Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. I don't remember exactly what led me to write Iman cal Dune on my episode shortlist, but what I wrote down was Iman cal Dune Muslim historian. That's correct. He was a historian. He focused mainly on northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, also a little bit of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and he was particularly focused on the history of Arabs and the Emasan, which are also known as the Berbers. Beyond that, he also wrote of original work on historiography, or the way history is studied and written, and on economics and sociology, long before either of those was recognized as a field. So already we have a lot beyond just my simple description of his story orion. What I did not know until I got into this is that he did this work during a time of just ongoing chaos and strife, and in that context, his life included just continual political drama and intrigue and moving from place to place as he gained favor or lost favor or was suspected of some kind of plot, or in some cases was actually involved in some kind of plot. Like it wasn't just all of this playing out in the background of the life of a scholar. He was personally involved in a lot of it. So that added a whole unexpected layer of intrigued this podcast on somebody who was really groundbreaking as a scholar and was one of the most important intellectual figures of his age. Even Caldoun lived shortly after the end of the Islamic Golden Age. That's a term that was coined in the nineteenth century to describe a period of cultural, scientific, and artistic flourishing that spanned from about the eighth century through the thirteenth century. We've talked about several figures from this era on the show before, including physicist ibanel Hathum, polymath and physician Ibn Sina, and mathematician Alquarismi. One of the events that's used to mark the end of the Islamic Golden Age is the Siege of Baghdad and twelve fifty eight. That's when the last remaining territory of the Abbasid Caliphate fell to Mongol invaders. Ivan Caldoune spent most of his life in Northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, which was to the west of all of that, but that region was going through its own upheaval at roughly the same time with the fall of the alma Had Caliphate. The alma Had Caliphate had been established by an Almazaik also known as Berber Confederation in the twelfth century, which had controlled much of what is now Spain in Northern Africa into the thirteenth century, the Caliphate started losing territory in Spain to both the Reconquista or the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula and to other Muslim factions in North Africa. Other Muslim dynasties and sultanates had taken over various parts of what had been al Mahad territory. The alma Head and Abbasid Caliphates were both very large political dynasties, and their collapse led to a power vacuum and the rise of much smaller city states, as well as the rise of a lot of tensions as their various leaders each tried to reunite the territory into one empire under their control. All of this affected Ibn cal June's family directly. According to his family genealogy, the House of cal June had been founded by an Arab ancestor from what's now Yemen who had settled in Andalusia near Seville during the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula that took place around the eighth century. Ivan Caldune was proud of this lineage. Arabic names trace a person's ancestor story, and he gave his name in his autobiography as abdella Rockman Ibn Mohammed Ibben Mahabed Ibn al Hassan Ibn Mohammed Immin Jabber Ibban Mahabban Immen Ibraheim Ibben Abdal Krochman ibn kal Dune. Although he expressed some doubts that this genealogy was maybe not totally correct, he thought logically there should be some more generations between him and that first cal June. After moving to Seville, the House of Caldoune had become part of the Muslim aristocracy, there, holding high ranking government and military posts in various administrations for generations, including the Almah Head Caliphate after it took control of civil in eleven seventy two, but then in twelve forty eight, Ferdinand the Third Lacey to Seville during the Reconquista. At that point, the Calduns fled to Tunis, which the House Seeds had seized from the Almahads just six years before. The house Seeds were another Almasak dynasty which had been founded by a former almah Head governor. Although they'd had to fle from Seville, the Caldun family still had a lot of wealth and power and prestige, so when they got to Tunis, they continued to be part of the elite. This was also true of Iban Caldun's father, although he broke with family tradition to focus more on law and intellectual pursuits instead of on politics. I Been cal June was born in Tunas on May thirteen, thirty two. It's a little more than eighty years after his family had fled from Seville, and the house that he's believed to have been born in is still standing today. We don't know much at all about the personal details of Iban Caldun's upbringing, but we do know that he got the kind of education that was typical for a son in a family with the Caldoun's social status. He studied Arabic language and literature and Islamic law, and he memorized the Koran. But Tunis wasn't as large or cosmopolitan as some of the other cities in North Africa, so Ivan Caldoun didn't really have access to the most prestigious teachers and mentors. That changed in thirteen forty seven when Merinid Sultan Abul Hassan Ali of Fez occupied Tunis as part of a campaign to take control of much of Northern Africa. Fez is one of the oldest cities in what's now Morocco, and in the fourteenth century it was a center for cultural, religious, and intellectual scholarship. It's home to the University of Al Karawian, which is the oldest institution of higher learning in the world. It was established as a mosque and teaching center by Fatima Alphahiri in the year eight fifty nine. When the Marinids occupied Tunis, they brought legal scholars and theologians from Fez with them. One of these was Mohammed Ibban Ambraham al Abili, who was an influential scholar and mathematician. He lodged with the Caldun family, and he became Iban Caldoun's teacher. As Iban Caldoun's education continued, he learned Malachi jurisprudence, which is one of four schools of law in Sunni Islam. But even Caldune only had access to this new set of teachers and mentors for a couple of years. The Black Death arrived in Tunas in thirteen forty eight, and by thirteen forty nine, both of him and Caldune's parents had died of the plague. Plague also killed multiple other members of his family and some of his teachers. Mohammed Ibn Ibrahim all Abeli survived, but he and most of the other surviving scholars all returned to Faz when the Marinids withdrew from Tunis. The Merited occupation had become increasingly unpopular. It had never really had a very strong control over the region, especially among the semi nomadic peoples who were living in more outlying areas, and they just couldn't maintain control in the wake of the devastation of the plague. After the Marinade withdrawal, Tunas was back under how Seed control. Even Caldune was about seventeen when all of this happened, and he stayed in Tunis for a while. When he was about eighteen, he got his first court position, and it was as a senior staff member to one of the most powerful men in Tuness. That was the Sultan's doorkeeper, who was in charge of security and controlled who did or did not get audience with the Sultan. Iban Caldoune was Master of the sultan Seal, making him responsible for writing the Sultan's formal signature on official documents, and he probably had some diplomatic responsibilities as well. Although this was a high ranking position, it would not have been particularly challenging or interesting. Most of the time that formal signature involved elaborate calligraphy that Evan Caldoune had to replicate exactly over and over. So in the end, this was the first of many positions that he held, and over the course of his life he moved from place to place. I Like I said at the top of the show, there was a lot of falling out of favor and then going somewhere else and falling out of favor there as well. He ultimately worked for four different political dynasties that were often rivals are even enemies. There was the half Seeds and the Merinids, who we've already mentioned, as well as the abdalt Wadis and the Nasrids. So we're gonna talk more about all of the shifts in his life after we first paused for a sponsor break. Like we said before the break, over the course of his life, even Caldoune moved around a lot. He worked for various political dynasties all over North Africa and at some points on the Iberian Peninsula, and he either got caught up in or actively sought out all kinds of intrigue. Some historians have interpreted this as a combination of ambition and just outright opportunism. He does definitely seem to have been