Intellectual transfers between Arabs and Europeans

Prof. Moustafa Mohamad El Abdallah Alkafry
2022 / 6 / 22

Intellectual transfers between Arabs and Europeans
Prof. Dr. Moustafa El-Abdallah Al Kafry
The development and progress of sciences and human knowledge is based on reason. There is no science without reason that is tested by relying on the senses and the technical tools assisting them, and there is no science without reason that is due to the laws of trial and logic. From here, thinkers turned to the mind, refining it and arming with it, and to nature, studying it and learning from it. They derived methods for reform in the field of politics, the economy, the state system, the social system, and the improvement of the level of human well-being and progress.
Human interest in humans began at the beginning of modern times. The human interest in the human being led to an interest in research in the field of humanities and social sciences. From that era, we see thinkers devoted to research and research cooperation in this field, prompted by a basic idea: that man strengthens man, and man is a means and an end in the development of man and human society. All people are means and ends for each other, given that every human has rights and duties.
The Arab nation, in the era of its prosperity and brilliance of its civilization, was one of the nations that gave attention, encouragement and support to scientific research and nurtured its workers, and Arab scientists also contributed to laying the foundations and methods of scientific research. The Arabs opened horizons in basic and applied sciences that no one had preceded them, and learned from their hands who carried the banner of the scientific renaissance and modern technology in Europe. The absence of the sun of Arab civilization coincided with the weak interest in scientific research,´-or-even its absence in most of the countries of the nation, where the Arabs lived through ages of darkness, loss,´-or-scattering under the yoke of exploitation´-or-foreign oppression.
When the thinker thinks, his thinking permeates the factor of awareness and understanding of the social and historical meaning of his work. Therefore, we find in the thinker, a writer, a sociologist, a poet, an economist,´-or-a philosopher - a mixture of imaginative thinking about what should be, and thinking also about what might be relative to the historical situation. Often, we find in a single thinker a mixture that serves the old and the new, because the thinker rarely asks himself who serves socially and historically with his work. Rather, he may think that he will rise to something, so the result is different from what he thought and intended. (For example, Luther used to describe the mind with the ugliest of adjectives: “the prostitute of Satan,” “the bride of Satan,” “the enemy of God,” etc. Nevertheless, the reform, which Luther was the chief advocate in the church, served reason and the right of reason to trial and free research, and on this History has a logic other than the logic of individuals and the will of individuals.
Some may agree that the thinking of the thinker is completely incorrect, in terms of historical´-or-scientific truth, then this does not prevent him from having an impact if he is able to address the masses and move them. What is important in the value of thought - as a historical influence - is that the masses accept it and work with it. Undoubtedly, thought, the more correct it is, the longer it will be accepted and acted upon by the masses. And that was Rousseau s hypothesis, for example, about the "state of nature", which is probably incorrect in terms of historical fact. However, this hypothesis and what the French thinker built on, rules in governance and politics, agreed with the demands of the French masses, and found their way to their hearts and minds, so they were affected by it in their great revolution. Since the objective of this hypothesis was correct in light of the historical trend and the service of its objectives, building on it was more reliable than building on ideas and theories such as those claimed by Nazism, for example.
It goes without saying that talking about contemporary scientific research and research cooperation in the field of humanities and social sciences calls for more talk about previous efforts made by researchers in the past. However, today s researcher sees in any progress achieved by mankind seeds from eras that preceded it, even at a long time sometimes. Here many questions are asked, including:
• What would the French Revolution have not been for the conquest of Andalusia, and if it were not for the Crusades, and if it were not for the revolution in the English countries?
• What would the French Revolution not have been for the religions that decided for every human being a "soul" entrusted with good and evil and entrusted with reward and punishment, and thus decided the basis of individual "responsibility" and the basis of rights and duties.
• - What would the French Revolution not have been for the religions that abolished the differences between the strong and the weak, between the rich and the poor, between the masters and the slaves, thus establishing the building of freedom and democracy, and this shows us the frequency of events and phenomena, even in the field of scientific research in the humanities and social sciences.
There appeared in Europe a fertile product of philosophical and literary composition on the origins of thought, creation and human interaction, and great and important names appeared in the European horizon in the history of the development of human thought, such as Galilei, Montaigne, Copernic, Rabelais, Jordan and Bruno. With Aristotle, Hippocrates, Ibn Rushed, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Sina, al-Maqrizi, and we do not forget from that glorious caravan, Descartes, Spinoza, Newton, Pascal and others, followed by the caravan of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Hume, Luke, Adam Smit, David Ricardo, Robert Owen, Marx, Engels and other thinkers who have contributed and developed great contributions to the humanities and social sciences in research. other in general. The role played by Arab Andalusia in research cooperation between Arabs and Europeans and the cross-fertilization of thought remains one of the greatest roles.
