ABU SAID ABU-SAID (1156 -1231) AND ITS CENTURY OLD MAPS 
Map of the historical centers of thought in Islam
To better understand the spirituality of Abu- SAID-El Beji we'll travel in his century.
The Islamic world appears to be a world as fragmented and unable to unite the Christian world. Several dynasties control it:
Seljuk Turks, who dominated the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad and create small Jezirah emirates in Anatolia and Syria. They are supported by governors, atabegs, who all more or less desire for independence. They are Sunni Muslims.
the Fatimids, a Shiite dynasty, control of Egypt from Cairo, but it is invaded from 1169 by an envoy of the atabeg Nur al-Din, and finally conquered by Saladin in 1171
the Berber Almoravids then Almohad dominate the Maghreb and al-Andalus.
If the ruling elite of the Islamic world has converted to Islam (literally, submission to God), a monotheistic religion founded by Muhammad (570-632), the majority of the population is not Muslim. Number of Christians Jews and animists living in the Islamic world: they are dhimmis.
Muslim civilization is a brilliant civilization in the artistic and intellectual and crafts in the West is more developed at the same time. Intellectual life is intense thanks to contacts with the civilizations of Greece, India and China they have inherited the knowledge. Muslims have imported the numbers called Arabic - which replace the Roman numerals - positional numeration and a zero (see Brahmagupta), inventions of Indian origin. Al-Khwarizmi, Arab mathematician, invented algebra systems with equation (algorithm). Geographer Al Idrisi was a powerful and Averroes in Cordoba was an important philosopher, physician, lawyer and mathematician. The physicians of the Islamic world as Averroes and Avicenna Persian, were far ahead of those of the West: their science was later taught in medical schools of the Christian world.
A unique art and architecture are developed with buildings such as mosques and madrassas, specific to this area, but a variety of forms and techniques are used across regions and religions ...
