The Story of the Transmission of Knowledge From the Islamic World to Europe by Nazeem Goolam

In this book the reader is taken on an adventure through time, through an experience of art and architecture, geography and a slight measure of poetry. Most exciting of all, however, it is a journey of travel to many great and wonderful cities of the world some 1000 years ago. This book is also about the fundamental human ideas of intellect, knowledge, faith, wisdom and truth. Indeed, the search for truth can never be exhausted.

It contains beautiful colour photographs and illustrations of a number of medieval cities as well as great libraries which the author was fortunate and privileged enough to visit during his periods of research. Since the story of how Greek philosophy was discovered by the Muslims and then transmitted by them to the West provides one of the most ‘fascinating chapters’ in the book of mankind’s progress from Ignorance to Enlightenment and since this ‘chapter’ is as vast the oceans of our planet, the author focuses on the contribution of Islamic Spain in the transmission process, more particularly on Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and how their philosophies influenced St. Thomas Aquinas and Rene Descartes respectively. Ultimately the author hopes that the book will contribute to greater cross-cultural understanding and dialogue amongst civilisations.

The book is written with a wide readership in mind, including not only those interested in philosophy, theology, law, history and travel but to the enquiring mind in general.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Through his study of law at the University of Cape Town, Hafiz Professor Nazeem Goolam became interested in and passionate about Higher Law, Divine Law. This led him to pursue the memorisation of the Holy Qur’an (after completing his LLB degree) and thereafter studies in Islamic law and later also Islamic legal philosophy, in particular the influence and impact of Islamic legal philosophy on Western legal thinking. He holds the degrees of BA LLB (UCT), MCL (Master of Comparative Law) and PhD (both from International Islamic University Malaysia). His research interests include comparative human rights, legal pluralism, medical law and ethics and dialogue amongst civilisations. He lives in Pretoria, South Africa.

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