Persian Force

Famous quotes containing the words persian and/or force:

    Come, give thy soul a loose, and taste the pleasures of the poor.
    Sometimes ‘tis grateful for the rich to try
    A short vicissitude, and fit of poverty:
    A savory dish, a homely treat,
    Where all is plain, where all is neat,
    Without the stately spacious room,
    The Persian carpet, or the Tyrian loom,
    Clear up the cloudy foreheads of the great.
    Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65–8)

    Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.
    Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)