| Themes > Science > Physics > About Physics, Generalities > A Brief History and Philosophy of Physics > The Dark Ages, and the Translations |
With the fall of the Roman empire about 400 A.D., most of the Greek learning was lost to Europe as it entered the Dark Ages. Even the knowledge that the Earth was round, known to the Greeks who had a good estimate for its diameter, was replaced by the conception of a flat Earth. (This does not mean that all learning stopped during the Dark Ages; important technological discoveries were made during this period, such as the invention of the plough and the water wheel.) The Greek knowledge itself, however, was not lost. It had migrated into the Middle East and Egypt under the Greek and Roman empires, and was translated into Arabic by the people who lived in these regions. The Arabs not only kept Greek science alive, they added to it considerably. For example, the Arabs had important medical schools and first discovered the law of refraction, now known as Snell's law. They also translated major Indian scientific works into Arabic, and began to use the numerals and algebra developed in India. Al-Battani (~858-929 A.D.) measured a value for the precession of the equinoxes that was more accurate than Ptolemy's. The Arabs also transported the art of paper-making from China to the west. Their contribution remains enshrined in Arabic words which we still use today, including algebra and algorithm. When Christians recaptured Spain in the eleventh century, the bridge was formed to carry this learning back into Europe. A major translation centre was set up in Toledo after it was captured in 1085, with a lesser centre in Sicily after it fell to the Christians in 1091. Translation was done primarily into Latin, the language of learning in Europe at this time. However, most of the translators focused on the Greek works, and some Arabic and Persian works remain untranslated today. |
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