Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/290

Rh 270 A E A A E A sophy. Speculation fell on irreligious paths. In many cases the heretical movement was clue less to foreign example than to the indwelling tendencies of the dominant school of Realism. But it is not less certain that the very con siderable freedom of the Arabians from theological bias served indirectly to intensify the prevailing protest against Sacerdotalism, and prepared the time when philosophy shook off its ecclesiastical vestments. In the hurry of first terror, the church struck Aristotle with the anathema launched against innovations in philosophy. The pro vincial council of Paris in 1209, which condemned Amal- ricus and his followers, as well as David of Dinant s works, forbade the study of Aristotle s Natural Philosophy, and the Commentaries. In 1215 the same prohibition was repeated, specifying the Metaphysics and Physics, and the Commentaries by the Spaniard Mauritius (i.e., probably Averroes). Meanwhile Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, accepting the exegetical services of the Arabians, did their best to controvert the obnoxious doctrine of the Intellect, and to defend the orthodoxy of Aristotle against the unholy glosses of infidels. But it is doubtful whether even they kept as pure from the infection of illegitimate doctrine as they supposed. The tide meanwhile flowed in stronger and stronger. In 1270 Stephen Tempier, bishop of Paris, supported by an assembly of theologians, anathe matised thirteen propositions bearing the stamp of Arabian authorship; but in 1277 the same views and others more directly offensive to Christians and theologians had to be censured again. Raymond Lully, in a dialogue with an infidel thinker, broke a lance in support of the orthodox doctrine, and carried on a crusade against the Arabians in every university ; and a disciple of Thomas Aquinas drew up a list (De Erroribus philosopJiorutn) of the several delusions and errors of each of the thinkers from Alkindius to Averroes. Strong in their conviction of the truth of Aristotelianism, the Arabians carried out their logical results in the theological field, and made the distinction of necessary and possible, of form and matter, the basis of con clusions in the most momentous questions. They refused to accept the doctrine of creation because it conflicted with the explanation of forms as the necessary evolution of matter. They denied the particular providence of God, because knowledge in the divine sphere did not descend to singulars. They excluded the Deity from all direct action upon the world, and substituted for a cosmic principle the active intellect, thus holding a form of Pantheism. But all did not go the same length in their divergence from the popular creed. The half-legendary accounts which attribute the intro duction of Arabian science to Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II. , to Constantinus Africanus, and to Adelard of Bath, if they have any value, refer mainly to medical science and mathematics. It was not till about the middle of the 12th century that under the patronage of Raymond, archbishop of Seville, a society of translators, with the archdeacon Dominicus Gundisalvi at their head, produced Latin versions of the Commentaries of Avicenna and Algazel, of the Fons Vitce of Avicebron, and of several Aristotelian treatises. The working translators were con verted Jews, the best known among them being Joannes Avendeath. With this effort began the chief translating epoch for Arabic works. Avicenna s Canon of Medicine was first translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona (d. 1187), to whom versions of other medical and astro nomical works are due. The movement towards intro ducing Arabian science and philosophy into Europe, however, culminated under the patronage of the Emperor Frederick II. (1212-1250). Partly from superiority to the narrowness of his age, and partly in the interest of his struggle with the Papacy, this Malleus ecclesicc Romance drew to his court those savants whose pur suits were discouraged by the church, and especially students in the forbidden lore of the Arabians. He is said to have pensioned Jews for purposes of trans lation. One of the scholars to whom Frederick gave a welcome was Michael Scot, the first translator of Aver roes. Scot had sojourned at Toledo about 1217, and had accomplished the versions of several astronomical and physical treatises, mainly, if we believe Roger Bacon, by the labours of a Jew named Andrew. But Bacon is appa rently hypercritical in his estimate of the translators from the Arabic. Another protegd of Frederick s was Hermann the German (Alemannus), who, between the years 1243 and 1256, translated amongst other things a paraphrase of Al-Farabi on the Rhetoric, and of Averroes on the Poetics and Ethics of Aristotle. Jewish scholars held an honour able place in transmitting the Arabian commentators to the schoolmen. It was amongst them, especially in Maimo- nides, that Aristotelianism found refuge after the light of pliilosophy was extinguished in Islam ; and the Jewish family of the Ben-Tibbon were mainly instrumental in making Averroes known to southern France. See Hunk, Melanges de philosophic, juive et arabc, Paris, 1859 ; Eenan, De Philosophia Peripateticn apud Syros, 1852, and Averroes et I Avcrroismc, Paris, 3 me ed., 1S67 ; Jourdain, Re cherches critiques sur Tage et Vorigine dcs tradudions Latinos d Arislote, Paris, 2 mo ed., 1843 ; Haureau, Philosophic Scolastiquc, Paris, l ro ed., 1850, tome i. p. 359 ; Vacherot, EcoU d Alexandria, l re ed., 1851, tomo iii. p. 85 ; Abulfaragius, Historia Dynastiarum, cd. Pococke, Oxon., 1663 ; Sclimblders, Documenta philosoi)hiae Aralum, Bonn, 1836, and Essai sur les icolcs philosophiqucs chcz les Arabcs, Paris, 1842 ; Shahrastani, History of Religious and Philosophical Sects, in Ger man translation by Haarbriicker, Halle, 1850-51 ; Dieterici, Strcit zwischcn Mensch und Thier, Berlin, 1858, and his other translations of the Encyclopaedia of the Brothers of Sincerity, 1861 to 1872 ; Prantl, Geschichte dcr LogiTc, 1861, vol. ii. pp. 297-396 ; and the His tories of Philosophy, c.j., Erdmann s, vol. i. (2d ed.), p. 295, and Ueberweg s, vol. i., English translation, London, 1872. (W. W.) ARABIAN SEA, the name applied to the large sheet of water, really a portion of the Indian Ocean, bounded .on the E. by Hindustan, on the N. by Beloochistan, on the W. by Arabia and the Gulf of Aden, and on the S. by an imaginary line stretching between Cape Guardafui, in the N.E. of Africa, and Cape Comorin in Hindustan. This is the Arabian Sea proper, biit under the name Gulf of Aden it penetrates between Africa and Arabia, connecting itself with the Red Sea through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb ; while on the N.W. the Gulf of Oman, with its continuation the Persian Gulf, separates Arabia from Beloochistan and Persia. Besides these larger ramifications, there are the Gulfs of Cambay and Cutch in the N.W. of India. An interest and importance belong to this sea as forming part of the chief highway between Britain and India. The islands it contains are few and insignificant, the chief being Socotra and the Laccadives. The Arabian Sea is more or less coextensive with the Mare Erythrceum or Rubrum of the ancients, although these terms seem to have been applied with considerable vagueness. ARABIC!, a sect originating about the beginning of the 3d century, which is mentioned by Augustine (De Hceres., c. 83), and called also Thnetopsychitoe by Johannes Damascenus (De Hceres., c. 99). Its founder is unknown, and its history brief and obscure. Its distinctive doctrine was a form of Christian materialism, showing itself in the belief that the soul perished and was restored to life along with the body. According to Eusebius, the Arabici were convinced of their error by Origen, and renounced it at a council held about 246 A.D. ARACATI, a town of Brazil, in the province of Ceara, situated on the Jaguaribe, about 10 miles from its mouth. It is well built, and carries on a considerable export trade in hides and cotton. The population is stated at 26,000.