Ancient and Mediaeval Science 



27 



Should we wish to represent the whole tradition, not only the de- 

 velopment of single ideas or inventions, but the scientific pattern in its 

 totality, the graph would be very different, something like this (Fig. 2). 

 The roots of western science, the graph reminds us, are Egyptian, Meso- 

 potamian, and to a much smaller amount, Iranian and Hindu. The 

 central line represents the Arabic transmission which was for a time, say, 

 from the ninth to the eleventh century, the outstanding stream, and re- 

 mained until the fourteenth century one of the largest streams of medi- 

 aeval thought. 



The diagram makes it easier to explain many things. In the first 

 place it shows that the Arabic tradition was a continuation and revivi- 

 fication not only of Greek science but also of Iranian and Hindu ideas. 

 This is still very imperfectly known and will require many more in- 

 vestigations than have hitherto been possible, but we are already well 

 aware that two of the fundamental branches of mediaeval science, the 



new arithmetic and the new trigonometry, were due to the mutual 

 fertilization of two very different streams of thought, the Greek and the 

 Hindu. 



This disposes of the criticism often made by people who ignore 

 mediaeval science almost completely, which is bad; or who think that 

 they understand it though they lack adequate information, which is 

 much worse. They will glibly say "The Arabs simply translated Greek 

 writings, they were industrious imitators, and by the way, the transla- 

 tions were not made by themselves but by Christians and Jews . . ." 

 This is not absolutely untrue, but is such a small part of the truth, that 

 when it is allowed to stand alone, it is worse than a lie. 



Let us consider first the particles of truth. It is correct that most 

 of the translations were made by non-Arabs, non-Muslims, but how else 

 could it be? The latter were to a large extent monoglot, and few if any 

 ever knew Greek. In order to translate from one language into another 

 one must know very well the two languages involved. The Christians 



