marvels, miraculous, immensely, medieval, lamic, simurghs, much, more, lamic, medical, manuscripts, more, medical, monographs and mediareport - let's hear it for the use of "M" in a mefi post!
posted by Peter H at 4:00 PM on June 19, 2003

thats some gorgeous links to art, btw. just amused at the m's ..thanks
posted by Peter H at 4:02 PM on June 19, 2003

I *knew* I should have mentioned Maimonides' medieval treatise on hemorrhoids.
posted by mediareport at 4:11 PM on June 19, 2003

Wow, this is great -- for some reason I particularly like the man-headed fish. This helps ease the pain of the Met's Islamic galleries having closed for a few years. Thanks.
posted by languagehat at 5:24 PM on June 19, 2003

Fantastic, mediareport - thanks! Nice to see pictures in a decent size for a change.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:14 PM on June 19, 2003

I kiss you.
posted by iconomy at 6:27 PM on June 19, 2003

I note that some of these wonders (the people whose heads are sunk into to their chests for example) are mentioned in other ancient texts and travelogues. Just a note for any meme trackers out there.
posted by wobh at 10:34 PM on June 19, 2003

Interesting point, wobh; do you recall where else the people with heads in their chests appear? A lot of themes in the Islamic texts do seem based on earlier Greek and Roman (and maybe other) ideas, though. Just look at the constellations the books use.

And then there's this quote: "It was through Arabic translations that the West learned of Hellenic medicine, including the works of Galen and Hippocrates."

Wow. So "the West," which lost its own medical heritage during a long dark age of violence and ignorance, had to rediscover that heritage from Islamic scholars who recognized the value of what the West had thrown away. Does that about cover it?
posted by mediareport at 11:47 PM on June 19, 2003

mediareport: the idea of 'monstrous races' dates back at least to the time of Pliny in the first century - see here and text here. Ideas and images of monsters remained widespread up to the seventeenth/eighteenth centuries (nice page, plenty of images and links).

Very nice page btw - thanks!
posted by carter at 7:45 AM on June 20, 2003

So "the West," which lost its own medical heritage during a long dark age of violence and ignorance, had to rediscover that heritage from Islamic scholars who recognized the value of what the West had thrown away. Does that about cover it?

Not just medical - scientific, mathematical, philosophical...
posted by monkey closet at 8:16 AM on June 20, 2003

Great link! Also at this site, Dream Anatomy.

Another great image treasure-hunting site with a huge database and large-presentation images is the Australian National University's ArtServe.
posted by taz at 12:54 PM on June 20, 2003

Wow, taz; that Dream Anatomy exhibit is incredible. I'd never heard of Fritz Kahn before, but his take on "modernist physiology" is mindblowing.

You have three days to post this to the front page before I do. ;)
posted by mediareport at 12:53 AM on June 23, 2003