Classical Knowledge
Following the fall of the Roman Empire and the dawn of the Middle Ages, many texts from Classical Antiquity had been unavailable to the Europeans. However, in the Middle East many of these Greek texts (such as Aristotle) were translated from Greek into Syriac during the 6th and 7th centuries by Nestorian, Melkite or Jacobite monks living in Palestine, or by Greek exiles from Athens or Edessa who visited Islamic centres of higher learning. Many of these texts however were then kept, translated, and developed upon by the Islamic world, especially in centers of learning such as Baghdad, where a “House of Wisdom”, with thousands of manuscripts existed as soon as 832. These texts were translated again into European languages during the Middle Ages. Eastern Christians played an important role in exploiting this knowledge, especially through the Christian Aristotelician School of Baghdad in the 11th and 12th centuries.
These texts were translated back into Latin in multiple ways. The main points of transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe were in Sicily and Toledo, Spain (with Gerard of Cremona, 1114–1187). Burgundio of Pisa (died in 1193) discovered in Antioch lost texts of Aristotle and translated them into Latin.
Read more about this topic: Islamic Contributions To Medieval Europe
Famous quotes containing the words classical and/or knowledge:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock n roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. Material Differences, Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Consciousness is the perception of what passes in a mans own mind. Can another man perceive that I am conscious of any thing, when I perceive it not myself? No mans knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”
—John Locke (16321704)