Transmission routes
• The main points of transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe lay in Sicily and Spain/Andalus.
• In Spain particularly Toledo, 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, an intense Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture developed, exemplified by rulers such as King Roger II, who had Islamic soldiers, poets and scientists at his court.
The Crusaders
• 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/Antakya, Arab and Latin cultures intermixed intensively.
• During the 11th and 12th centuries, many Christian scholars travelled to Muslim lands to learn sciences. 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.
Islamic technology
• A number of technologies in the Islamic world were adopted in European medieval technology: various crops; various astronomical instruments, including the Greek astrolabe which Arab astronomers developed
• The word alcohol (to describe the liquid produced by distillation) comes from Arabic al-kuhl.
• 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.
• The importation of both the ancient and new technology from the Middle East and the Orient to Renaissance Europe represented “one of the largest technology transfers in world history.”
• Various fruits and vegetables were introduced to Europe in this period via the Muslim World, including the artichoke, spinach, and aubergine.
• New techniques in clothing and new materials were also introduced, including muslin (ince kumaş), taffetas (pamuklu kumaş), and satin.
• The production of sugar from sugar cane, pulp and paper, silk, and various advances in making perfume, were transferred from the Islamic world to medieval Europe.
Islamic art
• Islamic decorative arts were highly valued imports to Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
• 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.
• Islamic objects did not offend Christian sensibilities.
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.
Islamic carpets
• Islamic 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.
Literature
• 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 Hz.
Muhammad's ascension to Heaven, was
translated into Latin in 1264.
Music
• A number of musical instruments used in
European music were influenced by Arabic
musical instruments, including the rebec
(ancestor of violin) from the rebab, the guitar
from qitara, the naker from naqareh and the
shawm and dulzaina from the reed
instruments zamr and al-zurna.
Vocabulary
• The adoption of the techniques and materials from the Islamic world is reflected in the origin of many of the Arabic words now in use in the Western world.
• Modern European languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and English owe a great debt to Arabic.
• The English language itself contains many words borrowed from Arabic: algebra, alchemy, admiral, genius, ghoul, mare sherbet, soda and many others.
