Islamic Civilization

Literature and Polite Literature

When coming across the literature of 18^th century Europe, one reads with great fascination about the Literary Salons of France in particular, where the leading aristocracy conversed in endless disputations with the French intellectual elites, the likes of Voltaire, for instance. A wonderful, typically Western/French manifestation, born in the century of enlightenment, it would seem. And yet, again, written history proves so misleading in comparison with true history.

Early rulers and ruling elites of Islam, despite the shortcomings of some, led in this movement, which, with the exception of Frederick II  of Sicily , Europe only caught up with in the 18^th century. `Never before and never since', admits Briffault `on such a scale has the spectacle been witnessed of the ruling classes throughout the length and breadth of a vast empire given over entirely to a frenzied passion for the acquirement of knowledge. Learning seemed to have become with them the chief business of life. Caliphs and emirs hurried from their Diwans to closet themselves in their libraries and observatories. They neglected their affairs of the state to attend lectures and converse on mathematical problems with men of science.'[1]The Spanish  Caliphs, Draper notes, emulating the example of their Asiatic compeers, and in this strongly contrasting with the popes of Rome, were not only the patrons, but `the personal cultivators of all the branches of human learning, one of them being the author of a work on polite literature in no less than fifty volumes, whilst another wrote a treatise on Algebra .[2]

The literary salons developed around the learned caliphs and their scholarly companions, and became meeting places for literary and scholarly exchanges of ideas. Nakosteen says that those attending the salons were hand picked, and were instructed as to the style of dress they should wear and required to follow certain strict rules of general dignity and bearing, such as absolute silence when the Caliph spoke.[3] Everyone was required to use a refined language, in quiet measured voice, whilst interruptions were not allowed.[4]

The one early ruler of Western Christendom  who followed on this line was Frederick II  of Sicily , who was, of course, the ruler most imbued in Islamic culture. His court was a thriving debating society of learned scholars of all faiths.[5] "The mingling of the Orient  and Occident at the Sicilian court is nowhere better illustrated than in Frederick II's own work, De arte Venandi cum Avibus," writes Van Cleve.[6] In this work one feels that all Frederick's scholarly efforts, the results of his correspondence and learned discussions with men from all corners of the earth, found their ultimate repository.[7]

Frederick is also one of the great heroes of Dante's Purgatorio, Dante risking his fate for the cause inspired by Frederick's legacy: "Boccaccio said of Dante that he would have been ill able to create his work had he not been a Ghibelline."[8] Dante saw Frederick's "Sicilian" poetry as the source of vernacular Italian verse, and evoked the spirit of the Southern court as the perfect home for the civilized man: "Those who were of noble heart and endowed with graces strove to attach themselves to the majesty of such great princes (Frederick and his son Manfred); so that, in their time, whatever the best Italians  attempted first appeared at the court of these mighty sovereigns."[9]

  Dante, himself, was strongly influenced by Islamic culture. Although he, personally, did not know any Arabic, his teacher, Brunetto Latini, who had been with the Florentine embassy at the court of Alfonso the Wise in 1260, was familiar with some aspects of Islamic culture and showed some knowledge of Islamic beliefs.[10] Dante may also have met his Florentine compatriot, the Dominican missionary Ricaldo da Montecroce (d.1320) who spoke Arabic and was familiar with the literature.[11]Dante’s main source of astronomical knowledge was the Elements of al-Farghani, which he had studied very thoroughly in the Latin  translation as (Elementa astronomica, or Liber aggregatione scientiae stelarum, or Liber de aggregationibus stellarum).[12]  This very elementary work had been Latinized in 1134 by John of Seville , and later by Gerard of Cremona ; the Latin text was even translated into French and the French text was translated into Italian by Zucchero Bencivenni in 1313.[13]  Of course Dante had no need of translations into the vernacular, as he knew Latin as well as Italian. He quoted Al-Fraganus or his book only twice (in the Convivio, book 2), but he used him repeatedly, possibly using John's translation.[14]

Other than poetry, all literary genres: fiction, romance, chivalry, etc, have been cultivated by the `Arabs ,’ admits Le Bon.[15] The earlier literature of Italy bears ample trace of Oriental influence; poetry was certainly affected by Sicilian model and later Provencal devices.[16] Literary, philosophical, and military adventurers were perpetually passing; and thus the luxury, the taste, and above all, the chivalrous gallantry and elegant courtesies of Muslim society found their way from Granada and Cordova to Provence  and Languedoc.[17] Also to southern France spread the manners and ways of Islamic Spain, such as poetic disputations, carried to perfection among the Troubadours; the Provencal also learning to employ jongleurs.[18] A large number of miscellaneous Arabic or Oriental analogues have also been traced in the Canterbury tales, especially in the Knight's tale, the Franklyn's, the Merchant's, the Man of Law's, the Pardoner's, the Manciple's and others.[19] The sudden appearance of a fictional literature is evidence of Europe's natural links with the other cultures that derive from the ancient sources of the Near East.[20] Ibn Tufayl (c. 1110-85), of Spain, wrote Hayy ibn Yaqzam (The Living son of the awake), the story of Hayy, who was brought up in isolation by a gazelle… then he receives a visitor, Asal, from an inhabited island etc…The work was translated in the 17^thcentury by E. Pococke, and is said to have been among the influences which led to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. [21]

