architecture: introduction 53 come to abolish the law of Islam and replace the revelation of the Koran by the light of Greek sciences and philosophy, among them alchemy and magic The Corpus Gabirianum considerably influenced the development of later Arab alchemy, and its parts were frequently translated into Latin The writings of Ibn Wahshiyyah (fl ca 900 c.e.) were important to the development of alchemy and magic; he compiled a famous collection of cryptic alphabets later used in esoteric works and talismanic art His works can be seen as successive rewritings and revisions of scientific and pseudoscientific materials surviving from antiquity, preserved, amplified, and modified by Syrian and Alexandrian Hellenism Around this same time an unknown author wrote Turba philosophorum (Assembly of the Philosophers), which depicts a congress of alchemists with Pythagoras leading the congregation and pre-Socratic philosophers presenting their doctrines More than a century later, around 1200 c.e., the Ghayat al-hakim (The Aim of the Sage), commonly known as the Picatrix (possibly referring to Hippocrates), was written in al-Andalus and was falsely attributed to al-Majriti, a famous mathematician A compendium of numerous magical and alchemical recipes, descriptions of magical instruments, and astrological theories, Picatrix is one of the most widespread treatises on alchemy and magic Moreover, the work tries to prove magic and alchemy by the philosophical teachings of the Greeks Another important work on magic was Shams al-maarif al-kubra (Sun of the Great Knowledge), which was written by the mystic Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al-Buni (d 1225 c.e.) His writings exerted considerable influence on the later theory of letter magic and magical squares See also art; astronomy; death and burial practices; exploration; festivals; gender structures and roles; health and disease; inventions; language; literature; metallurgy; mining, quarrying, and salt making; music and musical instruments; numbers and counting; religion and cosmology; sacred sites; science; social organization further reading Richard N Adams and Arthur J Rubel, “Sickness and Social Relations.” In Handbook of Middle American Indians Vol 6, Social Anthropology, ed Robert Wauchope (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967) Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, ed., Shamanism: Soviet Studies of Traditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia (Armonk, N.Y.: M E Sharpe, 1990) Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan, 2nd ed (London: Mandala, 1992) Kenneth C Davis, “Out of Africa: The Myths of Sub-Saharan Africa.” In Don’t Know Much about Mythology (New York: HarperCollins, 2005) Mircea Eliade, The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy, 2nd ed., trans Stephen Corrin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962) Peter T Furst, ed., Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972) Stanton J Linden, ed., The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2003) Pseudeo-Majriti, Picatrix Translated by Hellmut Ritter and Martin Plessner (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1962) Eugene L Mendonsa, “Sacrifice, Magic and Witchcraft.” In West Africa: An Introduction to Its History, Civilization, and Contemporary Situation (Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2002) Fabrizio Pregadio, Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2006) Emilie Savage-Smith, ed., Magic and Divination in Early Islam (Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate/Variorum, 2004) Gary Seaman and Jane S Day, eds., Ancient Traditions: Shamanism in Central Asia and the Americas (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1994) ▶ architecture introduction Architecture is a human activity that combines a number of fields, including art, design, geometry, engineering, construction, and materials science (the science that studies the properties of materials, such as their strength and durability) Architects draw on their knowledge of these fields to create structures for human use Throughout the medieval world these structures included not only homes and castles but also a great many public buildings, including government buildings, palaces, and edifices used for religious purposes Much of the architecture from the medieval period served religious purposes For example, some of the earliest architecture in medieval Europe was built in Ireland and included monasteries, bell towers, monumental crosses, and other structures that served ecclesiastical purposes These Irish monasteries, often built on sacred sites, were centers of worship and learning They were homes for priests and nuns and places of pilgrimage because they housed holy relics As the medieval period unfolded, cities, towns, and villages across northern and western Europe, including regions that had been part of the ancient Roman Empire, became the sites of magnificent churches and cathedrals These buildings often enhanced the prestige of a local duke or other noble, who funded their construction as a way of asserting his power and authority The nobility also constructed fortified castles,