Buddhists, Hellenists, Muslims, and the Origin of Science
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Bart Dessein
Abstract
In this paper, I discuss the likelihood that in fourth-century BCE Central Asia Buddhists and Hellenists may have met, and their philosophical systems and argumentative techniques may have influenced each other. In order to formulate an answer to this question, I outline the origins of Buddhism as a tradition of rational inquiry and discuss the possibility of a Buddho-Greek encounter against the background of accepted knowledge that Buddhism ventured into the Central Asian region only at a later date. Hereafter, I address the possible role that late eighth-century Muslim thinkers in Central Asia may have played in transmitting the Buddhist argumentative technique to Europe, where it became the standard instrument with which, from around 1200, scientific texts were drawn.
Abstract
In this paper, I discuss the likelihood that in fourth-century BCE Central Asia Buddhists and Hellenists may have met, and their philosophical systems and argumentative techniques may have influenced each other. In order to formulate an answer to this question, I outline the origins of Buddhism as a tradition of rational inquiry and discuss the possibility of a Buddho-Greek encounter against the background of accepted knowledge that Buddhism ventured into the Central Asian region only at a later date. Hereafter, I address the possible role that late eighth-century Muslim thinkers in Central Asia may have played in transmitting the Buddhist argumentative technique to Europe, where it became the standard instrument with which, from around 1200, scientific texts were drawn.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction: Situating the Encounter between Buddhist and Muslim Communities in South Asia 1
- The Power of the Islamic Sword in Narrating the Death of Indian Buddhism 14
- Reassessing the Muslim Attacks and the Decline of Buddhist Monasteries in the Thirteenth Century Magadha 48
- The Narratives on the Bāmiyān Buddhist Remains in the Islamic Period 75
- Ibn Baṭṭūṭa’s Buddhists: Monuments, Memory, and the Materiality of Travel 97
- Buddhism and Islam in Kashmir as Represented by Rājataraṅgiṇī Authors 128
- The Avatāra in Medieval South Asian Contexts: Dynamic Translation Across Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic Traditions in the Ghaznavid Period 161
- Buddhists, Hellenists, Muslims, and the Origin of Science 177
- Medieval Endowment Cultures in Western India: Buddhist and Muslim Encounters – Some Preliminary Observations 203
- List of Contributors 219
- Index 220
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction: Situating the Encounter between Buddhist and Muslim Communities in South Asia 1
- The Power of the Islamic Sword in Narrating the Death of Indian Buddhism 14
- Reassessing the Muslim Attacks and the Decline of Buddhist Monasteries in the Thirteenth Century Magadha 48
- The Narratives on the Bāmiyān Buddhist Remains in the Islamic Period 75
- Ibn Baṭṭūṭa’s Buddhists: Monuments, Memory, and the Materiality of Travel 97
- Buddhism and Islam in Kashmir as Represented by Rājataraṅgiṇī Authors 128
- The Avatāra in Medieval South Asian Contexts: Dynamic Translation Across Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic Traditions in the Ghaznavid Period 161
- Buddhists, Hellenists, Muslims, and the Origin of Science 177
- Medieval Endowment Cultures in Western India: Buddhist and Muslim Encounters – Some Preliminary Observations 203
- List of Contributors 219
- Index 220
