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165-432: The wisdom attributed to this figure in antiquity combined a knowledge of both the material and the spiritual world, which rendered the writings attributed to him of great relevance to those who were interested in the interrelationship between the material and the divine. The figure of Hermes Trismegistus can also be found in both Muslim and Baháʼí writings. In those traditions, Hermes Trismegistus has been associated with

330-550: A book on memory printed, entitled The Shadows of Ideas , which I dedicated to His Majesty. Forthwith he gave me an Extraordinary Lectureship with a salary." In Paris, Bruno enjoyed the protection of his powerful French patrons. During this period, he published several works on mnemonics, including De umbris idearum ( On the Shadows of Ideas , 1582), Ars memoriae  [ it ] ( The Art of Memory , 1582), and Cantus circaeus ( Circe's Song , 1582; described at Circe in

495-887: A change of intellectual climate there, he was no longer welcome, and went in 1588 to Prague , where he obtained 300 taler from Rudolf II , but no teaching position. He went on to serve briefly as a professor in Helmstedt , but had to flee again in 1590 when he was excommunicated by the Lutherans . During this period he produced several Latin works, dictated to his friend and secretary Girolamo Besler, including De Magia ( On Magic ), Theses De Magia ( Theses on Magic ) and De Vinculis in Genere ( A General Account of Bonding ). All these were apparently transcribed or recorded by Besler (or Bisler) between 1589 and 1590. He also published De Imaginum, Signorum, Et Idearum Compositione ( On

660-561: A crime against humanity by the UN and Amnesty International, while the OHCHR Fact-Finding Mission identified genocide , ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity. Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno ( / dʒ ɔːr ˈ d ɑː n oʊ ˈ b r uː n oʊ / ; Italian: [dʒorˈdaːno ˈbruːno] ; Latin : Iordanus Brunus Nolanus ; born Filippo Bruno , January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600)

825-476: A figurehead monarchy. The Sunni Seljuk dynasty campaigned to reassert Sunni Islam by promulgating the scholarly opinions of the time, notably with the construction of educational institutions known as Nezamiyeh , which are associated with Al-Ghazali and Saadi Shirazi . The expansion of the Muslim world continued with religious missions converting Volga Bulgaria to Islam. The Delhi Sultanate reached deep into

990-464: A general apology for "the use of violence that some have committed in the service of truth". Some authors have characterized Bruno as a "martyr of science", suggesting parallels with the Galileo affair which began around 1610. "It should not be supposed," writes A. M. Paterson of Bruno and his "heliocentric solar system", that he "reached his conclusions via some mystical revelation ... His work

1155-788: A guest of the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau . Bruno lived at the French embassy with the lexicographer John Florio . There he became acquainted with the poet Philip Sidney (to whom he dedicated two books) and other members of the Hermetic circle around John Dee , though there is no evidence that Bruno ever met Dee himself. He also lectured at Oxford , and unsuccessfully sought a teaching position there. His views were controversial, notably with John Underhill , Rector of Lincoln College and subsequently bishop of Oxford, and George Abbot , who later became Archbishop of Canterbury . Abbot mocked Bruno for supporting "the opinion of Copernicus that

1320-469: A loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. Historian Frances Yates argues that Bruno was deeply influenced by the presocratic Empedocles , Neoplatonism , Renaissance Hermeticism, and Book of Genesis -like legends surrounding the Hellenistic conception of Hermes Trismegistus . Other studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of

1485-556: A movement that would evolve into tasawwuf or Sufism . At this time, theological problems, notably on free will, were prominently tackled, with Hasan al Basri holding that although God knows people's actions, good and evil come from abuse of free will and the devil . Greek rationalist philosophy influenced a speculative school of thought known as Muʿtazila , who famously advocated the notion of free-will originated by Wasil ibn Ata . Caliph Mamun al Rashid made it an official creed and unsuccessfully attempted to force this position on

1650-556: A person to hell . However, the Quran makes it clear that God will forgive the sins of those who repent if he wishes. Good deeds, like charity, prayer, and compassion towards animals will be rewarded with entry to heaven. Muslims view heaven as a place of joy and blessings, with Quranic references describing its features. Mystical traditions in Islam place these heavenly delights in the context of an ecstatic awareness of God. Yawm al-Qiyāmah

1815-507: A person's soul at the time of death. They are described as being created variously from 'light' ( nūr ) or 'fire' ( nār ). Islamic angels are often represented in anthropomorphic forms combined with supernatural images, such as wings, being of great size or wearing heavenly articles. Common characteristics for angels include a lack of bodily needs and desires, such as eating and drinking. Some of them, such as Gabriel ( Jibrīl ) and Michael ( Mika'il ), are mentioned by name in

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1980-581: A place of prayer, it is also an important social center for the Muslim community . For example, the Masjid an-Nabawi ("Prophetic Mosque") in Medina, Saudi Arabia , used to also serve as a shelter for the poor. Minarets are towers used to call the adhan , a vocal call to signal the prayer time. Zakat ( Arabic : زكاة , zakāh ), also spelled Zakāt or Zakah , is a type of almsgiving characterized by

2145-670: A prescientific stage, back into Hermeticism, interpreting the Copernican diagram as a hieroglyph of divine mysteries." According to historian Mordechai Feingold, "Both admirers and critics of Giordano Bruno basically agree that he was pompous and arrogant, highly valuing his opinions and showing little patience with anyone who even mildly disagreed with him." Discussing Bruno's experience of rejection when he visited Oxford University, Feingold suggests that "it might have been Bruno's manner, his language and his self-assertiveness, rather than his ideas" that caused offence. In his Lectures on

2310-641: A priest. Things apparently went well for Bruno for a time, as he entered his name in the Rector's Book of the University of Geneva in May 1579. But in keeping with his personality he could not long remain silent. In August he published an attack on the work of Antoine de La Faye  [ fr ] , a distinguished professor. Bruno and the printer, Jean Bergeon, were promptly arrested. Rather than apologizing, Bruno insisted on continuing to defend his publication. He

2475-465: A religious context, it refers to the total surrender to the will of God . A Muslim ( مُسْلِم ), the word for a follower of Islam, is the active participle of the same verb form, and means "submitter (to God)" or "one who surrenders (to God)". In the Hadith of Gabriel , Islam is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān (faith), and ihsān (excellence). Islam itself

2640-667: A religious group. This has been undertaken by communist forces like the Khmer Rouge , who viewed them as their primary enemy to be exterminated since their religious practice made them stand out from the rest of the population, the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang and by nationalist forces such as during the Bosnian genocide . Myanmar military's Tatmadaw targeting of Rohingya Muslims has been labeled as

2805-531: A result of Islamic missionary activities ( dawah ), as well as through conquests . The two main Islamic branches are Sunni Islam (85–90%) and Shia Islam (10–15%). While the Shia–Sunni divide initially arose from disagreements over the succession to Muhammad , they grew to cover a broader dimension, both theologically and juridically . The Sunni canonical hadith collection consists of six books , while

2970-728: A root that means "to measure" or "calculating". Muslims often express this belief in divine destiny with the phrase "In-sha-Allah" ( Arabic : إن شاء الله ) meaning "if God wills" when speaking on future events. There are five acts of worship that are considered duties –the Shahada (declaration of faith), the five daily prayers, Zakat (almsgiving), fasting during Ramadan , and the Hajj pilgrimage–collectively known as "The Pillars of Islam" ( Arkān al-Islām ). In addition, Muslims also perform other optional supererogatory acts that are encouraged but not considered to be duties. The shahadah

3135-410: A straight line, and would see the stone miss its target by the amount of the velocity of the ship's motion. But if someone were placed high on the mast of that ship, move as it may however fast, he would not miss his target at all, so that the stone or some other heavy thing thrown downward would not come along a straight line from the point E which is at the top of the mast, or cage, to the point D which