ambitious, but other historians have interpreted that opportunism more as a byproduct of the politically unstable world that he was living in. So basically he had to be at least a little bit opportunistic just to get by God play the game. Yeah, a lot of brief articles that I read about his life that have been written in more recent years made comparisons to the Game of Thrones series. Uh, And it would sort of like if he did not participate in this to at least some extent, he would have been one of the starks. In thirteen fifty two, the Marinids occupied the city of Bougie, which is Bijaya, Algeria today. Even Caldoon moved there not long after, possibly hoping that he would find access to the sorts of scholars and mentors that he had had when the Marinids had been in control of Tuness. He stayed until the Sultan of Morocco invited him to the Marinade capital of Fez in thirteen fifty four. Once he was in Fez, he spent three years as one of the sultan secretaries, and this might seem like a step up since he was working directly for the Sultan rather than for the the sultan storekeeper, but overall this was a less prestigious position than when he had back in tunas he was basically a clerk. Being in Fez did let him continue his education, though he studied at the Al Karawian Mosque, and at some point during these years he also got married. While Iban Caldoun was living in Fez, there was a plot to ouse the Marinids from Bougie and restore a previous Hot Seed ruler, Iban Caldoun was suspected of involvement in this plot, and he was imprisoned. He remained imprisoned until after the sultan was murdered in thirteen fifty eight, at which point he was released and given a position in the new administration. But after that Iban Caldoun turned around and rallied support for one of the new sultan's rivals. His motivations for this are not stated anywhere, but the new sultan was the infant son of the one who had just been murdered. In his vizier, who was acting as regent was the murderer, so that might have had something to do with it. In thirteen fifty nine, Mohammed the fifth was deposed as ruler of Granada and he went into exile in Fez. He brought one of his primary advisors with him, that was poet and historian Ibn al Kateib. Eban Caldune got to know both of these men, and in particular he became friends and colleagues with Eban al Kateb. Mohammed the fifth was restored as Sultan of Granada in thirteen sixty two, and the next year Iban Caldune asked for permission to leave Fez. That permission was granted, and he went to Granada, where he took a position in the Sultan's administration. He worked very closely with Eban Alkatib, who at that point had become Mohammed the fifth Vizier. Although this would have been a step up for Eben Caldune and he probably looked forward to working with Iban al Kateb, he had once again fallen under suspicion in Fez after the Sultan was presumably murdered in a revolt. He was given permission to leave Fez only if he did not go to one of the neighboring city states that was under the rule of a rival political dynasty. In thirteen sixty four, Mohammed the fifth tasked Eban cal Dune with making a diplomatic mission to Pedro, the First of Castile, to negotiate a peace treaty. Pedro seems to have been really impressed with Evan Caldune and offered to restore the Caldoune family's lands to him under the condition that he converted to Christianity. Eban Caldun refused this and wound up returning to North Africa. But before long his relationship with iban Active started to become strained, and it was reportedly because his success in Castile led to him becoming increasingly influential with the sultan. A year later, iban Caldoune was once again on the move, this time to become chief Minister to the House seed Emir a Bouji. His younger brother was made Vizier in the same administration. One of the things that iban caldoun did in this role is to try all out to the semi nomadic peoples in the mountainous areas around the city to try to convince them to pledge their loyalty to the Sultan and to collect taxes. This required a lot of diplomacy, and he also started making observations about these people's cultures and lifestyles and drawing conclusions about how their social connections helped them survive in a demanding environment. Meanwhile, the intrigue was continuing. Iban Caldoune's brother fell out of favor, and then so did iban Caldoune. For a few years, he moved from place to place, sometimes separated from his family if they were not given permission to join him. Even Alcati also fell out of favor in Granada, and by extensions, suspicion fell on Ibban Caldun as well. Even alcate went back to North Africa, and then a few years later he again fell under suspicion and was charged with heresy. He was killed in prison in thirty five. Over these years, at areas points, even Caldoun was arrested, captured while trying to flee from places where he'd fallen under suspicion, extradited, and also held high ranking positions in various governments, including multiple positions that involved acting as an emissary to nomadic people's in a lying areas. By the time Ibn al Kateb was killed, Eban Caldoune had worked for and was out of favor with seemingly everyone. Finally, in thirteen seventy five, the same year that Ivan Alkhatib had died, he stepped away from all of this and took refuge at a remote castle also described as a fortress in what's now western Algeria, and he brought his family with him. Over the next few years, he wrote the first draft of the Mukadema or the Introduction, which was the first Book of his katab Bar or Book of Lessons. The Book of Lessons was to be a history of Arab and Amazak people's. Its full name translates approximately to Book of Examples and the Collection of Origins of the history of the Arabs and Berbers. He worked on that longer work during this period as well. This work was deeply informed by Islamic law and Greek philosophy as seen through a Muslim lens, as well as all of his travel and all of those positions that he'd held, the political intrigues he'd either been involved in or at least suspected of, and the time that he had spent among nomadic and semi nomadic people's. But it wasn't just his written history of many of the peoples of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. He had also explored how he thought history should be researched, written, and recorded, outlining what he saw his errors in earlier chronicles and applying his ideas. When he wrote the Book of Lessons, for example, he thought the work of many earlier historians and chroniclers had really fallen short. He described seven sources of historical error. They included partisanship, hubrists, not examining the context and intent of earlier sources of written history and uncritically repeating the work of previous scholars without verifying it. He pointed out multiple widely held historical facts facts kind of in quotation marks that just did not make sense, like armies whose numbers were impossibly big considering the population of the place they were supposedly recruited from. What what doing actual math? No um. He also thought that history should not be just a simple chronological documentation of people and events, but then it should explore the social moraise, politics, and other factors that led events to progress in a certain way. He thought that the purpose of history was not just to document what happened, but to understand why societies rise and fall. He wanted to understand what caused things to happen a certain way in the past, and what could be learned about the present based on that understand ending, in his words, quote history is an art of valuable doctrine numerous, and its advantages an honorable in purpose. It informs us about bygone nations in the context of their habits, the profits, in the context of their lives and kings, in the context of their states and politics. So those who seek the guidance of the past in either worldly or religious matters may have that advantage. Because of all this, Sometimes even Caldoun is called the father of historiography, one of at least three disciplines that he is often credited as starting. We'll talk more about that after a sponsor break. The Arabic version of Eban cal Juan's Book of Lessons or Book of Examples was first printed over seven volumes. As we said earlier, Book one was the Mukadema, which had th owne introduction, followed by six chapters that was all printed as one volume. Book two was then printed over four volumes, and it primarily focused on the history of Arab peoples and dynasties, but it also incorporated histories of non Arab people such as the Persians and Greeks. Then the remaining two volumes were focused on Amzi history, and there was a brief autobiography that was included as an appendix. This was a monumental work and one that he revised over the remainder of his life. But the part that's most well known and most studied is the Mukadema, because, among other things, In addition to the portions on historiography that we talked about just