History

Written by Maria Jesús Viguera Molins and Louis Werner Art by Belén Esturla Yusuf Ibn al-Shaykh al-Balawi was born in Málaga, on the southern coast of what is now Spain, in 1132, during the last years of the Almoravid dynasty’s rule in what was then Al-Andalus. He is known to have made only one trip outside his homeland, a pilgrimage …

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Suleiman ibn Rabi al-Qaysi, known more conveniently to posterity as Abu Hamid Al-Garnati and so named after his hometown of Granada (“Garnata”), sailed, caravanned, traded and trekked from the Arab West to the northern- and easternmost reaches of the Islamic world and beyond. Born in the year 1080 under the last of the Zirid kings, …

Written By Tom Verde In the “Northern Italian” room of Washington’s National Gallery of Art hangs a somber, dark-toned likeness of a young scholar entitled “Portrait of a Humanist.” Painted in Rome about 1520, the bearded, black-robed figure stands partially illuminated in a three-quarters pose. His dark eyes are fixed, his posture self-assured. His long, elegant hands seem well-suited to …

The idea of human flight has always been fascinating. We’ve always looked at the birds, gazed upon the sky, been taken by the stars; never has a physical activity personified human ambition so perfectly. With modern context, it’s a little difficult to imagine the dreams and aspirations of aviation pioneers – their struggles, their failed experiments, their sacrifices, all for …