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The superiority of Islamic civilization. The contributions of Muslims to medieval Europe were numerous and influenced various fields such as art, architecture, medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, music, language, and technology.

The superiority of Islamic civilization

The superiority of Islamic civilization

From the eleventh century to the thirteenth century, Europe gained knowledge from Islamic civilization, by transmitting the classics, especially the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, after translating them from Arabic.

Islamic cultural excellence

The Arab-Islamic civilization witnessed great prosperity in all economic, social, cultural, and intellectual fields. The Islamic religion played a major role in this situation through its principles that urge work, the acquisition of knowledge, contemplation of the universe and life, and research into natural laws. Islam also made knowledge obligatory for Muslims and raised the value of knowledge. Scientists addressed the mind and directed it towards thinking and creativity.

Islamic cultural diversity

As a result of the Islamic conquests and the expansion of trade exchanges, Muslims came into contact with cultures, strengthened and enriched their knowledge, and then began to spread knowledge, as they had a pioneer in the field of education by establishing universities in capitals and major metropolises.

On the other hand, Muslim scholars left a rich heritage in the field of arts and sciences, especially in medicine, mathematics, and astronomy, which were exploited in managing the economic, social, and political affairs of Muslims.

As for the arts of architecture and decoration, Muslims were interested in constructing mosques and palaces and establishing new cities with their various facilities, using various arts of decoration, drawing, and engraving.

Seeking knowledge in Islamic countries

During the eleventh and fourteenth centuries AD, many Christians moved to Islamic lands to seek knowledge, such as Leonardo Fibonacci, Adelard of Bath, Constantine Africanus, and other European students who moved to Islamic centers of learning to study medicine, philosophy, mathematics, and other sciences.

Western missions of Andalusia

The West used to seek the help of Arabs and Muslims to teach their children the latest knowledge, development, and civilization that Muslims had achieved. Educational missions were sent, especially to Andalusia, and one of the educational missions included Princess Doubant, the niece of the King of England, France, Sweden, and Norway.

The document mentioned in the book “100 They Changed the Course of History” says: From George II, King of England, France, Sweden, and Norway, to the Muslim Caliph, King of Muslims in the Kingdom of Andalusia, the owner of greatness and venerable status: After glorification and reverence, we have heard about the great progress whose pure abundance is enjoyed by the institutes of science and industries. In your prosperous country, we wanted our children to quote examples of these virtues so that it would be a good start in following your footsteps to spread types of knowledge in our country where ignorance prevails from four pillars.

Methods of transferring knowledge

The points of contact between Europe and the Islamic kingdoms were numerous. Therefore, aspects of Islamic sciences were transmitted to Europe through Sicily and Andalusia, especially in Toledo (through the translations of Gerardo of Cremona after the Christian Spaniards annexed the city in 1085 AD). In Sicily, after the Muslims annexed the island in 965 AD, and then the Normans regained it in 1091 AD, a Norman-Arab culture was born, nurtured by rulers such as Roger II, King of Sicily, who had Muslim soldiers, poets, and scholars in his court. The book Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Penetrating the Horizons, written by al-Idrisi al-Marrakshi for King Roger, is considered one of the greatest geographical manuscripts of the Middle Ages.

The Crusades also played a role in the exchange of knowledge between Europe and the Levant, especially the maritime republics, which played their role in cultural exchange. Antioch also played a role in mixing Arab and Latin cultures.

Ancient science

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages, many ancient texts were not available to Europeans. The situation was quite the opposite in the East. Many Greek texts (such as the works of Aristotle) were translated from Greek into Syriac in the sixth and seventh centuries by Nestorian, Melkite, and Jacobite monks who inhabited Palestine or were exiled from Athens or Edessa. Many of these texts were preserved, translated, and developed in the Islamic world, especially in centers of learning such as Baghdad, which had the “House of Wisdom,” which contained thousands of manuscripts by 832. These texts were translated again into European languages in the Middle Ages.

Eastern Christians also played an important role in transmitting this knowledge, as they were active in translating from Greek into Syriac and then into Arabic, especially during the era of the Abbasid state, when most of the translators in the House of Wisdom were Jacobites and Nestorians, and they worked particularly in the fields of medicine, mathematics, physics, and astronomy, so the caliphs relied on them.

These texts were then translated back into Latin through various methods. The most important centers for transmitting Islamic sciences to Europe were in Sicily and Toledo. Burgondio of Albisi in Antioch also discovered lost texts by Aristotle and translated them into Latin.

Islamic sciences

The Islamic world made great contributions to algebra, alchemy, chemistry, geology, spherical trigonometry, and others, and from there, it was transmitted to the West. In 1127, Stephen of Albiza translated an Arabic manual on medical theory into Latin. Al-Khwarizmi (from whose name the word “algorithm” is derived) developed a method for performing arithmetic operations using Arabic numerals in the 9th century, which Leonardo Fibonacci brought to Europe. Robert of Chester also translated Al-Khwarizmi's Al-Mukhtasar fi Histab al-Jibrah wa al-Muqabala by Al-Khwarizmi around the year 1145.

Ibn al-Haytham had works on optics, which Isaac Newton and René Descartes relied on as sources in their research. Medical sciences were also very developed among Muslims, as testified by participants in the Crusades, who relied on Arab doctors on more than one occasion, and Jean de Joinville mentioned that he was saved by a Muslim doctor in 1250.

The Europeans were interested in Greek philosophy and scientific texts (especially the Almagest) that were not available in Latin in Western Europe but were preserved and translated into Arabic in the Islamic world. It is said that Gerardo of Cremona traveled to Toledo and learned Arabic “for his love of the Almagest,” and there he took advantage of “the abundance of books in Arabic on all subjects.”

Andalusia and southern Italy were the most productive regions in the transmission of science, due to the closeness of polyglot scholars. These scholars translated many scientific and philosophical texts from Arabic to Latin. Gerardo of Cremona alone translated 87 books from Arabic to Latin, including the Almagest, the book The Compendium on Calculation of Algebra and Al-Muqabala by Al-Khwarizmi, the book Al-Haya fi Reform Almagest by Jabir ibn Aflah, Al-Basiyat by Al-Kindi, the book Jami’ al-Astrology and Celestial Movements by Al-Farghani, the Classification of Sciences by Al-Farabi, the works of alchemy, chemistry, medicine, and pharmacy by Al-Razi, and the works of Thabit. Ibn Qurrah, Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, Al-Zarqali, Bani Musa, Shuja’ Ibn Aslam, Al-Zahrawi, and Ibn Al-Haytham (including the Book of Opinions).

Justice for Islamic civilization

Some Orientalists did justice to Islam and Islamic civilization, as many Europeans tried to obscure the features of Islamic civilization and deny the virtue of this civilization over Europeans in particular and the human world in general.

At a time when the Arab-Islamic civilization witnessed great prosperity, Europe was living in insecurity, especially after the fall of the Roman Empire, the incursion of German tribes, and the subjection of some regions to Arab-Islamic control, especially Andalusia and Sicily.

The West transferred the sciences of the Arabs and Muslims to them, and Arabic books were their references for many years. We are not exaggerating if we say that no science has developed and advanced to reach what it has reached in our present time unless the Arabs have a hand and a mark in what it has achieved.