Islamic world contributions to Medieval Europe

During the High Middle Ages, the Islamic world was at

its cultural peak, supplying information and ideas to
Europe, via Al-Andalus, Sicily and the Crusader
kingdoms in the Levant. These included Latin
translations of the Greek Classics and of Arabic texts in
astronomy, mathematics, science, and medicine.
Translation of Arabic philosophical texts into Latin "led
to the transformation of almost all philosophical
disciplines in the medieval Latin world", with a
particularly strong influence of Muslim philosophers
being felt in natural philosophy, psychology and
metaphysics.[2] Other contributions included
technological and scientific innovations via the Silk
Road, including Chinese inventions such as paper and
gunpowder.

The Islamic world also influenced other aspects of
medieval European culture, partly by original
innovations made during the Islamic Golden Age,
including various fields such as the arts, agriculture,
alchemy, music, pottery, etc.
A Christian and a Muslim playing chess,
illustration from the Book of Games of Alfonso X
(c. 1285).[1]

Many Arabic loanwords in Western European languages, including English, mostly via Old French, date
from this period.[3] This includes traditional star names such as Aldebaran, scientific terms like alchemy
(whence also chemistry), algebra, algorithm, etc. and names of commodities such as sugar, camphor,
cotton, coffee, etc.

Transmission routes
Europe and the Islamic lands had multiple points of
contact during the Middle Ages. The main points of
transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe lay in
Sicily and in Spain, particularly in Toledo (with Gerard
of Cremone, 1114–1187, following the conquest of the
city by Spanish Christians in 1085). In Sicily,
following the Islamic conquest of the island in 965 and
its reconquest by the Normans in 1091, a syncretistic The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by Al-Idrisi for Roger
Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture developed, II of Sicily in 1154, was one of the most advanced
exemplified by rulers such as King Roger II, who had world maps of its era.
Islamic soldiers, poets and scientists at his court. The
Moroccan Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote The Book of
Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands or Tabula Rogeriana, one of the greatest geographical treatises of
the Middle Ages, for Roger.[4]
The Crusades also intensified exchanges between Europe and the Levant, with the Italian maritime
republics taking a major role in these exchanges. In the Levant, in such cities as Antioch, Arab and Latin
cultures intermixed intensively.[5]

During the 11th and 12th centuries, many Christian scholars traveled to Muslim lands to learn sciences.
Notable examples include Leonardo Fibonacci (c. 1170 –c. 1250), Adelard of Bath (c. 1080–c. 1152) and
Constantine the African (1017–1087). From the 11th to the 14th centuries, numerous European students
attended Muslim centers of higher learning (which the author calls "universities") to study medicine,
philosophy, mathematics, cosmography and other subjects.[6]

Aristotelianism and other philosophies

In the Middle East, many classical Greek texts, especially the works
of Aristotle, were translated into Syriac during the 6th and 7th
centuries by Nestorian, Melkite or Jacobite monks living in
Palestine, or by Greek exiles from Athens or Edessa who visited
Islamic centres of higher learning. The Islamic world then kept,
translated, and developed many of these texts, especially in centers
of learning such as Baghdad, where a "House of Wisdom" with
thousands of manuscripts existed as early as 832. These texts were
in turn translated into Latin by scholars such as Michael Scot (who
made translations of Historia Animalium and On the Soul as well as
of Averroes's commentaries)[7] during the Middle Ages.[1] Eastern
Christians played an important role in exploiting this knowledge,
especially through the Christian Aristotelian School of Baghdad in
the 11th and 12th centuries.

Later Latin translations of these texts originated in multiple places.

Toledo, Spain (with Gerard of Cremona's Almagest) and Sicily
became the main points of transmission of knowledge from the A medieval Arabic representation of
Islamic world to Europe.[8] Burgundio of Pisa (died 1193) Aristotle teaching a student.
discovered lost texts of Aristotle in Antioch and translated them into
Latin.