3300-460: A symbol for free thought and free speech in present-day Rome, where an annual memorial service takes place close to the spot where he was executed. The earliest likeness of Bruno is an engraving published in 1715 and cited by Salvestrini as "the only known portrait of Bruno". Salvestrini suggests that it is a re-engraving made from a now lost original. This engraving has provided the source for later images. The records of Bruno's imprisonment by

3465-535: A trust from God's bounty, and is seen as a purification of one's excess wealth. The total annual value contributed due to zakat is 15 times greater than global humanitarian aid donations, using conservative estimates. Sadaqah , as opposed to Zakat, is a much-encouraged optional charity. A waqf is a perpetual charitable trust , which finances hospitals and schools in Muslim societies. In Islam, fasting ( Arabic : صوم , ṣawm ) precludes food and drink, as well as other forms of consumption, such as smoking , and

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3630-422: A way of placing a work under the protection of an individual. Given that Bruno dedicated various works to the likes of King Henry III, Sir Philip Sidney , Michel de Castelnau (French Ambassador to England), and possibly Pope Pius V , it is apparent that this wanderer had risen sharply in status and moved in powerful circles. In April 1583, Bruno went to England with letters of recommendation from Henry III as

3795-543: Is tawḥīd (Arabic: توحيد ), the oneness of God. It is usually thought of as a precise monotheism , but is also panentheistic in Islamic mystical teachings. God is seen as incomparable and without multiplicity of persons such as in the Christian Trinity , and associating multiplicity to God or attributing God's attributes to others is seen as idolatory , called shirk . God is described as Al Ghayb so

3960-456: Is also identified in the Quran as Yawm ad-Dīn ( يوم الدين "Day of Religion"); as-Sāʿah ( الساعة "the Last Hour"); and al-Qāriʿah ( القارعة "The Clatterer"). The concept of divine predestination in Islam ( Arabic : القضاء والقدر , al-qadāʾ wa l-qadar ) means that every matter, good or bad, is believed to have been decreed by God. Al-qadar , meaning "power", derives from

4125-431: Is also used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews in reference to God, whereas ʾilāh ( إله ) is a term used for a deity or a god in general. Angels (Arabic: ملك , malak ) are beings described in the Quran and hadith. They are described as created to worship God and also to serve in other specific duties such as communicating revelations from God, recording every person's actions, and taking

4290-403: Is an oath declaring belief in Islam. The expanded statement is " ʾašhadu ʾal-lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu wa ʾašhadu ʾanna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh " ( أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمداً رسول الله ), or, "I testify that there is no deity except God and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God." Islam is sometimes argued to have a very simple creed with the shahada being the premise for

4455-400: Is an essential part of the scientific and philosophical developments that he initiated." Paterson echoes Hegel in writing that Bruno "ushers in a modern theory of knowledge that understands all natural things in the universe to be known by the human mind through the mind's dialectical structure". Ingegno writes that Bruno embraced the philosophy of Lucretius , "aimed at liberating man from

4620-441: Is at the bottom of the mast, or at some point in the bowels and body of the ship. Thus, if from the point D to the point E someone who is inside the ship would throw a stone straight up, it would return to the bottom along the same line however far the ship moved, provided it was not subject to any pitch and roll." Bruno's infinite universe was filled with a substance—a "pure air", aether , or spiritus —that offered no resistance to

4785-401: Is beyond comprehension. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules and do not attribute forms to God. God is instead described and referred to by several names or attributes , the most common being Ar-Rahmān ( الرحمان ) meaning "The Entirely Merciful", and Ar-Rahīm ( الرحيم ) meaning "The Especially Merciful" which are invoked at the beginning of most chapters of the Quran. Islam teaches that

4950-588: Is from the early centuries AD) corroborate the view that Thrice-Great Hermes originated in Hellenistic Egypt through syncretism between Greek and Egyptian gods (the Hermetica refer most often to Thoth and Amun). The Hermetic literature among the Egyptians, which was concerned with conjuring spirits and animating statues, inform the oldest Hellenistic writings on Greco- Babylonian astrology and on

5115-582: Is known to us as Hermes Trismegistus on account of being the greatest priest, philosopher, and king. Another explanation, in the Suda (10th century), is that "He was called Trismegistus on account of his praise of the trinity, saying there is one divine nature in the trinity." During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance , the Hermetica enjoyed great prestige and were popular among alchemists. Hermes

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5280-407: Is optional and can be undertaken at any time of the year. Other sites of Islamic pilgrimage are Medina , where Muhammad died, as well as Jerusalem , a city of many Islamic prophets and the site of Al-Aqsa , which was the direction of prayer before Mecca. Muslims recite and memorize the whole or parts of the Quran as acts of virtue. Tajwid refers to the set of rules for the proper elocution of

5445-470: Is performed from dawn to sunset. During the month of Ramadan , it is considered a duty for Muslims to fast. The fast is to encourage a feeling of nearness to God by restraining oneself for God's sake from what is otherwise permissible and to think of the needy. In addition, there are other days, such as the Day of Arafah , when fasting is optional. The Islamic pilgrimage , called the " ḥajj " (Arabic: حج ),

5610-576: Is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier prophets and messengers , including Adam , Noah , Abraham , Moses , and Jesus . Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God and the unaltered, final revelation. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations , such as the Tawrat (the Torah ), the Zabur ( Psalms ), and

5775-528: Is to be done at least once a lifetime by every Muslim with the means to do so during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah . Rituals of the Hajj mostly imitate the story of the family of Abraham . In Mecca , pilgrims walk seven times around the Kaaba , which Muslims believe Abraham built as a place of worship, and they walk seven times between Mount Safa and Marwa , recounting the steps of Abraham's wife, Hagar , who

5940-725: Is whom the Egyptians call Theyt ". The most likely interpretation of this passage is as two variants on the same syncretism of Greek Hermes and Egyptian Thoth (or sometimes other gods): the fourth (where Hermes turns out "actually" to have been a "son of the Nile," i.e. a native god) being viewed from the Egyptian perspective, the fifth (who went from Greece to Egypt) being viewed from the Greek-Arcadian perspective. Both of these early references in Cicero (most ancient Trismegistus material

6105-803: The Hijra ("emigration") in 622 to the city of Yathrib (current-day Medina). There, with the Medinan converts (the Ansar ) and the Meccan migrants (the Muhajirun ), Muhammad in Medina established his political and religious authority . The Constitution of Medina was signed by all the tribes of Medina. This established religious freedoms and freedom to use their own laws among the Muslim and non-Muslim communities as well as an agreement to defend Medina from external threats. Meccan forces and their allies lost against

6270-541: The Qisas al-Anbiya (Stories of the Prophets). Muslims believe that God sent Muhammad as the final prophet (" Seal of the prophets ") to convey the completed message of Islam. In Islam, the "normative" example of Muhammad's life is called the sunnah (literally "trodden path"). Muslims are encouraged to emulate Muhammad's moral behaviors in their daily lives, and the sunnah is seen as crucial to guiding interpretation of

6435-707: The Arab Spring , Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asia and the AK Party , which has democratically been in power in Turkey for decades. In Iran , revolution replaced a secular monarchy with an Islamic state . Others such as Sayyid Rashid Rida broke away from Islamic modernists and pushed against embracing what he saw as Western influence. The group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant would even attempt to recreate

6600-593: The Battle of Nahrawan but a Kharijite assassin later killed Ali. Ali's son, Hasan ibn Ali, was elected Caliph and signed a peace treaty to avoid further fighting, abdicating to Mu'awiya in return for Mu'awiya not appointing a successor. Mu'awiya began the Umayyad dynasty with the appointment of his son Yazid I as successor, sparking the Second Civil War . During the Battle of Karbala , Husayn ibn Ali

6765-684: The Deobandi movement. In response to the Deobandi movement, the Barelwi movement was founded as a mass movement, defending popular Sufism and reforming its practices. The Muslim world was generally in political decline starting the 1800s, especially compared to non-Muslim European powers. Earlier, in the 15th century, the Reconquista succeeded in ending the Muslim presence in Iberia . By

