HIST 214 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Averroes, Symbolic Power, Alfonso X Of Castile
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Translation as Translation
(To move something from place to another - to move an idea from one culture to
another)
In the Islamic world there was a push to translate science, math, etc. into Arabic
Lines on the map are the lines pointing to Mecca which allows them to pray
in the right direction
○
With every regime change in Morocco, they bring in new mathmaticians and
astronomers to recalculate the new direction of prayer
Learning and translation tie into political legitimacy
§
○
-
Translation is passive, something that is direct/straight forward (false)
Take text and put it into another language
○
-
Agency of choice
Subject matter
Choice is being influenced by what they want to find
§
○
Specific words
○
Geography
○
Language
Learning a new language
§
Investing decades into the study of a new language (investment)
§
Locks them in to what they are going to be working on after that
Series of choices that contribute to the greater intellectual
development of European society (philosophy, theology)
□
Translators become interested in certain scientific topics and in
their spare time they are working on translations when they are
not working on their commissioned work
□
Choose where to go to study things (language, access to
materials to translate)
□
§
○
-
Intellectual curiosity
Leads them to collect with other translators and scholars
○
Different works are interpreted differently and affects how they circulate
○
-
Patrons and patronage
Patrons have interests of their own
○
Patrons are commissioning translations of "more useful" texts (STEM)
○
Supporting translators for the sake of having translators around
○
Patrons influence what is going to be translated
○
-
Translation vs. intellectual adaptation
Traduttore, traditore
"To translate is to betray"
§
When you are translating the words, mechanisms, ideas are never the
same
§
The translators has to readapt and reform the ideas that they are
working on
§
Translators have to make it comprehensible to the public
§
○
-
Translation and transmission and creation
-
Early contributors to intellectual growth
Development of monastic culture and centers
Increased need for books
○
People who are learning Latin and translating
○
Growth of increasingly literate lay population
○
Growth of legal text
○
-
Encyclopedic culture becomes required reading
Decretum, CIC, sentences
○
-
Cictercians attempt to regulate the Culgate
Discrepancies with Latin translation of the bible
○
Increased contact with Jews to get them to help translate again
○
-
Difficulties of incorporating Classical Tradition
Trojan horse of knowledge
Greek science
Math (Ptolemy, Euclid)
§
Medicine (Galen)
§
○
Philosophy
Aristotle
§
○
-
Pagan themes
Philosophy (religious world view)
○
-
Inability to dismiss them outright
Patristic fathers steeped in classics (Augustin)
○
-
Faith vs. Reason
Questioning the obligation of faith
○
Importance of logic
○
-
Creates intellectual and religious crisis
-
Islamic/Latin philosophers say there are two paths to enlightenment
For simple people it is Faith
○
For people who have superior intellectual abilities they can find a path to
God through reasoning
○
-
Translation of Knowledge in the West
Italy
Constantine the African
Salerno
§
11th century, Galen
§
School of Medicine
§
Theory over practice
Studies medicine in the Islamic world and then he goes back and
starts translating work
□
Father of medicine□
§
○
Shows frontiers of conflict are also zone of contact and exchange
Transmission of knowledge and texts
§
○
Trilingual Chancellery
Conquests of Normans, they rule in three languages at the same time
(Latin, Greek, Arabic)
§
○
Access to Greek texts via Byzantium
○
Most texts that are being translated are Greek texts
○
-
Spain
Toledo - 12th century (main center for translation)
Christians in Spain were conquering territories and were coming into
contact with more diverse populations (ruling over Muslims, Jews,
hybrid cultures)
These become zones of transmission □
§
Need to confront Islam and Judaism
Peter the Venerable & anti-Islamic apologetics □
Important role of Jews and Mozarabs □
Gerard of Cremona
Founder of the Toledo School of Translation
®
Only Christian heresy to come out of Islam is Averroism
®
□
Averriusm (Ibn Rushd, 1126-98)
Main way Christians come into contact with Aristotle is
through Ibn Rushd's translation of Aristotle
®
□
Ibn Abdun: "you must not sell books of science to Jews and
Christians…because it happens that they translate scientific
books and attribute them to their own people and to their
bishops, when they are indeed Muslim works."
He was a legal scholar
®
□
Difficult to find someone who can translate from Arabic to Latin
Can be up to a 5 step process (Arabic to Hebrew,
Hebrew…etc.)
