Islamic world contributions to Medieval Europe
During the
The Islamic world also influenced other aspects of medieval European culture, partly by
Many Arabic loanwords in Western European languages, including English, mostly via Old French, date from this period.[5] This includes traditional star names such as Aldebaran, scientific terms like alchemy (whence also chemistry), algebra, algorithm, etc. and names of commodities such as sugar, camphor, cotton, coffee, etc.
Transmission routes
Europe and the Islamic lands had multiple points of contact during the Middle Ages. The main points of transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe lay in
The
During the 11th and 12th centuries, many Christian scholars traveled to Muslim lands to learn sciences. Notable examples include
Aristotelianism and other philosophies
In the
Later Latin translations of these texts originated in multiple places. Toledo, Spain (with Gerard of Cremona's Almagest) and Sicily became the main points of transmission of knowledge from the Islamic world to Europe.[10] Burgundio of Pisa (died 1193) discovered lost texts of Aristotle in Antioch and translated them into Latin.
From Islamic Spain, the
The effects of Avicennism were later submerged by the much more influential
Al-Ghazali also had an important influence on medieval Christian philosophy along with Jewish thinkers like Maimonides.[17]
George Makdisi (1989) has suggested that two particular aspects of Renaissance humanism have their roots in the medieval Islamic world, the "art of dictation, called in Latin, ars dictaminis," and "the humanist attitude toward classical language". He notes that dictation was a necessary part of Arabic scholarship (where the vowel sounds need to be added correctly based on the spoken word), and argues that the medieval Italian use of the term "ars dictaminis" makes best sense in this context. He also believes that the medieval humanist favouring of classical Latin over medieval Latin makes most sense in the context of a reaction to Arabic scholarship, with its study of the classical Arabic of the Koran in preference to medieval Arabic.[18]
Sciences
During the
Stefan of Pise translated into Latin around 1127 an Arab manual of medical theory. The method of
Contributing to the growth of European science was the major search by European scholars such as Gerard of Cremona for new learning. These scholars were interested in ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts (notably the
Alchemy
Western
Many texts were also translated from anonymous Arabic sources and then falsely attributed to various authors, as for example the De aluminibus et salibus ("On Alums and Salts"), an 11th- or 12th-century text attributed in some manuscripts to Hermes Trismegistus or Abu Bakr al-Razi.[34] Other texts were directly written in Latin but still attributed to Arabic authors, such as the influential Summa perfectionis ("The Sum of Perfection") and other 13th-/14th-century works by pseudo-Geber.[35] Although these were original and often innovative texts, their anonymous authors probably knew Arabic and were still intimately familiar with Arabic sources.[36]
Several technical Arabic words from Arabic alchemical works, such as alkali,[37] found their way into European languages and became part of scientific vocabulary.
Astronomy, mathematics and physics
The translation of
Fibonacci presented the first complete European account of Arabic numerals and the Hindu–Arabic numeral system in his Liber Abaci (1202).[27]
A short verse used by
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) wrote the Book of Optics (1021), in which he developed a theory of vision and light which built on the work of the Roman writer
The theory of motion developed by Avicenna from Aristotelian physics may have influenced Jean Buridan's theory of impetus (the ancestor of the inertia and momentum concepts).[50] The work of Galileo Galilei on classical mechanics (superseding Aristotelian physics) was also influenced by earlier medieval physics writers, including Avempace.[51]
Other notable works include those of
Medicine
One of the most important medical works to be translated was
Other medical Arabic works translated into Latin during the medieval period include the works of Razi and Avicenna (including The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine),
Technology and culture
Agriculture and textiles
Various
Arts
Islamic decorative arts were highly valued imports to Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Largely because of accidents of survival, most surviving examples are those that were in the possession of the church. In the early period textiles were especially important, used for church vestments, shrouds, hangings and clothing for the elite. Islamic pottery of everyday quality was still preferred to European wares. Because decoration was mostly ornamental, or small hunting scenes and the like, and inscriptions were not understood, Islamic objects did not offend Christian sensibilities.[63] Medieval art in Sicily is interesting stylistically because of the mixture of Norman, Arab and Byzantine influences in areas such as mosaics and metal inlays, sculpture, and bronze-working.[64]
Writing
