As the professor brought up in this week’s talking points- the Muslim influence on European academia is typically understated in our studies. I find this to be a compelling topic to discuss. I brought up last week the importance of Pagan works in monasteries and how they served as an intellectual foundation for the monks and the subsequent European academic culture. Yet last week I did not mention how the monks acquired these said works, and now I set out to do so. Following the collapse of the Roman empire in the west, much of the literary wealth was destroyed or relocated to the eastern portion of the Empire, centered at Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), leaving the west only a small remnant intellectual wealth. What follows is a simple history of the period.

A growing threat in the east, the Sassanid Persians (stretching to modern Iran to Iraq) began to clash with the east Romans, weakening both states. The peoples from the Arabian Peninsula (recently unified by infant Islam) seized upon this opportunity to mass and strike into Mesopotamia, occupying the lands previously held by the Persians. From the 6th to 10th centuries CE the Arabs sporadically warred with the east Romans, but also traded with them. Cultural diffusion took place, and the Abbasid domain became a place for contemplation and expansion of the Pagan works acquired by sword or silver from Byzantium. While the east Romans were effective librarians, they were not innovators intellectually, considering the Pagan works and philosophy in general to be detrimental to faithful Christian practice. Accordingly the Arabs became the intellectual power of the time, and revitalized the old Pagan sciences and philosophies, creating a cosmopolitan kingdom centered at Baghdad (The city of peace). During this period algebra and serious astronomy were created by Arabs, and their many commentaries on Pagan works, especially Plato and Aristotle, helped to preserve the past age’s wisdom and knowledge. The Abbasids and their successors were prolific copiers of ancient works, and created vast and elaborate libraries to house them. As a side note, their greatest library, the one at Baghdad, was destroyed by Mongols in 1258.

Social turmoil in Europe instigated the crusades by the end of the 11th century CE – and so Europe plundered the Levant. During the fourth crusade the undisciplined European forces even plundered Constantinople on the way to the region, looting manuscripts and other valuable works. These campaigns introduced into Europe the ancient Pagan works as a form of plunder and began the slow process of intellectual restoration leading up to the Renaissance.