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6930-788: The House of Wisdom employed Christian and Persian scholars to both translate works into Arabic and to develop new knowledge. Soldiers broke away from the Abbasid empire and established their own dynasties, such as the Tulunids in 868 in Egypt and the Ghaznavid dynasty in 977 in Central Asia. In this fragmentation came the Shi'a Century , roughly between 945 and 1055, which saw the rise of

7095-672: The Indian Subcontinent and many converted to Islam, in particular low-caste Hindus whose descendants make up the vast majority of Indian Muslims. Trade brought many Muslims to China , where they virtually dominated the import and export industry of the Song dynasty . Muslims were recruited as a governing minority class in the Yuan dynasty . Through Muslim trade networks and the activity of Sufi orders, Islam spread into new areas and Muslims assimilated into new cultures. Under

7260-571: The Injil ( Gospel ). They believe that Muhammad is the main and final Islamic prophet , through whom the religion was completed. The teachings and normative examples of Muhammad, called the Sunnah , documented in accounts called the hadith , provide a constitutional model for Muslims. Islam is based on the belief in oneness and uniqueness of the God ( tawhid ), and belief in an afterlife ( akhirah ) with

7425-613: The Last Judgment —wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise ( jannah ) and the unrighteous will be punished in hell ( jahannam ). The Five Pillars —considered obligatory acts of worship—are the Islamic oath and creed ( shahada ), daily prayers ( salah ), almsgiving ( zakat ), fasting ( sawm ) in the month of Ramadan , and a pilgrimage ( hajj ) to Mecca . Islamic law, sharia , touches on virtually every aspect of life, from banking and finance and welfare to men's and women's roles and

7590-756: The Maghreb , the Iberian Peninsula , Narbonnese Gaul and Sindh . The Umayyads struggled with a lack of legitimacy and relied on a heavily patronized military. Since the jizya tax was a tax paid by non-Muslims which exempted them from military service, the Umayyads denied recognizing the conversion of non-Arabs, as it reduced revenue. While the Rashidun Caliphate emphasized austerity, with Umar even requiring an inventory of each official's possessions, Umayyad luxury bred dissatisfaction among

7755-614: The Muslim population in Latin America . The resulting urbanization and increase in trade in sub-Saharan Africa brought Muslims to settle in new areas and spread their faith, likely doubling its Muslim population between 1869 and 1914. Forerunners of Islamic modernism influenced Islamist political movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and related parties in the Arab world, which performed well in elections following

7920-723: The Ottoman Empire , Islam spread to Southeast Europe . Conversion to Islam often involved a degree of syncretism , as illustrated by Muhammad's appearance in Hindu folklore. Muslim Turks incorporated elements of Turkish Shamanism beliefs to Islam. Muslims in Ming Dynasty China who were descended from earlier immigrants were assimilated, sometimes through laws mandating assimilation, by adopting Chinese names and culture while Nanjing became an important center of Islamic study. Cultural shifts were evident with

8085-695: The Rashidun Caliphate and the subsequent Umayyad Caliphate ruled from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indus Valley . In the Islamic Golden Age , specifically during the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate , most of the Muslim world experienced a scientific , economic and cultural flourishing . The expansion of the Muslim world involved various states and caliphates as well as extensive trade and religious conversion as

8250-654: The Ridda wars . Local populations of Jews and indigenous Christians, persecuted as religious minorities and heretics and taxed heavily, often helped Muslims take over their lands, resulting in rapid expansion of the caliphate into the Persian and Byzantine empires. Uthman was elected in 644 and his assassination by rebels led to Ali being elected the next Caliph. In the First Civil War , Muhammad's widow, Aisha , raised an army against Ali, attempting to avenge

8415-682: The Venetian Inquisition , which had Bruno arrested on 22 May 1592. Among the numerous charges of blasphemy and heresy brought against him in Venice, based on Mocenigo's denunciation, was his belief in the plurality of worlds , as well as accusations of personal misconduct. Bruno defended himself skillfully, stressing the philosophical character of some of his positions, denying others and admitting that he had had doubts on some matters of dogma. The Roman Inquisition, however, asked for his transfer to Rome. After several months of argument,

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8580-480: The environment . The two main religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha . The three holiest sites in Islam are Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Prophet's Mosque in Medina , and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem . The religion of Islam originated in Mecca in 610 CE . Muslims believe this is when Muhammad received his first revelation . By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam . Muslim rule expanded outside Arabia under

8745-402: The mathematical model that was later argued to be adopted by Copernicus unrevised in his heliocentric model, and Jamshīd al-Kāshī 's estimate of pi would not be surpassed for 180 years. After the introduction of gunpowder weapons, large and centralized Muslim states consolidated around gunpowder empires , these had been previously splintered amongst various territories. The caliphate

8910-400: The millennialist Isma'ili Shi'a missionary movement. One Isma'ili group, the Fatimid dynasty , took control of North Africa in the 10th century and another Isma'ili group, the Qarmatians , sacked Mecca and stole the Black Stone , a rock placed within the Kaaba, in their unsuccessful rebellion. Yet another Isma'ili group, the Buyid dynasty , conquered Baghdad and turned the Abbasids into

9075-483: The world's fastest-growing major religious group, due primarily to a higher fertility rate and younger age structure compared to other major religions. In Arabic, Islam ( Arabic : إسلام , lit.   'submission [to God]') is the verbal noun of Form IV originating from the verb سلم ( salama ), from the triliteral root س-ل-م ( S-L-M ), which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of submission, safeness, and peace. In

9240-476: The " Night of Power " ( Laylat al-Qadr ) and is considered a significant event in Islamic history. During the next 22 years of his life, from age 40 onwards, Muhammad continued to receive revelations from God, becoming the last or seal of the prophets sent to mankind. During this time, while in Mecca, Muhammad preached first in secret and then in public, imploring his listeners to abandon polytheism and worship one God. Many early converts to Islam were women,

9405-421: The "world's first true scientist", in particular regarding his work in optics . In engineering, the Banū Mūsā brothers' automatic flute player is considered to have been the first programmable machine . In mathematics , the concept of the algorithm is named after Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi , who is considered a founder of algebra , which is named after his book al-jabr , while others developed

9570-423: The 19th century such as Sailaifengye in China after returning from Mecca but were eventually persecuted and forced into hiding by Sufi groups. Other groups sought to reform Sufism rather than reject it, with the Senusiyya and Muhammad Ahmad both waging war and establishing states in Libya and Sudan respectively. In India, Shah Waliullah Dehlawi attempted a more conciliatory style against Sufism and influenced

9735-563: The 19th century, the British East India Company had formally annexed the Mughal dynasty in India. As a response to Western Imperialism , many intellectuals sought to reform Islam . Islamic modernism , initially labelled by Western scholars as Salafiyya , embraced modern values and institutions such as democracy while being scripture oriented. Notable forerunners in the movement include Muhammad 'Abduh and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani . Abul A'la Maududi helped influence modern political Islam . Similar to contemporary codification , sharia

9900-402: The Arabic language and performed in the direction of the Kaaba . The act also requires a state of ritual purity achieved by means of either a routine wudu ritual wash or, in certain circumstances, a ghusl full body ritual wash. A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims, who often refer to it by its Arabic name masjid . Although the primary purpose of the mosque is to serve as

10065-434: The Augustinian monastery there, and attended public lectures at the Studium Generale . At the age of 17, he entered the Dominican Order at the monastery of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, taking the name Giordano, after Giordano Crispo, his metaphysics tutor. He continued his studies there, completing his novitiate , and ordained a priest in 1572 at age 24. During his time in Naples, he became known for his skill with

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10230-432: The Chinese cultural hero Fuxi were actually the Biblical patriarch Enoch . Various critical editions of the Hermetica have been published in modern academia, such as Hermetica by Brian Copenhaver . Antoine Faivre , in The Eternal Hermes (1995), has pointed out that Hermes Trismegistus has a place in the Islamic tradition, although the name Hermes does not appear in the Qur'an . Hagiographers and chroniclers of

