Saturday 22 November 2008

My dream woman

As found in The Arabian Nights:

"I know Philosophy and Medicine and the Preface to Science and Galen's Commentary on Hippocrates - on which I, too, have commented. I have read the Tadhkirat (ibn Daoud) and commented on the Burhan and studied Ibn al-Baytar's Elements. I have lectured on Ibn Sina's Qanun and solved problems and set others. I have lectured in Geometry and Architecture and have mastered Anatomy. I have read the books of the Shaf'i theologians and the Traditions of the Prophet ... I have written on Logic, Rhetoric and Mathematics and I know Metaphysics and Astronomy, so fetch me an inkwell and paper that I might write you a book to entertain you on your travels."
- Nuzhat al-Zaman

Hell, yes! This is above and beyond her encyclopaedic knowledge of the Koran, and her ability to deliver, unprompted, an oration on Royal Governance and the Necessary Moral Rectitude of those who Administer the Law.

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