Synopsis
Jim Al-Khalili explains why Al-Ma'mun, a medieval caliph, funded a programme of map-making.
- Programme: Science and Islam
- Episode: 02: The Empire of Reason
- Channel: BBC Four
- Broadcast year: 2009
- Religious Education
Licence: ERA Licence required
Free to watch for UK schools, colleges and universities with an ERA Licence
UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted
Add Notes
More clips from Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili examines how the Islamic world advanced science. He tells the story of physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped estab...
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili examines how the Islamic world advanced science. He tells the story of physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped estab...
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili examines how the Islamic world advanced science. He tells the story of physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped estab...
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili examines how the Islamic world advanced science. He tells the story of physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped estab...
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili examines how the Islamic world advanced science. He tells the story of physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped estab...
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili examines how the Islamic world advanced science. He tells the story of physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped estab...
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili examines how the Islamic world advanced science. He tells the story of physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped estab...
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
02: The Empire of Reason | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili examines how the Islamic world advanced science. He tells the story of physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped estab...
More resources about Islamic civilisations
01: Holy War | The Crusades
01: Holy War | The Crusades
Dr Thomas Asbridge re-examines the story of the Crusades. He traces the epic journey of the first crusaders as they marched from Europe to recapt...
The first crusade | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
The first crusade | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses the events of the first crusade.
Medicine Through Time (1989): 01: Medicine, Religion and Natural Causes | History File
Medicine Through Time (1989): 01: Medicine, Religion and Natural Causes | History File
This programme looks at ancient Egypt, Hippocrates, Christianity and Islam.
Medicine Through Time (1998): 01: Medicine and Religion | History File
Medicine Through Time (1998): 01: Medicine and Religion | History File
Programme begins with looking at Ancient Greece, then the Roman Empire then looking at Muslim and Chri...
Episode 1 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Episode 1 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Rageh Omaar examines the history of the Ottoman empire. He starts by looking at the unlikely roots of the Ottomans, as nom...
01: Wellspring of Holiness | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
01: Wellspring of Holiness | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore begins a history of Jerusalem by exploring how it came into being and how it became ...
Algebra | Science and Islam
Algebra | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili describes the invention of algebra by medieval Islamic mathematicians.
Islamic Medicine | Science and Islam
Islamic Medicine | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili explains the importance of medical knowledge to medieval Islam.
The Temple Mount | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
The Temple Mount | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses the unique design of The Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
02: Clash of the Titans | The Crusades
02: Clash of the Titans | The Crusades
Dr Thomas Asbridge examines the two figures who have come to embody Crusader war: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin.
02: Invasion, Invasion, Invasion | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
02: Invasion, Invasion, Invasion | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore continues his history of Jerusalem by discovering the impact of Islam and the ...
Episode 2 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Episode 2 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Rageh Omaar explores the contrasts between two very different Ottoman sultans, Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th centur...
Medieval Islamic Compassion | Science and Islam
Medieval Islamic Compassion | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili talks about the enduring legacies of medieval Islamic medicine.
Printing press | Science and Islam
Printing press | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili looks at how the printing press shifted the centres of scientific research from East to West.
The Night Journey | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
The Night Journey | Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City
Simon Sebag Montefiore discusses the Prophet Muhammad and his Night Journey to the The Furthest Sanctuary in Jerusal...
02: The Cross and the Crescent | Africa's Great Civilisations
02: The Cross and the Crescent | Africa's Great Civilisations
Henry Louis Gates Jr explores how the emergence of Christianity and Islam reshaped Africa over centuries.
24: 1979: God Fights Back | People's Century
24: 1979: God Fights Back | People's Century
Religion makes a comeback into people's lives in the Islamic world and elsewhere, as people seek guidance and spiritual sustenan...
Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam
Al-Khwarizmi's digit and numerical system | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili explains how our numerical system spread to Europe through the work of the Arabic mathematician ...
Arabic, the language of God | Science and Islam
Arabic, the language of God | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili looks at how Islamic caliphs encouraged scientific research and made Arabic the official language of their vas...
Episode 3 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Episode 3 | The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
Rageh Omaar ends his series with a look at how the collapse of the Ottoman Empire created a legacy of tension and conflict...
More from Jim Al-Khalili
Nylon | Chemistry: A Volatile History
Nylon | Chemistry: A Volatile History
Jim Al-Khalili reveals the breakthroughs which harnessed elements' ability to release vast power, showing how scientists are trying to ...
Einstein and the beetle | Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes our Lives
Einstein and the beetle | Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes our Lives
Professor Jim Al-Khalili explains Einstein's analogy of gravity that he told his son to explain his...
Prof Jim Al Khalili goes inside Calder Hall for his first look inside the core of a nuclear reactor | Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield
Prof Jim Al Khalili goes inside Calder Hall for his first look inside the core of a nuclear reactor | Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield
Nuclear physicist Professo...
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on teenage brains | The Life Scientific
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on teenage brains | The Life Scientific
Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore talks to Jim Al-Khalili about her research on the developing teenage brain.
The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity
The race to prove Maxwell's theory | Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity
Jim Al-Khalili explains how physics professor Oliver Lodge proved Maxwell's theory that electrom...
Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? | Horizon
Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe? | Horizon
Six months after the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to discover whether nu...
Arabic, the language of God | Science and Islam
Arabic, the language of God | Science and Islam
Jim Al-Khalili looks at how Islamic caliphs encouraged scientific research and made Arabic the official language of their vas...
Introduction to Electronic Structure and Chemical Properties | Atom
Introduction to Electronic Structure and Chemical Properties | Atom
Spec references J248: C2.2h J250: C2.2h. Professor Jim Al-Khalili explains how chemical properties are de...
Electrolysis - Discovery of Potassium | Curriculum Bites
Electrolysis - Discovery of Potassium | Curriculum Bites
Spec references J248: C3.4b J250: C3.4b. Professor Jim Al-Khalili recreates the electrolysis experiment that lead to...