The Arabic Kufic script was often imitated for decorative effect in the West during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to produce what is known as pseudo-Kufic: "Imitations of Arabic in European art are often described as pseudo-Kufic, borrowing the term for an Arabic script that emphasizes straight and angular strokes, and is most commonly used in Islamic architectural decoration".[66] Numerous cases of pseudo-Kufic are known from European art from around the 10th to the 15th century; usually the characters are meaningless, though sometimes a text has been copied. Pseudo-Kufic would be used as writing or as decorative elements in textiles, religious halos or frames. Many are visible in the paintings of Giotto.[66] The exact reason for the incorporation of pseudo-Kufic in early Renaissance painting is unclear. It seems that Westerners mistakenly associated 13th- and 14th-century Middle-Eastern scripts as being identical with the scripts current during Jesus's time, and thus found natural to represent early Christians in association with them:[67] "In Renaissance art, pseudo-Kufic script was used to decorate the costumes of Old Testament heroes like David".[68] Another reason might be that artist wished to express a cultural universality for the Christian faith, by blending together various written languages, at a time when the church had strong international ambitions.[69]
Carpets
Music
A number of musical instruments used in European music were influenced by Arabic musical instruments, including the rebec (an ancestor of the violin) from the rebab and the naker from naqareh[71] The oud is cited as one of several precursors to the modern guitar.[72]
Some scholars believe that the
The theory that the troubadour tradition was created by William after his experiences with
Technology
A number of
The importation of both the ancient and new technology from the Middle East and the Orient to Renaissance Europe represented “one of the largest technology transfers in world history.”[84]
In an influential 1974 paper, historian Andrew Watson suggested that there had been an
The production of
The spinning wheel was invented in the Islamic world by 1030. It later spread to China by 1090, and then spread from the Islamic world to Europe and India by the 13th century.[93] The spinning wheel was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It was a precursor to the spinning jenny, which was widely used during the Industrial Revolution. The spinning jenny was essentially an adaptation of the spinning wheel.[94]
Coinage
While the earliest coins were minted and widely circulated in Europe, and Ancient Rome, Islamic coinage had some influence on Medieval European minting. The 8th-century English king Offa of Mercia minted a near-copy of Abbasid dinars struck in 774 by Caliph Al-Mansur with "Offa Rex" centered on the reverse.[95] The moneyer visibly had little understanding of Arabic, as the Arabic text contains a number of errors.
In Sicily, Malta and Southern Italy from about 913 tarì gold coins of Islamic origin were minted in great number by the Normans, Hohenstaufens and the early Angevins rulers.[97] When the Normans invaded Sicily in the 12th century, they issued tarì coins bearing legends in Arabic and Latin.[98] The tarìs were so widespread that imitations were made in southern Italy (Amalfi and Salerno) which only used illegible "pseudo-Kufic" imitations of Arabic.[99][100]
According to Janet Abu-Lughod:
The preferred specie for international transactions before the 13th century, in Europe as well as the Middle East and even India, were the gold coins struck by Byzantium and then Egypt. It was not until after the 13th century that some Italian cities (Florence and Genoa) began to mint their own gold coins, but these were used to supplement rather than supplant the Middle Eastern coins already in circulation.[101]
Literature
It was first suggested by
See also
- Christian influences on the Islamic world
- Hindu and Buddhist contribution to science in medieval Islam
- Reception of Islam in Early Modern Europe
- Renaissance of the 12th century
Notes
References
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- ^ Needham, Joseph. Cambridge University Press. University of California Press. p. 173.
Thus the possibility presents itself that... it may have formed part of one of those transmissions from Asia which we find in so many fields of applied science
- ^ McEachren, Justin W. General Science Quarterly, Volumes 5-6. University of California Press. p. 337.
From the Chinese, the Arabs in all probability learned to use the magnetic needle, and in this round-about fashion it was brought to Europe
- ^ Lebedel, p.113
- ^ Lewis, p.148
- ^ Lebedel, p.109–111
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- ^ Lebedel, p.111
- ^ Lebedel, p.112
- ^ C. Burnett, "Arabic-Latin Translation Program in Toledo", p. 255.
- ^ C. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science, pp.3-4
- ^ R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages, p.65
- ^ a b c V. J. Katz, A History of Mathematics: An Introduction, p. 291.
- ^ For a list of Gerard of Cremona's translations see: Edward Grant (1974) A Source Book in Medieval Science, (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr.), pp. 35–38 or Charles Burnett, "The Coherence of the Arabic-Latin Translation Program in Toledo in the Twelfth Century," Science in Context, 14 (2001): at 249–288, at pp. 275–281.
- ^ Santa Fe Community College. Archived from the originalon March 18, 2001.
- ^ D. Campbell, Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages, p. 6.
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- ^ A translation of the Masāʾil Khālid li-Maryānus al-rāhib ("Khalid's Questions to the Monk Maryanos"), an Arabic text falsely attributed to Khalid; see Moureau 2020, p. 116.
