Islamic Contributions To Medieval Europe - Classical Knowledge

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.