before the break, he also outlined concepts that would fit in with the fields of sociology and economics centuries before either of those fields was established. He also had a chapter on pedagogy, or how people teach and learn that we're not really even getting into today. In terms of sociology, and Caldoune described what he was writing as the science of human society or the science of social organization. His work on history and all that time he had spent working in the extremely turbulent world of fourteenth century North Africa had led him to really examine how and why society's rise and fall. Through all this, he came to believe that a political dynasty could survive for only about four generations, and that all of them followed a similar cycle. This idea was underpinned by a concept called asabia, which is an Arabic term. It really doesn't have a perfect translation into English. A lot of sources translated as solidarity or community cohesion, but that's really only part of it. Assaba incorporates political power and the social bonds that give a community a shared sense of purpose. Even Caldun believed that society started out with a deep sense of assabia and the people living in them struggled to serve five and that a saba was a huge part of how nomadic societies living in remote, mountainous or desert regions were able to But as a society grew and started to flourish, or as a nomadic society established a town or otherwise stopped migrating, it lost that sense of social cohesion. Then, over time of bureaucracy would evolve, along with a hierarchy within that population. Leaders would eventually become farther and farther removed from the people they were supposed to be governing, focusing more on things like luxury and opulence than on the needs of the community. Eventually, their leadership would fail and this society would be overthrown by an uprising on the part of the more common people or an invasion from the outside. Basically, he saw this as a continual cycle of growth and decay, and he connected that to the role that violence played in the creation and maintenance of societies. He described nomadic people's as somewhat protected from the cycle because of the demands of their living environment. You just had to have a strong sense of social cohesion to survive while migrating through the mountains or the desert, But that really changed if a nomadic society became more sedentary. Even Caldoun's ideas on economics were connected to some of these same parts of the Mukadema, as well as two chapters that discussed different crafts and trades. As societies went through that cycle of growth and decay, they also changed economically, with a greater population providing more labor, which in turn led to more profits. He thought taxes were necessary, but we're also part of this same cycle, with newly established societies levying lower levels of taxes that people happily paid, and then demanding more and more until people ultimately refused. He also thought that prosperity and population rose hand in hand, at least to a point. As societies became bigger and wealthier, they needed increasingly complex divisions of labor. He also noted connections between supply and demand and the price of goods, and how a society's growth stimulated that cycle of supply and demand. He was also opposed to monopolies, especially when those monopolies were held by the leaders of a society. He also thought that there were natural and unnatural ways for people to earn a living. Natural jobs included things like agricultural work, hunting, fishing, being a craftsperson. Unnatural jobs included rulers, soldiers, and treasure hunters. He really did not like treasure hunters at all. He talked about not a lot. Eventually, Evan Caldoune left the fortress where he had drafted all of this work and he went back to Tunis. He had written the first draft of his book without access to any kind of archive or library, and getting access to more of that research material might have been one of his reasons for returning, but he also seems to have been ill at this point, and the level of drama and intrigue had not really gone down while he was away. His brother was murdered, probably for political reasons, but the details aren't clear, and even Caldun himself also had plenty of detractors. In two, when he was fifty, Eben Caldun was given permission to embark on the Hajj, that is, the pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims must make at least once in their adult lives if they are physically and financially able. Even Caldoune went to Alexandria, Egypt, and then on to Cairo, where he was impressed by the city's architecture and by its institutions of higher learning. Although he definitely had critics and was a controversial figure, Ivan Caldune was also in demand as a teacher. He'd already made a name for himself with his work. He started teaching at Al Hazar University, which had been established in the year nine seventy two and still exists today. He also became a katti or judge, practicing malec jurisprudence, and although he wasn't under the same spotlight as he had been in his earlier political appointments, this was still a role that was influenced by politics. As a judge, he tried to be impartial and to really follow the letter of the law, regardless of whether doing so would be politically unpopular. That meant that soon he had a reputation for being uncompromising and almost intentionally contrarian. Over the rest of his life. He was removed from his appointment as chief Katti and then reinstate into it again at least five times drama. When Iban Caldoune left for Egypt, it was at least in theory, to undertake the Hajj, so his family was not with him. As he remained in Cairo. Arrangements were made for his wife and five daughters to join him, but in eighty four the ship they were on sank off the coast of Alexandria and they were killed. Now we know almost nothing about these people in his life. The first mention of their existence is the report on their deaths. Many of Eban Caldune's personal possessions were also on board that ship, and that included his personal library. Yeah, there are some people who have written about his biography that interpret him as being just absolutely devastated by the loss of his family, but we know almost nothing about it from his own point of view. Like the way he mentions it in that brief autobiography is almost off handed, which doesn't necessarily signify anything because it was not typical for people to include a lot of personal details and their autobiographies at this point in time. But they are really a mystery that we know virtually nothing of. Evan cal Dune did undertake the Hajj. He did that in seven and then returned to Cairo afterward. Two years later he participated in a palace revolt, and that was apparently under duress. He was not prosecuted for that. In fourteen hundred, to Mur, also known as Tamberlane, invaded Syria, having already conquered much of Persia, and invaded the Indian subcontinent as he tried to rebuild the Mongol Empire. We've run our episode onto Mur as a recent Saturday Classic. Parts of Syria were under the control of mom Luk Egypt, and although Egypt had been allied with the Ottomans against Timer, that alliance had weakened in quick succession. To Mur had occupied Aleppo and besieged Damascus. Egypt dispatched a military force, switched to Moor's forces, than defeated, and then afterward forage. The Sultan of Egypt took a delegation to Damascus. One of its members was it In Caldoune, who at that point was almost seventy. Some sources described him as going along with this delegation mostly because he was really curious about two more. Others, though, make it sound like he was deeply reluctant to go Eventually, Forage and his retinue withdrew and returned to Egypt, but even Caldoon stayed behind to negotiate with Timur. There's one particularly dramatic account of him being lowered over the wall of the besieged city in a basket. He was really impressed with Tumor and described him this way. Quote this King Timur is one of the greatest and mightiest of kings. Some attribute to him knowledge, others attribute to him heresy because they note his preference for the members of the House of Ali. Still others attribute to him the employment of magic and sorcery. But in all this there is nothing. It is simply that he is highly intelligent and very perspicacious, addicted to debate and argumentation about what he knows and also about what he does not know. This is not at all how this person is usually described in accounts from places that he conquered. Now the subscriptions, they're more like, this was a terrifying tyrant. This is a ruthless man's single of purpose. Not she wanted to talk to me about philosophy, None of that. Eman Caldun stayed in Damascus for thirty five days and returns back to Cairo in March of fourteen o one. Before leaving, he did manage to negotiate for civilians in Damascus to get safe passage out of the city. Based on his conversations with some more, Iman Caldun