10395-419: The Church was perfectly justified in condemning him. On the 400th anniversary of Bruno's death, in 2000, Cardinal Angelo Sodano declared Bruno's death to be a "sad episode" but, despite his regret, he defended Bruno's prosecutors, maintaining that the Inquisitors "had the desire to serve freedom and promote the common good and did everything possible to save his life". In the same year, Pope John Paul II made

10560-406: The Composition of Images, Signs and Ideas , 1591). In 1591 he was in Frankfurt , where he received an invitation from the Venetian patrician Giovanni Mocenigo , who wished to be instructed in the art of memory, and also heard of a vacant chair in mathematics at the University of Padua . At the time the Inquisition seemed to be losing some of its strictness, and because the Republic of Venice

10725-419: The Copernican principle. In particular, to support the Copernican view and oppose the objection according to which the motion of the Earth would be perceived by means of the motion of winds, clouds etc., in La Cena de le Ceneri Bruno anticipates some of the arguments of Galilei on the relativity principle. Note that he also uses the example now known as Galileo's ship . Theophilus – [...] air through which

10890-414: The Earth was the center of the universe , and that all heavenly bodies revolved around it. The ultimate limit of the universe was the primum mobile , whose diurnal rotation was conferred upon it by a transcendental God, not part of the universe (although, as the kingdom of heaven , adjacent to it ), a motionless prime mover and first cause . The fixed stars were part of this celestial sphere, all at

11055-414: The Englishman Thomas Digges (c. 1546–1595), author of A Perfit Description of the Caelestial Orbes ; and the Italian Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). In 1584, Bruno published two important philosophical dialogues ( La Cena de le Ceneri and De l'infinito universo et mondi ) in which he argued against the planetary spheres ( Christoph Rothmann did the same in 1586 as did Tycho Brahe in 1587) and affirmed

11220-462: The Greek god of interpretive communication, was combined with Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom. The Egyptian priest and polymath Imhotep had been deified long after his death and therefore assimilated to Thoth in the classical and Hellenistic periods. The renowned scribe Amenhotep and a wise man named Teôs were coequal deities of wisdom, science, and medicine; and, thus, they were placed alongside Imhotep in shrines dedicated to Thoth–Hermes during

11385-597: The Hermetic writings must postdate the advent of Christianity, the whole of Renaissance Hermeticism collapsed. As to their actual authorship: ... they were certainly not written in remotest antiquity by an all wise Egyptian priest, as the Renaissance believed, but by various unknown authors, all probably Greeks, and they contain popular Greek philosophy of the period, a mixture of Platonism and Stoicism , combined with some Jewish and probably some Persian influences. The French figurist Jesuit missionary to China Joachim Bouvet thought that Hermes Trismegistus, Zoroaster and

11550-436: The Heroic Frenzies , 1585). Some of these were printed by John Charlewood . Some of the works that Bruno published in London, notably The Ash Wednesday Supper , appear to have given offense. Once again, Bruno's controversial views and tactless language lost him the support of his friends. John Bossy has advanced the theory that, while staying in the French Embassy in London, Bruno was also spying on Catholic conspirators, under

11715-415: The History of Philosophy , Hegel writes that Bruno's life represented "a bold rejection of all Catholic beliefs resting on mere authority." Alfonso Ingegno states that Bruno's philosophy "challenges the developments of the Reformation, calls into question the truth-value of the whole of Christianity, and claims that Christ perpetrated a deceit on mankind ... Bruno suggests that we can now recognize

11880-552: The Marchese de Vico of Naples, who was notable for helping Italian refugees in Geneva, "I did not intend to adopt the religion of the city. I desired to stay there only that I might live at liberty and in security." Bruno had a pair of breeches made for himself, and the Marchese and others apparently made Bruno a gift of a sword, hat, cape and other necessities for dressing himself; in such clothing Bruno could no longer be recognized as

12045-583: The Muslims at the Battle of Badr in 624 and then fought an inconclusive battle in the Battle of Uhud before unsuccessfully besieging Medina in the Battle of the Trench (March–April 627). In 628, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was signed between Mecca and the Muslims, but it was broken by Mecca two years later. As more tribes converted to Islam, Meccan trade routes were cut off by the Muslims. By 629 Muhammad

12210-785: The Ottomans from the beginning. The Mevlevi Order and Bektashi Order had a close relation to the sultans, as Sufi-mystical as well as heterodox and syncretic approaches to Islam flourished. The often forceful Safavid conversion of Iran to the Twelver Shia Islam of the Safavid Empire ensured the final dominance of the Twelver sect within Shia Islam. Persian migrants to South Asia, as influential bureaucrats and landholders, helped spread Shia Islam, forming some of

12375-530: The Ptolemaic Kingdom. Cicero enumerates several deities referred to as "Hermes": a "fourth Mercury (Hermes) was the son of the Nile, whose name may not be spoken by the Egyptians"; and "the fifth, who is worshiped by the people of Pheneus [in Arcadia ], is said to have killed Argus Panoptes , and for this reason to have fled to Egypt, and to have given the Egyptians their laws and alphabet: he it

12540-417: The Quran (lit. 'Recitation') is viewed as the final, verbatim and unaltered word of God. Prophets (Arabic: أنبياء , anbiyāʾ ) are believed to have been chosen by God to preach a divine message. Some of these prophets additionally deliver a new book and are called "messengers" ( رسول‎ , rasūl ). Muslims believe prophets are human and not divine. All of the prophets are said to have preached

12705-430: The Quran. This example is preserved in traditions known as hadith , which are accounts of his words, actions, and personal characteristics. Hadith Qudsi is a sub-category of hadith, regarded as God's verbatim words quoted by Muhammad that are not part of the Quran. A hadith involves two elements: a chain of narrators, called sanad , and the actual wording, called matn . There are various methodologies to classify

12870-420: The Quran. Another well-known source of hadiths is known as The Four Books , which Shias consider as the most authentic hadith reference. Belief in the "Day of Resurrection" or Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: يوم القيامة ) is also crucial for Muslims. It is believed that the time of Qiyāmah is preordained by God, but unknown to man. The Quran and the hadith, as well as the commentaries of scholars , describe

13035-786: The Quran. Many Muslims recite the whole Quran during the month of Ramadan. One who has memorized the whole Quran is called a hafiz ("memorizer"), and hadiths mention that these individuals will be able to intercede for others on Judgment Day. Supplication to God, called in Arabic duʿāʾ ( Arabic : دعاء   IPA: [dʊˈʕæːʔ] ) has its own etiquette such as raising hands as if begging. Remembrance of God ( ذكر , Dhikr' ) refers to phrases repeated referencing God. Commonly, this includes Tahmid, declaring praise be due to God ( الحمد لله , al-Ḥamdu lillāh ) during prayer or when feeling thankful, Tasbih , declaring glory to God during prayer or when in awe of something and saying ' in

13200-569: The Quran. Angels play a significant role in literature about the Mi'raj , where Muhammad encounters several angels during his journey through the heavens. Further angels have often been featured in Islamic eschatology , theology and philosophy . The pre-eminent holy text of Islam is the Quran . Muslims believe that the verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad by God, through the archangel Gabriel, on multiple occasions between 610 CE and 632,

13365-658: The Shia canonical hadith collection consists of four books . Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries. Approximately 12% of the world's Muslims live in Indonesia , the most populous Muslim-majority country; 31% live in South Asia ; 20% live in the Middle East–North Africa ; and 15% live in sub-Saharan Africa . Muslim communities are also present in the Americas , China , and Europe . Muslims are

13530-778: The Signs of the Times with the permission (so he claimed at his trial) of the Dominican Remigio Nannini Fiorentino . From Venice he went to Padua , where he met fellow Dominicans who convinced him to wear his religious habit again. From Padua he went to Bergamo and then across the Alps to Chambéry and Lyon . His movements after this time are obscure. In 1579, Bruno arrived in Geneva . During his Venetian trial, he told inquisitors that while in Geneva he told