How do intellectual transfers take place from Arabs to Europeans,´-or-from Europeans to Arabs? What are the paths you take? This question presents us and the reasons for the difficulty in it, because defining intellectual transitions in history is a matter that cannot be decided upon. Hidden paths may be facilitated for intellectual transitions that historians do not realize despite their importance,´-or-they are aware of them, but a vague general awareness, which lacks scrutiny and lacks activation. However, research into the ways of thought transmission and research cooperation between Arabs and Europe is not without any basis. There is no doubt that Andalusia has a prominent and important role in the intellectual transition from the Arab region to Europe, just as Napoleon’s French campaign to the Arab East played a key role in transmitting the ideas of the French Revolution to The Arab East region and this shows us some paths for the intellectual transition between the Arabs and Europe.
It is noted that most of the inventions, discoveries and deductions that were vital to the renaissance of Europe were passed on to the Europeans through the Arabs from Andalusia, North Africa, Sicily´-or-Syria during the era of the Crusaders. Including gunpowder, the substance that the Arabs made from China and improved it to become stronger and more explosive, and the compass that the Arabs knew from China as well and transmitted to Europe through them. Paper was also known to the Arabs from the Chinese, during the days of Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, the Umayyad caliph, it was moved to Andalusia, and the manufacture of cotton and rags reached a great deal there. The cultural bond between Europe and the Arabs was strengthened during the time of Muhammad Ali the Great, who had the political, military, industrial and cultural renaissance in Egypt. Where Muhammad Ali sent scientific missions to Europe, especially to France, a convoy of writers and thinkers emerged who benefited from research cooperation between Europe and the Arabs, beginning with the scholar Sheikh Rifa’a Rafe’ al-Tahtawi and ending with the Dean of Arabic literature, Dr. Taha Hussein in our days. In addition to Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Farah Anton, Adeeb Ishaq and others.
Fortunately, Al-Tahtawi was one of the members of the missions sent by Muhammad Ali to Europe, and he is considered one of the deepest Eastern Arab minds that benefited from the West “Europe” as manifested in France, and I understood it with a conscious understanding of its virtues and advantages in many ways. Al-Tahtawi left us a valuable book about his trip to Paris and the knowledge and culture he received in it, and what he witnessed and was influenced by in those countries.
A strong Egyptian movement has been active to Arabize French laws in general. In the article of Dr. Muhammad Hussein Heikal, the following was stated: (If the principles of the French Revolution had leaked into Egypt through the Napoleonic campaign in the year 1798, and through young Egyptians who were sent to France and then returned to Egypt, the idea turned to the Arabization of the French laws that were laid down The days of Napoleon, and the government entrusted a group of distinguished Egyptian translators with this task, so the French civil law was Arabized by Rafa’a Beyk Rafi’, Abdullah Beyk, head of the translation office, Ahmed Effendi Helmy, and Abd al-Salam Effendi Ahmed).
Intellectual transitions between Arabs and Europeans deal with scientific research as a creative process and innovation in various types of knowledge. And this cannot be upright and grow without the availability of its basic conditions of a free environment, a democratic climate, knowledge accumulation, material ingredients and high morale. On this basis, most societies and all countries take the initiative to constantly consider the issue of intellectual transfers between countries, developing their educational systems and research centers, and reformulating them.
(Hence, practicing and owning contemporary civilization, being creative in it, participating in its making and striving to produce and advance it, means practicing science. There is no development work outside the organization of science and culture, so the progress of nations and societies in the ladder of contemporary civilization of a high and stereotypical nature is measured by the extent of their possession of science and technology, This phenomenon is the difference between developed and developing countries.
Which calls for constantly looking into the matter of developing the methods and methods of scientific research and providing its requirements in line with the ambitious development plans and with the successive achievements that science reaches every day to supplement the development and development process.
Intellectual transfers between countries are no longer a luxury practiced by some developed nations, and monopolized by emerging societies, but, in fact, they are an urgent necessity that Arab countries and European countries need alike. If the Arab countries and their scientific institutions, especially universities, are not concerned with intellectual transitions, they will not find correct solutions to their many problems and the major challenges they face. Science is acquired by returning to heritage and scientific originality, in addition to quotation and transmission through research cooperation and transfer, and this is necessary for human progress in the Arab world and its development to contribute to the development process to meet the great challenge facing the Arabs, which is underdevelopment.
Prof. Dr. Moustafa El-Abdallah Al Kafry
Faculty of Economics - University of Damascus



Research sources:
1. Dr. Muhammad Othman Khader, Scientific Research in the Arab Countries, Research Presented to the Fourth Conference of Ministers Responsible for Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Arab World, Arab Center for Higher Education Research, Damascus 1989.
2. Raif Khoury, Modern Arab Thought - The Impact of the French Revolution on its Political and Social -dir-ection, Publications of the Ministry of Culture, Damascus 1993.
3. Al-Seyassah Al-Sukuni, March 19, 1927, quoted from Raif Khoury, the previous source.
4. - Mohieldin Saber, The Strategy for Developing Science and Technology in the Arab World, Center for Arab Unity Studies, Beirut 1989, p. 27.
5. Dr. Zaki Hannoush, Problems and Obstacles of Scientific Research in Arab Universities, (Arab Affairs) magazine, p. 196.
6. Dr. Fakher Aqel, Scientific Research in the Humanities, Research Presented to the Fourth Arab Conference on Higher Education Research, Damascus 1989, p. 140.




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