seems to have thought that he would protect the city of Damascus, or at least treat it pretty kindly. But after Iman Caldune had left, two Moore's forces sacked the city, including setting fire to its great mosque. Then Iman Caldoune was attacked on the way home and robbed of all of his possessions. There's that ruthless part. Uh Ivan Caldoun spent the rest of his life in Cairo. He died there on March seventeen, fourteen oh six. At the time of his death, he was once again Chief Cuddy, having been reinstated after his most recent ouster. He was buried in a sue the cemetery, but it's not clear whether he thought of himself as a Sufi at this point. Sufism is a mystical school of Islam, and Eben Caldoune's earlier writing on it was contradictory. He had a lot of opinions about this kind of thing that we did not really get into in this episode, Like he thought that prophecy could be real, but that fortune telling was not, like there was There's just a lot of nuance that's sort of through this very Muslim lens, that's beyond what we have really talked about today. In addition to his surviving works which we've talked about, there are at least five other works by Iban Caldun that are mentioned in contemporary accounts, including work on logic and arithmetic. He only had a couple of students in his last years in Cairo, though, and he had a lot of enemies. So towards the end of his life and after his death he was accused of all kinds of wrongdoing and immorality, and people said he was a bad scholar and that his history garbage. That just a lot of criticism. Many works from the Islamic Golden Age were translated into Latin and became influential to scholars in Europe, but by the time Iban Caldoun died, works in Arabic were not being translated nearly as often, so for a time he fell into obscurity in North Africa and was unknown in Europe. The Ottomans occupied Egypt in the fifteen teens, and after that point some of his work was reprinted in compilations in the Ottoman Empire. The rediscovery of ivan Caldoune's work in both Europe and North Africa started around the nineteenth century. Part of this involved France invading Algeria in eighteen thirty, and French officials were looking for local resources so they could try to learn about, understand, and ultimately control the Amasaik people. This included getting translations of the work of iban Caldoun, and from there some of his ideas started making their way into the newly developing field of socioity g He doesn't seem to have been incorporated as much into the field of economics, although sometimes he is described as predicting the work of Adam Smith and then German philosopher Friedrich Engels definitely read translations of iban Caldun's work. In the twentieth century, historian Arnold Toynbee described iban Caldun's work on historiography as quote a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind, in any time or place. Iban Caldun has also been influential in other ways. For example, Frank Herbert's novel Dune draws heavily from Islam and from the histories and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. There are some clear parallels between the universe of Doune and events that play out there, and Iben Caldune's Mukadema, and there's an in world book that shares its name with iban Caldun's history. In one interview, Herbert can firm that he had read the Mukadema. And in ninety one, President Ronald Reagan quoted iban Caldoun in a speech on his administration's ideas of supply side economics, in other words, attempting to spur economic growth by lowering taxes and lifting regulations. Reagan described Eban Caldoune as the earliest origin of these ideas, paraphrasing from the Mukadema by saying, in part quote in the beginning of the dynasty, great tax revenues were gained from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, small tax revenues were gained from large assessments. Reagan went on to say, quote, we're trying to get down to the small assessments and the great revenues. However, in Iben Caldoon and Intellectual Biography, which was published by Princeton University Press in eighteen, historian Robert Irwin argues that either Reagan or his speechwriter totally misread and misinterpreted Iban Caldoune's ideas on taxes, saying, quote, he did not think that high taxes were the main cause of reduced revenue. Rather, the high taxes were a consequence of increased expenditure and reduced income. Yeah he's uh. He read about high taxes more as an indicator of the decline of a society, not as the closet, not as the thing to shift around. Uh So, yeah, that's even Caldoune and his very dramatic life full of intrigue. Do you have a listener mail that may or may not include intrigue? I don't know if it includes intrigue. Intrigue might be a little stronger than uh than it's This is another email about chaos cows. Uh. This one is from Mark, and Mark wrote high Tracy Holley. I'm a huge fan and have been dying to email you both. Actually I've tried many times, but I have made many foolish attempts, which I must confess. I started listening to y'all back in when I was king for something enjoyable to listen to, and boy, did you to make me happy. I've learned so many interesting things for me all. But here comes my confession. I now listen to you at double speed. It didn't always start this way. Actually, it was another podcast that made me start doing it. They would drone on and I finally stopped listening to them, but it didn't stop me from speeding up all my podcasts. Everyone sounds slow when I go back to normal speed. I drive my kids and their friends a lot of places, and they always find it funny when I listened to my podcast on double speed. This makes it hard for me to hear the email address and the disclaimer that this might be an old email address. So the first three emails I tried to send may never have gotten there. It doesn't matter because I don't remember what I might have said in them. So why this one? Well? I loved when you spoke about the tour guide saying chaos cows and your initial reaction to it. I'm sure you've heard by now the reason for it, But since you didn't say as much, I thought I might try to enlighten you as you have done for me countless times. I took classics at umss am Hers and one of my professors, who taught Greek sieve and Ancient Greek, explained the word this is spelled using Greek letters kai, alpha, omicron, sigma, does not mean chaos a lack of order. It's actually closer to meaning chasm pronounced cows and the way Greeks described something that was before the existence of gaia and orinos for the earth and sky, and it would definitely sound like cows if you'd never heard it before. Mark then goes on to talk about kids and cats. There were lots of cat pictures attached this email, which is great, Um, and then says keep doing what y'all are doing so well, Thanks Mark, So thanks so much Mark for this email. I find this information so fascinating and it's such an intriguing idea to me. But I also feel pretty confident that this tour guide was just sounding out the word chaos the way that those letters would be pronounced in Italian, so that it would rhyme with like chow rather than chaos as we would say it. But I still found this to be such an intriguing idea. Um, it's a little bit longer walk to the idea that she was using a Greek term that was pronounced differently rather than a sounding out of a term whose letters would sound differently in Italian. Um. Also, the idea of playing a podcast at double speed and then everything sounds slow resonates with me, mostly from playing video games, because if a video game has given me the option to sprint everywhere without any kind of penalty, I will absolutely do it, and then if I try to walk somewhere, it's too slow, it's taking forever. I listened to audio books not at double speed, but it like one point to five or something, and a regular one. I always feel like, is there a gas leak in my car? Am I having some sort of yeah? We um. We Occasionally will get an email from somebody who says you talk way too fast. I can't understand what you're saying, and often it has turned out that the person accidentally hit the playback to double speed. Um. I accidentally hit mine to one point to five. Recently, while I was trying to like listen to one of our older episodes to see if it was workable for a Saturday Classic. And I had a moment where I wasn't sure it was going on because it sounded just different enough that I knew it wasn't right, but not in a way that immediately made me go oh. I changed the playback speed by accident. Anyway, Thank you so much for this note about chaosk Cows, and for all of these animal pictures. We love them, of course, if you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast or history podcast and I heard radio dot com and we're all over social media. Missed in History which before you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. And you can subscribe to our show on the i heeart Radio app or anywhere else you'll like to