Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

No data for the following. One important "fact" people do not know is much of the western philosophical works (and other disciplines) we know today (from Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, etc...) are from Arabic writings. Apparently when the Muslim Arabs decided to go and conquer the West, they would take down libraries and rewrite all the knowledge in one language (Arabic). They sent out paid emissaries to the "Four corners of the world" to gather all human knowledge. To that end, Greek works were translated into Arabic and saved in their libraries in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.


According to Wikipedia, at least the writings of Plato seem to have come to the west during the middle ages from byzantine (i.e. Greek) sources. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato#Textual_sources_and_hist...


Yup. It feels strange to completely dismiss the one link between Antiquity and the Renaissance: the Roman Empire, or Byzantium as we now know it.


See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_of_the_Greek_Clas... : "This work of translation ... constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history".


>One important "fact" people do not know is much of the western philosophical works (and other disciplines) we know today (from Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, etc...) are from Arabic writings

This statement greatly distorts the truth. Almost all extant Greek philosophical texts can be traced to 17 Byzantine manuscripts.

The book reviewed here has much more information about the transmission of Greek philosophy (the review is well-worth reading too):

http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009-01-31.html


Are you comparing Google to the Caliphate?


everybody knows that Google was founded by Caliph Ali's ghost working in conjunction with a dashing L. Ron Hubbard clone.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: