"Lecture" for Week 5

A whirlwind tour through 1000 years ...

China and India

The Islamic period

This week's reading, especially the Islamic part, is full of unfamiliar and complicated names. It's good we don't have a final exam, right? I feel I ought to be providing some guidance as to which are the most important figures from the Islamic culture. My list is

I have to admit that the main criterion for getting on this list is that I had heard of the person before doing the reading the first time. Perhaps the most striking or inspiring thing about these periods is that some individuals did do significant mathematics in such isolation, in societies that were not conducive to it.

The medieval period

Continuing the list of famous figures:

Time for a State of the Course address