get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. I don't remember exactly what led me to write Iman cal Dune on my episode shortlist, but what I wrote down was Iman cal Dune Muslim historian. That's correct. He was a historian. He focused mainly on northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, also a little bit of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and he was particularly focused on the history of Arabs and the Emasan, which are also known as the Berbers. Beyond that, he also wrote of original work on historiography, or the way history is studied and written, and on economics and sociology, long before either of those was recognized as a field. So already we have a lot beyond just my simple description of his story orion. What I did not know until I got into this is that he did this work during a time of just ongoing chaos and strife, and in that context, his life included just continual political drama and intrigue and moving from place to place as he gained favor or lost favor or was suspected of some kind of plot, or in some cases was actually involved in some kind of plot. Like it wasn't just all of this playing out in the background of the life of a scholar. He was personally involved in a lot of it. So that added a whole unexpected layer of intrigued this podcast on somebody who was really groundbreaking as a scholar and was one of the most important intellectual figures of his age. Even Caldoun lived shortly after the end of the Islamic Golden Age. That's a term that was coined in the nineteenth century to describe a period of cultural, scientific, and artistic flourishing that spanned from about the eighth century through the thirteenth century. We've talked about several figures from this era on the show before, including physicist ibanel Hathum, polymath and physician Ibn Sina, and mathematician Alquarismi. One of the events that's used to mark the end of the Islamic Golden Age is the Siege of Baghdad and twelve fifty eight. That's when the last remaining territory of the Abbasid Caliphate fell to Mongol invaders. Ivan Caldoune spent most of his life in Northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, which was to the west of all of that, but that region was going through its own upheaval at roughly the same time with the fall of the alma Had Caliphate. The alma Had Caliphate had been established by an Almazaik also known as Berber Confederation in the twelfth century, which had controlled much of what is now Spain in Northern Africa into the thirteenth century, the Caliphate started losing territory in Spain to both the Reconquista or the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula and to other Muslim factions in North Africa. Other Muslim dynasties and sultanates had taken over various parts of what had been al Mahad territory. The alma Head and Abbasid Caliphates were both very large political dynasties, and their collapse led to a power vacuum and the rise of much smaller city states, as well as the rise of a lot of tensions as their various leaders each tried to reunite the territory into one empire under their control. All of this affected Ibn cal June's family directly. According to his family genealogy, the House of cal June had been founded by an Arab ancestor from what's now Yemen who had settled in Andalusia near Seville during the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula that took place around the eighth century. Ivan Caldune was proud of this lineage. Arabic names trace a person's ancestor story, and he gave his name in his autobiography as abdella Rockman Ibn Mohammed Ibben Mahabed Ibn al Hassan Ibn Mohammed Immin Jabber Ibban Mahabban Immen Ibraheim Ibben Abdal Krochman ibn kal Dune. Although he expressed some doubts that this genealogy was maybe not totally correct, he thought logically there should be some more generations between him and that first cal June. After moving to Seville, the House of Caldoune had become part of the Muslim aristocracy, there, holding high ranking government and military posts in various administrations for generations, including the Almah Head Caliphate after it took control of civil in eleven seventy two, but then in twelve forty eight, Ferdinand the Third Lacey to Seville during the Reconquista. At that point, the Calduns fled to Tunis, which the House Seeds had seized from the Almahads just six years before. The house Seeds were another Almasak dynasty which had been founded by a former almah Head governor. Although they'd had to fle from Seville, the Caldun family still had a lot of wealth and power and prestige, so when they got to Tunis, they continued to be part of the elite. This was also true of Iban Caldun's father, although he broke with family tradition to focus more on law and intellectual pursuits instead of on politics. I Been cal June was born in Tunas on May thirteen, thirty two. It's a little more than eighty years after his family had fled from Seville, and the house that he's believed to have been born in is still standing today. We don't know much at all about the personal details of Iban Caldun's upbringing, but we do know that he got the kind of education that was typical for a son in a family with the Caldoun's social status. He studied Arabic language and literature and Islamic law, and he memorized the Koran. But Tunis wasn't as large or cosmopolitan as some of the other cities in North Africa, so Ivan Caldoun didn't really have access to the most prestigious teachers and mentors. That changed in thirteen forty seven when Merinid Sultan Abul Hassan Ali of Fez occupied Tunis as part of a campaign to take control of much of Northern Africa. Fez is one of the oldest cities in what's now Morocco, and in the fourteenth century it was a center for cultural, religious, and intellectual scholarship. It's home to the University of Al Karawian, which is the oldest institution of higher learning in the world. It was established as a mosque and teaching center by Fatima Alphahiri in the year eight fifty nine. When the Marinids occupied Tunis, they brought legal scholars and theologians from Fez with them. One of these was Mohammed Ibban Ambraham al Abili, who was an influential scholar and mathematician. He lodged with the Caldun family, and he became Iban Caldoun's teacher. As Iban Caldoun's education continued, he learned Malachi jurisprudence, which is one of four schools of law in Sunni Islam. But even Caldune only had access to this new set of teachers and mentors for a couple of years. The Black Death arrived in Tunas in thirteen forty eight, and by thirteen forty nine, both of him and Caldune's parents had died of the plague. Plague also killed multiple other members of his family and some of his teachers. Mohammed Ibn Ibrahim all Abeli survived, but he and most of the other surviving scholars all returned to Faz when the Marinids withdrew from Tunis. The Merited occupation had become increasingly unpopular. It had never really had a very strong control over the region, especially among the semi nomadic peoples who were living in more outlying areas, and they just couldn't maintain control in the wake of the devastation of the plague. After the Marinade withdrawal, Tunas was back under how Seed control. Even Caldune was about seventeen when all of this happened, and he stayed in Tunis for a while. When he was about eighteen, he got his first court position, and it was as a senior staff member to one of the most powerful men in Tuness. That was the Sultan's doorkeeper, who was in charge of security and controlled who did or did not get audience with the Sultan. Iban Caldoune was Master of the sultan Seal, making him responsible for writing the Sultan's formal signature on official documents, and he probably had some diplomatic responsibilities as well. Although this was a high ranking position, it would not have been particularly challenging or interesting. Most of the time that formal signature involved elaborate calligraphy that Evan Caldoune had to replicate exactly over and over. So in the end, this was the first of many positions that he held, and over the course of his life he moved from place to place. I Like I said at the top of the show, there was a lot of falling out of favor and then going somewhere else and falling out of favor there as well. He ultimately worked for four different political dynasties that were often rivals are even enemies. There was the half Seeds and the Merinids, who we've already mentioned, as well as the abdalt Wadis and the Nasrids. So we're gonna talk more about all of the shifts in his life after we first paused for a sponsor break. Like we said before the break, over the course of his life, even Caldoune moved around a lot. He worked for various political dynasties all over North Africa and at some points on the Iberian Peninsula, and he either got caught up in or actively sought out all kinds of intrigue. Some historians have interpreted this as a combination of ambition and just outright opportunism. He does definitely seem to have been ambitious, but other historians