Civilization Connections: Early Islam and Latin-European Renaissance

Abstract

The paper discusses four interrelated themes. First, there is a description on the ―lost paradigm‖ of Islamic connections to European Renaissance, followed by a discussion of evidence that this Renaissance depended crucially upon the intellectual armory acquired through prolonged contacts with early Islamic civilization. The influence of many Muslim scholars on Western Enlightenment also cannot be denied. The paper documents the influence of some key Islamic scholars such as Al-Kindi, Ibn-e-Sina, Al-Ghazali and in particular Ibn-e-Rushd, whose writings contributed hugely to the European Enlightenment. This is followed by a discussion of the various sources of transmission of that intellectual armory that enabled Latin-Europeans to exit from the Dark Ages and contributed towards medieval Renaissance as well as subsequent Italian Renaissance.