Islamic Civilization

The Impact of Translations from Arabic

The role of the 12^th century translations in such upsurge is clear to Wiet et al, who ascertain that never in history `has so great an accumulation of learning been uncovered at such chronological distance in so short time. It was around their tremendous revelation that there grew up, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a system of education in Europe.’[1] Education entered a state of upheaval, Menocal observes; so many of the revolutionary additions and transformations of old modes of thought and expressions, shared with thinkers `whose Arabic writings, once translated, had permeated Europe.’[2] The same for Singer, who sees in the Scholasticism of medieval times in the main a direct outcome of `the Arabic revival’ in Europe.[3]

The great influx of new knowledge into Western Europe between 1100 and 1200, which came partly through Italy and Sicily , but chiefly through Spain,[4]transformed learning in its essence. The addition of the new logic, the new mathematics, and the new astronomy to the older Latin  trivium and quadrivium are but several of the many features of the world of learning that now tied the two intellectual worlds together.[5]All scientific learning in Western Christian universities was dominated by translated Islamic learning. Medicine  provides an excellent instance of this. In the universities that had medical schools, medicine was taught from Latin translations of Islamic texts by Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Al-Razi , Ibn Sina , and also of Galen .[6]At Montpellier , manuscripts of Islamic authors were comparatively abundant and many `Compendia' containing `Arabist doctrines’ were issued under the control of the universities, particularly those of Bologna and Padua.[7]The expounders of mediaeval medicine drew on the Islamic material (in their Latin translations) thereby completely `Arabizing’ the system of medicine in Europe.[8] One major text of learning, Al-Razi's book al-Kitab al-mansuri fi'l Tibb, translated into Latin as Liber al-Mansorem was studied by medical students, and medical men knew it by heart.[9] The commentators, especially at first, gave of the text only the beginnings of sentences after the pattern of Bible exegesis. These commentaries were written by members of the faculty of Pavia, and were used in the afternoon lectures on practical medicine as ad.lecturam Almonsoris.[10]The Canon of Ibn Sina was the leading medical authority, and after its translation into Latin by Gerard of Cremona , it served for many centuries as the chief representative of the Islamic school of medicine in Western Europe, holding its place in the universities of Montpellier and Louvain down to A.D. 1650.[11] As late as 1520 in Vienna, and 1588 in Frankfurt on the Oder, the medical curriculum was still largely based on Ibn Sina's Canon, and on the ninth book Ad Almonsorem of al-Razi.[12]And so was the case at the University of Tubingen (in 1481) where the `Arabists’ were dominant.[13]The majority of the works by Al-Razi were translated into Latin, and printed many times, principally in Venice  in 1509, and in Paris in 1528 and 1548; his treatise on small verole, for instance, reprinted in 1745. In the latter portion of the 15^th and in the early part of the 16^th century the `Arabists’ in Latin Europe were undoubtedly the most influential of the learned members of society, and there was considerable demand for Latin versions of the works of the `Arabians’ in general, and Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd , and Ibn Sarabi in particular.[14] Even in the 17^th century in France and Germany scholars kept to Arabic erudition, whilst Islamic pharmacology survived until the beginning of the 19^th.[15]

Muslim scientific works fed, and above all, circulated between places of higher learning in the Christian West . The university of Naples, most particularly, had a large collection of Arabic manuscripts,[16]as the popularity of Frederick with the Muslim princes of the East gave him exceptional facilities for the acquirement of literary treasures.[17] Frederick made Naples University an academy for the purpose of introducing Islamic science  to the Western world, a centre of translations from Arabic into Latin ; having copies of such translations sent to Paris and Bologna.[18] Burnett  also points to translator scholars such as Petrus of Alfonsi, Robert of Ketton and Ibn Ezra, who as examples of scholar-translators, travelled between Spain and England  and may have brought not just translations from Arabic, but also manuscripts themselves.[19]Burnett also points to at least one English doctor, called Herbert, whose library included Constantine’s translations of the Tunisian doctors, and also of later translations (12^th century) by John of Seville, and works by Qusta Ibn Luqa, proving how quickly works travelled from Spain to England.[20]

