Arabic–Latin Philosophical Transmission (Avicenna to Scholasticism)

Translation movements carried Islamic philosophy and science into Latin Europe, shaping scholastic method and metaphysics.

IslamicGreco-RomanWestern / Atlantic

Details

• Centers: Toledo, Sicily, and cross-Mediterranean scholarly networks.
• Doctrines: Avicennian metaphysics, medicine, and logic informed high medieval curricula.
• Effects: integrated into scholastic debates and university structures.

Background

From the twelfth century, scholars in Toledo and elsewhere in Iberia and Sicily translated Arabic works, many themselves translations of Greek texts, into Latin. This movement brought Aristotle, Ptolemy, Galen, Avicenna and Averroes into the curricula of the early European universities.