From Islamic Spain, the Arabic philosophical literature was translated into Hebrew, Latin, and Ladino. The
Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, Muslim sociologist-historian Ibn Khaldun, Carthage citizen
Constantine the African who translated Greek medical texts, and Al-Khwarizmi's collation of mathematical
techniques were important figures of the Golden Age.

Avicennism and Averroism are terms for the revival of the

Peripatetic school in medieval Europe due to the influence of
Avicenna and Averroes, respectively. Avicenna was an important
commentator on the works of Aristotle, modifying it with his own
original thinking in some areas, notably logic.[10] The main
significance of Latin Avicennism lies in the interpretation of
Avicennian doctrines such as the nature of the soul and his
existence-essence distinction, along with the debates and censure
that they raised in scholastic Europe. This was particularly the case
in Paris, where so-called Arabic culture was proscribed in 1210,
Averroes was influential in the rise of
secular thought in Western Europe.[9]
though the influence of his psychology and theory of knowledge upon William of Auvergne and Albertus
Magnus have been noted.[11]

The effects of Avicennism were later submerged by the much more influential Averroism, the
Aristotelianism of Averroes, one of the most influential Muslim philosophers in the West.[12] Averroes
disagreed with Avicenna's interpretations of Aristotle in areas such as the unity of the intellect, and it was his
interpretation of Aristotle which had the most influence in medieval Europe. Dante Aligheri argues along
Averroist lines for a secularist theory of the state in De Monarchia.[9] Averroes also developed the concept
of "existence precedes essence".[13]

Al-Ghazali also had an important influence on medieval Christian

philosophy along with Jewish thinkers like Maimonides.[15]

George Makdisi (1989) has suggested that two particular aspects of

Renaissance humanism have their roots in the medieval Islamic
world, the "art of dictation, called in Latin, ars dictaminis," and
"the humanist attitude toward classical language". He notes that
dictation was a necessary part of Arabic scholarship (where the
vowel sounds need to be added correctly based on the spoken Imaginary debate between Averroes
word), and argues that the medieval Italian use of the term "ars and Porphyry. Monfredo de Monte
dictaminis" makes best sense in this context. He also believes that Imperiali Liber de herbis, 14th
the medieval humanist favouring of classical Latin over medieval century.[14]
Latin makes most sense in the context of a reaction to Arabic
scholarship, with its study of the classical Arabic of the Koran in
preference to medieval Arabic.[16]

Sciences

A page from Frederick Rosen's 1831 edition of Al-Khwarizmi's Algebra alongside the corresponding English
translation.

During the Islamic Golden Age, certain advances were made in scientific fields, notably in mathematics and
astronomy (algebra, spherical trigonometry), and in chemistry, etc. which were later also transmitted to the
West.[1][17]

Stefan of Pise translated into Latin around 1127 an Arab manual of medical theory. The method of algorism
for performing arithmetic with the Hindu–Arabic numeral system was developed by the Persian al-
Khwarizmi in the 9th century, and introduced in Europe by Leonardo Fibonacci (1170–1250).[18] A
translation by Robert of Chester of the Algebra by al-Kharizmi is known as early as 1145. Ibn al-Haytham
(Alhazen, 980–1037) compiled treatises on optical sciences, which were used as references by Newton and
Descartes. Medical sciences were also highly developed in Islam as testified by the Crusaders, who relied
on Arab doctors on numerous occasions. Joinville reports he was saved in 1250 by a “Saracen” doctor.[19]

