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Arab Transmission of the Classics: Difference between revisions
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==Introduction== | ==Introduction== | ||
The '''Arab transmission of the classics''' refers to the claim that [[Arabic]] commentators such as Ibn Sina and [[Ibn Rushd]] saved the work of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers from destruction. According to the claim, these works would have perished in the European dark ages between fifth and the tenth centuries, had [[Islam|Islamic]] philosophers not preserved them by translating them into Arabic.<ref>The myth persists even on 'scholarly' websites. See e.g. [http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/history/islam.htm here]. "It was only through the transfer of Greek knowledge (including Aristotle's philosophy, Ptolemy's geography, Hippocrates' medicine) by Islam Spain that this information ''ever'' got to Western Europe." [Our emphasis]</ref> However, the first Latin texts to be used after the dark ages and the European reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula were translations from the Greek preserved by the Byzantines, while Arabic translation were largely used only where Latin texts were unavailable or unintelligible. | The '''Arab transmission of the classics''' refers to the claim that [[Arabic]] commentators such as Ibn Sina and [[Ibn Rushd]] saved the work of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers from destruction. According to the claim, these works would have perished in the European dark ages between fifth and the tenth centuries, had [[Islam|Islamic]] philosophers not preserved them by translating them into Arabic.<ref>The myth persists even on 'scholarly' websites. See e.g. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150311102848/http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/history/islam.htm here]. "It was only through the transfer of Greek knowledge (including Aristotle's philosophy, Ptolemy's geography, Hippocrates' medicine) by Islam Spain that this information ''ever'' got to Western Europe." [Our emphasis]</ref> However, the first Latin texts to be used after the dark ages and the European reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula were translations from the Greek preserved by the Byzantines, while Arabic translation were largely used only where Latin texts were unavailable or unintelligible. | ||
Arabic commentators, particularly Ibn Rushd, nevertheless had a profound influence on the scholastic philosophers of the Latin West in the thirteenth century. In particular, the work of Arabic commentators allowed dense and difficult texts, such as those of Aristotle, to be more easily understood. | Arabic commentators, particularly Ibn Rushd, nevertheless had a profound influence on the scholastic philosophers of the Latin West in the thirteenth century. In particular, the work of Arabic commentators allowed dense and difficult texts, such as those of Aristotle, to be more easily understood. | ||