13695-588: The Sun once every year. However he maintained the Ptolemaic hypothesis that the orbits of the planets were composed of perfect circles— deferents and epicycles —and that the stars were fixed on a stationary outer sphere. Despite the widespread publication of Copernicus' work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium , during Bruno's time most educated Catholics subscribed to the Aristotelian geocentric view that

13860-500: The Temple of Esna , "Thoth the great, the great, the great." Many Christian writers, including Lactantius , Augustine , Marsilio Ficino , Campanella , and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , as well as Giordano Bruno , considered Hermes Trismegistus to be a wise pagan prophet who foresaw the coming of Christianity . They believed in the existence of a prisca theologia , a single, true theology that threads through all religions. It

14025-567: The Uncompounded Reality . Islam Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered on the Quran and the teachings of the Islamic Prophet and messenger Muhammad , the religion's founder. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims , who are estimated to number approximately 1.9 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians . Muslims believe that Islam

14190-765: The Venetian authorities reluctantly consented and Bruno was sent to Rome in January 1593. During the seven years of his trial in Rome, Bruno was held in confinement, lastly in the Tower of Nona . Some important documents about the trial are lost, but others have been preserved, among them a summary of the proceedings that was rediscovered in 1940. The numerous charges against Bruno, based on some of his books as well as on witness accounts, included blasphemy, immoral conduct, and heresy in matters of dogmatic theology, and involved some of

14355-435: The Venetian inquisition in May 1592 describe him as a man "of average height, with a hazel-coloured beard and the appearance of being about forty years of age". Alternately, a passage in a work by George Abbot indicates that Bruno was of diminutive stature: "When that Italian Didapper, who intituled himself Philotheus Iordanus Brunus Nolanus, magis elaboratae Theologiae Doctor, &c. with a name longer than his body...". In

14520-529: The alchemical procedure to make the Philosopher's Stone . This required a mixture of materials to be placed in a glass vessel which was sealed by fusing the neck closed, a procedure known as the Seal of Hermes. The vessel was then heated for 30 to 40 days. During the Renaissance , it was accepted that Hermes Trismegistus was a contemporary of Moses . However, after Isaac Casaubon 's demonstration in 1614 that

14685-461: The art of memory and on one occasion traveled to Rome to demonstrate his mnemonic system before Pope Pius V and Cardinal Rebiba . In his later years, Bruno claimed that the Pope accepted his dedication to him of the lost work On The Ark of Noah at this time. While Bruno was distinguished for outstanding ability, his taste for free thinking and forbidden books soon caused him difficulties. Given

14850-437: The arts § Reasoning beasts ). All of these were based on his mnemonic models of organized knowledge and experience, as opposed to the simplistic logic-based mnemonic techniques of Petrus Ramus then becoming popular. Bruno also published a comedy summarizing some of his philosophical positions, titled Il Candelaio ( The Candlemaker , 1582). In the 16th century dedications were, as a rule, approved beforehand, and hence were

15015-491: The authenticity of hadiths, with the commonly used grading grading scale being "authentic" or "correct" ( صحيح , ṣaḥīḥ ); "good" ( حسن , ḥasan ); or "weak" ( ضعيف , ḍaʻīf ), among others. The Kutub al-Sittah are a collection of six books, regarded as the most authentic reports in Sunni Islam . Among them is Sahih al-Bukhari , often considered by Sunnis to be one of the most authentic sources after

15180-549: The basic doctrines of his philosophy and cosmology. Luigi Firpo speculates the charges made against Bruno by the Roman Inquisition were: Bruno defended himself as he had in Venice, insisting that he accepted the Church's dogmatic teachings, but trying to preserve the basis of his cosmological views. In particular, he held firm to his belief in the plurality of worlds, although he was admonished to abandon it. His trial

15345-464: The basis of his opposition to Aristotle , interest in Arianism , reading of Erasmus , and possession of banned texts. White considers that Bruno's later heresy was "multifaceted" and may have rested on his conception of infinite worlds. "This was perhaps the most dangerous notion of all ... If other worlds existed with intelligent beings living there, did they too have their visitations? The idea

15510-838: The beginning of the compilation of the Quran. The Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz set up the committee, The Seven Fuqaha of Medina , and Malik ibn Anas wrote one of the earliest books on Islamic jurisprudence, the Muwatta , as a consensus of the opinion of those jurists. The Kharijites believed there was no compromised middle ground between good and evil, and any Muslim who committed a grave sin would become an unbeliever. The term "kharijites" would also be used to refer to later groups such as ISIS . The Murji'ah taught that people's righteousness could be judged by God alone. Therefore, wrongdoers might be considered misguided, but not denounced as unbelievers. This attitude came to prevail into mainstream Islamic beliefs. The Umayyad dynasty conquered

15675-452: The body of the Earth and are in its bowels as are the waters. [...] With the Earth move [...] all things that are on the Earth. If, therefore, from a point outside the Earth something were thrown upon the Earth, it would lose, because of the latter's motion, its straightness as would be seen on the ship [...] moving along a river, if someone on point C of the riverbank were to throw a stone along

15840-560: The clouds and winds move are parts of the Earth, [...] to mean under the name of Earth the whole machinery and the entire animated part, which consists of dissimilar parts; so that the rivers, the rocks, the seas, the whole vaporous and turbulent air, which is enclosed within the highest mountains, should belong to the Earth as its members, just as the air [does] in the lungs and in other cavities of animals by which they breathe, widen their arteries, and other similar effects necessary for life are performed. The clouds, too, move through accidents in

16005-407: The concept of a function . The government paid scientists the equivalent salary of professional athletes today. Guinness World Records recognizes the University of Al Karaouine , founded in 859, as the world's oldest degree-granting university. Many non-Muslims, such as Christians , Jews and Sabians , contributed to the Islamic civilization in various fields, and the institution known as

16170-490: The controversy he caused in later life, it is surprising that he was able to remain within the monastic system for eleven years. In his testimony to Venetian inquisitors during his trial many years later, he says that proceedings were twice taken against him for having cast away images of the saints, retaining only a crucifix , and for having recommended controversial texts to a novice. Such behavior could perhaps be overlooked, but Bruno's situation became much more serious when he

16335-425: The creation of everything in the universe was brought into being by God's command as expressed by the wording, " Be, and it is ," and that the purpose of existence is to worship God. He is viewed as a personal god and there are no intermediaries, such as clergy , to contact God. Consciousness and awareness of God is referred to as Taqwa . Allāh is a term with no plural or gender being ascribed to it and

16500-526: The death of Uthman, but was defeated at the Battle of the Camel . Ali attempted to remove the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya , who was seen as corrupt. Mu'awiya then declared war on Ali and was defeated in the Battle of Siffin . Ali's decision to arbitrate angered the Kharijites , an extremist sect, who felt that by not fighting a sinner, Ali became a sinner as well. The Kharijites rebelled and were defeated in

16665-700: The decrease in Arab influence after the Mongol destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Muslim Mongol Khanates in Iran and Central Asia benefited from increased cross-cultural access to East Asia under Mongol rule and thus flourished and developed more distinctively from Arab influence, such as the Timurid Renaissance under the Timurid dynasty . Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) proposed

16830-470: The early Abbasid era, scholars such as Muhammad al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj compiled the major Sunni hadith collections while scholars like Al-Kulayni and Ibn Babawayh compiled major Shia hadith collections. The four Sunni Madh'habs , the Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Shafi'i, were established around the teachings of Abū Ḥanīfa , Ahmad ibn Hanbal , Malik ibn Anas and al-Shafi'i . In contrast,

16995-461: The earth did go round, and the heavens did stand still; whereas in truth it was his own head which rather did run round, and his brains did not stand still", and found Bruno had both plagiarized and misrepresented Ficino 's work, leading Bruno to return to the continent. Nevertheless, his stay in England was fruitful. During that time Bruno completed and published some of his most important works,