Contributing to the growth of European science was the major

search by European scholars such as Gerard of Cremona for new
learning. These scholars were interested in ancient Greek
philosophical and scientific texts (notably the Almagest) which
were not obtainable in Latin in Western Europe, but which had
survived and been translated into Arabic in the Muslim world.
Gerard was said to have made his way to Toledo in Spain and
learnt Arabic specifically because of his "love of the Almagest".
While there he took advantage of the "abundance of books in
Surgical operation, 15th-century
Arabic on every subject".[20] Islamic Spain and Sicily were
Turkish manuscript
particularly productive areas because of the proximity of multi-
lingual scholars. These scholars translated many scientific and
philosophical texts from Arabic into Latin.[21][22] Gerard personally translated 87 books from Arabic into
Latin, including the Almagest, and also Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī's On Algebra and
Almucabala, Jabir ibn Aflah's Elementa astronomica,[23] al-Kindi's On Optics, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn
Kathīr al-Farghānī's On Elements of Astronomy on the Celestial Motions, al-Farabi's On the Classification
of the Sciences,[24] the chemical and medical works of Rhazes,[25] the works of Thabit ibn Qurra and
Hunayn ibn Ishaq,[26] and the works of Arzachel, Jabir ibn Aflah, the Banū Mūsā, Abū Kāmil Shujā ibn
Aslam, Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis), and Ibn al-Haytham (including the Book of Optics).

Alchemy

Western alchemy was directly dependent upon Arabic

sources.[27] The Latin alchemical works of "Geber" (Jābir
ibn Hayyān) were standard texts for European alchemists.
The exact attribution of these works remains a matter of
some controversy. Some are undoubtedly translations from
Arabic from works attributed to Jābir ibn Hayyān, including
the Kitab al-Kimya (titled Book of the Composition of
Alchemy in Europe), translated by Robert of Chester
(1144);[28] and the Book of Seventy, translated by Gerard of
Geber depicted in Liebig's Extract of Meat
Cremona (before 1187).[29] Whether these were actually Company trading card "Chimistes Celebres",
written by one man (or whether indeed Jābir was a real 1929.
historical figure) is disputed, but there is no doubting the
influence on medieval European alchemy of the translated
Arabic works.[a] The alchemical works of Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) were translated into
Latin around the 12th century.[25] Several technical Arabic words from Arabic alchemical works, such as
alkali,[31] found their way into European languages and became part of scientific vocabulary.

Astronomy, mathematics and physics

The translation of Al-Khwarizmi's work greatly influenced mathematics in Europe. As Professor Victor J.
Katz writes: "Most early algebra works in Europe in fact recognized that the first algebra works in that
continent were translations of the work of al-Khwärizmï and other Islamic authors. There was also some
awareness that much of plane and spherical trigonometry could be attributed to Islamic authors".[32] The
words algorithm, deriving from Al-Khwarizmi's Latinized name Algorismi, and algebra, deriving from the
 title of his AD 820 book Hisab al-jabr w’al-muqabala, Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-
Muqabala are themselves Arabic loanwords. This and other Arabic
astronomical and mathematical works, such as those by al-Battani[23] and
Muhammad al-Fazari's Great Sindhind (based on the Surya Siddhanta and
the works of Brahmagupta).[33] were translated into Latin during the 12th
century.[34]

Al-Khazini's Zij as-Sanjari (1115–

1116) was translated into Greek by
Gregory Chioniades in the 13th
century and was studied in the
Byzantine Empire.[35] The
astronomical modifications to the
Ptolemaic model made by al-Battani
A German manuscript page and Averroes led to non-Ptolemaic
teaching use of Arabic models produced by
numerals (Hans Talhoffer, Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi (Urdi lemma),
1459) Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (Tusi-couple)
and Ibn al-Shatir, which were later
adapted into the Copernican A European and an Arab practicing
heliocentric model. Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī's Ta'rikh al-Hind and geometry together. 15th-century
Kitab al-qanun al-Mas’udi were translated into Latin as Indica and manuscript
Canon Mas’udicus respectively.

Fibonacci presented the first complete European account of Arabic

numerals and the Hindu–Arabic numeral system in his Liber Abaci
(1202).[25]

Al-Jayyani's The book of unknown arcs of a sphere (a treatise on

spherical trigonometry) had a "strong influence on European
mathematics".[36] Regiomantus' On Triangles (c. 1463) certainly
took his material on spherical trigonometry (without
acknowledgment) from Arab sources. Much of the material was
taken from the 12th-century work of Jabir ibn Aflah, as noted in the Astrolabe quadrant, England, 1388
16th century by Gerolamo Cardano.[32]

