Sept 22, 2006
The Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy began on 12 September 2006, when Pope Benedict XVI presented a lecture entitled "Faith, Reason and the University — Memories and Reflections" at the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he was previously a professor of theology.
Many in the Islamic world registered their protest[1] against what they said was an insulting mischaracterization of Islam, particularly Benedict's usage of the quotation:
Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.[2]
The quote originated from a 1391 dialogue between the "erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus" and an unnamed "educated Persian", that touched on such issues as forced conversion, holy war, and the relationship between reason and faith.
MingPao News: 在回教史家眼中，教宗的話不符史實。他們普遍認為是伊斯蘭和阿拉伯文化，令到古希臘思想得以捱過歐洲中世紀黑暗時代重見天日，促成天主教思想家阿奎那(Thomas Aquinas)成功把信仰和理性調和結合。《星期日泰晤士報》引述一名英國聖公會一名高層人士說﹕「回教可能比基督教更講理性，數學及醫學技術都是在伊斯蘭世界發展出來的。在理性與中世紀主義的對抗中，站在理性一方的是回教徒。」
The cultural scenario starts to change when the contact with the Arabs after the Reconquista and during the Crusades allowed Europeans access to preserved copies of Greek and Roman works. During the 800s and 900s, a mass of classical Greek texts were translated by Muslim scholars into Arabic, followed by a flurry of commentaries by Islamic thinkers. Around 1050, further translation into Latin had begun in Northern Spain, and the recapture of Toledo and Sicily by the Christian kingdoms near the end of the century allowed the translation to begin in earnest by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. Scholars came from around Europe to aid in translation.
Gerard of Cremona is a good example of an Italian who came to Spain to copy a single text and stayed on to translate over a thousand works.[7] His biography described how he came to Toledo, "There, seeing the abundance of books in Arabic on every subject and regretting the poverty of the Latins in these things, he learned the Arabic language, in order to be able to translate." [2]
The Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy began on 12 September 2006, when Pope Benedict XVI presented a lecture entitled "Faith, Reason and the University — Memories and Reflections" at the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he was previously a professor of theology.
Many in the Islamic world registered their protest[1] against what they said was an insulting mischaracterization of Islam, particularly Benedict's usage of the quotation:
Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.[2]
The quote originated from a 1391 dialogue between the "erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus" and an unnamed "educated Persian", that touched on such issues as forced conversion, holy war, and the relationship between reason and faith.
MingPao News: 在回教史家眼中，教宗的話不符史實。他們普遍認為是伊斯蘭和阿拉伯文化，令到古希臘思想得以捱過歐洲中世紀黑暗時代重見天日，促成天主教思想家阿奎那(Thomas Aquinas)成功把信仰和理性調和結合。《星期日泰晤士報》引述一名英國聖公會一名高層人士說﹕「回教可能比基督教更講理性，數學及醫學技術都是在伊斯蘭世界發展出來的。在理性與中世紀主義的對抗中，站在理性一方的是回教徒。」
The cultural scenario starts to change when the contact with the Arabs after the Reconquista and during the Crusades allowed Europeans access to preserved copies of Greek and Roman works. During the 800s and 900s, a mass of classical Greek texts were translated by Muslim scholars into Arabic, followed by a flurry of commentaries by Islamic thinkers. Around 1050, further translation into Latin had begun in Northern Spain, and the recapture of Toledo and Sicily by the Christian kingdoms near the end of the century allowed the translation to begin in earnest by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. Scholars came from around Europe to aid in translation.
Gerard of Cremona is a good example of an Italian who came to Spain to copy a single text and stayed on to translate over a thousand works.[7] His biography described how he came to Toledo, "There, seeing the abundance of books in Arabic on every subject and regretting the poverty of the Latins in these things, he learned the Arabic language, in order to be able to translate." [2]
The rediscovery of the works of Aristotle through medieval Jewish and Muslim Philosophy (Maimonides, Avicenna, and Averroes) allowed the full development of the new Christian philosophy and method of scholasticism. By 1200 there were reasonably accurate Latin translations of the main works of Aristotle, Plato, Euclid, Ptolemy, Archimedes and Galen, that is, of all the intellectually crucial ancient authors except Thucydides. During the thirteenth century the natural philosophy of these texts began to be extended by notable Scholastics such as Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Duns Scotus.
Scholastics believed in empiricism and supporting Roman Catholic doctrines through secular study, reason, and logic. The most famous was Thomas Aquinas (later declared a "Doctor of the Church"), who led the move away from the Platonic and Augustinian and towards Aristotelianism, but natural philosophy wasn't his main concern. Meanwhile, precursors of the modern scientific method can be seen already on Grosseteste's emphasis on mathematics as a way to understand nature and on the empirical approach admired by Roger Bacon.
Scholastics believed in empiricism and supporting Roman Catholic doctrines through secular study, reason, and logic. The most famous was Thomas Aquinas (later declared a "Doctor of the Church"), who led the move away from the Platonic and Augustinian and towards Aristotelianism, but natural philosophy wasn't his main concern. Meanwhile, precursors of the modern scientific method can be seen already on Grosseteste's emphasis on mathematics as a way to understand nature and on the empirical approach admired by Roger Bacon.
Albert the Great (1193-1280), Doctor Universalis, was an essential figure in introducing Greek and Islamic science into the medieval universities, but not without hesitation with particular aristotelian theses. In one of his most famous sayings he asserted: "Science does not consist in ratifying what others say, but of searching for the causes of phenomena."
In the Islamic World, the Middle Ages is known as the Islamic Golden Age (750 - 1250) , when Islamic civilization and Islamic scholarship flourished. This scholarship was aided by several factors. The use of a single language, Arabic, allowed communication without need of a translator. Translations of Greek texts from Egypt and the Byzantine Empire, and Sanskrit texts from India, provided Islamic scholars a knowledge base to build upon. In addition, there was the Hajj. This annual pilgrimage to Makkah facilitated scholarly collaboration by bringing together people and new ideas from all over the Islamic world.
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