Digitizing the classics
Long before the Italians rediscovered original Greek sources during the Renaissance, Arab scholars recognized the importance of ancient science and philosophy and began translating precious writings into Arabic. Now, Classics Professor Mark Schiefsky wants to transform those ancient Greek texts and their Arabic translations into an open-access digital corpus that could provide important insight into the development of science in the classical world. During the Abbasid period, which began in the mid-eighth century, Islamic caliphs started sponsoring the translation of ancient Greek and Roman texts. While Arabs had their own literary traditions and did not systematically translate Greek literature, they were interested in Greco-Roman mathematical and medical treatises and philosophical writings. “People recognized that Greek texts contained a lot of knowledge that superseded the knowledge available in the Arab world at that time, and realized that it would be fruitful to adopt that knowledge,” Schiefsky explained. He added that the decision to translate...