A short verse used by Fulbert of Chartres (952-970 –1028) to help remember some of the brightest stars in
the sky gives us the earliest known use of Arabic loanwords in a Latin text:[37] "Aldebaran stands out in
Taurus, Menke and Rigel in Gemini, and Frons and bright Calbalazet in Leo. Scorpio, you have
Galbalagrab; and you, Capricorn, Deneb. You, Batanalhaut, are alone enough for Pisces."[38]

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) wrote the Book of Optics (1021), in which he developed a theory of vision and
light which built on the work of the Roman writer Ptolemy (but which rejected Ptolemy's theory that light
was emitted by the eye, insisting instead that light rays entered the eye), and was the most significant
advance in this field until Kepler.[39] The Book of Optics was an important stepping stone in the history of
the scientific method and history of optics.[40] The Latin translation of the Book of Optics influenced the
works of many later European scientists, including Roger Bacon and Johannes Kepler.[41][42] The book
also influenced other aspects of European culture. In religion, for example, John Wycliffe, the intellectual
progenitor of the Protestant Reformation, referred to Alhazen in discussing the seven deadly sins in terms of
the distortions in the seven types of mirrors analyzed in De aspectibus. In literature, Alhazen's Book of
Optics is praised in Guillaume de Lorris' Roman de la Rose.[43] In art, the Book of Optics laid the
foundations for the linear perspective technique and may have influenced the use of optical aids in
Renaissance art (see Hockney-Falco thesis).[43] These same techniques were later employed in the maps
made by European cartographers such as Paolo Toscanelli during the Age of Exploration.[42]

The theory of motion developed by Avicenna from Aristotelian physics may have influenced Jean Buridan's
theory of impetus (the ancestor of the inertia and momentum concepts).[44] The work of Galileo Galilei on
classical mechanics (superseding Aristotelian physics) was also influenced by earlier medieval physics
writers, including Avempace.[45]

Other notable works include those of Nur Ed-Din Al Betrugi, notably On the Motions of the
Heavens,[25][46] Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi's Introduction to Astrology,[47] Abū Kāmil Shujā ibn Aslam's
Algebra,[23] and De Proprietatibus Elementorum, an Arabic work on geology written by a pseudo-
Aristotle.[25]

Medicine

One of the most important medical works to be translated was

Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (1025), which was translated
into Latin and then disseminated in manuscript and printed form
throughout Europe. It remained a standard medical textbook in
Europe until the early modern period, and during the 15th and 16th
centuries alone, The Canon of Medicine was published more than
thirty-five times.[49] Avicenna noted the contagious nature of some
infectious diseases (which he attributed to "traces" left in the air by
a sick person), and discussed how to effectively test new
medicines.[50] He also wrote The Book of Healing, a more general
encyclopedia of science and philosophy, which became another
popular textbook in Europe. Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi wrote
the Comprehensive Book of Medicine, with its careful description of
and distinction between measles and smallpox, which was also European depiction of the Persian
influential in Europe. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi wrote Kitab al- doctor al-Razi, in Gerard of
Cremona's Receuil des traités de
Tasrif, an encyclopedia of medicine which was particularly famed
médecine (1250–1260). Gerard de
for its section on surgery. It included descriptions and diagrams of
Cremona translated numerous works
over 200 surgical instruments, many of which he developed. The
by Muslim scholars, such as al-Razi
surgery section was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in
and Ibn Sina.[48]
the 12th century, and used in European medical schools for
centuries, still being reprinted in the 1770s.[51][52]

Other medical Arabic works translated into Latin during the

medieval period include the works of Razi and Avicenna (including
The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine),[53] and Ali ibn
Abbas al-Majusi's medical encyclopedia, The Complete Book of the
Medical Art.[25] Mark of Toledo in the early 13th century translated
the Qur'an as well as various medical works.[54]

Technology and culture Syrian medicinal jars c. 1300,

excavated in Fenchurch Street,
London. Museum of London

Agriculture and textiles

Various fruits and vegetables were introduced to Europe in this
period via the Middle East and North Africa, some from as far as
China and India, including the artichoke, spinach, and
aubergine.[56]

