House of Wisdom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

House of Wisdom - Essay Example It is  impossible  to  envision  Western civilization without fruits of Arab science. Al- khwarizmi’s art of Algebra, the well researched and explained medical teachings and  philosophy  of Avicenna, the new geography and cartography introduced by al-idrisi or the  thorough  rationalism of Averroes (Jonathan, 2009). It is  evident  how uneducated the westerners were. Their leader was an  implacable  cleric who had appeared from nowhere to massive  popular  acclaim; he exhorted his charges to holy war against the infidels with promises of a home in paradise. Diseases and malnutrition were  rife. Medical care often involved exorcism or the amputation of the injured limb. Torture and other ordeals settled criminal cases. Few had any  learning  at all.  The little  education  that they had consisted of memorizing out dated texts under the watchful eyes of  hidebound  doctors of religion.  They did not understand basic technology, scien ce or mathematics. They could not  date  their most significant holy days nor could they  chart  the  regular  movement of the sun, moon and planets. Natural phenomena such as  eclipse  of the moon or a sudden change in  weather  terrified them; they thought it was black magic. Pope Uban II appealed to the princes in the French town of Clermont to end their  ceaseless  warring to  turn  their murderous energies on the unbelievers of the East. The  fighting  and denouncing of the Muslims by the European Christians and the Westerners began to  obscure  any  recognition  of the Muslim way of life and their contribution to science. This message consisted of four themes, some of which still resonate today. One was that Islam distorts the word of God, and the other was that Islam  was  solely  spread  by  violence. The third one was that Islam promoted pervertedsexuality  of humans by encouraging the  practice  of polygamy, for examp le, the way the sultans behaved in their Kingdoms, and through their excessively  modest  way  they carried themselves out. Finally, they also believed that the Antichrist was a muslim(Jonathan, 2009). These were just prejudices because some of the European philosophers, who had earlier denounced the Muslim way of life, later appreciated and acknowledged their contribution to  education  (Jonathan, 2009). As most Westerners denounced the Muslims, an Englishman named Aderlard of Bath one of the early pioneers of the Arab teachings who brought about the wonder of astronomy geometry astrology and other fields to the medieval West, looked at the Muslims differently, he left his home in search for education. In addition, he believed that the Muslims had the best education. He had no interest in the debaucheries of his fellow Europeans. Unlike the holy warriors unleashed by Pope Uban II, he had the  determination  to learn from the Muslims rather than killing them under the sign of the cross. While the crusaders saw only evil in the Muslim infidel, Aderlard sought the  light