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To: wideawake

I understand that there are political points to be made, but Fibocacci published the Liber Abaci based upon what he learned from Arabs. So in 1250 Europe is still using Roman numerals and by 1700, we’re doing calculus.

Also, though I am sure your specific citations are accurate, my understanding is that some of the Greek texts, especially in mathematics, were eventually translated into Latin and vernacular from Arabic translations. There was a contribution.


45 posted on 01/15/2008 6:26:20 AM PST by swain_forkbeard (Rationality may not be sufficient, but it is necessary.)
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To: swain_forkbeard
Fibocacci published the Liber Abaci based upon what he learned from Arabs.

And from Venetians. And from Persians. And from Greeks.

Arabs were not his sole tutors, and he knew enough about the system of calculation he was using to know that it was Indian, not Arabic.

my understanding is that some of the Greek texts, especially in mathematics, were eventually translated into Latin and vernacular from Arabic translations.

The argument can be made that several texts were only available in Arabic because Muslim invasions of Greek territories and the destruction of Greek monasteries had rendered the preferred Greek originals unavailable.

It's hard to call that a net contribution to scholarship.

I would also point out that many of these Arabic texts were translated and preserved by Arabic-speaking Jews, not by Muslims.

My point is not that there was absolutely no interaction with Muslim sources in the Renaissance, but that Muslim contributions are far, far less than what Muslim and philoIslamic sources would have people believe.

If the Muslim invasions had never happened, Hindu and Persian mathematical research would have continued, and countless treasures of Greek antiquity in every field would have survived.

As it stands today, all the surviving texts of the Athenian golden age can fit in an standard set of bookshelves from Home Depot. And that's not the fault of all the Greek monks who studiously preserved those texts until they were murdered by janissaries.

61 posted on 01/15/2008 7:16:32 AM PST by wideawake (Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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