®
□
Groups of Christian scholars and clerics who work with Jewish
scholars to translate the works
□
§
○
Alfonso X "El Sabio" - next century
Vernacular translation and royal policy
§
Toledo School of Translation (formally organizes)
§
Tries to be elected as the emperor
§
Sponsors translation of high level Arabic/Greek texts directly into
Casillian Spanish worthy of the same readership Latin has
§
Translated the book of games
How to play checkers, chess, etc. from the Islamic world into
Christendom
□
Plays with interculturality (represent the "internationalness" of
Alfonso's court)
□
§
Still rule over multiple religions and multiple cultures
§
○
-
North Africa and Sicily
Leonardo Fibonacci
Pisan scribe- Bijaya
§
Translation as translation - compare to Bayt al-Hikma
§
Positional numerical calcuation
§
Muhammad b. Musa al-Khwarizmi, Kitab al-jabr wa-l-muqaba (algebra
is made known to the Western world)
Translate works into Latin and creates something new as he is
doing it, advances mathematical knowledge
□
§
Liber abaci (1202)
Learns math and Arabic from the people around him in Tunisia □
Studies around North Africa and then brings it back to Sicily □
§
○
The court of Frederick II
Stupor mundi
§
Court of intellectual pursuit (language experiments)
Wants to know what the purist language is □
Children are born pure and uninfluenced
When they begin to speak, they will speak the language of
God
®
□
Shows he is seeking to accumulate knowledge □
§
Michael Scot (other major translator)
Works on the animal world □
§
International culture of knowledge - correspondence and diplomacy
with rulers across the mediterannean
§
○
-
Courts of translation
Compare al-Ma'mun, Frederick II and Alfonso X
Political motivations
People are attracted to their kingdom
§
Performance of power and legitimacy
§
Attracts knowledgeable people in the court
§
Idea of dominance - if you possess knowledge, then you have power
§
○
Translation as conquest
Compare to Roger III and al-Idrisi
§
○
Knowledge as diplomacy
Gift giving and symbolic violence
Translation diplomacy □
§
Demonstrates power to give it to them and now they are obligated to
you
§
Gifts are never free, they imply a response and acceptance
§
○
International court culture
○
-
Send manuscripts to other courts and this allows for the circulation of manuscripts
There is tension and negotiated capital associated with this
○
-
Lecture 10 -Translations, translators, and the pursuit of
knowledge
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
2:29 PM
Translation as Translation
(To move something from place to another - to move an idea from one culture to
another)
In the Islamic world there was a push to translate science, math, etc. into Arabic
Lines on the map are the lines pointing to Mecca which allows them to pray
in the right direction
○
With every regime change in Morocco, they bring in new mathmaticians and
astronomers to recalculate the new direction of prayer
Learning and translation tie into political legitimacy
§
○
-
Translation is passive, something that is direct/straight forward (false)
Take text and put it into another language
○
-
Agency of choice
Subject matter
Choice is being influenced by what they want to find
§
○
Specific words
○
Geography
○
Language
Learning a new language
§
Investing decades into the study of a new language (investment)
§
Locks them in to what they are going to be working on after that
Series of choices that contribute to the greater intellectual
development of European society (philosophy, theology)
□
Translators become interested in certain scientific topics and in
their spare time they are working on translations when they are
not working on their commissioned work
□
Choose where to go to study things (language, access to
materials to translate)
□
§
○
-
Intellectual curiosity
Leads them to collect with other translators and scholars
○
Different works are interpreted differently and affects how they circulate
○
-
Patrons and patronage
Patrons have interests of their own
○
Patrons are commissioning translations of "more useful" texts (STEM)
○
Supporting translators for the sake of having translators around
○
Patrons influence what is going to be translated
○
-
Translation vs. intellectual adaptation
Traduttore, traditore
"To translate is to betray"
§
When you are translating the words, mechanisms, ideas are never the
same
§
The translators has to readapt and reform the ideas that they are
working on
§
Translators have to make it comprehensible to the public
§
○
-
Translation and transmission and creation
-
Early contributors to intellectual growth
Development of monastic culture and centers
Increased need for books
○
People who are learning Latin and translating
○
Growth of increasingly literate lay population
○
Growth of legal text
○
-
Encyclopedic culture becomes required reading
Decretum, CIC, sentences
○
-
Cictercians attempt to regulate the Culgate
Discrepancies with Latin translation of the bible
○
Increased contact with Jews to get them to help translate again
○
-
Difficulties of incorporating Classical Tradition
Trojan horse of knowledge
Greek science
Math (Ptolemy, Euclid)
§
Medicine (Galen)
§
○
Philosophy
Aristotle
§
○
-
Pagan themes
Philosophy (religious world view)
○
-
Inability to dismiss them outright
Patristic fathers steeped in classics (Augustin)
○
-
Faith vs. Reason
Questioning the obligation of faith
○
Importance of logic
○
-
Creates intellectual and religious crisis
-
Islamic/Latin philosophers say there are two paths to enlightenment
For simple people it is Faith
○
For people who have superior intellectual abilities they can find a path to
God through reasoning
○
-
Translation of Knowledge in the West
Italy
Constantine the African
Salerno
§
11th century, Galen
§
School of Medicine
§
Theory over practice
Studies medicine in the Islamic world and then he goes back and
starts translating work
□
Father of medicine□
§
○
Shows frontiers of conflict are also zone of contact and exchange
Transmission of knowledge and texts
§
○
Trilingual Chancellery
Conquests of Normans, they rule in three languages at the same time
(Latin, Greek, Arabic)
§
○
Access to Greek texts via Byzantium
○
Most texts that are being translated are Greek texts
○
-
Spain
Toledo - 12th century (main center for translation)
Christians in Spain were conquering territories and were coming into
contact with more diverse populations (ruling over Muslims, Jews,
hybrid cultures)
These become zones of transmission □
§
Need to confront Islam and Judaism
Peter the Venerable & anti-Islamic apologetics □
Important role of Jews and Mozarabs □
Gerard of Cremona
Founder of the Toledo School of Translation
®
Only Christian heresy to come out of Islam is Averroism
®
□
Averriusm (Ibn Rushd, 1126-98)
Main way Christians come into contact with Aristotle is
through Ibn Rushd's translation of Aristotle
®
□
Ibn Abdun: "you must not sell books of science to Jews and
Christians…because it happens that they translate scientific
books and attribute them to their own people and to their
bishops, when they are indeed Muslim works."
He was a legal scholar
®
□
Difficult to find someone who can translate from Arabic to Latin
Can be up to a 5 step process (Arabic to Hebrew,
Hebrew…etc.)
®
□
Groups of Christian scholars and clerics who work with Jewish
scholars to translate the works
□
§
○
Alfonso X "El Sabio" - next century
Vernacular translation and royal policy
§
Toledo School of Translation (formally organizes)
§
Tries to be elected as the emperor
§
Sponsors translation of high level Arabic/Greek texts directly into
Casillian Spanish worthy of the same readership Latin has
§
Translated the book of games
How to play checkers, chess, etc. from the Islamic world into
Christendom
□
Plays with interculturality (represent the "internationalness" of
Alfonso's court)
□
§
Still rule over multiple religions and multiple cultures
§
○
-
North Africa and Sicily
Leonardo Fibonacci
Pisan scribe- Bijaya
§
Translation as translation - compare to Bayt al-Hikma
§
Positional numerical calcuation
§
Muhammad b. Musa al-Khwarizmi, Kitab al-jabr wa-l-muqaba (algebra
is made known to the Western world)
Translate works into Latin and creates something new as he is
doing it, advances mathematical knowledge
□
§
Liber abaci (1202)
Learns math and Arabic from the people around him in Tunisia □
Studies around North Africa and then brings it back to Sicily □
§
○
The court of Frederick II
Stupor mundi
§
Court of intellectual pursuit (language experiments)
Wants to know what the purist language is □
Children are born pure and uninfluenced
When they begin to speak, they will speak the language of
God
®
□
Shows he is seeking to accumulate knowledge □
§
Michael Scot (other major translator)
Works on the animal world □
§
International culture of knowledge - correspondence and diplomacy
with rulers across the mediterannean
§
○
-
Courts of translation
Compare al-Ma'mun, Frederick II and Alfonso X
Political motivations
People are attracted to their kingdom
§
Performance of power and legitimacy
§
Attracts knowledgeable people in the court
§
Idea of dominance - if you possess knowledge, then you have power
§
○
Translation as conquest
Compare to Roger III and al-Idrisi
§
○
Knowledge as diplomacy
Gift giving and symbolic violence
Translation diplomacy □
§
Demonstrates power to give it to them and now they are obligated to
you
§
Gifts are never free, they imply a response and acceptance
§
○
International court culture
○
-
Send manuscripts to other courts and this allows for the circulation of manuscripts
There is tension and negotiated capital associated with this
○
-
Lecture 10 -Translations, translators, and the pursuit of
knowledge
Tuesday, October 24, 2017 2:29 PM
Document Summary
Lecture 10 - translations, translators, and the pursuit of knowledge. Translation as translation (to move something from place to another - to move an idea from one culture to another) In the islamic world there was a push to translate science, math, etc. into arabic. Lines on the map are the lines pointing to mecca which allows them to pray in the right direction. With every regime change in morocco, they bring in new mathmaticians and astronomers to recalculate the new direction of prayer. Translation is passive, something that is direct/straight forward (false) Take text and put it into another language. Choice is being influenced by what they want to find. Investing decades into the study of a new language (investment) Locks them in to what they are going to be working on after that. Series of choices that contribute to the greater intellectual development of european society (philosophy, theology)
