Islam and the birth of European science: the Sufi sources of computer technologies
Most people believe that modern science, which has radically changed the life of human civilization, promising amazing things in the future, is based entirely on the European research traditions. Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and the modern scientists are at the basis of the intellectual revolution, the fruits of which we nowadays fully enjoy in our everyday life.One of the basic notions of modern computing mathematics and cybernetics the notion of algorithm is etymologically traced back to the Latin spelling of the Middle Asian Arabian mathematician Al-Khorezmi. Through his works, Europeans were acquainted with the new calculating system, so usual nowadays. Islamic science and philosophy influenced the project of the logic machine made by Raymond Lulli. This Spanish logician and theologian was a pundit of the Muslim theology, oriental alchemy and the founder of the European Arabic philology.
However, the appearance of the new vision of the world would be impossible without spiritual and cultural influence of Islamic civilisation on the West European thinking several centuries earlier and paved the way for the development of an ideology for scientific investigations. The 12th-13th centuries, the time of the crusades and recon cista in Spain is also the time of intensive penetration of oriental culture into the life of Western Europe. Muslim influence could be easily found in the architecture. Thus, for example the lancet or the Gothic arch after which the whole architectural style is called, in the opinion of some historians, goes back to Arabian architectural traditions. The troubadour poetry was influenced crucially by the poetic tradition of the adjacent Arabian Spain. It was the great Dante and many of his literary contemporaries who widely used the symbols and expressions borrowed from the Persian and Arabic esoteric poetry.
As far as science is concerned, some fields of natural knowledge were thoroughly borrowed by the European civilization from the Muslim civilization. Chemistry, for instance, has still preserved its Arabian name. Alchemical (and wider hermetical) boom in Europe was prepared by the translations from Arabian into Latin made in the 12th century. In 1085 a special school was founded in Toledo by Gerald from Kremont, where Arabic manuscripts were being translated into Latin and studied.
In astronomy, for instance, all technical terms in all European languages go back to Arabic. As for astrology, the names of most of the celestial bodies still sound in Arabic. Through the mediation of Muslims, Europeans got plenty of technical inventions: both water-dial and clock, powder, magnetic needle, astrolabe, etc.
In mathematics, it is possible to say that not just numbers usually used by Europeans and known as Arabic (though they come from India), but a whole branch of mathematics unknown in Antiquity algebra come from the Muslim East. In the field of philosophy this influence was probably stronger than anywhere else. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in those times in Europe (Western Europe) there was no other way of becoming familiar with Greek philosophy than through the Arabic mediation. Latin translations of Plato and Aristotle, popular at that time were made not from the Greek originals, but from Arabic translations with the comments made by Muslim philosophers: Abu Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna), Averroes and others. Having said that, for the European intellectuals, Averroes was of a very high importance.
Dante put him (together with Plato and Aristotle) into Limbo. Also, a well-known averroist Siger of Brabant, stabbed to death in Paris for his sinful views was put by him into one of celestial spheres, in the obvious contradiction with constant damnations and instructions of the Catholic Church. It was not accidental, that a Catholic philosopher and theologian Jilson called Averroes’ work The accordance of the philosophy and religion as a landmark in the history of Western civilization.
A popular modern branch of science artificial intellect (creating computer programmes, able for self-studying and thus getting some new knowledge), being yet in the cradle was greatly influenced by the Muslim culture. The investigators in the field came to a conclusion that the first researcher to suggest a truth-discovering machine was a monk Raymundo Lulli, who lived in the 13th century. He was sure that in any field several basic notions could be found, which form all the others a view, typical not only for the period of scholasticism. Any knowledge is pre-determined by these primary notions, which is similar to the way all geometric theorem are drawn from the limited number of axioms. Combining them differently, any imaginable knowledge could be got.
In order to make easier the bulky procedure of sorting out all possible variations, Lulli invented a device that represented the system of concentrically revolving circles. The circles were divided into sectors, painted in different colours and marked with letters, each letter for every single notion. When turning the lever, controlling the circles revolving, different sectors combined and as a result different combinations of letters appeared which looked like formulas. Due to the rules of rotation, which were its reason, it was possible, as Lulli himself thought, to discover all truths in the universe. He was even sure, that with the help of his machine it was possible to prove the existence of God.
