Page 232 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

established a caliphate in Egypt in 973, and an inde- pendent dynasty also operated in North Africa. Despite the political disunity of the Islamic world, however, the underlying Islamic civilization was unified by two com- mon bonds: the Qur’an and the Arabic language.
Islamic Civilization
From the beginning of their empire, Muslim Arabs had demonstrated a willingness to absorb the culture of their conquered territories. The Arabs were truly heirs to the remaining Greco-Roman culture of the Roman Empire. Just as readily, they assimilated Byzantine and Persian culture. In the eighth and ninth centuries, numerous Greek, Syrian, and Persian scientific and philosophical works were translated into Arabic. As the chief language in the southern Mediterranean and the Near East and the required language of Muslims, Ara- bic became a truly international tongue.
The Muslims created a brilliant urban culture at a time when western Europe was predominantly a world of small rural villages. This can be seen in such new cities as Baghdad and Cairo, but also in C􏰀ordoba, the capital of the Umayyad caliphate in Spain. With a pop- ulation of possibly 100,000, Co􏰀rdoba was Europe’s largest city after Constantinople. It had seventy public libraries, and the number of manuscripts in the caliph’s
private library reached 400,000. Schools were also established, and the Great Mosque of Co􏰀rdoba became a center for scholars from all over the Islamic world. Large numbers of women served as teachers and librar- ians in Co􏰀rdoba.
During the first few centuries of the Arab empire, it was the Islamic world that saved and spread the scien- tific and philosophical works of ancient civilizations. At a time when the ancient Greek philosophers were largely unknown in Europe, key works by Plato and Ar- istotle were translated into Arabic. They were put in a library called the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where they were read and studied by Muslim scholars. Texts on mathematics were also brought from India. This process was aided by the use of paper. In the eighth century, the making of paper was introduced from China, and by the end of the century paper factories had been established in Baghdad. Booksellers and libraries soon followed. European universities later benefited from this scholarship when these works were translated from Arabic into Latin.
Although Islamic scholars are rightly praised for pre- serving much of classical knowledge for the West, they also made considerable advances of their own. Nowhere is this more evident than in their contribu- tions to mathematics and the natural sciences. The Muslims adopted and passed on the numerical system
Preserving Greek Literature.
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the philosophical works of ancient Greece were virtually forgotten in Europe. It was thanks to Muslim scholars, who stored copies and translations in libraries in the Arab world, that many classical Greek writings survived. Here young Muslim scholars are being trained in the Greek language so that they can translate classical Greek literature into Arabic. Later the works were translated back into Latin and served as a catalyst for an intellectual revival in medieval and Renaissance Europe.
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European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages, 750–1000
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Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul/The Bridgeman Art Library