have interpreted that opportunism more as a byproduct of the politically unstable world that he was living in. So basically he had to be at least a little bit opportunistic just to get by God play the game. Yeah, a lot of brief articles that I read about his life that have been written in more recent years made comparisons to the Game of Thrones series. Uh, And it would sort of like if he did not participate in this to at least some extent, he would have been one of the starks. In thirteen fifty two, the Marinids occupied the city of Bougie, which is Bijaya, Algeria today. Even Caldoon moved there not long after, possibly hoping that he would find access to the sorts of scholars and mentors that he had had when the Marinids had been in control of Tuness. He stayed until the Sultan of Morocco invited him to the Marinade capital of Fez in thirteen fifty four. Once he was in Fez, he spent three years as one of the sultan secretaries, and this might seem like a step up since he was working directly for the Sultan rather than for the the sultan storekeeper, but overall this was a less prestigious position than when he had back in tunas he was basically a clerk. Being in Fez did let him continue his education, though he studied at the Al Karawian Mosque, and at some point during these years he also got married. While Iban Caldoun was living in Fez, there was a plot to ouse the Marinids from Bougie and restore a previous Hot Seed ruler, Iban Caldoun was suspected of involvement in this plot, and he was imprisoned. He remained imprisoned until after the sultan was murdered in thirteen fifty eight, at which point he was released and given a position in the new administration. But after that Iban Caldoun turned around and rallied support for one of the new sultan's rivals. His motivations for this are not stated anywhere, but the new sultan was the infant son of the one who had just been murdered. In his vizier, who was acting as regent was the murderer, so that might have had something to do with it. In thirteen fifty nine, Mohammed the fifth was deposed as ruler of Granada and he went into exile in Fez. He brought one of his primary advisors with him, that was poet and historian Ibn al Kateib. Eban Caldune got to know both of these men, and in particular he became friends and colleagues with Eban al Kateb. Mohammed the fifth was restored as Sultan of Granada in thirteen sixty two, and the next year Iban Caldune asked for permission to leave Fez. That permission was granted, and he went to Granada, where he took a position in the Sultan's administration. He worked very closely with Eban Alkatib, who at that point had become Mohammed the fifth Vizier. Although this would have been a step up for Eben Caldune and he probably looked forward to working with Iban al Kateb, he had once again fallen under suspicion in Fez after the Sultan was presumably murdered in a revolt. He was given permission to leave Fez only if he did not go to one of the neighboring city states that was under the rule of a rival political dynasty. In thirteen sixty four, Mohammed the fifth tasked Eban cal Dune with making a diplomatic mission to Pedro, the First of Castile, to negotiate a peace treaty. Pedro seems to have been really impressed with Evan Caldune and offered to restore the Caldoune family's lands to him under the condition that he converted to Christianity. Eban Caldun refused this and wound up returning to North Africa. But before long his relationship with iban Active started to become strained, and it was reportedly because his success in Castile led to him becoming increasingly influential with the sultan. A year later, iban Caldoune was once again on the move, this time to become chief Minister to the House seed Emir a Bouji. His younger brother was made Vizier in the same administration. One of the things that iban caldoun did in this role is to try all out to the semi nomadic peoples in the mountainous areas around the city to try to convince them to pledge their loyalty to the Sultan and to collect taxes. This required a lot of diplomacy, and he also started making observations about these people's cultures and lifestyles and drawing conclusions about how their social connections helped them survive in a demanding environment. Meanwhile, the intrigue was continuing. Iban Caldoune's brother fell out of favor, and then so did iban Caldoune. For a few years, he moved from place to place, sometimes separated from his family if they were not given permission to join him. Even Alcati also fell out of favor in Granada, and by extensions, suspicion fell on Ibban Caldun as well. Even alcate went back to North Africa, and then a few years later he again fell under suspicion and was charged with heresy. He was killed in prison in thirty five. Over these years, at areas points, even Caldoun was arrested, captured while trying to flee from places where he'd fallen under suspicion, extradited, and also held high ranking positions in various governments, including multiple positions that involved acting as an emissary to nomadic people's in a lying areas. By the time Ibn al Kateb was killed, Eban Caldoune had worked for and was out of favor with seemingly everyone. Finally, in thirteen seventy five, the same year that Ivan Alkhatib had died, he stepped away from all of this and took refuge at a remote castle also described as a fortress in what's now western Algeria, and he brought his family with him. Over the next few years, he wrote the first draft of the Mukadema or the Introduction, which was the first Book of his katab Bar or Book of Lessons. The Book of Lessons was to be a history of Arab and Amazak people's. Its full name translates approximately to Book of Examples and the Collection of Origins of the history of the Arabs and Berbers. He worked on that longer work during this period as well. This work was deeply informed by Islamic law and Greek philosophy as seen through a Muslim lens, as well as all of his travel and all of those positions that he'd held, the political intrigues he'd either been involved in or at least suspected of, and the time that he had spent among nomadic and semi nomadic people's. But it wasn't just his written history of many of the peoples of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. He had also explored how he thought history should be researched, written, and recorded, outlining what he saw his errors in earlier chronicles and applying his ideas. When he wrote the Book of Lessons, for example, he thought the work of many earlier historians and chroniclers had really fallen short. He described seven sources of historical error. They included partisanship, hubrists, not examining the context and intent of earlier sources of written history and uncritically repeating the work of previous scholars without verifying it. He pointed out multiple widely held historical facts facts kind of in quotation marks that just did not make sense, like armies whose numbers were impossibly big considering the population of the place they were supposedly recruited from. What what doing actual math? No um. He also thought that history should not be just a simple chronological documentation of people and events, but then it should explore the social moraise, politics, and other factors that led events to progress in a certain way. He thought that the purpose of history was not just to document what happened, but to understand why societies rise and fall. He wanted to understand what caused things to happen a certain way in the past, and what could be learned about the present based on that understand ending, in his words, quote history is an art of valuable doctrine numerous, and its advantages an honorable in purpose. It informs us about bygone nations in the context of their habits, the profits, in the context of their lives and kings, in the context of their states and politics. So those who seek the guidance of the past in either worldly or religious matters may have that advantage. Because of all this, Sometimes even Caldoun is called the father of historiography, one of at least three disciplines that he is often credited as starting. We'll talk more about that after a sponsor break. The Arabic version of Eban cal Juan's Book of Lessons or Book of Examples was first printed over seven volumes. As we said earlier, Book one was the Mukadema, which had th owne introduction, followed by six chapters that was all printed as one volume. Book two was then printed over four volumes, and it primarily focused on the history of Arab peoples and dynasties, but it also incorporated histories of non Arab people such as the Persians and Greeks. Then the remaining two volumes were focused on Amzi history, and there was a brief autobiography that was included as an appendix. This was a monumental work and one that he revised over the remainder of his life. But the part that's most well known and most studied is the Mukadema, because, among other things, In addition to the portions on historiography that we talked about just before the break, he also