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Not only did the Greeks take in knowledge from Mesopotamia and Egypt, but the origins of Greek philosophy are in their colonies in Asia Minor. Their alphabet came from the Phoenicians, their mathematics from the Egyptians, their rudimentary astronomy from Babylon. There was a flowering at Athens, to be sure, but then came Alexander, who conquered to the East. Subsequently, the principle domains of the Hellenistic world were in Asia Minor and Egypt, and the lingua franca in Palestine and Syria and Alexandria was Koine Greek. It was in that world that the Septuagint became a major source of comfort to many who were not born Jews, and it was in that world that Christianity first flourished. That world finally became the Byzantine Empire, and survived until the 15th century. It was from Byzantium that the Muslim world learned its Greek, and Al- farabi and Avicenna commented on Aristotle and Plato, and it was from the Arabs that the first stirring of a Greek revival came, which is why Aquinas speaks with such respect of them, and Maimonides, and others of that world. However, it was not until Constantinople fell to the Turks that scholars fled in quantity to Italy, and brought their books. It was that catastrophe that led to the Renaissance. So, yes, the Greek contribution had everything to do with the Middle East, and the religions that sprang from Moses: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, each helped to keep and advance it at different times. Actually, I never claimed that Western civilization was "hermetically sealed": it grabbed what it could. China was the Hermit Kingdom; Japan limited foreigners to Nagasaki, and eventually kicked them out and crucified the native Christian converts; they were "hermetically sealed" for the longest time. We learned from others, but eventually superceded them significantly...... |