Arts

Islamic decorative arts were highly valued imports to Europe

throughout the Middle Ages. Largely because of accidents of Facade of a meeting between a
survival, most surviving examples are those that were in the Muslim scholar and a Frankish lord
possession of the church. In the early period textiles were especially
important, used for church vestments, shrouds, hangings and
clothing for the elite. Islamic pottery of everyday quality was still
preferred to European wares. Because decoration was mostly
ornamental, or small hunting scenes and the like, and inscriptions
were not understood, Islamic objects did not offend Christian
sensibilities.[57] Medieval art in Sicily is interesting stylistically
because of the mixture of Norman, Arab and Byzantine influences
in areas such as mosaics and metal inlays, sculpture, and bronze-
working.[58]

19th-century depiction of La Zisa,

Writing
Palermo, showing Arab-Norman art
and architecture combining
The Arabic Kufic script was often imitated for decorative effect in
Occidental features (such as the
the West during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to produce
Classical pillars and friezes) with
what is known as pseudo-Kufic: "Imitations of Arabic in European Islamic decorations and
art are often described as pseudo-Kufic, borrowing the term for an
calligraphy.[55]
Arabic script that emphasizes straight and angular strokes, and is
most commonly used in Islamic architectural decoration".[60]
Numerous cases of pseudo-Kufic are known from European art
from around the 10th to the 15th century; usually the characters are
meaningless, though sometimes a text has been copied. Pseudo-
Kufic would be used as writing or as decorative elements in textiles,
religious halos or frames. Many are visible in the paintings of
Giotto.[60] The exact reason for the incorporation of pseudo-Kufic
in early Renaissance painting is unclear. It seems that Westerners
mistakenly associated 13th- and 14th-century Middle-Eastern
scripts as being identical with the scripts current during Jesus's time,
and thus found natural to represent early Christians in association
with them:[61] "In Renaissance art, pseudo-Kufic script was used to
decorate the costumes of Old Testament heroes like David".[62]
Another reason might be that artist wished to express a cultural
universality for the Christian faith, by blending together various
written languages, at a time when the church had strong Pseudo-Kufic script in the Virgin
international ambitions.[63] Mary's halo, detail of Adoration of the
Magi (1423) by Gentile da Fabriano.
The script is further divided by
Carpets rosettes like those on Mamluk
dishes.[59]
Carpets of Middle-Eastern origin, either from the Ottoman Empire,
the Levant or the Mamluk state of Egypt or Northern Africa, were a
significant sign of wealth and luxury in Europe, as demonstrated by
their frequent occurrence as important decorative features in
paintings from the 13th century and continuing into the Baroque
period. Such carpets, together with Pseudo-Kufic script offer an
interesting example of the integration of Eastern elements into
European painting, most particularly those depicting religious
subjects.[64]
The Somerset House Conference
(1604) artist unknown, shows English
Music and Spanish diplomats gathered
around a table covered by an
A number of musical instruments used in European music were Oriental carpet.
influenced by Arabic musical instruments, including the rebec (an
ancestor of the violin) from the rebab and the naker from
naqareh[65] The oud is cited as one of several precursors to the modern guitar.[66]

Some scholars believe that the troubadors may have had Arabian
origins, with Magda Bogin stating that the Arab poetic and musical
tradition was one of several influences on European "courtly love
poetry".[67] Évariste Lévi-Provençal and other scholars stated that
three lines of a poem by William IX of Aquitaine were in some
form of Arabic, indicating a potential Andalusian origin for his
works. The scholars attempted to translate the lines in question and
produced various different translations; the medievalist Istvan Frank
contended that the lines were not Arabic at all, but instead the result
of the rewriting of the original by a later scribe.[68]