- ^ A translation of the Kitāb al-Sabʿīn ("Book of Seventy"), as all Jabir texts likely written by an anonymous 9th-century author; see Moureau 2020, p. 111.
- ^ An interpolated paraphrase of the Kitāb al-Asrār ("Book of Secrets"), the only Latin work known so far to be partially translated from an authentic work by al-Razi; see Moureau 2020, pp. 117–118.
- ^ A translation of Ibn Umayl's authentic work Kitāb al-Māʾ al-waraqī wa-l-arḍ al-najmiyya ("Book of the Silvery Water and the Starry Earth"); see Moureau 2020, p. 111.
- ^ Moureau 2020, pp. 106–107.
- ^ Principe 2013, pp. 54–58.
- ^ Principe 2013, p. 55.
- ^ "the definition of alkali". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-691-11485-9, archived from the originalon 2016-10-01, retrieved 2011-01-26, p.4
- ^ G. G. Joseph, The Crest of the Peacock, p. 306
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- ^ a b Falco, Charles M. (12–15 February 2007), Ibn al-Haytham and the Origins of Modern Image Analysis, International Conference on Information Sciences, Signal Processing and its Applications
- ^ "John Buridan > Notes (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)". plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ Moody, Ernest A. (1951), "Galileo and Avempace: The Dynamics of the Leaning Tower Experiment (I)", Journal of the History of Ideas 12 (2): 163–193
- ISBN 3-88309-043-3.
- ^ Charles Burnett, ed. Adelard of Bath, Conversations with His Nephew, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. xi.
- ^ "Inventions et decouvertes au Moyen-Age", Samuel Sadaune, p.44
- National Library of Medicinedigital archives
- ^ David W. Tschanz, MSPH, PhD (August 2003). "Arab Roots of European Medicine", Heart Views 4 (2).
- ^ D. Campbell, Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages, p. 3.
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- ^ M.-T. d'Alverny, "Translations and Translators," pp. 429, 455
- ^ "Les Normans en Sicile"
- ^ Roux, p. 47
- ^ Mack, 3-8, and throughout
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- ^ Mack, p.65–66
- ^ a b Mack, p.51
- ^ Mack, p.52, p.69
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- ^ "Perhaps they marked the imagery of a universal faith, an artistic intention consistent with the Church's contemporary international program." Mack, p.69
- ^ Lessing, Julius (1879) [1877]. Altorientalische Teppichmuster: Nach Bildern und Originalen des XV. - XVI. Jahrhunderts, translated into English as Ancient Oriental Carpet Patterns after Pictures and Originals of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. London: H. Sotheran.
- ^ (Farmer 1988, p. 137)
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- ^ .
- ^ Peter Dronke, The Medieval Lyric, Perennial Library, 1968. p. 111.
- ^ a b Andrew M. Watson (1974), "The Arab Agricultural Revolution and Its Diffusion, 700–1100", The Journal of Economic History 34 (1), pp. 8–35.
- ^ David A. King (2002). "A Vetustissimus Arabic Text on the Quadrans Vetus", Journal for the History of Astronomy 33, p. 237–255 [237–238].
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legacy of Islamic civilisation is ... the rather unholy art of distilling alcohol ... Aristotle described a way of vaporising salt water into fresh, the Romans distilled turpentine from pine oil ...
- ^ Thomas Nordegren. The A-Z Encyclopedia of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. p. 38.
- ^ Chambers's encyclopaedia: a dictionary of universal knowledge, Volume 1. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1888. p. 142.
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The spinning jenny was basically an adaptation of its precursor the spinning wheel
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- ^ "Gold imitation dinar of Offa". British Museum.
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- ^ British Museum, Islamic Art room
- ISBN 978-0-631-22637-6 [2], p.26
- ISBN 978-0-521-58231-5 [3], p.3
- ISBN 0-19-506774-6p.15
- ^ I. Heullant-Donat and M.-A. Polo de Beaulieu, "Histoire d'une traduction," in Le Livre de l'échelle de Mahomet, Latin edition and French translation by Gisèle Besson and Michèle Brossard-Dandré, Collection Lettres Gothiques, Le Livre de Poche, 1991, p. 22 with note 37.
- ^ "Paul A. (Paul Arthur) Cantor - The Uncanonical Dante: The Divine Comedy and Islamic Philosophy - Philosophy and Literature 20:1". www.muslimphilosophy.com. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ Alighieri, Dante. "The Divine Comedy". Retrieved 8 April 2018 – via Wikisource.
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External links
- Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on the Latin West". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Islamic Contributions to the West by Rachida El Diwani, Professor of Comparative Literature.
- "How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs" by De Lacy O'Leary
- Islamic Contributions to Civilization by Stanwood Cobb (1963)