Supposed and True Knowledge of the Qur’ān in Early Medieval Latin Literature, Eighth and Ninth Centuries

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-54
Author(s):  
Matthias M. Tischler
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Current State ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Religious Book ◽  
True Knowledge

Abstract This article intends to revise the still unrivalled opinion in Medieval Studies according to which knowledge of the Qur’ān in the early medieval Latin West is almost completely missing. For this purpose, it revises the current state of the art, enriches this panorama with some new findings in rarely studied or unknown sources and tries to assess a new profile of Latin reception of the Muslims’ central religious book. The study can show that authors of the early medieval Latin world ventured first, yet still polemical and apologetic approaches to the new religious phenomenon ‘Islam’ that produced not only superficial, hearsay-based, but first detailed knowledge of the Qur’ān.

The ‘Proverbia Grecorum’

Traditio ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Critical Edition ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Current State ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Latin Culture ◽  
Parallel Texts

Statements in Latin concerning such topics as wisdom, truth, and virtue, attributed to the Proverbia Grecorum (less often the Parabolae Gregorum), are found in a number of early medieval manuscripts. They are of interest because of their stated connection with the Greeks, which pertains to the knowledge of Greek and Greek learning in the early medieval West, and because of the obscure vocabulary many of the proverbs contain, which relates to the study of the latinity of early medieval, especially insular, scholars. New findings concerning the origin and transmission of these statements have increased their importance because they have revealed connections between them and other important early medieval Latin texts, notably the Collectio canonum Hibernensis and certain florilegia found in the miscellaneous Collectaneum of Sedulius Scottus. The Proverbia Grecorum have been edited and studied in detail only once, by Sigmund Hellmann, in 1906. Since then new statements attributed to the Proverbia Grecorum have been found, and the characterization of early medieval Latin culture has been significantly revised. Hellmann's text, furthermore, has been found to be faulty in a number of places. Therefore, there is a need for a full re-edition and study of this proverb collection. This has been undertaken in the present work. Following this essay, which defines the current state of knowledge of the Proverbia Grecorum, there is a critical edition of all statements identified as Proverbia Grecorum. This is followed by a commentary in which parallel texts are cited, and points of linguistic interest are noted.

scholarly journals The Normative Character of Monastic Exemption in the Early Medieval Latin West

2017 ◽  
Vol medieval worlds (Volume 6. 2017) ◽  
pp. 61-77
Author(s):  
Kriston R. Rennie
Keyword(s):  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval Latin ◽  
Latin West

Deepened Monotheism. Philosophical Reasoning on the Trinity in Western Early Medieval and Classic Arabic Theology

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-264
Author(s):  
Katrin König
Keyword(s):  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Syrian Orthodox ◽  
Anselm Of Canterbury ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Rational Arguments

SummaryChristian theologians can explain the Trinitarian faith today in dialogue with Islamic thinkers as “deepened monotheism”. Therefore it is important to widen the systematic-theological discourse in an ecumenical and transcultural perspective and to retrieve resources from Western and non-Western traditions of Trinitarian thought (I).In this paper I will first work out historically that the Trinitarian creed of Nicea and Constantinople was originally an ecumenical but non-Western creed (II). Afterwards, I investigate the philosophical-theological reflection on the Trinity by Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) in the context of early interreligious encounters in the Latin West. Based on biblical, augustinian and Greek sources, he developed an approach to understand the mystery of the Trinity by rational arguments as “deepened monotheism” (III). Then I will proceed to explore the philosophical-theological dialogues on the Trinity from the Arabic philosopher and Syrian-orthodox theologian Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī (893–974). Much earlier he developed rational arguments for the Triunity of God with reference to Aristotle. Thereby he answers to anti-trinitarian arguments from Islamic thinkers like al-Kindī and al-Warrāq. He intends that the Trinitarian faith of Christian minorities can thereby be understood and tolerated by Islamic thinkers as rationally founded “deepened monotheism” (IV).In the end I will evaluate what these classics from the Western and non-western traditions of Trinitarian thought contribute to explicate the doctrine of the Trinity today in a pluralistic religious context as “deepened monotheism” (V).

Urban Change in Early Medieval Italy: The Example of Pavia

1966 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 82-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Bullough
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Social History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Warm Hospitality ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Prefatory Note.—My interest in Pavia goes back at least to 1951 when I was elected Rome Scholar in Medieval Studies. I began seriously to collect material for the history of the city in the early Middle Ages in the winter and spring of 1953 when I enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Collegio Ghislieri, thanks to the efforts made on my behalf by the late Hugh Last, to whose memory this article is dedicated. The published proceedings of the Reichenau and Spoleto congresses on ‘The early medieval town’ in the 1950s clearly underlined the need for detailed studies of particular towns; but the lack of adequate archaeological evidence discouraged me from attempting such a study of early medieval Pavia. In 1964, however, Dr. A. Peroni, Director of the Museo Civico invited me to read a supplementary paper on this topic to the Convegno di Studio sul Centro Storico di Pavia held in the Università degli Studi at Pavia on July 4th and 5th of that year. The present article is an amplified and corrected version of that paper: I have made no substantial alterations to my account of the ‘urbanistica’ of early medieval Pavia—written for an audience of architects and art-historians as well as of historians—but have dealt more fully with the social history of the city in this period. Professor Richard Krautheimer read a draft of the revised version and made some pointed and helpful comments. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Peroni, not merely for the invitation to present the original paper but also for supplying illustrations and answering queries at a time when he and his staff were engaged in helping to repair the ravages of the Florence floods.

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