The Scientist Pope | Nancy Marie Brown

CC: 🇺🇸 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇵🇹 🇩🇪 🇹🇷 عربي
Did you know that the Pope in the year 1000 was the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day? Did you also know that he was the first mathematician in the Christian West known to use Arabic numerals? In this video, Nancy Marie Brown, author of The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages, explores a parallel universe, an alternate history of the Middle Ages, in which science was central to the lives of caliphs, bishops, kings, and even popes.
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The Scientist Pope:
I was introduced to The Scientist Pope through an act of grace. Writing a book about an adventurous Viking woman, I made an imaginary pilgrimage to Rome just after the year 1000. Wondering which pope Gudrid the Far-Traveler may have met, I discovered Gerbert of Aurillac, who served as Pope Sylvester II from 999 to 1003.
I was astonished. Nothing in my years of reading about the Middle Ages had led me to suspect that the pope in the year 1000 was the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day.
Nor was his science just a sidelight. According to a chronicler who knew him, he rose from humble beginnings to the highest office in the Christian Church “on account of his scientific knowledge.”
I felt as if I had stumbled into a parallel universe, an alternate history of the Middle Ages. So I began writing another book, to share the story of The Scientist Pope.
A professor at a cathedral school in France for most of his career, Gerbert of Aurillac was the first Christian known to teach math using Arabic numerals.
He devised an abacus, or counting board, that mimics the algorithms we use today for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. It has been called the first computer.
Gerbert made sighting tubes to observe the stars and constructed globes on which their positions were recorded relative to lines of celestial longitude and latitude.
He (or perhaps his best student) wrote a handbook on the astrolabe, an instrument for telling time and making measurements by the sun or stars. You could even use it to calculate the circumference of the earth, which Gerbert knew very well was not flat like a disc but round like an apple.
All of this science Gerbert learned as a youth living on the border of Islamic Spain-then an extraordinarily tolerant culture in which learning was prized.
In the caliph’s library in Cordoba were 40,000 books; Gerbert’s French monastery owned fewer than 400. Many of the caliph’s books came from Baghdad, known for its House of Wisdom, where for 200 years works of mathematics, astronomy, physics, and medicine had been translated from Greek and Persian and Hindu and further developed by Islamic scholars.
In the world Gerbert knew, Arabic was the language of science. Much of what Gerbert taught at his cathedral school in France, for example, was derived from the works of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a Persian scientist in Baghdad’s House of Wisdom.
In the early 800s, al-Khwarizmi wrote a book on what we call Arabic numerals: He named it “On Indian Calculation,” well aware that the symbols 1 to 9, and the place-value system that makes arithmetic easy, originally came from India.
Modern algebra comes from a second book by al-Khwarizmi: You can thank him for quadratic equations. Al-Khwarizmi’s own name gives us the word algorithm, without which no computer scientist could function.
His third book is a set of star tables, in which he uses trigonometry, spherical astronomy, and other advanced math to calculate the changing positions in the heavens of the planets, sun, and moon.
Finally, al-Khwarizmi wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, which was the most important scientific instrument until Galileo invented the telescope in the 17th century.
Al-Khwarizmi’s books quickly reached Islamic Spain-perhaps even before his death in about 850. There, during Gerbert’s lifetime, a hundred years later, Al-Khwarizmi’s algebra and his treatise on the astrolabe were among the science books translated from Arabic into Latin through the combined efforts of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars.
Many of these scholars were churchmen, and some of them became Gerbert’s lifelong friends. One of these is Miro Bonfill, the Bishop of Girona. In one of Miro’s books, he writes, “What follows now has been translated by the wisest scholar among the Arabs, as he was instructing me.”
...

[@theballroom98yearsago51]

Arabic was the English of the Middle Ages,it was said that the king of France used to write his name in Arabic to show how educated he was

[@Real-1]

Source ?

[@phierdling9144]

Arabic is one of the 5 world languages, the others are english, french, Spanish and Chinese (or mandarin)

[@alw6912]

Arabic was never a lingua franca in the Latin or Greek West in the Middle Ages. Arabic was the lingua franca in the Islamic realms. But many learned men in the West could read Arabic just like many scholars in the East read Latin and Greek.