17160-505: The epithet "thrice great" are in the Legatio of Athenagoras of Athens and in a fragment from Philo of Byblos , c.  AD 64 –141. However, in a later work, Copenhaver reports that this epithet is first found in the minutes of a meeting of the council of the Ibis cult , held in 172 BC near Memphis in Egypt. Hart explains that the epithet is derived from an epithet of Thoth found at

17325-646: The fear of death and the gods." Characters in Bruno's Cause, Principle and Unity desire "to improve speculative science and knowledge of natural things," and to achieve a philosophy "which brings about the perfection of the human intellect most easily and eminently, and most closely corresponds to the truth of nature." Other scholars oppose such views, and claim Bruno's martyrdom to science to be exaggerated, or outright false. For Yates, while "nineteenth century liberals" were thrown "into ecstasies" over Bruno's Copernicanism, "Bruno pushes Copernicus' scientific work back into

17490-581: The finest work in Arabic literature , and has influenced art and the Arabic language. Islam also holds that God has sent revelations, called wahy , to different prophets numerous times throughout history. However, Islam teaches that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, such as the Tawrat ( Torah ) and the Injil ( Gospel ), have become distorted —either in interpretation, in text, or both, while

17655-550: The first centuries of the Islamic Hijrah quickly identified Hermes Trismegistus with Idris, the Islamic prophet of surahs 19.57 and 21.85, whom Muslims also identified with Enoch (cf. Genesis 5.18–24). According to the account of the Persian astrologer Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (787–886), Idris/Hermes was termed "Thrice-Wise" Hermes Trismegistus because he had a threefold origin. The first Hermes, comparable to Thoth ,

17820-409: The first half of the 15th century, Nicholas of Cusa challenged the then widely accepted philosophies of Aristotelianism , envisioning instead an infinite universe whose center was everywhere and circumference nowhere, and moreover teeming with countless stars. He also predicted that neither were the rotational orbits circular nor were their movements uniform. In the second half of the 16th century,

17985-511: The gates of itjihad rather than blind imitation of scholars. He called for a jihad against those he deemed heretics, but his writings only played a marginal role during his lifetime. During the 18th century in Arabia, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab , influenced by the works of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim , founded a movement called Wahhabi to return to what he saw as unadultered Islam. He condemned many local Islamic customs, such as visiting

18150-399: The giving of a fixed portion (2.5% annually) of accumulated wealth by those who can afford it to help the poor or needy, such as for freeing captives, those in debt , or for (stranded) travellers, and for those employed to collect zakat. It acts as a form of welfare in Muslim societies. It is considered a religious obligation that the well-off owe the needy because their wealth is seen as

18315-476: The grave of Muhammad or saints, as later innovations and sinful and destroyed sacred rocks and trees, Sufi shrines, the tombs of Muhammad and his companions and the tomb of Husayn at Karbala, a major Shia pilgrimage site. He formed an alliance with the Saud family , which, by the 1920s, completed their conquest of the area that would become Saudi Arabia . Ma Wanfu and Ma Debao promoted salafist movements in

18480-642: The heavenly bodies which, in Bruno's view, rather than being fixed, moved under their own impetus (momentum). Most dramatically, he completely abandoned the idea of a hierarchical universe. The universe is then one, infinite, immobile... It is not capable of comprehension and therefore is endless and limitless, and to that extent infinite and indeterminable, and consequently immobile. Bruno's cosmology distinguishes between "suns" which produce their own light and heat, and have other bodies moving around them; and "earths" which move around suns and receive light and heat from them. Bruno suggested that some, if not all, of

18645-403: The implications and impact of Newtonian cosmology. Bruno's overall contribution to the birth of modern science is still controversial. Some scholars follow Frances Yates in stressing the importance of Bruno's ideas about the universe being infinite and lacking geocentric structure as a crucial crossing point between the old and the new. Others see in Bruno's idea of multiple worlds instantiating

18810-522: The infinite possibilities of a pristine, indivisible One, a forerunner of Everett 's many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. While many academics note Bruno's theological position as pantheism , several have described it as pandeism , and some also as panentheism . Physicist and philosopher Max Bernhard Weinstein in his Welt- und Lebensanschauungen, Hervorgegangen aus Religion, Philosophie und Naturerkenntnis ("World and Life Views, Emerging From Religion, Philosophy and Nature"), wrote that

18975-512: The largest Shia populations outside Iran. Nader Shah , who overthrew the Safavids, attempted to improve relations with Sunnis by propagating the integration of Twelverism into Sunni Islam as a fifth madhhab , called Ja'farism, which failed to gain recognition from the Ottomans. Earlier in the 14th century, Ibn Taymiyya promoted a puritanical form of Islam, rejecting philosophical approaches in favor of simpler theology, and called to open

19140-406: The later Medinan chapters discuss more social and legal issues relevant to the Muslim community. Muslim jurists consult the hadith ('accounts'), or the written record of Muhammad's life, to both supplement the Quran and assist with its interpretation. The science of Quranic commentary and exegesis is known as tafsir . In addition to its religious significance, the Quran is widely regarded as

19305-511: The major figures of the Bible and the Quran." The star-worshipping sect known as the Sabians of Harran also believed that their doctrine descended from Hermes Trismegistus. There are least twenty Arabic Hermetica extant. While some of these Arabic Hermetic writings were translated from Greek or Middle-Persian , some were originally written in Arabic. Hermetic fragments are also found in

19470-652: The majority. Caliph Al-Mu'tasim carried out inquisitions , with the traditionalist Ahmad ibn Hanbal notably refusing to conform to the Muʿtazila idea that the Quran was created rather than being eternal , which resulted in him being tortured and kept in an unlit prison cell for nearly thirty months. However, other schools of speculative theology – Māturīdism founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and Ash'ari founded by Al-Ash'ari – were more successful in being widely adopted. Philosophers such as Al-Farabi , Avicenna and Averroes sought to harmonize Aristotle's ideas with

19635-484: The modern gold dinar as their monetary system. While some of those who broke away were quietist , others believed in violence against those opposing them, even against other Muslims. In opposition to Islamic political movements, in 20th century Turkey, the military carried out coups to oust Islamist governments, and headscarves were legally restricted, as also happened in Tunisia. In other places, religious authority

19800-554: The moral decline and idolatry prevalent in Mecca and seeking seclusion and spiritual contemplation, Muhammad retreated to the Cave of Hira in the mountain Jabal al-Nour , near Mecca. It was during his time in the cave that he is said to have received the first revelation of the Quran from the angel Gabriel . The event of Muhammad's retreat to the cave and subsequent revelation is known as

19965-469: The name of God ' ( بسملة , basmalah ) before starting an act such as eating. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 CE and was orphaned early in life. Growing up as a trader, he became known as the " trusted one " ( Arabic : الامين ) and was sought after as an impartial arbitrator. He later married his employer, the businesswoman Khadija . In the year 610 CE, troubled by

20130-414: The newly developed practice of alchemy . In a parallel tradition, Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized religious cult practices and offered the adept a means of personal ascension from the constraints of physical being. This latter tradition has led to the confusion of Hermeticism with Gnosticism , which was developing contemporaneously. Fowden asserts that the first datable occurrences of

20295-727: The objects classically known as fixed stars are in fact suns. According to astrophysicist Steven Soter , he was the first person to grasp that "stars are other suns with their own planets." Bruno wrote that other worlds "have no less virtue nor a nature different from that of our Earth" and, like Earth, "contain animals and inhabitants". During the late 16th century, and throughout the 17th century, Bruno's ideas were held up for ridicule, debate, or inspiration. Margaret Cavendish , for example, wrote an entire series of poems against "atoms" and "infinite worlds" in Poems and Fancies in 1664. Bruno's true, if partial, vindication would have to wait for

20460-417: The opinion his heresy trial was not a response to his cosmological views but rather a response to his religious and afterlife views, while others find the main reason for Bruno's death was indeed his cosmological views. Bruno's case is still considered a landmark in the history of free thought and the emerging sciences. In addition to cosmology, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory ,

