Essay Sample on The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization

Introduction

The countries Europe receive more credit in terms of intellectual and scientific development when compared to the part of the world. They have sophisticated centers of higher learning institutions. However, different sources vividly show that in the 11th century, the Arab continent was more intellectually rich than any other part of the earth. Jonathan Lyon, the author of the book, History of Wisdom; How the Arab world Transformed western civilization describes various events that took place in the ancient history of the Islamic community in the 11th century. The writer narrates origin of the Islamic knowledge, contribution of the education and how it helped to the transformation and civilization of the western countries during the middle stone age. In this paper, it is important to discuss the advancement of the Muslim world how the transfer of knowledge in the Muslim world and, and how the knowledge was received in the west.

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The Advancement of the Muslim

The Muslim world had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge in various disciples of academic. The intellectual capacity of the Islam culture dazzled the first Europeans who stepped the Arab world for the first time. The Muslim people had vast knowledge that they had had used to innovate new devices.

The Islam community made huge contributions in the field of mathematics. According to Lyon some of the mathematical formulas were developed by the Muslim scholars such as al-Khwarizmi who worked in as libraries. Al-Khwarizmi, the author of the book known as The Book of Restoring and Balancing was able to come up with star table that was useful in the research on the motion of cosmic bodies such as planets and stars, and also, "managed to combine Hindu and early Babylonian influence in solving such equations by means of algebra and with Greek tradition of geometric proofs to validate the results" (74). In addition, mathematicians came up with the Arab numerical and along with the concept of zero.

The Arab world had immense knowledge in world mapping. They were able to make drawings that could vividly show the outline of various continents such as Europe and India. The map made a huge contribution to the navigation process, especially to the western countries. The Muslim map guided Vasco da Gamma move from the Cape of Good Hope to India during the 15th century. The map became the basis of the drawing the continental boundaries. Books such as The Determination of the Coordinates of Cities helped the Arab world to determine the geographical locations. Al-Idrisi the author, The Book of Roger, has described the relationship between the people, land, and climate. Also, the book depicted the shape of the earth and how the world is stretched (Lyon 45). The maps and geological works from different authors clearly portray that the people in the Middle East were geographically prowess.

Additionally, the Arab world made enormous participation in other fields such as physics, astronomy, chemistry, and medicine. An Iraqi physicist and a mathematician inovated a camera obscure in the 11th century. Later, the device became useful in studying solar eclipse. Additionally, the Islam researchers identified various chemical reactions in the field of chemistry. They were able to identify the various uses of alkalis alcohol and alchemy. In additional, Jabir ibn-Hayyan identified the alchemical transmutations of metals and performed a variety of experiments using the common acids which include; nitric, hydrochloric and sulphuric acid (Lyon, 76).

Transfer of Knowledge in the Muslim World

In his book, Lyon, depicts the widespread of intellectual capacity of the people in the Arab world. The government facilitated the transfer of knowledge from constructing libraries in the cities. The Libraries enabled people to expand more knowledge and to add new information contributed by different authors. The libraries carried thousands of books. The House of Wisdom, located in Baghdad was the first stationed library that accommodated, the copyists, scholars, scientists, and librarians who came together from all over the Muslim territories to seek knowledge. Bayt al-hikma, also known as the house of wisdom became the center of philosophical works and scientific innovations. Additionally, the philosophers and the scientists met to make translations of the Greek works into the Arabic language.

Additionally, the scholars enormously contributed to the widespread of the works and discoveries. Alkhwarizmi, the famous mathematician and a librarian in the House of Wisdom, al-Kindi, an Arab philosopher, played a significant role in transferring knowledge in the world by traveling across the Muslim world.

How Education was Received in the West

Europe was a dark continent before they received knowledge from the Middle East. As Lyon narrates, the Arabic knowledge opened the eyes of the west which he refers it as 'medieval renaissance."(29) Unlike in the Middle East which was a world of intellectuals, Europeans were characterized by nominal literacy, practiced subsistence farming and practiced superstitions and sorcery as methods for treatment. Thanks to Adelard of Bath who developed a thirst for knowledge from the Muslim people in the Arab world.

The natives from the West disregarded the Arab people. According to Lyon (28), the religious differences largely contributed to the intensive between the two cultures. Adelard of Bath found himself in the Muslim kingdom after he was sent for a crusade mission by his father who had schooled in France, despite being learned, he believed the world was better without intellectual enlightenment. On landing to the Arab world, Adelard's mission changed abruptly and he developed an urge to learn Arabic knowledge. He could not wait to go back home and share the information. The ill spread that intensified the hate between the two communities was instigated by the church leaders who used "to redirect its flock's baser nature against the infidels to the East."(28) For this reason, he feared that his peers who reject the scholarly ideas he had gathered from the Arabs." Most With a book of alchemy he was able to provide teach people various technological advancements such as tanning leather, and coloring glasses, additionally the introduced to the Europeans the astrolabe that was capable of telling the time and giving measurements (Lyon, 29).

Conclusion

To sum it up, the Arab world was very rich in both philosophical and scientific knowledge. The accessibility of the libraries enabled scholars to gather and share more scholarly materials for the community. It is certain that the Muslim people in the Middle East were more advanced in knowledge than the Europeans. The Arab knowledge awakened the long doomed European continent by borrowing most of the knowledge from their long religious rivals. The efforts of Aderlab of Bath facilitated the rebirth of Europe since it relied on ancient and underhand knowledge. The success of the European continent can, therefore, to be attributed to the Muslim world

Work Cited

Lyons, Jonathan. The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009. Print.