[@tomerzafon4]

​@@Real-1 Source that the illuminati "controls" the world?

[@maxb9315]

Arabic numbers, it should be noted, are in fact Hindu in origin.

[@dr.strange123]

Can I hug you.... You are spreading LOVE and Knowledge and and awareness. My prayers are with you.

[@TahaWasiq]

A nice and balanced coverage of both Christianity and Islam. Also the Animations look very good. Keep up the Good Work.

[@rahathasan92]

Agree with you I am a Muslim and you

[@rahathasan92]

This KZbin channel creator is Muslim ??????

[@rahathasan92]

I don't understand some things because I not fully perfect in English 😴😢😢😢

[@Abdullah_JG]

@@rahathasan92 فيه ترجمة عربية ترا.

[@ahlisorga5320]

@@rahathasan92 this chanel promoting empathy and understanding through religions and cultures. So not only islam but also all religions

[@Wolfboy_109]

I never know that Al-Khwarizmi influence really reach that far in Christian world, we DID learn something new every day

[@sevinjhidayat2977]

Al-Khwarizmi was not arab or persian. He was of turkic origin. He was born in Khiva, Turkmens and Uzbeks land. His another nickname was "magician".

[@jurhumal-maskari3622]

Non-neutral teaching is one factor that spread peace. i am Arabic and thank you for this video.

[@mdtauseefzubayeramin9638]

There was a mistake in the captions at 3:32, where the narrator said "early *800s* ", but it was written in the captions as "early *1800s* ". Just to let you guys know. Peace

[@EmirSteinCenter]

Thank you! Fixed.

[@nuqmanzubir8376]

This is so beautiful. I almost cried. Their passion for learning and innovation is what brought them together. Their contribution is priceless.

[@saudkm7698]

When Spaniards conquered Andalus they burned thousands of books beleiving them to be witch craft! And In Baghdad the Mongol army threw massive numbers of books into the river Euphrates, so much that the river waters color changed due to ink. What was saved from those books contributed to more than 90% of the knowledge we have today. Imagine how our world would've been today if all that knowledge was saved.

[@adammuhd465]

Damn Mongols and Spaniards how could they.

[@sharjeelhumayun2691]

May God/Allah bless you. Thanks.

[@brianfergus839]

Great stuff!! The Abacus and the Cross is a fantastic book, an amazing journey to another world - thank you Nancy for revealing our forgotten history!

[@yasuharaniwa9870]

Thank you. I really love this channel. The contents are always amazing...

[@adamelovalis9799]

These are all fantastic videos! Thankyou! I did not know about the Scientist Pope, or the Islamic part of the history of mathematics.

[@EmirSteinCenter]

Thank you! Please share with family and friends.

[@azamatkenjaev8688]

Thank you for sharing with us Mrs. Mary and Emir Stein!

[@hamzamohamad6666]

The graphics and the editing of this video is amazing

[@muhammadhamzawarraich1630]

Salam brother

[@zaraFORSYTH]

Thank you for this!

[@ibo6455]

Finally a new video of ESC. God bless you guys. ☺️

[@thomasbarca9297]

This is amazing, I knew about Sylvester II but it’s amazing he was the first Pope to use Arabic numerals

[@mastersealzunitycodez9223]

go to Malaysia and you can feel a little bit what peace between religion is.. Thanks for the video.. as usual your video is great.

[@nazeemanuar2710]

Have u been there?

[@Zaid-vs2zz]

@Ilyass ELK im moroccan aswell but thats "sadly" not true. Im not intending to cause unrest, nor any political discussion. Morocco has 99% sunni muslims. Throughout history we enjoyed great diversity and tolerance in Morocco and the arab(in this case also berber) world. Although christian presence was never really significant after the reconquista the jewish population was indeed very large and influencial (not in a bad way). After the (unjust) creation of Israel many sadly went to Israel and the moroccan jewish population slowly vanished. Today not much of the past diversity is left although morocco is very customized to fit tourists which in my opinion takes away a lot of the authenticity and makes it hard sometimes for tourists to cope or get by because many (in places like marrakeshs jamaa el fanaa) try to get a share. The positive side effect of this is that the regional population gets used to dealing with different people and strangers in general.

[@samli3294]

Not at all...we dont have Jews at all..and there are so many restrictions impose on Christian in the country

[@IsaacRizard]

Malaysia of today is not the best example of religious harmony.

[@haziq8924]

@@nazeemanuar2710 I'm from Malaysia so yes

[@testcricket1000]

I totally agree with the message of peace given in this video. Christian's and Muslims must be the best friends as Islam is the only non-Christian religion that makes it an article of faith for its followers to believe in Jesus peace be upon him ❤🌹😍

[@moulay5765]

#Dr.ZakirNaik

[@rahathasan92]

Totally agree ,,,we want peace

[@mmnyako]

This is beautiful... I got goosebumps watching this!

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I am Muslim and I really love this channel, it makes me learn more about the Abrahamic family. love for u and Christianity ... keep up the good work ❤

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I'm a subscriber from Philippines💕💞💕💞💕

[@theblackknight4295]

These videos deserves more views.

[@EmirSteinCenter]

Thank you for your comment. Please help this video get more views by sharing.

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Thank you for sharing this high quality video.👍🏻

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thank you very much for this valuable information

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You are doing great work at a difficult time on our world. Keep going and try to promote you KZbin channel because there is a lot of people who don’t know that this channel d

[@koantao8321]

All this science, the library and the knowledge were alas lost after the Reconquista in 1492. What survived was what had been translated and brought to monasteries around Europe, including major works by the Greek philosophers.

[@Zaid-vs2zz]

That wasnt the only place were that happended sadly. Just thinking about what the mongols did with baghdad, its impressive libraries and its people in 1258 makes me shiver and very sad.

[@ashokafulcrum4795]

bruh, why are we always neglecting the Italian states and their assured effort to keep Roman writings save and sound. The Same Roman writings who are the primary reason for the Renaissance in Italy.

[@syncprime987]

@@ashokafulcrum4795 the resistance in Italy was started by the Muslim scholars , also the monasteries in Rome are absolutely notorious for writing people out of history and being outright corrupt .

[@fjordhellas4077]

What a brilliant lecture! Thank you !

[@StrongVidz]

Thanks for the wonderful video

[@nooradnan7565]

Best channel , thank you

[@toueini1]

Very interesting !

[@niazahmed446]

Lucid ,balanced and graceful presentation ..

[@MuhammadJunaidAshraf]

thank you for such educational videos.

[@mr.h3737]

Wonderful content

[@acealexander9070]

An excellent video.

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AMAZING!

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I love you

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@@fcbkingmessi4664 You Are In Every Place I Go LMFAO

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I've got a good feeling about this channel. The balanced coverage of both Christianity and Islam makes me hope for a better future.

[@mohamedauff9789]

Thank you for your efforts.

[@salahelhaddad4872]

This channel is brilliant (again!!) 😂

[@FatimaZahraHassan]

Excellent!

[@mediatime1104]

Thanks for giving infor

[@arsalankhizar5390]

Allah bless u emir stein center for ur efforts of producing inter religious harmony....

[@pierrekilgoretrout3143]

Gerbert is one of my favorite historical figure of that time, but his innovations took centuries before they were adopted. I fear that humanity tody is as stubborn as in the middle ages :-(

[@mostafakhalaf]

شكرا على المحتوى الجميل .استمروا .وفقكم الله

[@rustam3855]

Спасибо большое ☺️

[@Abdullah_JG]

I will put this video in the favorite list

[@EmirSteinCenter]

Thank you! Please share the following: البابا العالم: قصة البابا الكاثوليكي الذي تعلم العلوم من المسلمين في الأندلس ونشرها في أوروبا في العصور الوسطى (تُفعل الترجمة العربية عن طريق CC) kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4vLlGNtq6dpl68

[@erykind2286]

@@EmirSteinCenter *Do more comparating between Bibles and Al Quran, please !!!* ..about : - Haman - Kings of Egypt - Jesus - Creating Universe - Afterlife - etc.