outlined concepts that would fit in with the fields of sociology and economics centuries before either of those fields was established. He also had a chapter on pedagogy, or how people teach and learn that we're not really even getting into today. In terms of sociology, and Caldoune described what he was writing as the science of human society or the science of social organization. His work on history and all that time he had spent working in the extremely turbulent world of fourteenth century North Africa had led him to really examine how and why society's rise and fall. Through all this, he came to believe that a political dynasty could survive for only about four generations, and that all of them followed a similar cycle. This idea was underpinned by a concept called asabia, which is an Arabic term. It really doesn't have a perfect translation into English. A lot of sources translated as solidarity or community cohesion, but that's really only part of it. Assaba incorporates political power and the social bonds that give a community a shared sense of purpose. Even Caldun believed that society started out with a deep sense of assabia and the people living in them struggled to serve five and that a saba was a huge part of how nomadic societies living in remote, mountainous or desert regions were able to But as a society grew and started to flourish, or as a nomadic society established a town or otherwise stopped migrating, it lost that sense of social cohesion. Then, over time of bureaucracy would evolve, along with a hierarchy within that population. Leaders would eventually become farther and farther removed from the people they were supposed to be governing, focusing more on things like luxury and opulence than on the needs of the community. Eventually, their leadership would fail and this society would be overthrown by an uprising on the part of the more common people or an invasion from the outside. Basically, he saw this as a continual cycle of growth and decay, and he connected that to the role that violence played in the creation and maintenance of societies. He described nomadic people's as somewhat protected from the cycle because of the demands of their living environment. You just had to have a strong sense of social cohesion to survive while migrating through the mountains or the desert, But that really changed if a nomadic society became more sedentary. Even Caldoun's ideas on economics were connected to some of these same parts of the Mukadema, as well as two chapters that discussed different crafts and trades. As societies went through that cycle of growth and decay, they also changed economically, with a greater population providing more labor, which in turn led to more profits. He thought taxes were necessary, but we're also part of this same cycle, with newly established societies levying lower levels of taxes that people happily paid, and then demanding more and more until people ultimately refused. He also thought that prosperity and population rose hand in hand, at least to a point. As societies became bigger and wealthier, they needed increasingly complex divisions of labor. He also noted connections between supply and demand and the price of goods, and how a society's growth stimulated that cycle of supply and demand. He was also opposed to monopolies, especially when those monopolies were held by the leaders of a society. He also thought that there were natural and unnatural ways for people to earn a living. Natural jobs included things like agricultural work, hunting, fishing, being a craftsperson. Unnatural jobs included rulers, soldiers, and treasure hunters. He really did not like treasure hunters at all. He talked about not a lot. Eventually, Evan Caldoune left the fortress where he had drafted all of this work and he went back to Tunis. He had written the first draft of his book without access to any kind of archive or library, and getting access to more of that research material might have been one of his reasons for returning, but he also seems to have been ill at this point, and the level of drama and intrigue had not really gone down while he was away. His brother was murdered, probably for political reasons, but the details aren't clear, and even Caldun himself also had plenty of detractors. In two, when he was fifty, Eben Caldun was given permission to embark on the Hajj, that is, the pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims must make at least once in their adult lives if they are physically and financially able. Even Caldoune went to Alexandria, Egypt, and then on to Cairo, where he was impressed by the city's architecture and by its institutions of higher learning. Although he definitely had critics and was a controversial figure, Ivan Caldune was also in demand as a teacher. He'd already made a name for himself with his work. He started teaching at Al Hazar University, which had been established in the year nine seventy two and still exists today. He also became a katti or judge, practicing malec jurisprudence, and although he wasn't under the same spotlight as he had been in his earlier political appointments, this was still a role that was influenced by politics. As a judge, he tried to be impartial and to really follow the letter of the law, regardless of whether doing so would be politically unpopular. That meant that soon he had a reputation for being uncompromising and almost intentionally contrarian. Over the rest of his life. He was removed from his appointment as chief Katti and then reinstate into it again at least five times drama. When Iban Caldoune left for Egypt, it was at least in theory, to undertake the Hajj, so his family was not with him. As he remained in Cairo. Arrangements were made for his wife and five daughters to join him, but in eighty four the ship they were on sank off the coast of Alexandria and they were killed. Now we know almost nothing about these people in his life. The first mention of their existence is the report on their deaths. Many of Eban Caldune's personal possessions were also on board that ship, and that included his personal library. Yeah, there are some people who have written about his biography that interpret him as being just absolutely devastated by the loss of his family, but we know almost nothing about it from his own point of view. Like the way he mentions it in that brief autobiography is almost off handed, which doesn't necessarily signify anything because it was not typical for people to include a lot of personal details and their autobiographies at this point in time. But they are really a mystery that we know virtually nothing of. Evan cal Dune did undertake the Hajj. He did that in seven and then returned to Cairo afterward. Two years later he participated in a palace revolt, and that was apparently under duress. He was not prosecuted for that. In fourteen hundred, to Mur, also known as Tamberlane, invaded Syria, having already conquered much of Persia, and invaded the Indian subcontinent as he tried to rebuild the Mongol Empire. We've run our episode onto Mur as a recent Saturday Classic. Parts of Syria were under the control of mom Luk Egypt, and although Egypt had been allied with the Ottomans against Timer, that alliance had weakened in quick succession. To Mur had occupied Aleppo and besieged Damascus. Egypt dispatched a military force, switched to Moor's forces, than defeated, and then afterward forage. The Sultan of Egypt took a delegation to Damascus. One of its members was it In Caldoune, who at that point was almost seventy. Some sources described him as going along with this delegation mostly because he was really curious about two more. Others, though, make it sound like he was deeply reluctant to go Eventually, Forage and his retinue withdrew and returned to Egypt, but even Caldoon stayed behind to negotiate with Timur. There's one particularly dramatic account of him being lowered over the wall of the besieged city in a basket. He was really impressed with Tumor and described him this way. Quote this King Timur is one of the greatest and mightiest of kings. Some attribute to him knowledge, others attribute to him heresy because they note his preference for the members of the House of Ali. Still others attribute to him the employment of magic and sorcery. But in all this there is nothing. It is simply that he is highly intelligent and very perspicacious, addicted to debate and argumentation about what he knows and also about what he does not know. This is not at all how this person is usually described in accounts from places that he conquered. Now the subscriptions, they're more like, this was a terrifying tyrant. This is a ruthless man's single of purpose. Not she wanted to talk to me about philosophy, None of that. Eman Caldun stayed in Damascus for thirty five days and returns back to Cairo in March of fourteen o one. Before leaving, he did manage to negotiate for civilians in Damascus to get safe passage out of the city. Based on his conversations with some more, Iman Caldun seems to have thought