Moslem Influence on the Renaissance [pp. 365-373]

l88~4.J Moslem' Jfl~UCflce on ~he l?enaissancc. 3'tj
tery and the knife when circumstances re- heard of in the`vest. Two years before the
~uired. The medical school of Salerno, to battle of Cre~y, where Christians first used
which Italy owed the revival of the healing gunpowder, there were tnglish auxiliaries in
art within her borders, the first institution the army of Alfonso X. which besieged
of the kind in Christian Europe, was the and destroyed Algeciras, which city the Saralegitimate offspring of Moorish influence. cens defended with the aid of artillery; and
~fhe student in a Moslem school of medicine it is but reasonable to suppose that here the
had to go through a regular course of study art was learned which made the English
and pass severe examinations before he victors in their first use of this destructive
could receive a diploma which allowed him agent.
toenter upon the practice of his profbssion The mariner's compass, also, without which
In natural philosophy the Saracens speed- the immense ocean traffic of to-day would be
ily mastered the knowledge that had been impossible, we owe to the Mohammedans.
gathered by their predecessors in this field It is quite certain that the Chinese used it
of investigation and patiently, laboriously hundreds of years before it was known in
and successfully they carried the work for- Europe. By some its invention is ascribed
ward. What matters it if the objects they to Flavio de Gioja of Amalfi, but this is not
had in view were unattainable? In their now generally believed; the most that can
~earch for the philosopher's stone and the be attributed to him being some possible
elixir of life many noble men sacrificed time, improvement in the instrument. The truth
money, life itself; but by their zeal impor- seems to be that the Saracens, in their fretant truths were discovered which have quent intercourse with the people of Southadded greatly to the development of science ern Italy, brought to their notice the usefuland thus to the elevation of mankind. The ness of this wonderful instrument, and its
connection between the weight and increas- employment gradually spread thence to all
ing density of the atmosphere they ascer- parts of Europe. It is probable that many
tained; and also that a body weighs differ- other useful inventions have come to us in
ently in a rare and in a dense atmosphere. the same manner, their origin being ascribed
Gravity was recognized as a force, and the fact to the individuals first bringing them into
that it diminishes with the distance was prominent notice among the Christians.
known, though they failed to learn the ratio In the ninth century the Arabs became
between the force and distance. The dens- acquainted with the system of numencal noities of bodies were determined almost as tation which we call Arabic, and which they
exactly as at present, and in some cases more probably derived from India; and in the folaccurately than during the last century. lowing century it was quite generally adopted
Alhazen, a famous Moslem scientist of the throughout their dominions. Gerbert, who
eleventh century, taught that vision is not afterwapd became Pope Sylvester II., was
the result of the emission of rays of light educated in Moorish Spain and there learned
from the eyes, as was asserted by earlier and the use of these numerals. Returning to his
even by some later writers, but is caused by native France, he introduced them there.
rays from the object striking the retina of Being recognized as of special facility in
the eye. He was the first also who clearly commercial transactions, they speedily beexplained why we see only one image with came popular, and a knowledge of them
two eyes. He was among the first to use spread throughout Christendom. The sciconvex glasses for magnifying. ences of arithmetic and algebra we owe to
There is reason to believe that the use of the Mohammedans. Before their time only
gunpowder, which has changed the whole a few rudimentary principles of the latter
art of war, was learned by Christian Europe were known, and were considered only as a
from the Mohammedans. Certainly it was part of higher arithmetic. They elevated it
used among the Saracens long before it was into the dignity of a separate science, solving