The Sword of Islam Tech Quotes Thread!

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One bit of spit and polish that Sword of Islam deserves is era and subject appropriate quotes for the technologies. It's a good way to improve the mod without asking embryodead to spend hours crunching code. So if you're reading something, and you run across a quote that calls to mind an SoI tech, please post it here!

Here's a few I've come up with:

Welfare State: "Whatever you spend of good - it will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged" - Qur'an 2:272

Syncretism: "From its brilliancy, everything is illuminated" - Guru Nanak

Cheque System:
"Some for the pleasures here below
Others yearn for The Prophet's Paradise to come;
Ah, take the cash and let the credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum" - Omar Khayyam

Asymmetric Warfare: "How often has a small party vanquished a numerous host by God's will?" - Qur'an 2:250

Water Management: "The beloved does not drink a single drop of water without seeing His Face in the cup" - Mansur al-Hallaj

Naval Ordnance: "Tell the Doge he is no longer wedded to the sea. It is our turn now." -Ibrahim Pasha

(The Omar Khayyam quatrain might be a little long for a tech quote, but it's so cool I included it anyway.)

So, yeah, please post your quote ideas here. And if anybody knows Leonard Nimoy, have his people talk to edead's people.

 

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A possibility for Levy Armies:

"Even our peasants, if we were to bid them, would fight bravely against the nations which should come to invade our country, and would despoil them of their riches and exterminate them." Salah ad-Din to Frederick Barbarossa

The quote is on page 89 of the linked text. It's not the most trustworthy source in the world; it's a second- or third-hand account of a letter from Salah ad-Din by way of a Templar clerk, but it's a cool quote.

 

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OK, one more: from the nifty site The Filaha Texts:

"Husbandry is the foundation of civilization - all sustenance derives from it, as well as the principal benefits and blessings that civilization brings" - Ibn 'Abdun

 

[Leoreth]

They're great. I agree that the lack of tech quotes was the only gap in SoI's historical immersion. I'm sure edead will include your suggestions.

 

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This passage from the Epic of Köroğlu might be apropos:

"Valor has been lost whence guns were invented, the curved blade in its holster shall rust" - The Epic of Köroğlu

 

[azander12]

Here is another one, potentially for Welfare State but possibly for anything.

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" -Rabbi Hillel, Pirkei Avot 1:14

 

[embryodead]

Good stuff, I'll add it of course

 

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Good stuff, I'll add it of course

Awesome!

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" -Rabbi Hillel, Pirkei Avot 1:14

Great quote, and embryodead can decide if he wants to use it, but Rabbi Hillel lived before Christ; he doesn't really belong in a mod that starts at the Golden Age of Islam. However, considering the role Judaism plays in the mod, we should have some Jewish voices in the quotes. How about this from the Oath of Maimonides for Medicine?

"May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain" - Oath of Maimonides

That would replace the current default Civ4 quote from Hippocrates.

 

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From the really old Atkinson translation of the Shahnahmeh:

"All nature fades--the garden's treasures fall,
Young bud, and citron ripe--all perish, all."
-Shahnahmeh, The Story of Sohrab

From what I understand a loose verse translation of the original Persian.

So does anyone have any familiarity with the history of medieval India? I know enough about Middle Eastern history that I at least have an idea where to look for some of these quotes, but I'm completely ignorant about this period in Indian history, except for what I've picked up playing the mod . I'd like to have some Hindu voices here, but I've no idea where to start.

 

[embryodead]

Some of the relevant stuff from wiki:
- all writings by raja Bhoja if you find them, he wrote about pretty much everything, Samarangana-sutradhara is best known and the article has some quotes (I don't remember if I used any)
- Baburnama
- Prithviraj_Raso
- works by Amir Khusrav and possibly Guru Nanak
(I didn't really research these, just giving some name ideas)

 

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"Cairo is indeed for loveliness a very Paradise, With all its goodly carpet spread and cushions richly wrought." - The Jewish Physician's Story, 1001 Nights

Of course I went to Alf Layla waLayla (1,001 Nights) for a carpet quote. I couldn't find anything particularly pithy about magic carpets, though. Too bad.

 

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Thanks, edead. I might hit up a library this weekend, find some things that aren't necessarily available on the web; I'll start with those names. I also would like to find some more modern translations of the Shahnameh and so forth that don't use such stilted-sounding Victorian English. And no, I don't have a life.

 

[Qiu]

Could this quote from Buddha be used for Administrate Reforms?

"They are not following dharma who resort to violence to achieve their purpose. But those who lead others through nonviolent means, knowing right and wrong, may be called guardians of the dharma. "

Dharma means laws of nature in Indian philosophy and religion, both Hinduism and Buddhism. And it also has been used as the name of a Hinduism URV in the game.

 

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"Guns are wonderful locks for protecting the august edifice of the state; and befitting keys for the door of conquest." - Abu al-Fazal, "Ain-i-Akbari"

The Ain-i-Akbari is a sprawling contemporaneous account of Akbar's Mughal Empire. There's probably an appropriate quote for nearly everything tucked away in there, but I like that line because it's less prosaic than most of it. If anyone's interested, there's a great translation online, follow the link.

 

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"It is He Who has set the stars for you, so that you may guide your course with their help through the darkness of the land and the sea." Qur'an 6:97

I don't want to go to the well too often with the Qur'an quotes, because I would prefer to see a good variety of sources for these. However, Allah as creator of the stars/heavens which are used for guidance is a common theme of the Meccan surahs, and the previous Qur'an quotes come much earlier in the tech tree, so I thought another one would fit well here. But if anybody has a better idea for any of these, please feel free to post it.

 

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"In this paradise is an alluring palace, That the sight gets impatient to behold it."

-Abu Talib Kalim, on the city of Agra

 

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"I shall give it to you in two words: buy cheap and sell dear. There is commerce for you." -Ibn Khaldun, the Muqaddimah

I could go on and on about the genius of Ibn Khaldun. As I mentioned in the main SoI thread, one of the reasons I'm so enamored of this mod is because, intentionally or not, it's grounded in Ibn Khaldun's historical and philosophical theories, which describe the rise and fall of nations better and more completely than any other until the 19th century. I probably won't use any of his quotes other than this, though, because his tone is discursive and didactic; not particularly quotable. The above quote is a departure from his usual style, as he is in fact quoting an anonymous merchant.

 

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"The first essential in chemistry is that you should perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not practical work nor makes experiments will never attain to the least degree of mastery."

-Geber (or Jabir ibn Hayyan, if you'd prefer the proper Arabic rather than the traditional Latinized name)

 

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"In my soul, there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church,
That dissolve, that dissolve in God." -Rabia Basri

The source here is kinda dodgy: it's some sort of ecumenical inspirational poetry collection. I can't find the original in Arabic, and all the instances of it on the web seem to come from this one source. But ah well, I wanted to get some ladies in on the quotes.

 

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"Small deeds are great in the eyes of the small, and great deeds are small in the eyes of the great" - Al-Mutanabbi

A lovely quote from one of the masters.