st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

1 66 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
ON
CHAPTER
XII.
NATURAL SCIENCE.
THE debt which Europe owes to Arabia for the
transmission of ancient learning and science has been
often stated, and may be cheerfully owned. Under
the splendid rule of the Caliphs of Bagdad, from the
middle of the eighth century, the arts and sciences
flourished on the banks of the Tigris, in a way that
none could have expected from the previous history
of Mahomet s successors. At the court of the Abassides,
says Hallam, 1 "learning,
which the first
Moslem had despised as unwarlike, or rejected as
profane, was held in honour. The Khalif Almamun,
especially, was distinguished for his patronage of
letters ;
the philosophical writings of Greece were
eagerly sought and translated ;
the stars were num
bered, the course of the planets was measured ;
the
Arabians improved upon the science they borrowed,
and returned it with abundant interest to Europe in
the communication of numeral figures and the
intellectual language of algebra."
The merit of
transmitting and, as time went on, of improving upon
the sciences they transmitted, cannot, under any cir
cumstances, be denied them. But there is no reason
to allow them, as is sometimes done, the higher merit
1
"Middle Ages," c. vi.