20625-655: The pious. The Kharijites led the Berber Revolt , leading to the first Muslim states independent of the Caliphate. In the Abbasid Revolution , non-Arab converts ( mawali ), Arab clans pushed aside by the Umayyad clan, and some Shi'a rallied and overthrew the Umayyads, inaugurating the more cosmopolitan Abbasid dynasty in 750. Al-Shafi'i codified a method to determine the reliability of hadith. During

20790-570: The poor, foreigners, and slaves like the first muezzin Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi . The Meccan elite felt Muhammad was destabilizing their social order by preaching about one God and giving questionable ideas to the poor and slaves because they profited from the pilgrimages to the idols of the Kaaba. After 12 years of the persecution of Muslims by the Meccans , Muhammad and his companions performed

20955-572: The possibility that these planets might foster life of their own, a cosmological position known as cosmic pluralism . He also insisted that the universe is infinite and could have no center. Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges of denial of several core Catholic doctrines, including eternal damnation , the Trinity , the divinity of Christ , the virginity of Mary , and transubstantiation . Bruno's pantheism

21120-797: The prophet Idris (the Biblical Enoch ). Hermes Trismegistus may be associated with the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth . Greeks in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt recognized the equivalence of Hermes and Thoth through the interpretatio graeca . Consequently, the two gods were worshiped as one, in what had been the Temple of Thoth in Khemenu, which was known in the Hellenistic period as Hermopolis . Hermes,

21285-693: The pseudonym "Henry Fagot", for Sir Francis Walsingham , Queen Elizabeth 's Secretary of State. Bruno is sometimes cited as being the first to propose that the universe is infinite, which he did during his time in England, but an English scientist , Thomas Digges , put forth this idea in a published work in 1576, some eight years earlier than Bruno. An infinite universe and the possibility of alien life had also been earlier suggested by German Catholic Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa in "On Learned Ignorance" published in 1440 and Bruno attributed his understanding of multiple worlds to this earlier scholar, who he called "the divine Cusanus". In October 1585, Castelnau

21450-429: The rest of the religion. Non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam are required to recite the shahada in front of witnesses. Prayer in Islam, called as-salah or aṣ-ṣalāt (Arabic: الصلاة ), is seen as a personal communication with God and consists of repeating units called rakat that include bowing and prostrating to God. There are five timed prayers each day that are considered duties. The prayers are recited in

21615-473: The same basic message of Islam – submission to the will of God – to various nations in the past, and this is said to account for many similarities among religions. The Quran recounts the names of numerous figures considered prophets in Islam , including Adam , Noah , Abraham , Moses and Jesus , among others. The stories associated with the prophets beyond the Quranic accounts are collected and explored in

21780-484: The same fixed distance from the immobile Earth at the center of the sphere. Ptolemy had numbered these at 1,022, grouped into 48 constellations . The planets were each fixed to a transparent sphere. Few astronomers of Bruno's time accepted Copernicus's heliocentric model . Among those who did were the Germans Michael Maestlin (1550–1631), Christoph Rothmann , Johannes Kepler (1571–1630);

21945-553: The six "Italian Dialogues", including the cosmological tracts La cena de le ceneri ( The Ash Wednesday Supper , 1584), De la causa, principio et uno ( On Cause, Principle and Unity , 1584), De l'infinito, universo et mondi ( On the Infinite, Universe and Worlds , 1584) as well as Lo spaccio de la bestia trionfante ( The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast , 1584) and De gli eroici furori  [ it ] ( On

22110-573: The spatial concepts of geometry to language. Born Filippo Bruno in Nola (a comune in the modern-day province of Naples , in the Southern Italian region of Campania , then part of the Kingdom of Naples ) in 1548, he was the son of Giovanni Bruno (1517 – c. 1592), a soldier, and Fraulissa Savolino (1520–?). In his youth he was sent to Naples to be educated. He was tutored privately at

22275-520: The summer of 1581, he moved to Paris. There he held a cycle of thirty lectures on theological topics and also began to gain fame for his prodigious memory. His talents attracted the benevolent attention of the king Henry III ; Bruno subsequently reported: "I got me such a name that King Henry III summoned me one day to discover from me if the memory which I possessed was natural or acquired by magic art. I satisfied him that it did not come from sorcery but from organized knowledge; and, following this, I got

22440-605: The teachings of Ja'far al-Sadiq formed the Ja'fari jurisprudence . In the 9th century, Al-Tabari completed the first commentary of the Quran, the Tafsir al-Tabari , which became one of the most cited commentaries in Sunni Islam. Some Muslims began questioning the piety of indulgence in worldly life and emphasized poverty, humility, and avoidance of sin based on renunciation of bodily desires. Ascetics such as Hasan al-Basri inspired

22605-666: The teachings of Islam, similar to later scholasticism within Christianity in Europe and Maimonides ' work within Judaism, while others like Al-Ghazali argued against such syncretism and ultimately prevailed. This era is sometimes called the " Islamic Golden Age ". Islamic scientific achievements spanned a wide range of subject areas including medicine , mathematics , astronomy , and agriculture as well as physics , economics , engineering and optics . Avicenna

22770-584: The theological model of pandeism was strongly expressed in the teachings of Bruno, especially with respect to the vision of a deity for which "the concept of God is not separated from that of the universe." However, Otto Kern takes exception to what he considers Weinstein's overbroad assertions that Bruno, as well as other historical philosophers such as John Scotus Eriugena , Nicholas of Cusa , Mendelssohn , and Lessing , were pandeists or leaned towards pandeism. Discover editor Corey S. Powell also described Bruno's cosmology as pandeistic, writing that it

22935-399: The theories of Copernicus (1473–1543) began diffusing through Europe. Copernicus conserved the idea of planets fixed to solid spheres, but considered the apparent motion of the stars to be an illusion caused by the rotation of the Earth on its axis; he also preserved the notion of an immobile center, but it was the Sun rather than the Earth. Copernicus also argued the Earth was a planet orbiting

23100-545: The trials and tribulations preceding and during the Qiyāmah . The Quran emphasizes bodily resurrection , a break from the pre-Islamic Arabian understanding of death. On Yawm al-Qiyāmah, Muslims believe all humankind will be judged by their good and bad deeds and consigned to Jannah (paradise) or Jahannam (hell). The Quran in Surat al-Zalzalah describes this as: "So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it. And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it." The Quran lists several sins that can condemn

23265-423: The universal law which controls the perpetual becoming of all things in an infinite universe." A. M. Paterson says that, while we no longer have a copy of the official papal condemnation of Bruno, his heresies included "the doctrine of the infinite universe and the innumerable worlds" and his beliefs "on the movement of the earth". Michael White notes that the Inquisition may have pursued Bruno early in his life on

23430-446: The works of Muslim alchemists such as Jabir ibn Hayyan (died c.  806 –816, cited an early version of the Emerald Tablet in his Kitāb Usṭuqus al-uss ) and Ibn Umayl ( c.  900  – c.  960 , quoted and commented upon Hermetic sayings throughout his work, among them also a commentary on the Emerald Tablet ). Bahá'u'lláh , founder of the Baháʼí Faith , identifies Idris with Hermes in his Tablet on

23595-400: The year Muhammad died. While Muhammad was alive, these revelations were written down by his companions , although the primary method of transmission was orally through memorization . The Quran is divided into 114 chapters ( sūrah ) which contain a combined 6,236 verses ( āyāt ). The chronologically earlier chapters, revealed at Mecca , are concerned primarily with spiritual topics, while

23760-413: Was "a tool for advancing an animist or Pandeist theology", and this assessment of Bruno as a pandeist was agreed with by science writer Michael Newton Keas, and The Daily Beast writer David Sessions. The Vatican has published few official statements about Bruno's trial and execution. In 1942, Cardinal Giovanni Mercati , who discovered a number of lost documents relating to Bruno's trial, stated that

23925-455: Was a "civilizing hero", an initiator into the mysteries of the divine science and wisdom that animate the world; he carved the principles of this sacred science in hieroglyphs . The second Hermes, in Babylon , was the initiator of Pythagoras . The third Hermes was the first teacher of alchemy . "A faceless prophet," writes the Islamicist Pierre Lory , "Hermes possesses no concrete or salient characteristics, differing in this regard from most of

