Renowned as great centres of learning, the cities of Baghdad and Isfahan were atthe heart of the Islamic civilization as rich capital cities and centres of intellectualthought. Their distinct cultural voices inspired a unique historical dialogue, whichfinds new expression in Baghdad and Isfahan, the story of how knowledge wastransmitted and transformed within Islamic lands, and then spread across Europe.Capturing the history of Baghdad and Isfahan from 750 to 1750, Elaheh Kheirandishdraws on the voices of court astronomers, mathematicians, scientists, mystics,jurists, statesmen and Arabic and Persian translators and scholars to document theextensive and lasting contribution of sciences from Islamic lands to the history ofscience. Kheirandish bases her narrative on a unique medieval manuscript and otherhistorical sources and the result is more than a thousand-year ‘tale of two cities’ – itis a city by city, and century by century, look at what it took to change the world.In a feat of travelogue and time travel, this unique book creates parallel storieswith modern and historical characters, crossing cities worldwide, and capturingchanges through time. Interweaving multiple narratives, histories, and futures, shecharts the possible paths – formalized and serendipitous, lost and recovered – bywhich knowledge itself is translated and transmitted across time and cultures.