Courtesy of Burnett ’s erudition, it is possible to look at Oxford University, as an excellent case of how Islamic science  held a decisive place in an institution of Western higher learning. Gerard Langbaine (1609-1658) who was the keeper of the archives of the university during the commonwealth had charge of the university's Arabic type.[21]He compiled material from the Bodleian and other libraries in Oxford to illustrate the history of the study of Arabic in England , from the beginnings up to his own time, material which is contained in a notebook marked with the astrological sign for Leo.[22]He starts with Adelard's transcribing the opening of his Natural Questions, underlining Adelard's mention of Saraceni and Studia Arabum, then refers to three translations from Arabic made by him; then Plato of Tivoli's translation of al-Battani's astronomical tables, then quotes portions of the dossier that Roger Bacon  sent to Pope Clement IV that are relevant to the learning of Arabic, and he goes on to transcribe the introduction of Daniel of Morley's Philosophia, in which Daniel describes his visit to Toledo .[23] There is a powerful link between Islamic works and Oxford University, via Alfred of Sareshel’s translations, which helped shape the teaching of later masters, such as Adam of Buckfield, Roger Bacon, and Henry of Renham, and also the `Avicennist,’ John Blund.[24] John Blund was teaching at the faculty of arts from around 1200 to 1209, before having to leave as the university was closed down because of riots; John Blund migrating to the marshy fens to lay down the foundations of Cambridge.[25]Although he seemingly praises Aristotle , and the fact that the `Arabs ’ had recently handed his (Aristotle) science back to the Latin , Burnett notes, Blund in his surviving work, De anima, relies mainly on Al-Kindi, Ibn Sina , Al-Farabi, Al-Ghazali and Qusta Ibn Luqa.[26]In 1200, at the time Blund, and possibly Alfred of Sareshel were teaching at Oxford, Grosseteste  was also teaching the arts there, before he was appointed the first chancellor, his personality and scholarship eventually making Oxford a rival to Paris. [27]

Even a late arrival on the scene of higher learning, the university of Cracow, exhibits the same dependence on Islamic science  as competently charted by Isaievych and  Korolec.[28] At the university was founded towards 1405 a chair in astronomy, at that time, as underlined by Brikenmajer, no other university in Central Europe had similar chair devoted solely to astronomical studies.[29] During their studies, whether graduates or masters at the university, all had to be knowledgeable of the works of Muslim scholars .[30] This includes works by Al-Qabisi: al-madkhal ila Sina’at Ahkam al-Nujum) (Introduction to the science of the stars), which was translated into Latin  by Johannes Hispalensis; Abu Ma’shar’s De revolutionibus and Liber florum, e substantia orbis of Ibn Rushd ; De fatis astrorum of Ali ibn Rijal; the Liber 157 verborum of Al-Razi  etc.[31] The lectures also included Al-Kindi, Masha’Alllah, Thabit ibn Qurra, Al-Battani , Al-Zarqali , Al-Farabi; Al-Farghani; and Jabir ibn Aflah.[32]It is towards 1450 that studies of astronomy at Cracow blossomed mainly thanks to the contribution of Martin Krol, who in his collection owned the works of Muslim astronomers, such as the commentaries on Ptolemy’s Almagest by Ali ibn Ridwan (ms. 587; ff. 1-151v),[33] the same author’s comments on Ptolemy’s Centiloquium (ms BJ 1859), [34] the De Pluviis of al-Kindi (mss BJ 1865 and 2495), [35]The Liber introductorius of Al-Qubaysi (MS BJ 1918), [36]etc. Korolec goes on to make an extremely good list of the Islamic manuscripts that served the teaching at Cracow.[37]Thus, there is little mystery or surprise in the fact that Cracow rose as the dominant institution with regard to astronomical studies and to produce a Copernicus . Further decisive influences through Drohobych who lectured whilst Copernicus was a student at Cracow are also examined by Isaievych (briefly cited already), and will be addressed in the next chapter (under Sciences).