The theory that the troubadour tradition was created by William

after his experiences with Moorish arts while fighting with the Muslim and Christian playing lutes,
in a miniature from the Cantigas de
Reconquista in Spain has been championed by Ramón Menéndez
Santa Maria by King Alfonso X
Pidal and Idries Shah, though George T. Beech states that there is
only one documented battle that William fought in Spain, and it
occurred towards the end of his life. However, Beech adds that
William and his father did have Spanish individuals within their extended family, and that while there is no
evidence he himself knew Arabic, he may have been friendly with some European Christians who could
speak the language.[68] Others state that the notion that William created the concept of troubadours is itself
incorrect, and that his "songs represent not the beginnings of a tradition but summits of achievement in that
tradition."[69]

Technology

A number of technologies in the Islamic world were adopted in European medieval technology. These
included various crops;[70] various astronomical instruments, including the Greek astrolabe which Arab
astronomers developed and refined into such instruments as the Quadrans Vetus, a universal horary
quadrant which could be used for any latitude,[71] and the Saphaea, a universal astrolabe invented by Abū
Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī;[72] the astronomical sextant; various surgical instruments, including refinements
on older forms and completely new inventions;[52] and advanced gearing in waterclocks and automata.[73]
Distillation was known to the Greeks and Romans, but was rediscovered in medieval Europe through the
Arabs.[74] The word alcohol (to describe the liquid produced by distillation) comes from Arabic al-kuhl.[75]
The word alembic (via the Greek Ambix) comes from Arabic al-
anbiq.[76] Islamic examples of complex water clocks and automata
are believed to have strongly influenced the European craftsmen
who produced the first mechanical clocks in the 13th century.[77]

The importation of both the ancient and new technology from the
Middle East and the Orient to Renaissance Europe represented “one
Syrian or Egyptian pieces of glass
of the largest technology transfers in world history.”[78]
with Arabic inscriptions, excavated in
London. Museum of London.
In an influential 1974 paper, historian Andrew Watson suggested
that there had been an Arab Agricultural Revolution between 700
and 1100, which had
diffused a large number of
crops and technologies from
Spain into medieval
Europe, where farming was
mostly restricted to wheat
strains obtained much
earlier via central Asia.
Watson listed eighteen
crops, including sorghum
from Africa, citrus fruits
from China, and numerous
crops from India such as
mangos, rice, cotton and
sugar cane, which were Early-16th century Andalusian dish
The Aldrevandini Beaker, Venetian distributed throughout with pseudo-Arabic script around the
glass with enamel decoration derived Islamic lands that, edge, excavated in London. Museum
from Islamic technique and style. c. according to Watson, had of London.
1330.[79] previously not grown them.
Watson argued that these
introductions, along with an increased mechanization of agriculture,
led to major changes in economy, population distribution, vegetation cover, agricultural production and
income, population levels, urban growth, the distribution of the labour force, linked industries, cooking, diet
and clothing in the Islamic world. Also transmitted via Muslim influence, a silk industry flourished, flax was
cultivated and linen exported, and esparto grass, which grew wild in the more arid parts, was collected and
turned into various articles.[70] However Michael Decker has challenged significant parts of Watson's
thesis, including whether all these crops were introduced to Europe during this period. Decker used literary
and archaeological evidence to suggest that four of the listed crops (i.e. durum wheat, Asiatic rice, sorghum
and cotton) were common centuries before the Islamic period, that the crops which were new were not as
important as Watson had suggested, and generally arguing that Islamic agricultural practices in areas such as
irrigation were more of an evolution from those of the ancient world than the revolution suggested by
Watson.[80]

The production of sugar from sugar cane,[81] water clocks, pulp and paper, silk, and various advances in
making perfume, were transferred from the Islamic world to medieval Europe.[82] Fulling mills and
advances in mill technology may have also been transmitted from the Islamic world to medieval Europe,[83]
along with the large-scale use of inventions like the suction pump,[84] noria and chain pumps for irrigation
purposes. According to Watson, "The Islamic contribution was less in the invention of new devices than in
the application on a much wider scale of devices which in pre-Islamic times had been used only over
limited areas and to a limited extent."[85] These innovations made it possible for some industrial operations
that were previously served by manual labour or draught animals to be driven by machinery in medieval
Europe.[86]