When the Muslim libraries boasted tens of thousands of volumes, some hundreds of thousands, European libraries, even the most renowned, such as the Sorbonne in Paris and the Vatican libraries, had just few hundreds volumes.[22] Santa Maria de Ripoll  reached its height under Abbot Oliva (1008-46), with a catalogue of its notable library of two hundred and forty six titles.[23] Most libraries had less than a hundred; Cluny, one of the best, had 570 volumes in its 12^th century catalogue, a remarkably large and complete collection for its time.[24] Western Medieval libraries were, of course, not public libraries, for there was no reading public, nor were they lending libraries such as came into existence at the universities.[25]

It is in the 12^th century, once more, that we see a transformation in Western Christendom; the universities-or rather, their college halls-began to have libraries precisely then.[26] A development that arrived via the usual routes: Spain, Sicily  and the crusades. The French King, St Louis (1214-1270), who went on the crusade in the East, for instance, taking example of what he saw in Palestine, began to encourage the collection of books in libraries.[27]Many of the books that served as foundation for such early Western libraries were, of course, Islamic books, witness Daniel of Morley, who about 1200, brought to England  from Spain `a precious multitude of books.[28]The university of Naples had a large collection of Muslim works as the popularity of Frederick with the Muslim princes of the East gave him exceptional facilities for the acquirement of literary treasures.[29]He, in turn, made Naples University an academy for translations from Arabic into Latin , and had copies of such translations sent to Paris and Bologna.[30]

Islamic libraries also inspired in their organisation and management.[31] Whether in book lending, cataloguing, librarianship, and general library management, the methods adopted and introduced by the Muslims can be seen even today. Equally, it was the Islamic profession of Warraq, plural warraqueen, or book-shop keepers, which developed considerably in the Muslim East in the 9^th century onwards, following the development of the paper industry,[32] which served as the foundation for future similar professions in the West, that is of both book sellers and makers.

A final word on the major tool of Islamic civilisation , its language: Arabic. From the end of the 8^th century to the end of the 11^th, Sarton  insists, the intellectual leaders had been most of them Muslims, and the most progressive works had been written in Arabic; during these three centuries the Arabic language was the main vehicle of culture.[33] Arabic, which, Leopold Von Ranke observes, leaving Latin  aside, is the most important of all the languages of the world for universal history.[34]Montgomery, too, in the Haverford Symposium, asserts that Arabic has had the most unique development and spread of all the tongues of the earth and that only within the last two centuries has English come to rival it.[35]For centuries, the prestige of Arabic was such that not just the translators of Muslim science  (Gerard of Cremona , Robert of Chester , John of Seville …), but every single man of learning of Western Christendom  had to be knowledgeable of it. Arnold of Villanova (d.1311), for instance, mastered Arabic, and in his enthusiasm for Islamic medicine translated a series of its important works into Latin.[36] Erbstosser points out how words of Arabic origin are very numerous in the scientific sphere; almost all the names of constellations and the basic terms of astronomy, for instance, coming from Arabic.[37] The place of Arabic goes even further, Arabic symbolising all that was sophisticated, and superior; `material wealth and comfort for Western Europeans, must have at times appeared to go hand in hand `with the ability to read Arabic,’ Menocal says.[38]Such was the impact of the language, the Christian figure, Alvarus (9^th century), bitterly reacted:

`Who is there among the faithful laity sufficiently learned to understand the Holy Scriptures, or what our doctors have written in Latin ? Who is there fired with love of the Gospels, the Prophets, the Apostles? All our young Christians… are learned in infidel erudition and perfected in Arabic eloquence. They assiduously study, intently read and ardently discuss Arabic books…. The Christians are ignorant of their own tongue; the Latin race does not understand its own language. Not one in a thousand of the Christian communion can write an intelligent letter to a brother. On the other hand there are great numbers of them who expound the Arabic splendour of language, and metrically adorn, by mono-rhyme, the final clauses of songs, better more sublimely than other peoples.’[39]

No matter, centuries, on, such was the appeal of Arabic, even Alvar Fanez, the lieutenant of the Cid, who fought the Muslims bitterly early in the 12^th century, signed his name in Arabic.[40]

Finally, briefly returning to one major issue raised by this work, the gradual suppression by Western history of Islamic achievements, one after the other, as here noted by Dawson with regard to the rise of Provencal culture. This new culture was the result of influence of Islamic civilisation , as was accepted by Western scholars up to the early 19^th century.[41] After that, not due to scientific reasons, but due to nationalist tendencies, Dawson says (although he could have added other motivations,) modern Western historians suppressed the Islamic influence, and insisted on the independent and native origin culture.[42] Dawson, referring to older sources,[43] highlights the resemblance with Islamic elements, and the lack of resemblance with anything Western, besides insisting that at the time of impact, whilst Muslim culture was glittering, Western Christendom  was `almost barbarian’ to exert such sort of impact.[44] Yet, in a same and similar pattern as with regard to all other medieval changes, all such obvious points were done away with by Western historians, the Islamic influence suppressed, and new, odd, countless, even conflicting forms of origin, made the end product of our modern history of civilisation.