With the last task excluded, these rules of rotation or using the modern terms running over reduction method is, in fact, what most of modern artificial intellect theories deal with. The thing is that when dealing with the majority of modern artificial intellect goals, the computer should run over an enormous number of versions. To reduce this number, using different heuristic methods appears to be the main task of the specialists in the field.
Even at single glance at don Raymundo’s inventions it is easily observable, that his machine’s structure looks much like the astrological world picture. In both systems there are: a) concentric circles (7 in both, later the number was extended); b) this or that truth is determined by the inter-combinations of the circles, which also makes a forecast possible. Lulli himself used his machine to create horoscopes.
Of course, the machine’s potential was much stronger. However, probably, it was invented under the influence of astrological practice of horoscopes making, which had become the original model for the logical machine.
It is noteworthy, that in Medieval Europe the cosmogram (the natal map) was usually depicted right-angled, but in Arabic science (the one Lulli was guided by) it was traditionally depicted as a circle. Some pages of Lulli`s works seem as if they were pulled out of the books by an outstanding medieval theologian and a Sufi philosopher Muhammad ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240). Still, the question of the direct influence or borrowing ideas from The Greatest Teacher (Sheikh al-akbar), as he was called by the Islamic authorities, still hasn’t been solved in the world of knowledge.
Many drafts made by the Arabic thinker and his work The depiction of the circles, covering the human likeness with the Creator and the world created obviously have much in common with Lulli’s work The great art. Even the origins of “the combinatorial obtaining of truth” is similar with the Arabic source. In 1200, having just started his pilgrimage to the East, Ibn Al-Arabi had a strange dream, that he was starting the marriage relations with all stars in the sky and all letters of the alphabet. A well-known dream commentator foretold him, that one who had such a dream had been intended a great destiny as he would possess all the secrets hidden both in stars and in letters, the secrets no one of his contemporaries would ever know. 9 months (lets draw our attention to this number. It is not merely the number of months, but also the number of sectors both in Lulli`s machine and earlier in al-Arabi`s circles) had passed after this notable dream before the original wording of al-Arabi`s work The depiction of circles appeared.
Several decades later Lulli after long hours of staying awake and prayers, experienced enlightenment observing the letters oozing out at the bush leaves, while climbing on Randa Mountain at Majorca Island. The wind was blowing and shaking the branches, so all the time new letter combinations were forming. That was the way, the original image of the logical machine appeared according Lulli himself.
And finally we cannot but pay our attention to the language of Lulli’s works. It is Arabic. In the Middle Ages, people often used Arabic consonant script to hide the meaning of the literary work, especially in the mystic tradition of Sufism. Indeed, there are several variations of the final text that could be drawn from a single word written. Laymen usually use the interpretation that is closer to their own understanding. The initiated, on the contrary, are able to notice the profound sense besides one that lies at the surface. Such a penetration into the hidden meaning of the text is attained with mere arranging of vowels in different combinations, with consonants written on paper. It somehow remains the basic idea of the logical machine: in both cases the Truth is obtained by a mechanical running over all possible variations (to some extent it may be look as a card game). Such “mathematical” structure of the Arabic language was an excellent means for passing on the secret knowledge of the East in the West.
It’s noteworthy that due to specificity of the native language and common magic world-view (according to Spangler) of Arabians they had a great passion for cryptography and mechanical systems of code making. It is typical that in the 20th century de- and enciphering of texts has become one of the most important sides of computer programming.
There is no doubt that Lulli was strongly influenced by Sufism. He himself recognized, that his well-known Story about the loving and the loved was written in keeping with a Sufi model. Lulli not only studied Sufism in practice, doing some exercises but also passed this knowledge further on as has been observed by a well-known Sufi researcher Idris Shah.
Therefore, while trying to convert Muslims into Christianity, (that was the main task of creating a logical machine) the Spanish thinker turned out to be so charmed by the culture of Islam, that quite inadvertently he became one of the most outstanding successors of its intellectual and mystical traditions in the whole of Western Europe.
This article was reproduced from here
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