Sultan muhammad ii biography of albert
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Muhammad al-Riquti
Muslim scholar and physician
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Riquti al-Mursi (أبو بكر محمد بن أحمد بن الرقوطي, also spelled Abubequer Mohamed ibn Ahmed Al-Ricotí) was a 13th-century Muslim scholar and physician from Murcia. He founded and led a school where he taught Muslims, Christians, and Jews, under the patronage of Alfonso the Wise. Later, he migrated to the Emirate of Granada at the invitation of Sultan Muhammad II.
Biography
[edit]Al-Riquti was from the city of Murcia (hence his nisbaal-Mursi), and according to historian Ibn al-Khatib (1313–1375) he was an expert in logic, mathematics, arithmetic, music, and medicin. He spoke Arabic and the local Romance language, and possibly Latin and Hebrew as well. Murcia was formerly the seat of small Muslim kingdom and also an intellectual center,[4] which was conquered by Castile in 1243 and became a semi-independent protectorate. The Castilian prince Alfonso (the future Alfonso X of Castile)
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Al-Mansur II Muhammad
Ayyubid Emir of Hama (r. 1244–1284)
Al-Mansur II Muhammad was the Ayyubid emir of Hama 1244–1284, son of al-Muzaffar II Mahmud and grandson of al-Mansur I Muhammad. He was the great-great grandson of Saladin’s brother Nur ad-Din Shahanshah. His mother was Ghaziya Khatun.
Early years
[edit]Al Mansur came to the throne at a time when the Egyptian Sultan As-Salih Ayyub was consolidating his power. In spring 1247 As-Salih Ayyub set out for Syria where he met emir Al-Ashraf Musa of Homs as well as Al Mansur. Both were young - Al-Ashraf Musa was eighteen and Al Mansur was just twelve - and new on their thrones.[1] As-Salih Ayyub campaigned against his rival An-Nasir Yusuf of Aleppo but returned to Egypt to confront a new Crusader threat in 1249. Shortly afterwards he died.[2] His son and successor Al-Muazzam Turanshah did not long outlive him and in 1250 the Ayyubid dynasty was overthrown in Egypt by the Bahri mamluks.
Threats from
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Gentile Bellini, 'The Sultan Mehmet II', 1480
As ruler of the expanding Islamic Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmet II was one of the most powerful men in the world when Gentile Bellini painted his portrait in 1480. Mehmet was fascinated both by portraiture and by European culture, and in 1479 he sent a request to the Venetian authorities for a portraitist. They chose their most celebrated painter, Gentile, who was well qualified for the task having recently completed a series of portraits of the doges of Venice. Gentile’s stay in Istanbul lasted about a year and a half, and was a diplomatic as well as artistic mission – both sides were keen to develop a good political and trading relationship.
Like the doges in Gentile’s portraits, the Sultan is set against a dark background behind a marble ledge. But while the majority of those portraits were painted in the traditional profile view, Gentile has shown the Sultan’s face and body turned slightly towards the viewer