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Are we to believe that the Byzantines did not keep or study Aristotle's works in Greek? or that somehow the Arabs/Moslems taught the Byzantines about Aristotle?
by mkempe 9y ago
Are we to believe that the Byzantines did not keep or study Aristotle's works in Greek? or that somehow the Arabs/Moslems taught the Byzantines about Aristotle?
"Leo the Mathematician [790-869] ... appointed to the chair of philosophy at the Magnaura School in the mid-9th century, was to teach Aristotelian logic. In fact, elementary Aristotelian logic and natural philosophy combined with elementary mathematics would always form the standard philosophical curriculum in Byzantium" [for at least the next 400 years].
The heirs of the Roman Empire did not depend on nor need Moslem culture for the study and transmission of Aristotle's works. We know it because the Byzantines kept studying Aristotle for centuries, until they were destroyed by Moslem armies, and at the same time the Carolingians had access to Greek works and Greek translators -- including the Byzantines themselves.
- boomboomsubban 9y agoThey kept them, and there was likely some limited study over the centuries, but yes. Christian thought dominated the period, and it largely ignored Aristotle. I don't know why that's hard to believe, there has been a staggering amount of scholarly works lost over the centuries. Leo the Mathematician supposedly lived on an island with frequent contact with Muslims, and then supposedly met with the Caliph. Even still, I can't find where this tie to Aristotle comes from.
- mkempe 9y agoWhat is the basis for your statements? According to everything I've read about Leo, he was from the Greek mainland, he did not have "frequent contact" with Moslems, and he never "met with the Caliph".
- boomboomsubban 9y agoMet with the Caliph may have been my misreading, he delivered a letter from the Caliph to the Emperor. His education on Andros seems well established.
- mkempe 9y agoRight, "misreading". Same thing with everything else you've written in this post and the ones before.
- boomboomsubban 9y agoNo, his student was kidnapped, and it's unclear who he received the Caliph's letter from. I assumed he had met with him, but it wasn't explicitly said. Given your repeated quoting of a thirteenth century source on the alleged seventh century burning of the Library of Alexandria, I'm done.