Cultural heritage of the medieval world: transmission of knowledge in the Mediterranean
Between the two worlds of Islam and christendom: Even through the crusades and amidst battle peoples of different faiths sharing rather than enmity.
The trade network of the Mediterranean, uninterrupted since the ancient times, assured the exchange of goods between Christianity and Islam.
Crusades as the end-result of Christian peoples extending to the Mediterranean in search of wealth and land; Jihad as an attempt to share rather than destroy as exempilified in Salahaddin Eyyubi.
On the other side of the Islamic world, through the Abbasids that came upon Sasanian and Byzantine religlous traditions of imperial culture: a dynamic, pluralistic and competitive Islam.
Two movements of cultural expansion:
1. The Abbasid Renaissance: 8th-10th century
Unrivaled intellectual center for science, philosophy, medicine and education. Many classic works of antiquity translated into Arabic and Persian
2. Latin Translation Movement: 12th-13th century. New centers of learning that relied on the recovery of Greek knowledge through Arabic sources translated into Latin (and later Hebrew)
Channels of Transmission of Knowledge:
centers such as Alexandria, Antioch, Tarsus, Harran as well as Zoroastrian centers of Hellenistic learning in Persia, and Syriac speaking Biblical centers such as Urfa, Mosul
education: from the House of Wisdom to the Madrasa as of the 11th century and to the emergence of colleges anduniversities in Europe.
Aristotelian logic: Wisdom is there as Aristotle claimed and can be applied to belief. One searches for reason –and so does in school- and applies to religion to arrive at theology. (To Understand I believe: motto of scholasticim)
Also applied in Islam through Kalam. (İbn Sina)
Products of Mutual Penetration and Influence of Islamic and Christian world:
The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (11th century) When Normans invaded Sicily it was under Islamic rule with very much and Arabic culture that they assimilated into rather than reject it.
Thus Europe re-discovered ancient Greco-Roman sources and embraced it as its own.
The influence on the Islamic world was also to play great role in the development of Sufism.
None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when the city was lost. We fight over an offense we did not give against those who were not alive to be offended.
What is Jerusalem? Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple. that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy? The wall? The mosque? The sepulcher (tomb)? Who has claim? No one has claim. All has claim.
A contemporary depiction of the crusades
A translation from Arabic to Latin, 1542
Mustansiriyah Madrasah, Baghdad
Beit al Hikmah, Baghdad
Paris University, 14th century
Norman Kingdom of Sicily (1100-1250)
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder