Technology and Society

Chapter 3

1. The Nestorians, who were driven out of Byzantium in AD 431, had translated much of the Greek classics into Syriac. When their new city, Baghdad, fell to the Arabs, they patiently set about translating the whole thing from Syriac into Arabic. This presentation of the Greek science in Arabic is the primary source of ‘Arabic Science’, which left a deep impression upon the Latin world. The period of translation was soon followed by a period of creativity, the Golden age of Arab Science, from about AD 900 to 1100. It was ‘Arabian’, however, chiefly in language. Not many of the scholars were Arabs and some were not even Muslims. They were mostly Syrians, Persians and Jews, with Arab names.

2. Rome had been continuously under attack from ...