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Let Europe remember , that while to her struggles with the powers of the East during the crusades , she owes mainly the abolition of the Feudal System , and the destruction of the tyranny of her aristocracy , on the ruins of which
arose the proudest bulwarks of her liberties , she owes also to the followers of Mahomet , as " the ljnk which
connects ancient ana modern literature /* the preservation ( during a long period of darkness throughout the Christian world ) of the works of many of the Greek philosophers , and the cultivation of some of the most essential branches
of science . —Mathematics , Astronomy , Medicine , Chemistry , the art of Distillation , Botany and the Philosophy of Aristotle , may be particularly named as largely indebted for cultivation or invention to Mussulmans . Spain , Cassiiio and Salernum were the nurseries
of the science of the age ; and the works of Avicenna , Averroes , Beithar , At Gazel > &c . gave new vigour and direction to . the studies of the West . *
? Mr . Mills doubts much the full extent of influence on the literature of Europe , which is generally supposed to have arisen from its intercourse with the Mahometan powers during the crusades . He observes , that ( except Constantine Afer , who travelled over Asia in search of knowledge ) European students
repaired only to Cassino , Salernum or Spain —that Peter , the Abbot of Chigni , acquired the Arabic language at Toledothat under his patronage an English student in Spain prepared the first Latin version of the Koran , and that Abelard of Bath , Daniel Morley and Robert Reading , were honoured iiL their
generations for acquaintance with mathematics and philosophy gained in Spain . Perhaps he is correct in ascribing the principal channel of communication to the Moorish empire in Spain , and to the struggles between the Saracens and Italians for dominion : in the isles of the Mediterranean . The school of Salernum founded by
, Charlemagne in the 9 th century , was doubtless * very important , as the principal Arabic books , originals and versions , were there translated into Latin . In the 10 th century ^ Gerbert , afterwards Silvester the 2 nd ., acquired from the Spanish
Moons the decimal scale , and in the 11 th , « w Monastery of Cassino , amidst its other proficiencies , was pre-eminent for « a cultivation of Arabic learning . But "je aaine author shews , ( Vol . II . p . 227 , ) " * at the tots for the : recovery of the HoJy
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Through its brightest periods , and even fr 0 m its origin , MahometoBigBi was favourable to literature . Mahomet himself said that " a mind without erudition was lijse a body without a
soul ; " that " glory consists not m wealthy but knowledge $ " * and Ms followers were charged * ' to searcb for learning , even in the remotest part off the globe / ' Under the reigns of the Caliphs of Bagdad , the expert in art and the learned in science were
collected from every quarter . —Difference of religious faith formed no obstacle . " I chose this learned man / ' ( said the Caliph Almamon , speaking of Messue , a Christian , whom he had been
reproached for making president of the College at Damascus , ) * not to be my guide in religious aflairs , but to be my teacher of science $ and it is well known that the wisest men are to be
found among the Jews and Christians / 'f When the Mussulman power was vanquished in Spain , the last sigh of European chivalry expired ; ; the fate
was sealed of a brave and generous nation , of whose reign , for eight centuries , it is observed , that , even by the historians of their enemies , not a single instance of eold-blooded cruelty i ^ recorded : ! X and the ungrateful specrecorded ; and the ungrateful
spec-Land tended much to produce the same effect . In 1285 , Honorius IV . is mentioned as seeking for means of converting , the Infidels , by establishing schools for instruction in Arabic and other oriental
languages ; and in 1312 , the Council of Vienue having recommended conversion and the re-establishment of the schools as the way of recovering the Holy Land ,, it was ordered " that there should Be professors of the Hebrew , Chaldsaic and Arabic tongues in Rome ,, Paris , Oj&fosrd , Bologna and Salamanca , and that the learned should translate into Lathi the
best Arabic books . It was not till the time of Francis I . that this was acted upon . He founded the Royal College and sent even into the East for books . — See Du Boulay , Hist , de V University de Paris , Tom . lit ; p . 472 . " * Meninski Lexicon , quoted- by Mills ,,
t Under the same patwmage tM JWfeh students at Sora and Pundebita \ Vete encouraged . A degree of the cfreief of the earths was measured * aad' matty of the finest problems of astronomical science determirted with wonderful fireicisfon . I M . Sane ' s Reflexions . &e . p ; xR
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The Nonconformist . No . XVIII . 263 ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 263, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/7/
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