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Civilisational Dialogue: Medieval Social Thought, Latin-European Renaissance, and Islamic Influences |
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By: S. M. Ghazanfar, Fri 17 August, 2012 |
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S. M. Ghazanfar In 1998, the United Nations declared year 2001 as the UN Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. This paper serves as a modest attempt in that spirit, with focus on the evolution of social thought in medieval Islam and its influence upon the Latin-West. The paper argues that the European Renaissance depended critically upon the intellectual armory, itself built upon the rediscovered Greek heritage, acquired through knowledge transfer from the early Islamic Civilisation. The mainstream literary paradigm, however, tends to neglect those connections, or at best, grudgingly acknowledges them but remotely and peripherally. Further, the paper documents the extensive influence upon Latin-European scholarship provided through the writings of several key Islamic scholastics. Briefly covered are the works of Al-Kindi, Al-Razi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazali, and, especially, Ibn Rushd, the Islamic Aristotle, whose contributions revolutionised the Church-dominated, authoritarian mold of medieval Europe. With extensive documentation and some quotes from well-known medievalists, the paper calls for greater integration of such civilisational connections in literary history so that, among other things, we can better understand the contemporary confrontational global environment.
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East Meets West in Venice |
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By: Richard Covington, Wed 29 February, 2012 |
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Richard Covington For much of the millennium before the rise of Portugal and Spain, Venice flourished as the hub of Europe's trade with the lands to its east and south. The profound mutual influences that resulted have inspired multiple scholars and historians to cast fresh looks at Venice and its history during pre-modern and modern times, as a meeting point for commerce and culture, especially with the Muslim World.
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One Thousand Years of Missing History |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 17 February, 2010 |
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Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani The following essay aims to alert communities as to the particular significance of the Muslim civilisation and its historical role in contributing to the birth of modern civilisation. The author, Professor Salim Al-Hassani, a specialist of Muslim Heritage and a pioneer of its defense, focuses first on various instances of distorted history in scholarship, school curricula and media culture. He shows how unjustified is the suppression of centuries of history from history books and how the jump from Hellenistic times to Renaissance is rather the manifestation of ignorance and misconceptions. Presenting selected examples, he then proves that this suppressed period, belonging to the classical period of the history of Islam, and which lasted for about a millennium, knew a creative contribution to civilisation by men and women of different faiths. Those knowledge, science and art creators built on ancient knowledge and were the drive of one of the richest periods of history in terms of science, culture, technology and art.
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Shining light upon light |
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By: FSTC Limited, Fri 03 April, 2009 |
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Two science histories dissect the transfer of knowledge between the Greco–Islamic and European civilizations, and put right the impression that the flow was one way, explains Yasmin Khan in a recently published article (Nature, vol 458, 12 March 2009).
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The Arabic Sources of Jordanus de Nemore |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 11 July, 2007 |
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The following article by Professors Menso Folkerts and Richard Lorch, from Munich University in Germany, describes the influences of Arabic sciences in the works of Jordanus de Nemore, a scholar who flourished in Western Europe in the 13th century.
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Transfer of Modern Science and Technology to the Ottoman State |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 20 December, 2006 |
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This article will provide a short introduction to the history of scientific activities in the Ottoman world until the eighteenth century. Scientific researches show that there are many translation activities in different fields in the eighteenth century.
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Transfer of Islamic Technology to the West |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 13 December, 2006 |
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The article covers the avenues which led to the transfer of the Islamic knowledge, from Al Andalus, Sicily and Byzantium to the Wars (crusades on the Islamic World), as well as commercial relations and also the translation of Arabic works.
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The Impact of Islamic Science and Learning on England: Adelard of Bath and Daniel of Morley |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 13 October, 2004 |
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Most certainly the first English scientist ever was Adelard of Bath. He championed Islamic learning and was the most `Arabist' of all scientists. He and Daniel of Morley were instrumental in the transfer of scientific knowledge from Islamic civilisation to England and beyond.
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Salerno and Constantine the African |
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By: FSTC Limited, Tue 31 August, 2004 |
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Salerno came to prominence as the first faculty-University of the Christian West because of its importance as a center where Islamic science, particularly medicine, became known to Europe… this because of his translations...
The principal reason for linking Salerno and Islamic science is the fact that Salerno came to such prominence as the first faculty-University of the Christian West as soon as it received the visit of a scholar known under his European name Constantine the African, a Tunisian in origin (Tunisia being called at that time Ifriqiya, from which was derived the name Africa that designated the whole continent). Islamic medicine really began to make its influence felt at Salerno in the middle of the 11th century, precisely following this arrival of Constantine.
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Recommended Reading for Understanding the Impact of Muslim Science on the West |
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By: FSTC Limited, Fri 04 April, 2003 |
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Amongst the English writing authors who can enlighten the reader further on the Islamic impact are Eugene Myers, Metletzki, Turner and Menocal. Here's a list of selected books for further reading on the Impact of Muslim Science on the West.
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