The Academy of Jundishapur

After all, the Arabs brought with them into Spain the Arabic versions of the Greek works, from which translations were made into Latin and spread throughout Europe, which was then in its dark age. It is this Greek body of knowledge that brought Europe out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance - the rebirth or revival. The question remains, however: by whom, where, and when was the Greek body of knowledge transmitted to the Arabs themselves? In his book "How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs", historian De Lacy O'Leary explains: "Greek scientific thought had been in the world for a long time before it reached the Arabs, and during that period it had already spread abroad in various directions. So it is not surprising that it reached the Arabs by more than one route. It came first and in the plainest line through Christian Syrian writers, scholars, and scientists. Then the Arabs applied themselves directly to the original Greek sources and learned over again all they had already learned, correcting and verifying earlier knowledge." Among the scholars at the centre were Greek philosophers and teachers who had fled the closed Plato's Academy at Athens. Among the works they brought with them were Euclid's works in mathematics, the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato, works by Ptolemy and others. Along with Nestorian scholar-refugees, they held discussions with the king, wrote, taught and translated. These Syriac translators thought it was essential to get as close to the original meaning of the Greek as possible. But, this method led to a style of translation that was virtually word-for-word, doing great injustice to Syriac word order, and also later to Arabic word order when the same technique was used for the first translations into Arabic. Also brought to the school were Indian scholars who discussed moral and ethical teachings, Indian astronomy, and Indian mathematics with its Hindi numerals, which came to the Academy on its way to Muslim lands and later to Renaissance Europe. When the city of Jundishapur surrendered to Muslim military leaders in the year 636, the Academy was left undisturbed. Combining the scientific traditions of the Greeks, Persians and Indians, it became the most important medical centre in the world, continuing its influence into the eleventh century, even during the height of Baghdad's reign as an intellectual centre.

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