Between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Islamic world absorbed and interpreted lessons from classical Greece and Rome, leading to advances in science, medicine and philosophy — and finding expression in astonishing manuscripts and objects.
Those items are the focus of “Romance and Reason: Islamic Transformations of the Classical Past,” at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World through May 13. The exhibition includes manuscripts from Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and India, along with ancient Islamic and Greek artifacts. The collection shows how the medieval Islamic world grappled with and adapted concepts from ancient Greece.
On display are treasures such as the Canon of Medicine, a medical treatise written by Avicenna, a scientist born in 10th-century Uzbekistan, and manuscripts that put an Islamic spin on ancient Greek medical works.
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