The influence of scientific and philosophical studies in Islamic Middle Ages on the West: The examples of the Salernitan Medical School and the Translators School of Toledo

The most significant reason of the "dark-illuminated" comparison between Christian Western and Islamic world in the Middle Ages may be that the Islamic world was able to developed its civilization more scientifically and culturally by its own prosperity, lands conquered while Christian Western world had been struggling to build a uniformity. Islamic world in this period had formed scientific and cultural knowledge molding with Ancient Greek knowledge in the light of Quran with hadiths and thanks to the curiosity of administrators towards science with the tolerance to other religions. This knowledge was the outcome of the studies carried out under an organized institute as Bait'al-Hikmah (the House of Wisdom). Christian Western world both obtained the knowledge of Ancient Greeks, whom they esteemed as their ancestors and acquired Islamic knowledge by translating their scientific works into Latin as they encountered the Islamic world. However, this process occured by a different method from Islamic world, and Western world conducted its translation activities either on an individual scale or in relatively smaller sized institutes like The Translator School of Toledo. In this study, firstly mentioning scientific and philosophical works of Islamic world in the Middle Ages in terms of Bait'al-Hikmah, the way these works had an impact on Western world will be examined based on historical background regarding examples of Spain and Italy, which encountered Islamic thought first. Hence, the focus of this study will consist of the most important schools of Christian West, Schola Medica Salernitana (Salernitan Medical School) and Escuela de Traductores de Toledo (Translator School of Toledo). Keywords: Philosophy and science in the Middle Ages, Islamic thought, Islamic influence, Christian Western thought, translation activities, Salernitan Medical School, Translator School of Toledo.