Article,
The Historical Context of Arabic Translation, Learning, and the Libraries of Medieval Andalusia
Library History, 18 (2): 73--87 (July 2002)
DOI: 10.1179/lib.2002.18.2.73
Abstract
Examines the convergence of technological, political and inter-cultural factors which led to the development of a rich literary culture and strong library institutions in Moslem-occupied Spain between A.D. 800–1150. Attention, in particular, is paid to the movement of scholarly texts from centres in Greece, through Syria and Persia, and their eventual migration into the Arabic scholarly canon by ninth to tenth centuries. This, in turn, helped form many of the strategies Moslem librarians used for organizing their collections, whose materials had grown exponentially with the Arabs early introduction to paper-making in the mid-eighth century. Spain under Arab rule would later benefit from these early developments, as well as act as a vital conduit for the book arts into medieval Europe.
