The Toledo School of Translation Essay Example

In Toledo, during the mid 12th century, the reverence for learning & education and the importance of religious harmony was made visible by The Toledo School of Translation and the coexistence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Muslims, Jews, and Christians all believed there to be one god. They were known as children of the book. Their coexistence allowed for a vibrant culture and community. Without religious harmony, the development of the school would not have been possible. 

The Toledo School of Translators was a group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries, to translate many of the philosophical and scientific works from Classical Arabic. Don Raimundo was the Archbishop who established the school based on the belief that the Arab philosophers’ understanding of Aristotle’s works was important. He decided to make their works available in Latin. Due to the fact that Christians, Muslims, and Jews were allowed to coexist after the Muslim invasion, they were able to facilitate the development of the school. At the time when the School of Translation was founded, European science was trailing behind Arab science. Texts written in Arabic by Andalusian scholars spread to Toledo. Arab science was ahead since the 8th century because they conquered Damascus and other cities. They stole scientific works by Ptolemy, and philosophical works by Aristotle, Plato, and worked on geometry by Euclid and medicine by Galen. 

The translation center was housed at the Toledo Cathedral. Gerard of Cremona is credited as the leading translator who translated over 80 Arab science books. He arrived in Toledo in 1167 looking for Ptolemy’s Almagest, the ancient Greek catalog of scientific knowledge. Initially, Gerard had to rely on Jews and Mozarabs to translate for him. However, he then mastered this skill and translated it from Arabic to Latin. This is evidence of the cultural devotion to knowledge. The impact of these translations stretched far beyond Toledo. Translations were made not only of the original Greek works that had been translated into Arabic but also of works by Islamic scholars who came to be known by their Latinized names of Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Averroes (Ibn Rushd), Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham), Rhazes (al-Razi), as well as others. The work of these scholars had a significant impact on Europe. For example, Avicenna’s Canon was the medical textbook for European medical schools, Alhazen’s Optics was the foundation upon which Kepler built the modern science of optics. The strong value of academic progression was exhibited by the collaboration of three different religions.