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Eliyahu Rotenberg's avatar

An interesting take, but if I may, two points, even though I have more to say about the factual background here, perhaps in another time.

(1) Arab-Muslim are not interchangeable terms. A lot of the Christian translators from Syria (I think of the likes of Yehia Ibn Adi) are Arabs through and through and to a large extent part of the Muslim world, not the (then small) Christendom. A lot of the Muslim theologians and philosophers in the Muslim world actually aren't Arabs, they participate in it in virtue of their geography and shared language. You gave the example of the Persians - but what is fundamental there is that the learned language of this world was Arabic. This is important, because self-identification on religious grounds is rather different than what constitutes the environment in which one operates.

(2) While I think your defense of the, what is now called, the Carolingian Renaissance, and separately the Byzantine heritage is commendable, I think both miss a key feature that made the Muslim world the (largely) more authentic continuation of the Hellenic culture: not dogmatic teachings, but interpretations and development the sciences. In those terms, largely speaking, the Muslim world managed to produce significant advancements in Medicine, Astronomy, Philosophy, Grammar, History, Music and many other fields that were largely stagnated in the west. Algebra in particular which you down play into an import of Arabic Numerals and nothing original was actually further developed in the Islamic world at the time. It is indicated even by the so-called 13th century Renaissance in Europe that largely dependent on steady translations and transmissions from the Muslim world. No Al-Farabi, no Aquinas.

This is without mentioning the long, too long, list of works that survived to us either exclusively in Arabic, or else were stored in the west but lost to the intellectual endevour, weren't read or at least developed or commented on. This indeed includes important works by Aristotle, Plato, etc down to lesser known commentators such as Alexander of Aphrodisia or Proclus. Availability, circulation and actual work being done is key in preserving the sciences.

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Jeff's avatar

But, but, but I learned it the way many Americans did, at the renowned learning center known as Spaceship Earth, EPCOT, Disney World: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lvMJw81CAGg&t=341 😂

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