{"title":"Babylonian and Indian Wisdoms in Islamicate Culture","authors":"Y. Langermann","doi":"10.1163/18778372-04603004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The interaction of Islamicate civilization with those civilizations that preceded it or were contemporaneous with it has focused for the most part on Hellenistic civilization, and the huge body of scientific and philosophical literature which was translated and absorbed in the first centuries after the appearance of Islam. This paper aims to present two small but much needed correctives to this understanding. In the first section I argue that the “Greek” astronomy that was translated into Arabic ought more correctly to be described as Greco-Babylonian astronomy. In the second I turn to India: not only was a great deal of Indian knowledge absorbed at the time of the great translation movement, we must recall that the exchanges with India carried on well beyond the early Abbasids. I illustrate these points with some new materials in the fields of medicine, philosophy, and alchemy.","PeriodicalId":43744,"journal":{"name":"Oriens","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2018-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Oriens","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18778372-04603004","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The interaction of Islamicate civilization with those civilizations that preceded it or were contemporaneous with it has focused for the most part on Hellenistic civilization, and the huge body of scientific and philosophical literature which was translated and absorbed in the first centuries after the appearance of Islam. This paper aims to present two small but much needed correctives to this understanding. In the first section I argue that the “Greek” astronomy that was translated into Arabic ought more correctly to be described as Greco-Babylonian astronomy. In the second I turn to India: not only was a great deal of Indian knowledge absorbed at the time of the great translation movement, we must recall that the exchanges with India carried on well beyond the early Abbasids. I illustrate these points with some new materials in the fields of medicine, philosophy, and alchemy.
期刊介绍:
Oriens is dedicated to extending our knowledge of intellectual history and developments in the rationalist disciplines in Islamic civilization, with a special emphasis on philosophy, theology, and science. These disciplines had a profoundly rich and lasting life in Islamic civilization and often interacted in complex ways--from the period of their introduction to Islamic civilization in the translation movement that began in the eighth century, through the early and classical periods of development, to the post-classical age, when they shaped even such disciplines as legal theory and poetics. The journal''s range extends from the early and classical to the early modern periods (ca. 700-1900 CE) and it engages all regions and languages of Islamic civilization. In the tradition of Hellmut Ritter, who founded Oriens in 1948, the central focus of interest of the journal is on the medieval and early modern periods of the Near and Middle East. Within this framework, the opening up of the sources and the pursuit of philological and historical research based on original source material is the main concern of its editors and contributors. In addition to individual articles, Oriens welcomes proposals for thematic volumes within the series.