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Be Scrupulous About What You Write: The Lesson Of Rhazes
Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (known in the West by his Latinized name Rhazes) is considered one of the most original and accomplished of the medieval Muslim physicians. An impressive list of achievements is linked to his name: he pioneered the study of pediatrics, ophthalmology, synthesized laboratory acids, composed treatises on smallpox and measles,…
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A Few Travel Tips I Learned Last Week (Podcast)
You can always learn something new on the road. Here are a few travel lessons I learned last week that might be useful for your own trips.
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Coming In December 2018: A New Annotated And Illustrated Translation Of Cicero’s “On Moral Ends”
In December, Fortress of the Mind Publications will be releasing my new annotated and illustrated translation of Cicero’s work On Moral Ends (De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum). This announcement will provide some details about the book and what it contains.
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Case Studies In Conflict: Richard Overy’s “War: A History In 100 Battles”
We hear a lot of talk about “new generations” of warfare. Everything is supposed to be new, different, and immutably changed from previous eras of conflict. Some people have even taken to numbering what they see as historical phases of warfare. First generation, second generation, third generation, etc. While there is some merit to this…
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The Ghosts Of Cumae
The ancient town of Cumae was the oldest Greek colony in the west. It was founded in the last quarter of the 8th century B.C. From the town’s acropolis one can see the island of Procida and its smaller islet of Vivara; farther away is the island of Ischia. Mycenaean artifacts have been found on…
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Driving On The Amalfi Coast
This was one of the best drives of my life. If you ever have the chance to see the Amalfi Coast, see it. This is not some ride through the same sea-side villages you’ve seen in other places: it is something very different. It’s a community that is literally built into the cliffs and rocks…
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The Road To Tusculum
Today I visited the site of the old Roman town of Tusculum. It is located in the Alban Hills outside Rome, near the modern town of Frascati. It is close to Barco Borghese, Monte Porzio Catone, and Montecompatri. In Cicero’s day, Tusculum was known as a fashionable spot for the elite to have summer villas. …
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On The Banquets Of Montezuma
There must be many times when the participants in great historical events can scarcely believe their good fortune in being present to witness the momentous events in question. Chance has its role in history; and whether Fortune or virtue plays the deciding role in human events is a question that we must leave to the…
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Sometimes You Have To Be Wrong (Podcast)
Our society places too much emphasis on the individualistic need to win every argument, to be right in all things, and to impose our will on others. Sometimes, you need to swallow your pride and let things go for the sake of preserving harmony. Stop trying to be “right” all the time. You will find…
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Johan Nieuhof’s Pioneering Travels In China
Johan Nieuhof was one of the most accomplished Dutch travelers of the seventeenth century. Although he made separate and independently valuable explorations in Brazil, India, and China, it was his experience in China that has made his name known to history. No serious student of Asian history and economic affairs can afford to overlook him…
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The Limits Of Predictive Power: Graham Allison’s “Destined For War”
The central thesis of Dr. Graham Allison’s Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? is relatively straightforward to state. When a rising power (China) is confronted by a relatively declining power (the United States), the declining one often resorts to making war on its enemy. Allison’s term for this phenomenon is “Thucydides’s…
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A Jaguar Hunt On The Taquary, And The Precepts Of Pythagoras
Every man is a jumble of paradoxes. The same man can harbor sentiments of the noblest, most generous, and elevated type; and at the same time, he can retain the capability to deliver lethal blows for necessity or sport. It is almost as if the altruist or artist needs a bit of tempering with a…
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Russian Explorer Adam Johann Von Kruzenstern Circumnavigates The Globe
In these pages we have given the great explorers of Britain, Germany, Australia, the United States, and some other nations their due. We now discuss the life and career of Russia’s most accomplished nineteenth century explorer and adventurer, the Baron Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenshtern (Иван Фёдорович Крузенштерн). Like many of the names celebrated here, his is virtually…
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The Hand Of Ibn Muqla: Do Not Envy Those Who Wield Power
There was once a government official and literary figure of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad named Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muqla al-Shiraz. He is known to history as Ibn Muqla, and he lived from about A.D. 885 to 940. According to his biographer Ibn Khallikan, Ibn Muqla began his government service career as…
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Starting Out With The Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition In Brazil
The naturalist Leo E. Miller published an engaging record of his South American adventures in 1918 entitled In the Wilds of South America. We have previously related one of his adventures in Colombia, his quest for the elusive “cock of the rock” whose nesting places were perched over inaccessible, cavernous waterfalls. While he was in…
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The Meaning Of Self-Denial: The Herdsman And The Monk
One of the primary virtues that Ibn Zafar believes a good leader should possess is the virtue of self-denial. In Arabic this word is زهد, or “renunciation” of worldly things. What he means by this is that no leader–or any other person, for that matter–can ever become truly great until he learns how to subordinate his…
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“On Duties” Is Now Available As An Audio Book
When Quintus Curtius’s translation of On Duties was first published in 2016, it achieved something few would have thought possible.
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The Roman Ceremony Of Deification
We read about how certain Roman emperors were “deified” after their deaths. Unfortunately it is not easy to learn the details about how this process was actually undertaken. I was fortunate to come across a rare description of how the deification (deificatio) ceremony took place in the humanist Biondo Flavio’s Roma Triumphans (Rome in Triumph). …
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Hunting For A Rare Bird In The Colombian Jungle
The naturalist Leo E. Miller was a participant in the famed Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition of 1913–1914 that explored Brazil’s unknown Rio da Duvida. He also had a distinguished career exploring the wilds of many different South American countries and cataloging various species of animal life; he would later record these experiences with the publication in 1918…
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The Tale Of The Two Foxes
Ibn Zafar’s well of wisdom provides us with another fable to ponder. How the reader relates it to his or her own life experience, or to the world’s current events, will be up to him or her to decide. While the narrative below is my own, I have also included some of Ibn Zafar’s quotes…
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The Tale Of Firuz, A King Of Persia
The following story is told by the political theorist Ibn Zafar (1104–1172?) in his treatise on the art of government. We have encountered him several times previously in these pages, and have discussed many of his ideas on leadership, governance, and the conduct of foreign affairs. There are times when anecdotes can bring certain principles…
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The Final Act Of All Is Never Considered Late
It is a feature of human nature to try to control our environment. We wish to exert some kind of influence over the outcome of events, and thereby enhance our own feelings of security and comfort. Yet there are many times when human labor will fall short; it will prove itself to be incapable of…
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Some Advice To A Recruit (Podcast)
I recently received an email from a man who is about to ship off to USMC boot camp. He wanted to know if I had any pieces of advice for him before he goes. This is a subject I could talk about for hours, so I had to force myself to boil things down to…
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The Tale Of The Two Ministers: Redemption Through Patience And Faith
The following tale is told by Ibn Zafar al-Siqilli (“The Sicilian”) in his political and ethical treatise سلوان المطاع في عدوان الأتباع (The Consolation of the Ruler in Dealing with His Subjects’ Hostility). The story’s purpose is to emphasize the importance that faith and endurance play in the fates of princes. We should note that Ibn…
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The Wisdom Of Ibn Tumart: Until You Can Change Things, You Must Endure Them
The founder of the Almohad movement–a puritanical reformist school originating in North Africa–was a man named Ibn Tumart (أبو عبد الله محمد ابن تومرت). The historians tell us that he was a Berber from the Atlas Mountains in what is now southern Morocco, and that he lived from 1080 to about 1130. The biographer Ibn…
Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642. From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.
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