The Moors, inhabitants of medieval Muslim Spain, left a lasting impact on Western Europe. One of their contributions was the introduction of Aristotle’s philosophy to the West.
This new and radical view of nature challenged long-held Christian philosophical understandings and sparked a reaction from Christian thinkers. The story of philosophy in the thirteenth century is essentially the story of how Christian thinkers reacted to this challenge.
The transmission of Greek Classics to Latin Western Europe during the Middle Ages was a key factor in the development of intellectual life in Western Europe, and the Moors played a significant role in this transmission.
In this article, we will explore how the Moors referred to Aristotle and how their influence shaped Western philosophy.
How Did The Moors Refer To Aristotle
The Moors referred to Aristotle as “Aristu” or “Aristutalis” in Arabic. They were fascinated by his philosophy and saw it as a way to bridge the gap between their own Islamic beliefs and the Greek philosophical tradition.
Aristotle’s works were translated into Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age, a period of cultural, economic, and scientific growth in the Islamic world. Muslim scholars, including the Moors in Spain, played a significant role in preserving and translating ancient Greek texts, including Aristotle’s works.
The Moors saw Aristotle’s philosophy as a way to reconcile reason and faith. They believed that reason could be used to understand the natural world and that faith could provide guidance on moral and spiritual matters.
Aristotle’s influence on Moorish philosophy can be seen in the works of prominent Moorish philosophers such as Ibn Rushd (also known as Averroes) and Ibn Tufayl. Both philosophers were heavily influenced by Aristotle’s works and sought to integrate his ideas into their own philosophical systems.
Introduction To The Moors And Aristotle’s Philosophy
During the twelfth century, the Muslim world held a monopoly on Aristotle’s philosophy. However, this began to change as European Christians made contact with the Muslim world, both friendly and hostile, and began to recover Aristotle’s philosophy. This process of recovery involved translating Aristotle’s works into Latin, which was often done through the intermediary of one of the vernaculars.
There were several points of contact between the Christian and Muslim worlds, including the Middle East, Sicily, and most notably Andalusia (Spain). In Toledo, for example, Christian monks worked with Jewish rabbis to translate Arabic texts into Spanish and then into Latin. This process introduced many Arabic words into Western languages, including words like alcohol, algebra, coffee, zenith, and zero.
The transmission of Greek classics to Latin Western Europe during the Middle Ages was a key factor in the development of intellectual life in Western Europe. Interest in Greek texts and their availability was scarce in the Latin West during the Early Middle Ages. However, as traffic to the East increased, so did Western scholarship. Classical Greek philosophy consisted of various original works ranging from those from Ancient Greece (e.g. Aristotle) to those Greco-Roman scholars in the classical Roman Empire (e.g. Ptolemy).
The Moors played a significant role in preserving and translating ancient Greek texts during the Islamic Golden Age. They were fascinated by Aristotle’s philosophy and saw it as a way to bridge the gap between their own Islamic beliefs and the Greek philosophical tradition. The Moors referred to Aristotle as “Aristu” or “Aristutalis” in Arabic.
Aristotle’s philosophy provided a way for the Moors to reconcile reason and faith. They believed that reason could be used to understand the natural world while faith could provide guidance on moral and spiritual matters. This influence can be seen in the works of prominent Moorish philosophers such as Ibn Rushd (also known as Averroes) and Ibn Tufayl, who were heavily influenced by Aristotle’s works and sought to integrate his ideas into their own philosophical systems.
The Transmission Of Greek Classics To Western Europe
The transmission of the Greek Classics to Latin Western Europe during the Middle Ages was a key factor in the development of intellectual life in Western Europe. Interest in Greek texts and their availability was scarce in the Latin West during the Early Middle Ages, but as traffic to the East increased, so did Western scholarship.
Classical Greek philosophy consisted of various original works ranging from those from Ancient Greece to those Greco-Roman scholars in the classical Roman Empire. Though these works were originally written in Greek, for centuries the language of scholarship in the Mediterranean region, many were translated into Syriac, Arabic, and Persian during the Middle Ages and the original Greek versions were often unknown to the West.
