Unlocking The Mysteries Of Islamic Art | The Dark Ages: An Age of Light | Everything History

Comments · 30

• JO

  @johnpbh · 1 year ago

  Waldemar continues to supply facts and history in such a genuinely engrossing way.  Along with Simon Schama they are my go to guys for art history no contest.  Compeltely different styles but the same spellbinding story telling.   Thank you guys.

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• BE

  @bernard9969 · 1 year ago

  He&apos;s just the best all his programs continue to enlighten me such insight to history and a great understanding of architecture and art etc <br>He makes all the subjects so very interesting

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• DA

  @DarkSideOftheMoon1973 · 1 year ago

  Great documentary content....<br>The best

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• SH

  @shirlski · 1 year ago

  Absolutely fascinating.

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• SE

  @Seasidecc95437 · 1 year ago

  Marvelous

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• AM

  @amandakymweger · 1 year ago

  You have few peers,David Attenborough is the only other presenter with a much knowledge or passion.

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• DA

  @davidmouritsen · 1 year ago

  I greatly enjoyed Januszczak’s later 4-parter on the Renaissance. Of course, given the scope of the subject, and the brevity of the series, he could do little but relate a modest number of highly engaging anecdotes. <br> <br>So, I was really looking forward watching this earlier series. But I soon found myself wondering: had Januszczak ever even seen a history book? <br> <br>I’m a very enthusiastic fan of early Islamic art. The beauty and mathematical sophistication of it is thrilling! But as Januszczak’s version of history has drifted farther and farther from the facts with each episode, I reached my breaking point in this one. <br> <br>No, the astrolabe was not invented to determine the direction of Mecca. It was known and used in classical antiquity. Theon of Alexandria, the father of Hypatia, famously wrote a treatise on the astrolabe centuries before Mohammed was born. And how do you think Hipparchus created his star catalogue centuries before that? In any case, all one can determine geographically with an astrolabe is latitude. That’s why Harrison’s marine chronometer caused such a stir in the 18th century. And, no, the astrolabe wasn’t the first compass. And, no, it wasn’t the first clock. <br> <br>By this point, however, I’d become quite jaded by Januszczak attributing the work of Byzantine artists to all and sundry. And who, when speaking ungenerously, and inaccurately, of the supposed “Dark Ages” has ever been speaking of anything other than Western Europe? <br> <br>I’d been left slack-jawed in astonishment by Januszczak&apos;s &nbsp;proclamation that Constantine had divided the Roman Empire. That had been done by Diocletian. And the rationale had been expressed by Hadrian a century and a half before that, when he handed back swaths of territory conquered by Trajan and arranged for two emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, to jointly rule the impractically large empire after him—though he died when they were both too young to take over until after the reign of Antoninus Pius. Indeed, Constantine temporarily re-united the empire. <br> <br>Et cetera. And these aren&apos;t minor details. <br> <br>Most frustrating is that real history would have made Januszczak’s case very well. He just couldn’t be bothered to open a book. And ignorance is a poor substance with which to gild a lily.

• AL

  @Alex-jb5tb · 2 years ago

  Well done documentary. I wonder what happened around 1100 AD (or so) when regress suddenly set in, at least West of Bagdad.

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• HE

  @heikotraupe1404 · 1 year ago

  Wonderful! However, the construction of the Assuan dam was a huge mistake as now the water in the Nile gets saltier and threatens the ecology.

• MI

  @misterbaseball5494 · 8 months ago

  Wow any art time sir?

• GA

  @GarrickDavis-sm2xe · 4 months ago

  I see our art historian has ben given to dark age myth regarding the quality of art and science of the Arabs. artisans and plunderers were not so skilled<br>466one<br>28May&apos;26

• 1R

  @1rober2 · 1 year ago

  I have always been told that the Arabs invented the horseshoe arch. &nbsp;Thank you for telling me that the Vandals did.

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