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Title: Warriors of the Cloisters

Subtitle: The Central Asian Origins of Science in the Medieval World

Author: Christopher I. Beckwith

Narrator: Doug Kaye

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-03-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

Warriors of the Cloisters tells how key cultural innovations from Central Asia revolutionized medieval Europe and gave rise to the culture of science in the West. Medieval scholars rarely performed scientific experiments, but instead contested issues in natural science, philosophy, and theology using the recursive argument method. This highly distinctive and unusual method of disputation was a core feature of medieval science, the predecessor of modern science. We know that the foundations of science were imported to Western Europe from the Islamic world, but until now the origins of such key elements of Islamic culture have been a mystery.

In this provocative book, Christopher I. Beckwith traces how the recursive argument method was first developed by Buddhist scholars and was spread by them throughout ancient Central Asia. He shows how the method was adopted by Islamic Central Asian natural philosophers - most importantly by Avicenna, one of the most brilliant of all medieval thinkers - and transmitted to the West when Avicenna's works were translated into Latin in Spain in the 12th century by the Jewish philosopher Ibn Da'ud and others.

During the same period the institution of the college was also borrowed from the Islamic world. The college was where most of the disputations were held, and became the most important component of medieval Europe's newly formed universities. As Beckwith demonstrates, the Islamic college also originated in Buddhist Central Asia.

Using in-depth analysis of ancient Buddhist, Classical Arabic, and Medieval Latin writings, Warriors of the Cloisters transforms our understanding of the origins of medieval scientific culture.

Members Reviews:

Thought-provoking hypothesis on the origin of European science

Many scholars of Asia must have wondered, over the years, why so many leaders of early medieval thought and science came from Central Asia--specifically, the area from what is now northeast Iran to far west China. That area, especially from around 600 to 1100 CE, produced dozens of brilliant individuals, as shown recently by Frederick Starr in a major work, LOST ENLIGHTENMENT. For a while Central Asia was the world leader in intellectual pursuits and progress.

From Christopher Beckwith's work, we can see that this explosion of innovation also had a major role in launching science in Europe. Basically, early Buddhists in Central Asia invented the vihara, a school for training religious scholars. This was adopted and adapted by the Muslims, becoming what in Arabic was called the madrasa. It spread to Europe in the 1100s, becoming the college--and fusing with existing guilds of intellectuals to become the university. Meanwhile, the Buddhists had also invented the recursive-argument technique of debating and demonstrating points. This is a technical matter, but suffice it to say that it lies behind modern scientific exposition of ideas and, also, certain common debating practices.

These two innovations, combined with the explosion of translations from Greek and Arabic that appeared at that time, drove a spectacular change in European thought: from fairly mindless theology to philosophy, science, and other innovative and intensive intellectual modes. Beckwith compares it with the effect of western thought and customs on Japan in the Meiji era.