that he would protect the city of Damascus, or at least treat it pretty kindly. But after Iman Caldune had left, two Moore's forces sacked the city, including setting fire to its great mosque. Then Iman Caldoune was attacked on the way home and robbed of all of his possessions. There's that ruthless part. Uh Ivan Caldoun spent the rest of his life in Cairo. He died there on March seventeen, fourteen oh six. At the time of his death, he was once again Chief Cuddy, having been reinstated after his most recent ouster. He was buried in a sue the cemetery, but it's not clear whether he thought of himself as a Sufi at this point. Sufism is a mystical school of Islam, and Eben Caldoune's earlier writing on it was contradictory. He had a lot of opinions about this kind of thing that we did not really get into in this episode, Like he thought that prophecy could be real, but that fortune telling was not, like there was There's just a lot of nuance that's sort of through this very Muslim lens, that's beyond what we have really talked about today. In addition to his surviving works which we've talked about, there are at least five other works by Iban Caldun that are mentioned in contemporary accounts, including work on logic and arithmetic. He only had a couple of students in his last years in Cairo, though, and he had a lot of enemies. So towards the end of his life and after his death he was accused of all kinds of wrongdoing and immorality, and people said he was a bad scholar and that his history garbage. That just a lot of criticism. Many works from the Islamic Golden Age were translated into Latin and became influential to scholars in Europe, but by the time Iban Caldoun died, works in Arabic were not being translated nearly as often, so for a time he fell into obscurity in North Africa and was unknown in Europe. The Ottomans occupied Egypt in the fifteen teens, and after that point some of his work was reprinted in compilations in the Ottoman Empire. The rediscovery of ivan Caldoune's work in both Europe and North Africa started around the nineteenth century. Part of this involved France invading Algeria in eighteen thirty, and French officials were looking for local resources so they could try to learn about, understand, and ultimately control the Amasaik people. This included getting translations of the work of iban Caldoun, and from there some of his ideas started making their way into the newly developing field of socioity g He doesn't seem to have been incorporated as much into the field of economics, although sometimes he is described as predicting the work of Adam Smith and then German philosopher Friedrich Engels definitely read translations of iban Caldun's work. In the twentieth century, historian Arnold Toynbee described iban Caldun's work on historiography as quote a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind, in any time or place. Iban Caldun has also been influential in other ways. For example, Frank Herbert's novel Dune draws heavily from Islam and from the histories and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. There are some clear parallels between the universe of Doune and events that play out there, and Iben Caldune's Mukadema, and there's an in world book that shares its name with iban Caldun's history. In one interview, Herbert can firm that he had read the Mukadema. And in ninety one, President Ronald Reagan quoted iban Caldoun in a speech on his administration's ideas of supply side economics, in other words, attempting to spur economic growth by lowering taxes and lifting regulations. Reagan described Eban Caldoune as the earliest origin of these ideas, paraphrasing from the Mukadema by saying, in part quote in the beginning of the dynasty, great tax revenues were gained from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, small tax revenues were gained from large assessments. Reagan went on to say, quote, we're trying to get down to the small assessments and the great revenues. However, in Iben Caldoon and Intellectual Biography, which was published by Princeton University Press in eighteen, historian Robert Irwin argues that either Reagan or his speechwriter totally misread and misinterpreted Iban Caldoune's ideas on taxes, saying, quote, he did not think that high taxes were the main cause of reduced revenue. Rather, the high taxes were a consequence of increased expenditure and reduced income. Yeah he's uh. He read about high taxes more as an indicator of the decline of a society, not as the closet, not as the thing to shift around. Uh So, yeah, that's even Caldoune and his very dramatic life full of intrigue. Do you have a listener mail that may or may not include intrigue? I don't know if it includes intrigue. Intrigue might be a little stronger than uh than it's This is another email about chaos cows. Uh. This one is from Mark, and Mark wrote high Tracy Holley. I'm a huge fan and have been dying to email you both. Actually I've tried many times, but I have made many foolish attempts, which I must confess. I started listening to y'all back in when I was king for something enjoyable to listen to, and boy, did you to make me happy. I've learned so many interesting things for me all. But here comes my confession. I now listen to you at double speed. It didn't always start this way. Actually, it was another podcast that made me start doing it. They would drone on and I finally stopped listening to them, but it didn't stop me from speeding up all my podcasts. Everyone sounds slow when I go back to normal speed. I drive my kids and their friends a lot of places, and they always find it funny when I listened to my podcast on double speed. This makes it hard for me to hear the email address and the disclaimer that this might be an old email address. So the first three emails I tried to send may never have gotten there. It doesn't matter because I don't remember what I might have said in them. So why this one? Well? I loved when you spoke about the tour guide saying chaos cows and your initial reaction to it. I'm sure you've heard by now the reason for it, But since you didn't say as much, I thought I might try to enlighten you as you have done for me countless times. I took classics at umss am Hers and one of my professors, who taught Greek sieve and Ancient Greek, explained the word this is spelled using Greek letters kai, alpha, omicron, sigma, does not mean chaos a lack of order. It's actually closer to meaning chasm pronounced cows and the way Greeks described something that was before the existence of gaia and orinos for the earth and sky, and it would definitely sound like cows if you'd never heard it before. Mark then goes on to talk about kids and cats. There were lots of cat pictures attached this email, which is great, Um, and then says keep doing what y'all are doing so well, Thanks Mark, So thanks so much Mark for this email. I find this information so fascinating and it's such an intriguing idea to me. But I also feel pretty confident that this tour guide was just sounding out the word chaos the way that those letters would be pronounced in Italian, so that it would rhyme with like chow rather than chaos as we would say it. But I still found this to be such an intriguing idea. Um, it's a little bit longer walk to the idea that she was using a Greek term that was pronounced differently rather than a sounding out of a term whose letters would sound differently in Italian. Um. Also, the idea of playing a podcast at double speed and then everything sounds slow resonates with me, mostly from playing video games, because if a video game has given me the option to sprint everywhere without any kind of penalty, I will absolutely do it, and then if I try to walk somewhere, it's too slow, it's taking forever. I listened to audio books not at double speed, but it like one point to five or something, and a regular one. I always feel like, is there a gas leak in my car? Am I having some sort of yeah? We um. We Occasionally will get an email from somebody who says you talk way too fast. I can't understand what you're saying, and often it has turned out that the person accidentally hit the playback to double speed. Um. I accidentally hit mine to one point to five. Recently, while I was trying to like listen to one of our older episodes to see if it was workable for a Saturday Classic. And I had a moment where I wasn't sure it was going on because it sounded just different enough that I knew it wasn't right, but not in a way that immediately made me go oh. I changed the playback speed by accident. Anyway, Thank you so much for this note about chaosk Cows, and for all of these animal pictures. We love them, of course, if you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast or history podcast and I heard radio dot com and we're all over social media. Missed in History which before you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. And you can subscribe to our show on the i heeart Radio app or anywhere else you'll like to get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.