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Resumen
Resumen
For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was backward and benighted, locked into the Dark Ages and barely able to tell the time of day. Augustine had decreed that belief not reason should be the guiding light of Christian thinking, and partially as a result its people lived in a world of nominal literacy and subsistence farming, where blind faith, superstition and sorcery took the place of medicine and the church harnessed nascent aggression among the kingdoms to its own ends in the pursuit of astonishingly violent and cruel holy wars - the First Crusades.
Arab culture, however, was thriving, and had become a powerhouse of intellectual exploration and discussion that dazzled the likes of Adelard of Bath who ventured in search of its scientific riches in cities like Antioch or Baghdad, whose House of Wisdom held four hundred thousand books at a time when the best European libraries housed at most several dozen. The Arabs could measure the earth's circumference, a feat not matched in the West for eight hundred years; they discovered algebra, sine and other trigonometric functions, and the use of zero; were adepts at astronomy and navigation, charted the constellations, made maps, accurately told the time, developed the astrolabe, translated all the Greek texts including, importantly, those of Aristotle; they made paper and lenses and mirrors. Without them, and the knowledge that travellers like Adelard brought back to the West, Europe would in all likelihood have been a very different place over the last millennium.
In this fascinating and thoughtful book Jonathan Lyons restores credit to the Arab thinkers of the past, explores and reveals the extent of their learning and describes the intrepid adventures of those who went in search of it and who, in doing so, laid the foundations of the Renaissance.
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Kirkus Review
Former Reuters editor and foreign correspondent Lyons fashions an accessible study about early Western acquisition of scientific knowledge from the Arab world. Wading through centuries of anti-Muslim propaganda, Lyons traces how the brilliance of Arab knowledge, brought back by visiting scholars from intellectual centers like Baghdad, Antioch and Cordoba, transformed Western notions of science and philosophy. The Western "recovery" of classical learning, as championed later in the Renaissance, was actually first transmitted by these early Arab giants of learning, many of whom emerged from the Baghdad think tank, translation bureau and book repository called the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma), built by Caliph al-Mansur in the eighth century. The Baghdad court linked the triumphs of classical wisdomespecially that of the Greekswith Persian, Hindu and other traditions, spurring the work of significant Arab thinkers such as al-Khwarizmi, who developed star tables, algebra and the astrolabe; al-Idrisi, who accepted a royal commission by Roger II of once-Muslim Sicily to construct the first comprehensive world's map, The Book of Roger; Avicenna, a Persian philosopher and physician who was an authority on medicine; and Averroes, the Muslim philosopher whose commentaries on Aristotle were a major contribution to Western thought. Lyons capably delineates the fascinating journey of this knowledge to the West, highlighting a few key figures, including Adelard of Bath, whose years spent in Antioch paid off grandly in bringing forth his translations of Euclid and al-Khwarizmi; and Michael Scot, science adviser and court astrologer to Frederick II, who translated Avicenna and Averroes. Lyons cleverlythough too brieflyties these early theories to the work of Thomas Aquinas and Copernicus and the subsequent "invention of the West." Pertinent study that should aid in a better understanding between East and West. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
During the medieval period (500-1500 C.E.), much of Western Europe was a cultural backwater, characterized by ignorance, illiteracy, and violence. At the same time the Arabic world, including Antioch, CUrdoba, and Baghdad (where the House of Wisdom, a library, book repository, and academy of scholars, was located) witnessed a flowering of scholars, libraries, scientific advances in medicine, mathematics, geography, astronomy, and agriculture, as well as the translation from Greek of Aristotle, Euclid, and Ptolemy, and other important works from Hindu and Persian scholars. Lyons (former editor, Reuters) shows us not only the Christian scholars, e.g., Adelard of Bath, in their quest for Arabic books and knowledge but also some of the great Muslim scholars like Albumazar and Averroes, as well as rulers and religious leaders-both Christian and Muslim. Lively and well researched, the book clarifies how Arabic books, ideas, and knowledge were found and brought back to Europe to help shape Western ideas. With a list of significant events and leading figures; highly recommended for general readers. (Bibliography, notes, and illustrations not seen.)-Melissa Aho, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.