How Greek sciences passed to Europe by the Arabs through Al-Andalus and Sicily

• Autores: Inas Abbas
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 1172-1177
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • It is well-known that the European Renaissance was based on the Classical heritage transmitted to Europe by the Arabs, who did not render it the same as they had taken it.

    We are concerned here with an exposition of the nature of that role, which manifested itself in 3 phases: 1) Translating and editing of the Greek text books, both scientific and philosophic. 2) Researching and analyzing through detailed studies of these works, supplementing them with introductions, interpretations, scholia and comments. 3) Application and experimentation of the scientific theories, which thus laid the principles of the scientific method.

    As previous studies enumerated the Arabs’ contributions in the major fields of sciences, the present survey intends to throw into relief how the Arab scholars exceeded from the theoretical speculations to praxis. By applying this experimental practical method, using instruments and apparatuses developed or invented by them, drawing maps, making tables, they opened new vistas for the appendix sciences either to medicine or mathematics to emerge and grow independently of these major sciences.

    Al-Andalus and Sicily, as channels of transmission, provided the institutes and universities in Europe when the translation movement from Arabic started in the 12th century, with all these heritage and studies, where they remained open to fresh investigations and exhaustive researches. They thus paved the way for Europe to proceed into the Renaissance.

    To sum up: the growth of knowledge should be looked up as the achievement of all humanity, the active nation who could benefit from the knowledge of the predecessors and then pass it to its successors, with new contributions of its own. In that process, the Arabs played their role.