I can resonate a lot with the line "a culture's acquisition of intellectual material from an alien culture is a complex process and not accomplished in one place by a few individuals" This happens in a lot of cultures through out history. In my own culture, when trains and railways were first introduced, they were considered as monsters that disrupt the peace of the land. The Qing dynasty (of China, ~1800 AD) paid their price for rejecting the industrial revolution from the West. It would be interesting to show students how intellectual material flows among countries and cultures, through either a peaceful way or a less academic way where politics or religions are involved.
The book also teaches me the structure of Arabic names, which I was totally not aware of. The fact that Arabic name links to their father, (great) grandfathers, place of origin, and tag/nickname is extremely valuable in the study of mathematics history in the Islamic world. This new knowledge will not only help me to know the Arabic students better, but might also guide me during reading literatures in the future.
The last point where I find it funny is that the scholar complained about "where he lived people considered it lawful to kill mathematicians". And this connects with the following points where there was hardships but also respect for mathematicians. Showing students the brave mathematicians who suffered but still decided to do mathematics may bring more respects to this field.
Very interesting, Yiwen!!
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