In his article "The Cultural Contribution of Islam to Christendom," T .C. Young says: "The great cultural debt we have for Islam since we, Christians, used, within this millenium, to travel to Islamic capitals and to Moslem teachers to learn from them arts, sciences, and the philosophy of human life should always be brought to mind. Amongst this is our classical heritage which Islam preserved in the best way possible until Europe was once again able to understand it and to look after it. All this must blend into the spirit with which we, Christians, turn towards Islam, carrying to it our cultura1, spiritual gifts. Let's then go to it with a feeling of equality to pay Islam an old debt. We will not overstep the bounds of justice if we pay back what we owe Islam by winning it over. We will be true Christians only if we forget about the conditions of exchange, and we give for the sake of love and gratitude(14)."
The Arab-Islamic culture played its leading part in the best way possible in building world scientific renaissance. Arab and Moslem scholars translated Greek heritage and other kinds of scientific heritage which had preceded them in history into the Arabic language which was the language of science and culture. Arab and Moslem scholars left their mark on the European
Renaissance. The imprint of the Arab-Islamic culture was predominant, noticeable and effective in many scientific, intellectual and cultural fields. Arab and Muslim scholars invented the numerical system; the figure Zero; the decimal system; the theory of evolution-one hundred years before Darwin; pulmonary circulation -three centuries before Harvey. They discovered gravity and the relationship between weight, speed and distance severa1 centuries before Newton; they measured the speed of light, calculated the angles of reflection and refraction, computed the circumference of the earth, and determined the dimensions of heavenly bodies. They invented astronomical instruments, discovered high seas, and laid down the foundations of chemistry.
One might say that, in general, the Arab-Islamic culture was at the center between ancient sciences and cultures and the European Renaissance. The Arab- Islamic thought and the Arab-Islamic culture are chains of connected links extending from ancient civilizations -Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Chinese to the civi1izations of Greece and Alexandria -all the way to the Islamic era whose scholars were influenced by their predecessors and who, in turn, influenced those who followed them, namely the scholars of the European Renaissance. These scholars studied the works of their Arab counterparts in their books which were translated into Latin and European languages(15).
The Arab-Islamic culture preserved the Greek culture and safeguarded it from loss and destruction. Had it not been for Arab intellectuals and scholars, people would not have been able to get hold of many Greek works, the original version of which was lost. These works were preserved in Arabic. The West had been very busy studying the Arab culture even after its prestige declined in Spain, two or more generations later, until it reached modern times. The Arab-Islamic culture fascinated a great many Westerner, for translation from Arabic did not cease during and after the Renaissance in spite of the direct Contact with the Greek world and civilization as of the middle of the thirteenth century A.D. when Greek books began to be translated directly into Latin without help from Arabic translations. The Arab culture had its Own worth and personality. It produced many a thing which the Greek culture could not produce in all fields: additions, commentaries, inventions, and Arab discoveries unknown to the Greeks(16).
The translation movement from the Arab- Islamic culture, which helped Europe pullout of the dark Middle Ages into the modern enlightened age, was not confined to the translation of ancient knowledge only -Greek, Indian, Babylonian. and Egyptian -from Arabic books into Latin. Christian Europe also translated purely Arab knowledge and transferred patterns from Islamic civilization and from Islamic faith into its public and
private life. Had the Catholic Church not put its weight behind the Europeans in the Battle of Tours in l4 A.D. (732 Hegira), the Islamic civilization and the Arab culture would have been prevalent in Europe since that early age and church would have spared the world a long, grueling and bitter conflict(17).
The Arab-Islamic culture spread in the Western world. European scholars quaffed from authentic Arab sources, and discovered that they were a great scientific heritage. So they studied and analyzed it. The Arabs and Moslems were the epitome of modern science in every sense of the word. They were the pioneers of modem scientific methods. From the Arab-Islamic culture. European intellectuals and scholars acquired more than just information. They acquired scientific mentality, with all its empirical and inductive character, for they found in the Arab-Islamic heritage the object of their long-cherished wish; they were, therefore, bent on spreading it(18).
It was the dazzle of the magnitude of influence which the Arab-Islamic culture had on European Renaissance, culture and sciences which prompted a German thinker and scientist to come out openly with the truth and say: "That flourishing civilization, whose enlightenment had inundated Europe for many centuries, is truly amazing; for this civilization was not an extension of the vestiges of past civilizations, or of local civilizational skeletons of some importance, or a borrowing from, or an imitation of an existing civilizational mode, as was the case with other cradles of civilization in other countries in the East. It is the Arabs who, with their culture, contrived this magnificent civilization(19)."
While Europe was buried in the darkness of the Middle Ages, the Islamic -civilization (the cradle of the Arab-Islamic culture) was at its apogee. Islam greatly contributed to the advancement of science, medicine and philosophy. As Will Durant said in his book, The Age of Fai1h, "Moslems contributed effectively in all fields. A vicenna was one of the greatest scientists in medicine, al-Razi a most eminent physician, al-Bayruni a most distinguished geographer, Ibn al-Haitham a most celebrated optics scientist, and Ibn Jabir a most famous chemist." Besides, the Arabs were the pioneers of education and teaching. On this point, Durant had this to say, "When Roger Bacon presented his theory in Europe five hundred years after Ibn Jabir, he said that he was indebted to the Maghrebis in Spain who took their knowledge from the Moslems in the East. European Renaissance thinkers and, scholars owed their advent, genius and progress to the giants of the Islamic world(20).
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