24090-428: Was a pioneer in experimental medicine , and his The Canon of Medicine was used as a standard medicinal text in the Islamic world and Europe for centuries. Rhazes was the first to identify the diseases smallpox and measles . Public hospitals of the time issued the first medical diplomas to license doctors. Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the father of the modern scientific method and often referred to as

24255-476: Was also strongly associated with astrology, for example by the influential Islamic astrologer Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (787–886). The "Hermetic tradition" consequently refers to alchemy, magic, astrology, and related subjects. The texts are usually divided into two categories: the philosophical and the technical hermetica. The former deals mainly with philosophy , and the latter with practical magic, potions, and alchemy. The expression " hermetically sealed " comes from

24420-415: Was an Italian philosopher , poet , alchemist , astrologer , cosmological theorist, and esotericist . He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended to include the then-novel Copernican model . He practiced Hermeticism and gave a mystical stance to exploring the universe. He proposed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets ( exoplanets ), and he raised

24585-515: Was claimed by the Ottoman dynasty of the Ottoman Empire and its claims were strengthened in 1517 as Selim I became the ruler of Mecca and Medina . The Shia Safavid dynasty rose to power in 1501 and later conquered all of Iran. In South Asia, Babur founded the Mughal Empire . The religion of the centralized states of the gunpowder empires influenced the religious practice of their constituent populations. A symbiosis between Ottoman rulers and Sufism strongly influenced Islamic reign by

24750-484: Was co-opted and is now often seen as puppets of the state. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the state monopolized religious scholarship and, in Egypt, the state nationalized Al-Azhar University , previously an independent voice checking state power. Salafism was funded in the Middle East for its quietism. Saudi Arabia campaigned against revolutionary Islamist movements in the Middle East, in opposition to Iran. Muslim minorities of various ethnicities have been persecuted as

24915-404: Was established in 1969 after the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem . Contact with industrialized nations brought Muslim populations to new areas through economic migration. Many Muslims migrated as indentured servants (mostly from India and Indonesia) to the Caribbean, forming the largest Muslim populations by percentage in the Americas. Migration from Syria and Lebanon contributed to

25080-511: Was for the first time partially codified into law in 1869 in the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code. The Ottoman Empire dissolved after World War I , the Ottoman Caliphate was abolished in 1924 and the subsequent Sharifian Caliphate fell quickly, thus leaving Islam without a Caliph . Pan-Islamists attempted to unify Muslims and competed with growing nationalist forces, such as pan-Arabism . The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), consisting of Muslim-majority countries ,

25245-424: Was given by God to man in antiquity and passed through a series of prophets, which included Zoroaster and Plato . In order to demonstrate the verity of the prisca theologia, Christians appropriated the Hermetic teachings for their own purposes. By this account, Hermes Trismegistus was either a contemporary of Moses , or the third in a line of men named Hermes, i.e. Enoch , Noah , and the Egyptian priest king who

25410-430: Was historically called Mohammedanism in the English-speaking world . This term has fallen out of use and is sometimes said to be offensive , as it suggests that a human being, rather than God, is central to Muslims' religion. The Islamic creed ( aqidah ) requires belief in six articles : God, angels , revelation, prophets, the Day of Resurrection , and the divine predestination. The central concept of Islam

25575-412: Was killed by Yazid's forces; the event has been annually commemorated by Shias ever since. Sunnis, led by Ibn al-Zubayr and opposed to a dynastic caliphate, were defeated in the siege of Mecca . These disputes over leadership would give rise to the Sunni - Shia schism, with the Shia believing leadership belongs to Muhammad's family through Ali, called the ahl al-bayt . Abu Bakr's leadership oversaw

25740-476: Was looking for water for her baby Ishmael in the desert before Mecca developed into a settlement. The pilgrimage also involves spending a day praying and worshipping in the plain of Mount Arafat as well as symbolically stoning the Devil . All Muslim men wear only two simple white unstitched pieces of cloth called ihram , intended to bring continuity through generations and uniformity among pilgrims despite class or origin. Another form of pilgrimage, Umrah ,

25905-415: Was not taken lightly by the church, nor was his teaching of metempsychosis regarding the reincarnation of the soul . The Inquisition found him guilty, and he was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori in 1600. After his death, he gained considerable fame, being particularly celebrated by 19th- and early 20th-century commentators who regarded him as a martyr for science. Some historians are of

26070-546: Was overseen by the Inquisitor Cardinal Bellarmine , who demanded a full recantation, which Bruno eventually refused. On 20 January 1600, Pope Clement VIII declared Bruno a heretic, and the Inquisition issued a sentence of death. According to the correspondence of Gaspar Schopp of Breslau , he is said to have made a threatening gesture towards his judges and to have replied: Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam ("Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it"). He

26235-444: Was quite unthinkable." Frances Yates rejects what she describes as the "legend that Bruno was prosecuted as a philosophical thinker, was burned for his daring views on innumerable worlds or on the movement of the earth." Yates however writes that "the Church was ... perfectly within its rights if it included philosophical points in its condemnation of Bruno's heresies" because "the philosophical points were quite inseparable from

26400-459: Was recalled to France, and Bruno went with him. In Paris, Bruno found a tense political situation. Moreover, his 120 theses against Aristotelian natural science soon put him in ill favor. In 1586, following a violent quarrel over these theses, he left France for Germany. In Germany he failed to obtain a teaching position at Marburg , but was granted permission to teach at Wittenberg , where he lectured on Aristotle for two years. However, with

26565-457: Was refused the right to take sacrament . Though this right was soon restored, he left Geneva. He went to France, arriving first in Lyon , and thereafter settling for a time (1580–1581) in Toulouse , where he took his doctorate in theology and was elected by students to lecture in philosophy. He also attempted at this time to return to Catholicism, but was denied absolution by the Jesuit priest he approached. When religious strife broke out in

26730-449: Was reported to have defended the Arian heresy , and when a copy of the banned writings of Erasmus , annotated by him, was discovered hidden in the monastery latrine . When he learned that an indictment was being prepared against him in Naples he fled, shedding his religious habit , at least for a time. Bruno first went to the Genoese port of Noli , then to Savona , Turin and finally to Venice , where he published his lost work On

26895-510: Was the most liberal state in the Italian Peninsula , Bruno was lulled into making the fatal mistake of returning to Italy. He went first to Padua , where he taught briefly, and applied unsuccessfully for the chair of mathematics, which was given instead to Galileo Galilei one year later. Bruno accepted Mocenigo's invitation and moved to Venice in March 1592. For about two months he served as an in-house tutor to Mocenigo, to whom he let slip some of his heterodox ideas. Mocenigo denounced him to

27060-812: Was turned over to the secular authorities. On 17 February 1600, in the Campo de' Fiori (a central Roman market square), naked, with his "tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words", he was burned alive at the stake . His ashes were thrown into the Tiber river. All of Bruno's works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1603. The inquisition cardinals who judged Giordano Bruno were Cardinal Bellarmino (Bellarmine) , Cardinal Madruzzo (Madruzzi) , Camillo Cardinal Borghese (later Pope Paul V ), Domenico Cardinal Pinelli, Pompeio Cardinal Arrigoni, Cardinal Sfondrati , Pedro Cardinal De Deza Manuel and Cardinal Santorio (Archbishop of Santa Severina, Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina). The measures taken to prevent Bruno continuing to speak have resulted in his becoming

27225-548: Was victorious in the nearly bloodless conquest of Mecca , and by the time of his death in 632 (at age 62) he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single religious polity . Muhammad died in 632 and the first successors, called Caliphs – Abu Bakr , Umar , Uthman ibn al-Affan , Ali ibn Abi Talib and sometimes Hasan ibn Ali – are known in Sunni Islam as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn (" Rightly Guided Caliphs "). Some tribes left Islam and rebelled under leaders who declared themselves new prophets but were crushed by Abu Bakr in

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