أرشيف ملتقى أهل التفسير

تمكنهم من النجاح فى دراسة علمى الفلك والهندسة والتوسع فيهما. وقد صنفوا كتبا فى الرحلات والتاريخ، ولا سيما كتب الطب، وعُنُوا عناية كبيرة ببعض علوم تافهة، إلا أنها كانت أكثر ذيوعا وانتشارا كالتنجيم والكيمياء. وكان لمجهود هؤلاء العلماء الأثر الأكبر فى نهضة أوروبا، التى كانت غارقة فى بحار الجهالة فى العصور الوسطى حيث أيقظتهم من غفلتهم وأنارت لهم سبل علومهم التى كانوا أغفلوها، وهى علوم اليونان وفلسفتها" (د. أحمد فريد رفاعى/ عصر المأمون/ ط2/ مطبعة دار الكتب المصرية/ 1346هـ- 1927م/ 1/ 399 - 400).

و أصل هذا الكلام موجود فى كتاب المستشرق البريطانى وليم موير: " THE CALIPHATE: ITS RISE, DECLINE, AND FALL FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES"، وهو متاح لمن يريد مراجعته بنفسه فى الفصل السادس والستين المخصص للحديث عن المأمون وعصره تحت عنوان فرعى هو: " Development of science and literature". وهذا نصه بالإنجليزية: " His reign was without question a glorious one, ushering in, as it did, the palmy days of literature, science, and philosophy. He was himself addicted to poetry... At his Court were munificently entertained men of science and letters, poets, physicians, and philosophers. Besides philo­logists and grammarians, it was the age also of the collectors of tradition, such as the great Bokhari, and of historians, as Al-Wakidi to whom we owe the most trustworthy biography of the Prophet; and of Doctors of the law, as Esh-Shafi'i and Ibn Hanbal. Moreover Jews and Christians were welcome at the Court not only for their own learning, but as versed both in the Arabic tongue and in the language and literature of Greece. The Monasteries of Syria, Asia Minor, and the Levant were ransacked for manuscripts of the Greek philosophers, historians, and geometricians. These, with vast labour and erudition, were translated into Arabic; and thus the learning of the West was made accessible to the Muslim world. Nor were their efforts confined to the reproduction of ancient works; in some directions they extended also to original research. An Observatory, reared on the plain of Tadmor, furnished materials for the successful study of astronomy and geometry. In other walks of literature, we have books of Travel and History, and, above all, of Medicine; while much attention was paid to the less practical, but more popular, branches of astrology and alchemy. It was through the labours of these learned men that the nations of Europe, then shrouded in the darkness of the Middle Ages, became again acquainted with their own proper but forgotten patrimony of Grecian science and philosophy".

وفى مادة " EGYPT" من " The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia" نقرأ أن مصر بعدما وصلت إلى أشد درجات الافتقار أصبحت فى ظل الحكم العباسى أغنى بلد حول البحر المتوسط. وبطبيعة الحال كان المأمون والمعتصم، الذى تصور الكاتبة عصره هو أيضا بصورة قاتمة، خليفتين عباسيين. أى أن مصر فى عصريهما كانت بلدا مزدهرا. وهذا هو النص فى لغته الإنجليزية: " By about 800 AD a strong government was established from Bagdad, and Egypt rapidly advanced. In place of being the most impoverished country it became the richest land of the Mediterranean. The great period of medieval Egypt was under the guidance of the Mesopotamian civilization, 800-969 AD".

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