/22-the-islamic-golden-age-and-the-wider-medieval-world/18/) — Timbuktu in Mali had schools and libraries, and many of its old handwritten books still survive. - ← previous: [Castles, knights and cathedrals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/21-castles-knights-and-cathedrals/) - next →: [The Mongols](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/23-the-mongols/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)