Week 3 - Translation and Transmission Flashcards
Ibn Sina’s autobiography
- Ibn Sina original author - renowned scientist and philosopher (980 - 1037)
- Ibn Sina lost his patronage and his security, and was reduced to the life of an itinerant scholar. As the excerpt woefully concludes, “When I became great, no country could hold me; When my price went up, I lacked a buyer.”
- Self reflective?
- He can solve problems others were unable to and drew admiration for this- self pride
- Had a love of reading and learning- enjoyed mastering subjects
- (Was known by European students by his Latinized name Avicenna)
- Referred to by his followers as Shaykh a-Ra’is or Leader of the Wise Men
Adelard of Bath on Science
- Adelard of Bath was a 12th century English scholar.
- Translated an Arabic version of Euclid’s Elements into Latin.
- Key translator of Arabic-Latin in what Rodriguez calls ‘Renaissance of Twelfth Century’ due to influx of knowledge from Islamic world.
- Text in Jarbel Rodriguez’s Muslim and Christian Contact in the Middle Ages: A Reader (2009, U of Toronto Press). An overview of key contributors and most important/influential occasions of encounter/exchange between specifically Muslim and Christian spheres.
- Iberia and Sicily were centres of this translation effort, particularly Al-Andalus in Iberia.
- Adelard was English (born ca. 1080), but travelled in 1110s to Sicily and ‘Muslim East’, where ‘he spent seven years, learning from his “Arab friends”.’ according to Rodriguez.
- Adelard translated Euclid’s ‘Elements’, a geometry text Rodriguez describes as ‘critical’. He also wrote his own original work: ‘Quaestiones Naturales (Natural Questions)… a dialogue between Adelard and his nephew on 76 questions about the natural world.’ (Rodriguez 2009, 379).
- Ofer Elior in Historia Mathematica vol 45, 2: Latin translation of Euclid primarily associated with and attributed to Adelard, whereas Hebrew translation ascribed to “Rabbi Jacob”. Article explores differences of transcribing formulae in Book I of Euclid’s work
Stranger medicines
- Original author: Usamah Ibn-Munqidh (c.1095-1188)
- Medieval Muslim poet, author and knight during the the period First Crusdade and establishment of the Crusader states. Fought under Saladin during the reunification of Egypt, Syria, and return of Jerusalem from Frankish conquests. Nominally Sunni but demonstrated Shi’ite tendencies
- Excerpts drawn from his autobiography entitled Kitab al-I’tibar. A copy of the original text containing 134 folios and 21 missing pages (made in 1213) was first discovered in 1880 in San Lorenzo - the only surviving copy to exist. This work forms part of the Arabic literary genre adab which aims at ‘pleasing, diverting and titikating’ its readers along with providing instruction
- Saw latin (Frankish) medical practices in action, and provides commentary on both the brutality of some practices (such as an amputation resulting in death performed by a Frankish knight) and some effective treatments
- Memoir book published in provided a non-European perspective on cultural and military contact between Muslim and Christian during the period of early crusades.
Gerard of Cremona
- About 80 translations from Arabic have been attributed to him.
- Believed a translator should have knowledge in the subject they are dealing with as well as a great understanding of the languages they are dealing with
- Latin Christian from Italy who translated Arabic works into Latin. Lived from 1114 to 1187CE
- Worked for the library in Toledo
Muslim influence of Latin Medicine
Guy of Chauliac: History of Surgery
Original Author Guy de Chauliac
* trained in Toulouse and the University of Montpellier from where he achieved the highest possible degree of Master of medicine
* Undertook fellowships in Bologna (anatomical dissection) and Paris (surgery) and was qualified as a physician not a Barber Surgeon.
There were 70 editions as it became the most influential surgical text for over 200 years, particularly in France, spanning the period from the late 14th century until Paré (1510-1590).
Written in medieval Latin in 1363
Documented the Bubonic Plague (symptoms etc)
University of Montpellier
* Montpellier appeared around the year 980 and was from the outset a place of meetings and exchanges between Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures. The city’s university vocation was confirmed in the medical field with the authorisation in 1180 to practice and teach medicine.
common heritage
Shared intellectual heritage from Greek times
Philosophy and logic - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
Astronomy, mathematics, geometry and geography
Grammar, rhetoric and politics
Medicine and science
Varied across place but shared some things
Interpretive remarks and comments in the boarders of books
major knowledge translation centres
China
North Africa
Egypt
Mediterranean
Middle East
Factors of transmission
Movement of: (might need all of for understanding)
People
Books
Instruments
Occasions of change:
Diplomatic missions
Marriages
Institutions of exchange:
Royal courts
Religious houses
Schools/universities
Cultural and other issues: (is knowledge used even if available?)
Language capacity
Relevance and utility
Politics - restrictions, intellectual espionage, priorities
Concerns:
Risk of novelty
Risk of contamination/misdirection
The ‘right’ students: moral and political worthiness, intellectual capacities
major phases of translation
Greek, Persian, Sanskrit to Arabic and Judeo Arabic (especially before 1000CE)
Arabic, Judeo Arabic, Hebrew and Greek to Latin (after 1000CE)
Background level of translation often was traditional or religious texts
Jewish thinkers often translated because they could read and write in Arabic and/or Judeo Arabic
commentaries
imed at making earlier works accessible to new audiences and contexts
Became new works in their own right
Often the basis of later reception of the original work
European renaissance was just one point on the long continuum of transmission and translation!
medieval knowledge
Often from greek background
4 humours: substances in the body
Black bile
Yellow bile
Blood
Phlegm
Blend of humours:
Particular to individual
Affected by climate and diet
Linked to personal, regional and ethnic temperaments
Aim:
Balance humours (appropriate to you/region)
3 in Eastern medicine
Blood: sanguine nature (enthusiastic, active and social), hot and let, linked to air element
Yellow bile: associated with a choleric nature (ambitious, decisive, aggressive and short-tempered), linked to fire, hot and dry, can involve emotional irregularities
Black bile: associated with melancholy, can lead to depression and cancer, cold and dry linked to earth
Phlegm: associated with phlegmatic nature (reserved behaviour), cold and wet, linked to water
treatments
Bleeding for excess blood or heat
Diet - balancing extremes/deficiencies in climate, using spices
Behaviour - avoid damp, drafts etc.
Shaped by cultural, religious environment of reception
knowledge and interfaith anxieties
Anxiety about taking knowledge from outside the faith group
