서구 오리엔탈리스트들의 이슬람세계에 대한 이미지 변천 연구 : 중세 안달루스의 번역운동을 중심으로

Abstract

This article aims to explain the Arabic-Latin translation movement in Medieval Europe, which has reached its zenith at Andalusia in the 12th century, and its influence on the formation and development of early orientalism in the western society. This article is also meant to complement Edward Said’s Orientalism, which has been published in 1978. In this book, Said describes convincingly the ideological implications of representations of the Orient in nineteenth- and twentieth- century western culture. “Orientalism”, for Said, is “Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”. Said’s opinion has been welcomed by many scholars, especially from the third world. At the same time, however, his ideas have been criticized also, because they emphasized only the negative features of orientalism. If we look back on the history of relationship between Europe and the Muslim world, it takes no long time to find that there were never any clear, monolithic views of Europeans to the Muslim world. Individual Europeans, depending on their own experience with Muslims, their interest, and preoccupations, portrayed Islam in very different ways. In other words, the positive form of orientalism has co-existed with the negative one side by side. And we can prove it in the case of translation movement in Andalusia. Andalusia, which is located in south of Spain, has been conquered by the Umayyd Caliphate in 711. Its culture was deeply influenced by Muslim rulers during the Middle Ages until 1492. During that period, Andalusia was a battlefield between Christian Europe and Muslim world but it was also a place of important cultural exchange. In Andalusia Muslim and Jewish scholars played a major part in reviving and contributing to Greek astronomy, medicine, philosophy and mathematics. The twelfth century, to the Europeans, was the great period of translation and absorption from the Muslim world. Much of the knowledge available in Europe during the 1100-1150 was obtained by translations form foreign languages, chiefly Arabic. The center of translation for most of the period was in Andalusia, mostly in Cordova, Toledo, and Seville. Perhaps the most important work in this period was the Latin translation of the Quran (1147) by Robert of Ketton. Besides it, Medieval Christian thought owed a great debt to Muslim theologians and philosophers, especially Avicenna(Ibn Sina) and Averroes(Ibn Rushd) who were respected as the transmitters of Aristotle. As a result of the translation movement, Europeans could at least a scholarly ground to understand the Muslim world. Of course, it doesn’t mean that Europeans didn’t have any idea about the Muslim world before that time. But most of their earlier ideas lacked any authentic grounds. For example, Chanson de Roland, one of the most famous chansons de geste during the Medieval Ages, portrayed Saracens as worshipper of idols like Apollyon, Tervagant, and Mahomet. But by dint of the many translations of Arabic manuscripts, Europeans could have chances to discuss the Muslim world from scholarly points of view. In 12-13th centuries European orientalists were divided into two groups. First, negative orientalists, such as Franciscans and Dominicans, who regarded Muslims as the followers of a false prophet. They thought that it was their duty to deliver true messages of Christianity to the Muslim world. Second, positive orientalists, such as Latin Averroists, who respected Muslim scholars as the transmitters of Greek science and philosophy. They thought that the Muslim world was the land of their teachers where they should go to learn new knowledges.