With increasing Western presence in the East due to the Crusades, and the gradual collapse of the Byzantine Empire during the Late Middle Ages, many Byzantine Greek scholars fled to Western Europe, bringing with them many original Greek manuscripts, and providing impetus for Greek-language education in the West and further translation efforts of Greek scholarship into Latin.
The line between Greek scholarship and Arab scholarship in Western Europe was very blurred during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Sometimes the concept of the transmission of Greek Classics is often used to refer to the collective knowledge that was obtained from the Arab and Byzantine Empires, regardless of where the knowledge actually originated.
However, being once and even twice removed from the original Greek, these Arabic versions were later supplanted by improved, direct translations by Moerbeke and others in the 13th century and after. The impact that Aristotle’s writings had on Western Europe cannot be overstated. His ideas challenged long-held Christian philosophical understandings adapted from Neoplatonism. The reaction of Christian thinkers to this challenge is essentially the story of philosophy in the thirteenth century.
The Role Of The Moors In Transmitting Aristotle’s Philosophy
The Moors played a crucial role in transmitting Aristotle’s philosophy to the West. During the Middle Ages, the Moors in Spain worked with Christian monks and Jewish rabbis to translate Arabic texts into Latin, including Aristotle’s works. This process helped to bridge the gap between the Greek philosophical tradition and Western European intellectual life.
The Moors were not only responsible for translating Aristotle’s works but also for preserving them. They saw Aristotle’s philosophy as a way to reconcile reason and faith, and they believed that his ideas could be used to understand both the natural world and spiritual matters.
In addition to their translation efforts, the Moors also made significant contributions to the study of astronomy and astrology. Muslim scholars, including Abu Mashar al-Balkhi, translated Greek texts, including Aristotle’s works, into Arabic. These translations played an essential role in disseminating Aristotle’s ideas in the Islamic world and later in Europe.
The Moors’ fascination with Aristotle’s philosophy helped to shape their own philosophical traditions. Moorish philosophers such as Ibn Rushd and Ibn Tufayl were heavily influenced by Aristotle’s works and sought to integrate his ideas into their own philosophical systems. Their works helped to spread Aristotle’s ideas throughout Europe, where they became an essential component of Western intellectual life.
Christian Thinkers’ Reaction To Aristotle’s Philosophy
Christian thinkers in Western Europe were greatly impacted by Aristotle’s philosophy. His views on nature, the cosmos, and the human person challenged long-held Christian philosophical understandings adapted from Neoplatonism. This challenge led to the emergence of different schools of philosophy in Christian history for the first time, with the litmus test being how one reacted to the natural philosophy of Aristotle.
Those who believed that Aristotle was right on every count were called “Averroists,” or “Latin Averroists” to distinguish them from their counterparts in the Muslim world. Those who preferred the tried and true synthesis of St. Augustine and rejected the innovations of Aristotle were known as “Augustinians.” A third group attempted to mediate between these two radical positions and were known as “orthodox Aristotelians” or “Thomists,” named after St. Thomas Aquinas, who built a masterful synthesis of Christian teachings and Aristotelian philosophy.
St. Thomas Aquinas introduced Aristotle’s “Pagan Doctrine” into Christianity, which reintroduced the natural moral law in Catholic theology. This reintroduction was not done without obstacles, and many Orthodox Christians saw it as an unforgivable mistake. However, St. Thomas believed that truth and faith could not stay in contradiction towards each other, and everything that science brings to the world’s light cannot be in contradiction with faith.
During the Dark Ages, learning languished across most of what had been the Roman Empire. Scholars fled to Mesopotamia and Persia, where Arabs who conquered these areas encountered, imbibed and preserved the writings of Aristotle and others. Arab scholars went on to make discoveries of their own in mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, joined by Jewish thinkers such as Moses Maimonides. Of special interest to Christians were the efforts made by philosophers of the two monotheistic faiths to reconcile Aristotelian knowledge of the material world with religious beliefs. Maimonides attempted this for Judaism, while Avicenna and Averroes worked on a grand synthesis for Islam.
In summary, Christian thinkers in Western Europe had a mixed reaction to Aristotle’s philosophy, with some embracing his ideas while others rejecting them. However, his influence on Moorish philosophy was significant, as Muslim scholars saw his philosophy as a way to reconcile reason and faith.
