24/12/08- Medieval Encounters: Conflict and Coexistence 2

Medieval Encounters: Conflict and Coexistence 2

Intellectual Development


Arabic translation movement (8-10th Centuries)
(Early Abbasid)

Latin translation movement (12-13th Centuries)
(Southern-Western Europe)


Caliph al-Mansur (r. 754-775)

Caliph Harun ar-Rashid (r. 786-809)

Caliph Al-Ma’mun (r. 813-833)




Channels for the transmission of Ancient knowledge:

Alexandria, Antioch, Tarsus, Harran (Sabians)

Sasanian (Zoroastrian) centers of Hellenistic learning
İn Persia

Syriac speaking Biblical centers:
Edessa (Urfa); Nisibis (Nizip); Mosul

Platonian idealism

Aristotelian logic and dialectic argument

Hikmah (philosophical wisdom)

Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (d. 1037)

“Kalām” (theological discussion)

Madrasa (Islamic college) 11th Century


Novel institutions of higher learning (12th century):

University / “universitas” (Bologna, Paris)

College (Sorbonne, Oxford)

Scholasticism

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1275)