A poll asked Americans if they supported teaching Arabic numerals in school. A significant number said no. They were probably thinking of the Arabic alphabet. What the poll was actually asking about was Arabic numerals. You know — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The numbers every one of us uses every single day. This is the story of where they came from, and the extraordinary calligraphic and manuscript art tradition that produced them.
In This Episode
- 1:21 — A Different Kind of Art
- 3:55 — The Great Tradition — Calligraphy and the Quran
- 5:58 — The Persian Miniature Tradition
- 8:27 — The Shahnameh — Book of Kings
- 10:56 — Bihzad and the Golden Age
- 13:00 — Legacy and Connection
Credits
Manuscript and miniature images courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Architectural footage courtesy Google Earth Studio. Geometric pattern images courtesy baytalfann.com. Islamic geometry reference: fractalpattern.wordpress.com.
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