Convivencia, Spain 2007

Talk-3, Granada, Sunday, March 04, 2007
Transmission, Ancient Greek to Latin Middle Ages

  • Background to 1000 years on the road
    Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy
    Case history: Proclus throws Euclid to Europe
    Greek -> Syriac -> Arabic -> Latin
    340 BC: Euclid moves to Alexandria, writes The Elements
  • 300 AD
    324, Byzantium becomes Constantinople, aka New Rome (preserve Greek)
    325, Academies founded Nisibis, Antioch (tr to Syriac)
    363, Nisibis school moves to Edessa
  • 400 AD
    460, Proclus (412-485) Athens, commentary on Euclid
  • 500 AD
    560, Khosru I founds academy in Jundishapur (to Syriac)
  • 600 AD
    642, Muslim destruction of the Museion, Serapeum
  • 700 AD
    754, Caliph al-Mansur, 2nd Abassid caliph (754-775)
    786, Harun al-Rashid, 5th Abbasid caliph, (786-809), Baghdad flourishes
  • 800 AD
    813, al-Mamun, 7th Abassid caliph (813-833) has a dream,
    sends mission to Byz for books, founds House of Wisdom
    815, first transl Euclid (Greek to Arabic) by al-Hajjaj
    820, second transl Euclid by Al-Khwarizmi (790 - 840), birth of algebra
  • 900 AD
    950, transmission baghdad to cordoba
  • 1000 AD
  • 1100 AD
    1109, transl Euclid arabic to latin by Adelard of Bath (1080 - 1160) Toledo
  • 1200 AD
    1200, transl arabic to latin by Michael Scot (1175 - 1232) Palermo
    • Rev. 04 Mar 2007 by Ralph