On his book Success and Suppression: Arabic Sciences and Philosophy in the Renaissance
Cover Interview of April 05, 2017
Lastly
The hostility of the humanist movement to
Arabic sciences was far from monolithic. There are many examples of humanist
scholars who contributed to the flourishing of Arabic sciences and philosophy
in the Renaissance. Moreover, humanists did not explicitly oppose Arabic
sciences because they were Oriental or because they originated from Islamic
culture. Rather, they opposed them partly for scientific reasons, partly as a
result of ideological beliefs in linguistic purism and in Greek superiority,
and partly because Arabic authors were an obstacle – an obstacle to the humanists’
project of renewing Europe through Greece and Rome.
The fact remains that Arabic traditions were
attacked for being Arabic, that is, they were attacked on the basis of a
cultural and linguistic labeling. Renaissance humanists are the inventors of
cultural clichés that persist even today – that Arabic science amounts to
plagiarism; that it is nothing more than Greek thought in Arabic garb; that Arabic
scholars were mere transmitters of science from antiquity to medieval Europe;
in other words, as Epicurus is said to have claimed, that “only the Greeks are
able to philosophize.” This is the sad inheritance of the humanist polemics
against Arabic science.
It is one of the tasks of historical research
to point out the historical falsity of clichés such as these, especially given
that they survive even today. Many medieval and many Renaissance scholars knew
better and were fully aware that Arabic scholars, too, are able to
philosophize.
[M]odern art still commonly refers to a rather narrow range of meaning and scope. It basically focuses on developments in Paris (Impressionism etc.) in the nineteenth century, and to selected Euro-American movements in the twentieth century (Cubism, Abstract Expressionism etc). But if we understand modernity as a socially transformative condition that was in force across much of the world from the nineteenth century on, how are we to understand artistic practices that were associated with these momentous changes?Iftikhar Dadi, Interview of March 26, 2012
The two world wars of the twentieth century were a product of the dislocations brought about of modernization in an environment where great power competition and the drive for hegemony were conducted primarily by violent means. Now that this era has passed in Europe and is receding in much of the Pacific rim, and hegemony achieved by force is no longer considered a legitimate ambition, the security requirements and fears of great powers should decline.Richard Ned Lebow, Interview of October 4, 2010
Lastly
The hostility of the humanist movement to Arabic sciences was far from monolithic. There are many examples of humanist scholars who contributed to the flourishing of Arabic sciences and philosophy in the Renaissance. Moreover, humanists did not explicitly oppose Arabic sciences because they were Oriental or because they originated from Islamic culture. Rather, they opposed them partly for scientific reasons, partly as a result of ideological beliefs in linguistic purism and in Greek superiority, and partly because Arabic authors were an obstacle – an obstacle to the humanists’ project of renewing Europe through Greece and Rome.
The fact remains that Arabic traditions were attacked for being Arabic, that is, they were attacked on the basis of a cultural and linguistic labeling. Renaissance humanists are the inventors of cultural clichés that persist even today – that Arabic science amounts to plagiarism; that it is nothing more than Greek thought in Arabic garb; that Arabic scholars were mere transmitters of science from antiquity to medieval Europe; in other words, as Epicurus is said to have claimed, that “only the Greeks are able to philosophize.” This is the sad inheritance of the humanist polemics against Arabic science.
It is one of the tasks of historical research to point out the historical falsity of clichés such as these, especially given that they survive even today. Many medieval and many Renaissance scholars knew better and were fully aware that Arabic scholars, too, are able to philosophize.