Free The House of Wisdom by Jonathan Lyons Page B

World and God’s indifference to particulars. Most are ignored.
1277
The bishop of Paris issues two hundred and nineteen condemnations, including some linked to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas.
1323
Thomas Aquinas is canonized.
1453
Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks.
1492
The Muslim kingdom of Granada, the last holdout in Spain, falls to the Christians.
1497
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama completes a voyage around Africa. He later reaches India, apparently with the help of a Muslim navigator.
1543
The publication of Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus , which proposes a sun-centered universe. The work includes two key Arab contributions.
1592
An abridged Arabic version of al-Idrisi’s Map of the World is printed in the West.
1633
Galileo is convicted of heresy for upholding Copernicus’s ideas.
1687
Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation “completes” the Copernican revolution, establishing the preeminence of science in the Western world.

LEADING FIGURES
    The following figures are central to the rise of Arab science and its reception in the West. Few are household names, and they are included here as a handy reference for the reader.
    Adelard of Bath —Early pioneer of Arab teaching who brought the wonders of geometry, astronomy, astrology, and other fields to the medieval West.
    Albumazar —Leading Arab authority on astrology who grounded his art in the natural philosophy of Aristotle. He was known in Arabic as Ja’far ibn Muhammad Abu Mashar al-Balkhi.
    Augustine of Hippo —Incorporated Greek philosophy into church teachings but de-emphasized its concerns with natural science. He died in 430 and was later recognized as a saint.
    Averroes —Muslim philosopher who exerted enormous influence on Western thought, primarily as a commentator on Aristotle. He was known in Arabic as Abu al-Walid ibn Rushd.
    Avicenna —Persian philosopher and physician. His influence on the West exceeded that of Averroes up until the mid-thirteenth century, while his import as an authority in medicine continued for several more centuries. In Arabic, Ibn Sina.
    Bede —Eighth-century monk and intellectual in northern England. His work was advanced for its time and place.
    Boethius —Sixth-century Roman patrician whose translations into Latin of Aristotle’s logical system, treatises on music, and a few basics of geometry provided much of European learning before the arrival of Arabic science and philosophy.
    Copernicus, Nicolaus —Polish astronomer whose proposition of a sun centered universe eventually replaced the notion that the earth stood at the center of all celestial movements.
    Frederick II —Holy Roman emperor and proponent of Arabic learning. He was the patron of Michael Scot and underwrote translations of Averroes, Avicenna, and Maimonides.
    Gerard of Cremona —The most prolific of the Latin translators based in Spain. He is credited with more than seventy translations from the Arabic.
    Gerbert d’Aurillac —Later Pope Sylvester II, Gerbert was exposed to basic Arab science and technology as a student in Spain. He spread his knowledge to the rest of Europe.
    Al-Ghazali —Muslim theologian whose masterful The Incoherence of the Philosophers posed a significant challenge to the philosophers on their own terms. Also known in the West as Algazel.
    Hermann of Carinthia —Major translator of Arab science. He contributed to the first translation of the Koran into Latin.
    al-Idrisi —Arab geographer and director of King Roger II of Sicily’s Map of the World project.
    Isidore of Seville —Medieval bishop and “encyclopedist” who taught that the world was flat, like “a wheel.”
    John de Villula —Named bishop of Wells in 1088, he moved his see to nearby Bath. He was the patron of Adelard.
    Al-Khwarizmi —Mathematician and astronomer, born in modern-day Uzbekistan. He was affiliated with the House of Wisdom, and his star tables and works on arithmetic, algebra, the astrolabe, and Arabic numerals greatly