Muslim Scholars & the West: Brief Context(s)
The Italian theologian Thomas Acquinas (1225–1274), who was studying as the universities were just
beginning and who studied in Paris, read Ibn Rushd, “Averroes” (1126-1198); Averroes reconciled
Aristotelianism and Islamic faith. Acquinas admired his work (though later countered Averroistic
interpretations of Aristotle — for monopsychism and panpsychism). He and other scholars adhered to the
terms of Averroes’ separation of faith and reason, a Muslim ideal which also became the basis of scientific
inquiry. Still, in the late middle ages and the Renassiance, the name Averroes was equated with atheism, and
two condemnations from the Catholic Church (1270 and 1277) occurred.
Basics:
The main ideas of the earlier philosophical concept of Averroism — found in Averroës' commentaries to
Aristotle — were
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there is one truth, but there are (at least) two ways to reach it: through philosophy and through religion;
the world is eternal;
the soul is divided into two parts: one individual, and one divine;
the individual soul is not eternal;
all humans at the basic level share one and the same intellect
resurrection of the dead (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Still, thinkers admired him, as Raphael’s painting The School of Athens (1510-1511; is in the Vatican’s collection in
Rome) illustrates; it has a place for Averroes, who appears by Plato and Aristotle.
From the 9th to 13th Centuries (the Golden Age of Islam), the more prominent Muslim scholars were found in
Bayt al-Hikmah, the School of Wisdom, in Baghdad. Here, scholars of the Muslim world made important
contributions in both the sciences and humanities: medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, literature,
and more. Baghdad became a city of museums, hospitals, libraries, and mosques, attracted scholars from a
distant nations and cultures. They studied, among other things, the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates,
Euclid, and Pythagoras.
This was going on during the “dark ages” of early medieval Europe. It ended when the Mongols sacked
Baghdad in 1258 A.D.
Some inventions (some can be debated, like gunpowder) conceived by Muslim scholars/inventers before the
West’s Age of Enlightenment are
Algebra
The watch
Astronomy
The Astrolabe
Gunpowder (perhaps from China)
Gravity (described)
Analog machines (computers)
Parachute
Hang glider
Flight controls
Dams and elevated canal systems; water mills
Skyscrapers (relative to the time and materials); vertical building plans
Crank shaft and connecting rods
Fountain pen
Non-wooden block printing (perhaps from China)
Programmable robots (boat with four musicians)
Steam turbine
Ventillators (Egypt)