The spinning wheel was invented in the Islamic world by 1030. It later spread to China by 1090, and then
spread from the Islamic world to Europe and India by the 13th century.[87] The spinning wheel was
fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It was a precursor to the
spinning jenny, which was widely used during the Industrial Revolution. The spinning jenny was
essentially an adaptation of the spinning wheel.[88]

Coinage

While the earliest coins were minted and widely circulated in

Europe, and Ancient Rome, Islamic coinage had some influence on
Medieval European minting. The 8th-century English king Offa of
Mercia minted a near-copy of Abbasid dinars struck in 774 by
Caliph Al-Mansur with "Offa Rex" centered on the reverse.[89] The
moneyer visibly had little understanding of Arabic, as the Arabic
text contains a number of errors.

In Sicily, Malta and

Southern Italy from about
913 tarì gold coins of
Tarì gold coin of Roger II of Sicily,
Islamic origin were minted
with Arabic inscriptions, minted in
in great number by the
Palermo. British Museum.
Normans, Hohenstaufens
and the early Angevins
rulers.[91] When the
Normans invaded Sicily in the 12th century, they issued tarì coins
bearing legends in Arabic and Latin.[92] The tarìs were so
widespread that imitations were made in southern Italy (Amalfi and
Salerno) which only used illegible "pseudo-Kufic" imitations of
Arabic.[93][94] A gold dinar of the English king Offa
of Mercia, a copy of the dinars of the
According to Janet Abu-Lughod: Abbasid Caliphate (774). It combines
the Latin legend OFFA REX with
The preferred specie for international transactions Arabic legends. British Museum.[90]
before the 13th century, in Europe as well as the
Middle East and even India, were the gold coins struck
by Byzantium and then Egypt. It was not until after the
13th century that some Italian cities (Florence and
Genoa) began to mint their own gold coins, but these
were used to supplement rather than supplant the
Middle Eastern coins already in circulation.[95]

Literature
It was first suggested by Miguel Asín Palacios in 1919 that Dante
Alighieri's Divine Comedy, considered the greatest epic of Italian
literature, derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter
directly or indirectly from Arabic works on Islamic eschatology,
such as the Hadith and the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi. The
Kitab al-Miraj, concerning Muhammad's ascension to Heaven, was
Crusader coins of the Kingdom of
translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before[96] as Liber scalae Jerusalem. Left: Denier in European
Machometi, "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder". Dante was style with Holy Sepulchre. Middle:
certainly aware of Muslim philosophy, naming Avicenna and One of the first Kingdom of
Averroes last in his list of non-Christian philosophers in Limbo, Jerusalem gold coins, copying
alongside the great Greek and Latin philosophers.[97][98] How Islamic dinars. Right: Gold coin after
strong the similarities are to Kitab al-Miraj remains a matter of 1250, with Christian symbols
scholarly debate however, with no clear evidence that Dante was in following Papal complaints. British
fact influenced. Museum.

See also
Christian influences on the Islamic world
Hindu and Buddhist contribution to science in medieval Islam
Reception of Islam in Early Modern Europe
Renaissance of the 12th century

Notes
a. A few of the Latin works are now attributed to a Pseudo-Geber, as although attributed to
"Geber", they have no identified Arabic source and appear to have been composed in Latin
in the 13th century.[30]

References
1. Lebedel, p.109
2. Dag Nikolaus Hasse (2014). "Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on the Latin West"
(https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-influence/). Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
3. Lebedel, p.113
4. Lewis, p.148
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External links
Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on the Latin West" (http
s://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-influence/). Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
Islamic Contributions to the West (https://web.archive.org/web/20110727013452/http://www.l
ssu.edu/faculty/jswedene/FULBRIGHT_FILES/Islamic%20Contributions%20to%20the%20
West.doc) by Rachida El Diwani, Professor of Comparative Literature.
"How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs" (http://www.aina.org/books/hgsptta.htm) by De
Lacy O'Leary
 Islamic Contributions to Civilization (http://bahai-library.com/cobb_islamic_contributions_civil
ization) by Stanwood Cobb (1963)

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