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> The complete Iliad and Odyssey weren't rediscovered from Islamic libraries, but they were carried west by Byzantine scholars

To expand, the 8th century Irish were still copying Greek texts and brought them to Germany (Schottenklöster). Southern Italy used Greek through the 12th century, with the Sicilian Norman kings' courts composing a lot of Greek poetry.

Islamic civilizations cared little for the literary heritage of Greece, unfortunately. (Once upon a time, I dug deeply trying to learn how they handled engagement with Paganism. Answer: They didn't, because they didn't read nor translate Homer at al.) They focused on mathematics and science, their achievements came into Europe through Spain (e.g. the Toledo school) around the 12th century, thus Latinized names like Avicenna, Averroes...

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/multilingualism-in-...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20503890



An essential detail of the story: The Islamic world was the only source of Aristotle, whose writings were lost to Europe through the Middle Ages.




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