прочетеш предговора на новото и пълно издание на "Хиляда и една нощ" , което публикуваха в България. Знам че си в Америка, но може да си го поръчаш по мрежата.

Та, оказва се, че арабистката школа в БГ не е за пренебрегване и между купищата полезна информация научих нещо което ме потресе.
Значи по времето на величието на халифите, те са плащали в злато за всеки превод на древни текстове - римски, гръцки, каквото се сетиш. Организирали са си невероятна библиотека в Багдад.

И когато Ренесанса започва в Европа, се оказва че цялото ни културно наследство е унищожено от християнските фундита!
Та се налага да си преведем обратно от арабски всичките Аристотели, Сократи, Платони и т.н. Арабските преводи са били единствения източник.

Помисли върху това.

Цялата западна цивилизация щеше да е осакатена ако арабите не ни бяха спасили културата от самите нас!

Не мога да се стърпя да не копи-пейстна два пасажа от една моя любима книга - "Шовинист" на Тери Пратчет.
Става въпрос за назряващ конфликт между Западната цивилизация (Анкх-Морпорк) и арабите (Клач). Ето как различните хора коментират:

Първо разговор между две ченгета:

'Looks like we're going to be in a fight, sarge,' said Nobby, as the
painter very carefully started on the final 'k'.

'Won't last long. Lots of cowards, the Klatchians,' said Colon. 'The moment
they taste a bit of cold steel they're legging it away over the sand.'

Sergeant Colon had had a broad education. He'd been to the School of My Dad Always Said, the College of It Stands to Reason, and was now a postgraduate
student at the University of What Some Bloke In the Pub Told Me.

'Shouldn't be any trouble to sort out, then?' said Nobby.

'And o'course, they're not the same colour as what we are,' said Colon.
'Well... as me, anyway,' he added, in view of the various hues of Corporal
Nobbs. There was probably no–one alive who was the same colour as Corporal
Nobbs.

'Constable Visit's pretty brown' ' said Nobby. 'I never seen him run away.
if there's a chance of giving someone a religious pamphlet ole Washpot's
after them like a terrier.'

'Ah, but Omnians are more like us,' said Colon. 'Bit weird but, basic'ly,
just the same as us underneath. No, the way you can tell a Klatchian is,
you look an' see if he uses a lot of words beginning with "al", right? 'Cos
that's a dead giveaway. They invented all the words starting with "al".
That's how you can tell they're Klatchian. Like al–cohol, see?'

'They invented beer?'

'Yeah.'

'That's clever.'

'I wouldn't call it clever,' said Sergeant Colon, realizing too late that
he'd made a tactical error. 'More, luck, I'd say.'

'What else did they do?'

'Well, there's...' Colon racked his brains. 'There's al–gebra. That's like
sums with letters. For... for people whose brains aren't clever enough for
numbers, see?'

'Is that a fact?'

'Right,' said Colon. 'In fact,' he went on, a little more assertively now
he could see a way ahead, 'I heard this wizard down the University say that
the Klatchians invented nothing. That was their great contribution to
maffs, he said. I said "What?" an' he said, they come up with zero.'

'Dun't sound that clever to me,' said Nobby. 'Anyone could invent nothing.
I ain't invented anything.'

'My point exactly,' said Colon. 'I told him, it was people who invented
numbers like four and, and–'

'–seven–'

'–right, who were the geniuses. Nothing didn't need inventing. It was just
there. They probably just found it.'

'It's having all that desert,' said Nobby.

'Right! Good point. Desert. Which, as everyone

knows, is basically nothing. Nothing's a natural resource to them. It
stands to reason. Whereas we're more civilized, see, and we got a lot more
stuff around to count, so we invented numbers. It's like... well, they say
the Klatchians invented astronomy–'

'Al–tronomy,' said Nobby helpfully.

'No, no... no, Nobby, I reckon they'd discovered esses by then, probably
nicked' em off'f us... anyway, they were bound to invent astronomy, 'cos
there's bugger all else for them to look at but the sky. Anyone can look at
the stars and give 'em names. 's going it a bit to call it inventing, in
any case. We don't go around saying we've invented something just because
we had a quick dekko at it.'

'I heard where they've got a lot of odd gods,' said Nobby.

'Yeah, and mad priests,' said Colon. 'Foaming at the mouth, half of 'em.
Believe all kinds of loony things.'

They watched the painter in silence for a moment. Colon was dreading the
question that came.

'So how exactly are they different from ours, then?' said Nobby. 'I mean,
some of our priests are–'

'I hope you ain't being unpatriotic,' said Colon severely.

'No, of course not. I was just asking. I can see where they'd be a lot
worse than ours, being foreign and everything.

'And of course they're all mad for fighting,' said Colon. 'Vicious buggers
with all those curvy swords of theirs.'

'You mean, like they viciously attack you while cowardly running away after
tasting cold steel?' said Nobby, who sometimes had a treacherously good
memory for detail.

'You can't trust 'em, like I said. And they burp hugely after meals.'

'Well... so do you, sarge.'

'Yes, but I don't pretend it's polite, Nobby.'

'Well, it's certainly a good job there's you around to explain things,
sarge,' said Nobby. 'It's amazing the stuff you know.'

'I surprise myself, sometimes,' said Colon modestly. The painter of the
ship leaned back to admire his work. They heard him give a heartfelt little
groan, and both of them nodded in satisfaction.

Малко по-късно други двама души говорят по същия въпрос. Този път обче те са малко по-други хора, да ги наречем интелигентни.

'Tell me,' Vetinari said, putting this paper aside as well, 'you don't have
any relatives in Klatch, do you?'

'I don't believe so. My family lived in Quirm for generations.'

'Oh. Good. But... very clever people in Klatch, are they?'

'Oh, in many disciplines they practically wrote the scroll. Fine metalwork,
for example.'

'Metalwork.. .' The Patrician sighed.

'And Alchemy, of course. Affir Al–chema's Principia Explosia has been the
seminal work for more than a hundred years.'

'Alchemy,' said the Patrician, glumly. 'Sulphur and so forth...'

'Yes, indeed.'

'But the way you put it, these major achievements were some considerable
time ago...' Lord Vetinari sounded like a man straining to see a light at
the end of the tunnel.

'Certainly! I would be astonished if they haven't made considerable
progress!' said Leonard of Quirm happily.

'Ah?' The Patrician sank a little in his chair. It had turned out that the
end of the tunnel was on fire.

'A splendid people with much to recommend them,' said Leonard. 'I always
thought it was the presence of the desert. It leads to an urgency of
thought. It makes you aware of the briefness of fife.'

Много хора правят грешката да смятат че Пратчет пише просто смешно фентъзи.

Сега, ние тук , в този клуб от кои сме - прости ченгета подмятащи заучени в кръчмата "истини" или интелигентни хора, способни да отсеят зърното от плявата?

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