Islamic contributions to Western Civ

[Archaea]

http://www.medievalhistory.net/islamica.htm

The Muslim expansion into Spain in A.D.1085 brought
with it a new world view and new learning previously unknown
in Europe, such as the technology of papermaking. The scholars
of Islam in Spain also brought with them a vast body of
empirical studies in natural science developed by generations of
men from traditions ancient and contemporary who all spoke
from outside of the narrow world view of the Catholic Church
articulated by St. Augustine of Hippo.
Included in the Arabic libraries were a fully developed
mathematics of physics and astronomy, and the ancient Greek
medical texts of Hippocrates and Galen, as well as the entire
body of Aristotle's writings. The Arabs massive written record
of non-Christian discussion included new ideas supported by
incontrovertible proofs of evidence or logic, and some of these
valid new ideas contradicted outright their corollary forms as
taught by the Roman Catholic Church.

It is interesting that our current adversary preserved learning for us for thousands of years.

[Archaea]

Another interesting snippet:

Islamic learning in the middle ages was so far in advance
of the European traditions that the usage of Islamic knowledge
by Europe cannot be seen as other than a wholesale adoption of
an entire foundation of knowledge upon which the Later
Renaissance was constructed. In addition to the scholastic
contributions, such as the philosophy of Aristotle, there are four
specific areas of scientific specialisation which merit particular
attention, in the form of a specific review; the four most telling
fields of Arabic science being medicine, astronomy, physics
and chemistry.

[Mormon Red Death]

Originally Posted by Archaea

http://www.medievalhistory.net/islamica.htm

The Muslim expansion into Spain in A.D.1085 brought
with it a new world view and new learning previously unknown
in Europe, such as the technology of papermaking. The scholars
of Islam in Spain also brought with them a vast body of
empirical studies in natural science developed by generations of
men from traditions ancient and contemporary who all spoke
from outside of the narrow world view of the Catholic Church
articulated by St. Augustine of Hippo.
Included in the Arabic libraries were a fully developed
mathematics of physics and astronomy, and the ancient Greek
medical texts of Hippocrates and Galen, as well as the entire
body of Aristotle's writings. The Arabs massive written record
of non-Christian discussion included new ideas supported by
incontrovertible proofs of evidence or logic, and some of these
valid new ideas contradicted outright their corollary forms as
taught by the Roman Catholic Church.

It is interesting that our current adversary preserved learning for us for thousands of years.

plus they did so much f%@!ng with the women that is changed the blood lines forever

[SeattleUte]

This is one of the best articles I've read on the subject, and reviews several books on the subject (I've posted this here before but probably no one paid any attention). It's an amazing story. But Islam of today is only a husk of the original Islamic Empire governed by the Umayyad Caliphs. What you call "Islamic" contribution is really primarily Islam being a transmitter of another culture--Classical culture.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17516

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

This is one of the best articles I've read on the subject, and reviews several books on the subject (I've posted this here before but probably no one paid any attention). It's an amazing story. But Islam of today is only a husk of the original Islamic Empire governed by the Umayyad Caliphs. What you call "Islamic" contribution is really primarily Islam being a transmitter of another culture--Classical culture.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17516

Very true. Most of my readings leave me to believe that Islam preserved Classical culture, refined some aspects and through Judaism transmitted it to Rome.

It's interesting how things go from East to West to East to West. Which is the best of those books? Perhaps one of those books could be our Book of the Month.

[Archaea]

I found this review of Fletcher's book interesting.

"Mr. Fletcher provides a quick and concise overview of how the European Christian nations interacted and conflicted with their Islamic neighbors from the Middle-east. This book is a rare balanced account of the centuries-old international rivalry between the two regions. Although most people tend to believe that the conflicts were about religion, the fact is dominance in trade and other economic factors were far more prevalent. In fact, it was often the case that Islamic principalities valued military and trade alliances with Christian powers over that of potential or blatant rivals among their fellow Muslims. The same is true for some Christian principalities.
Mr. Fletcher points out both the positive and negative factors in cross-cultural contact, such as the advances in the sciences and technology passed on to Western academics, particularly in the 12th and 13th centuries. In open conflict, atrocities were commited by both sides. Under occupation, neither fared well under the rule of the other, but conditions varied by place and time. One of the author's main points is that neither side was particularly interested in the other's religion, but also that religious persecution was in fact a major concern.
It has been a recent trend that many books on the subject of Christian-Islamic conflict tend to openly disparage the Christian side, over-emphasizing the Crusading Era. However, these facts need to be considered, and they are covered in this book:
-Christianity first experienced Islam (in 634) as an invading conqueror, suppressing and exploiting all non-Islamic people.
-The Islamic powers have made several attempts to invade, conquer, and permanently colonize vast regions of Europe: the conquest of Spain in 711-18, remaining as a presence until 1492; the conquest of Sicily in 827; a raid on Rome in 846; destruction of the Byzantine Empire in 1453; conquest of the Balkans in 1521, Hungary in 1526, and besieging Vienna in 1529 and later in the early 1600s. These were deep incursions into Europe, with the intent of permanent occupation.
The Crusades, however, were limited to establishing control of the relatively small region of Isreal, with no real interest in taking larger areas of the Middle-east.
Islam had open disdain for the Christian world, but the Christians had much interest in studying Arabic culture and language. It is a fact that early Islam did much to improve the sciences inherited from the ancient Greeks. This knowledge was in turn improved and expanded upon by the Christian nations. But due to Islam's disregard of the West, its not surprising that as the Western culture began to grow and thrive, the Middle-east stagnated into obscurity, becoming a shadow of their former prominence for many centuries after Europe's Renaissance."

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Very true. Most of my readings leave me to believe that Islam preserved Classical culture, refined some aspects and through Judaism transmitted it to Rome.

It's interesting how things go from East to West to East to West. Which is the best of those books? Perhaps one of those books could be our Book of the Month.

You must mean Rome/Rennaisance. Of course Islam followed the fall of ancient Rome. In fact it filled the vacuum left by the fall of Rome and more. By 732 the Caliph in Damascus governed a monolithic empire that stretched from Spain to Thailand, and was threatening conquest of France. Byzantium was reduced to practically a city state, an island of Christianity in a sea of Islam. Islam absorbed the most civilized cities in the world and translated many of the greatest and most important books from Greek (mostly) and Latin into Arabic, which, as described in this article, were in turn translated into European languages, beginning with Castillian and French, after the fall of Cordoba. It is a great story of restored truth. The Umayyad empire was the last of the ancient empires. Later, as the empire started to fragment, the Umayyad caliph fled to Cordoba where he set up a kingdom that lasted 300 years, which was critical for Europe's future.

I think the Cross and the Crescent sounds the most interesting of these. In fact, I'm going to pick it up. It's very short, I see. 183 pp.

[Archaea]

I'm suggesting that one for the book of the month. It sounds interesting.