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References section so as to establish the exact import of the information recorded. Reference
works such as HATA are enormously useful, but if their users fail to consult the sources they run
the risk of confusing the information deduced in the reference work with the original text.
The works documented in HATA thanks to the information found in the sources consulted
are 13,730 (see the introduction to the Index of works written and transmitted in al-Andalus).
The abundance of books that circulated in medieval Islamic societies - noteworthy especially in
the early centuries- has been discussed by different authors often in relation to factors such as
the use of paper, which lowered production costs. 104 R. W. Southern wrote in this regard, “A
comparison of the literary catalogues of the West with the list of books available to Moslem
scholars makes a painful impression on a Western mind, and the contrast came as a bombshell to
th
the Latin scholars of the 12 century, who first had their eyes opened to the difference.” 105
Translations made in the Iberian Peninsula are a rich source of information on what Arabic
books circulated in al-Andalus; 106 in many cases they reveal the presence of works that are not
recorded in other sources. We have not included this information in HATA, because it is of a
specific type and is very laborious to compile. But if it is ignored, any study of intellectual
activity in al-Andalus will be incomplete. Here we point to the importance of other projects such
as Aquinas and the Arabs, 107 Islamolatina, 108 Rational Sciences in Islam 109 and Speculum
Arabicum. 110
Attempts have been made to offer a panoramic or general view of intellectual activity in
al-Andalus. Here the research of Dominique Urvoy occupies a prominent place: he was the first
104 J. M. Bloom, Paper Before Print: the History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2001), which contains a section on al-Andalus and the Islamic West.
105 R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, MA, 1962), p. 9; cited in J. T. Monroe,
Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship: Sixteenth Century to the Present (Leiden: Brill, 1970), p. 140 note 4.
106 See overviews in J. M. Millás Vallicrosa, Nuevas aportaciones para el estudio de la transmisión de la ciencia a
Europa a través de España (Barcelona: Real Acaemia de Buenas Letras, 1943); J. Vernet, “Les traductions
scientifiques dans l’Espagne du Xe siècle,” Les Cahiers de Tunisie, 18 (1970), pp. 47-59; C. Burnett, “The
Translating Activity in Medieval Spain,” in S. Kh. al-Jayyusi, The Legacy of Muslim Spain (Leiden, 1992), pp.
1036-58; J. Martínez Gázquez, “Las traducciones arabo-latinas en Murcia,” Murgetana, 96 (Murcia: Academia
Alfonso X el Sabio, 1997), pp. 55-62; J. Puig, “The Transmission and Reception of Arabic Philosophy in Christian
Spain (until 1200),” in C. E. Butterworth and B. A. Kessel (eds.), The Introduction of Arabic Philosophy into
Europe, Leiden: Brill, 1994, pp. 7-30.
107 http://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Aquinas_and_the_Arabs/Aquinas_%26_the_Arabs.html
108 http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/islamolatina/ . Closely related is the Bibliotheca Islamo-Christiana Latina (BICL),
http://www.sankt-georgen.de/hugo/forschung/spanien_bicl.php
109 http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/index.html
110 http://www.uclouvain.be/419390.html
References section so as to establish the exact import of the information recorded. Reference
works such as HATA are enormously useful, but if their users fail to consult the sources they run
the risk of confusing the information deduced in the reference work with the original text.
The works documented in HATA thanks to the information found in the sources consulted
are 13,730 (see the introduction to the Index of works written and transmitted in al-Andalus).
The abundance of books that circulated in medieval Islamic societies - noteworthy especially in
the early centuries- has been discussed by different authors often in relation to factors such as
the use of paper, which lowered production costs. 104 R. W. Southern wrote in this regard, “A
comparison of the literary catalogues of the West with the list of books available to Moslem
scholars makes a painful impression on a Western mind, and the contrast came as a bombshell to
th
the Latin scholars of the 12 century, who first had their eyes opened to the difference.” 105
Translations made in the Iberian Peninsula are a rich source of information on what Arabic
books circulated in al-Andalus; 106 in many cases they reveal the presence of works that are not
recorded in other sources. We have not included this information in HATA, because it is of a
specific type and is very laborious to compile. But if it is ignored, any study of intellectual
activity in al-Andalus will be incomplete. Here we point to the importance of other projects such
as Aquinas and the Arabs, 107 Islamolatina, 108 Rational Sciences in Islam 109 and Speculum
Arabicum. 110
Attempts have been made to offer a panoramic or general view of intellectual activity in
al-Andalus. Here the research of Dominique Urvoy occupies a prominent place: he was the first
104 J. M. Bloom, Paper Before Print: the History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2001), which contains a section on al-Andalus and the Islamic West.
105 R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, MA, 1962), p. 9; cited in J. T. Monroe,
Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship: Sixteenth Century to the Present (Leiden: Brill, 1970), p. 140 note 4.
106 See overviews in J. M. Millás Vallicrosa, Nuevas aportaciones para el estudio de la transmisión de la ciencia a
Europa a través de España (Barcelona: Real Acaemia de Buenas Letras, 1943); J. Vernet, “Les traductions
scientifiques dans l’Espagne du Xe siècle,” Les Cahiers de Tunisie, 18 (1970), pp. 47-59; C. Burnett, “The
Translating Activity in Medieval Spain,” in S. Kh. al-Jayyusi, The Legacy of Muslim Spain (Leiden, 1992), pp.
1036-58; J. Martínez Gázquez, “Las traducciones arabo-latinas en Murcia,” Murgetana, 96 (Murcia: Academia
Alfonso X el Sabio, 1997), pp. 55-62; J. Puig, “The Transmission and Reception of Arabic Philosophy in Christian
Spain (until 1200),” in C. E. Butterworth and B. A. Kessel (eds.), The Introduction of Arabic Philosophy into
Europe, Leiden: Brill, 1994, pp. 7-30.
107 http://academic.mu.edu/taylorr/Aquinas_and_the_Arabs/Aquinas_%26_the_Arabs.html
108 http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/islamolatina/ . Closely related is the Bibliotheca Islamo-Christiana Latina (BICL),
http://www.sankt-georgen.de/hugo/forschung/spanien_bicl.php
109 http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/index.html
110 http://www.uclouvain.be/419390.html