[@petermcfarlane5643]

Thank you good lady.

[@mariam123coulter5]

Amazing 😉

[@sarijoudehal-husseini289]

Interesting video that proofs the importance of the cooperation of all religions to the benefits of the mankind. Thank you for this important video.

[@zollani4363]

is there any chance of turning back😓

[@learnpashto5951]

God bless Emir-Stein Center

[@serrasonmez7912]

Could you please explain Constitution of Medina?

[@estebancorral5151]

Al-Khwarizimi was an Uzbek not Persian. Algorismus was the latinized form of his name from which we derive algebra and algorithm. Nancy mispronunciation his name even in Englidhñ

[@abrecfajardo3378]

He was Persian, the political entity named Uzbekistan didn't exist. It's like to say Julius Caesar is Italian because Rome now belongs to Italy. The original population of Uzbekistan are the Tajiks (Persians). Please read more

[@zollani4363]

thats why intentions is important so it might not splits your desires

[@Vancouver.BC.1]

Pope Sylvester II, who studied at Morocco's Al Quaraouiyine University in Fes

[@snowmoon7385]

Nice to see ...

[@omarbosaeed1538]

تجيني حرقة دم لمن اشوف التعليم اليوم في العالم العربي.

[@ayoubra8466]

ممكن شرح و الهدف من هذه لقناة

[@kurtdelosangelesmanalo.4697]

What?

[@user-cu1qt3eh2n]

و الله نفسك

[@sunroad7228]

Fast forward to 2017 - peace, tolerance, law and love of learning has given us: "Energy, like time, flows from past to future" - the arrow of Energy. Truth is a property of Physics, and if it is not discovered first in London, Sydney, Munich or Moscow, it discovered again in Baghdad.

[@sukaisnaini1843]

luar biasa. terima kasih.

[@theknightking3221]

And here we are, the Mongols invaded Baghdad and destroyed the 'house of wisdom' with all the books and knowledge and some people said they use the books to build Bridge, throwing books in river. and later the Andalus fell but the knowledge did't get destroyed and after those two big loses the Islamic World fell in almost dark ages and so on.

[@suhailyusuf8337]

Thank you so much, you have a golden heart Nancy, a very good effort for the interfaith harmony. Salam from Pakistan.

[@aprendoespanol6833]

more people need to watch this

[@erykind2286]

@Emir-Stein Center *Do more comparating between Bibles and Al Quran, please !!!* ..about : - Haman - Kings of Egypt - Jesus - Creating Universe - Afterlife - etc.

[@oneybee872]

Al-Goritma Al-Jabr Al-Safiha (water clock)

[@safatullahshaikh9576]

A beautiful balance discussion of both Christianity and Islam .

[@yousuf6382]

Al-Khwarizmi was an Uzbek-Turkic, not Persian ..

[@handsunion9202]

@Emir-Stein Center better to produce every each video in english, arabic and other languages in separate videos

[@EvilRamin]

I'm a proud Persian Muslim

[@ahmadzahirsultani8572]

❤️ Love

[@user-dv7ik9cm7d]

Thanks for your Honesty such talks and useful information will help the people to work together as one to make better life for humanity and spread love and deny hatred and racism because all humans in fact cam from the same father and mother but after the increase in their number started spreading around the world after thousands or maybe millions of years people taken the features of the place in which they live by adjusting their body with the nature and environment depending on pressure and sunshine heat and many other factors in the of this life god will collect every human forgetting no one that cold judgment day good people to heaven bad people to hell god show us the right path to save us from hell (non stop of pain )

[@defenseandgeopolitics]

Beautiful channel

[@sarg3475]

There are further evidence to back up the video above from The Central library in Harat in Afghanistan. Before Talaban arrival the books were taken by Hamiduaalah to a safe place outside Harat.

[@abutorab1004]

Once again the commodity of the future will be knowledge

[@abdourabbihessakhi6253]

He studied in Fez Morocco. He brought the moroccan numbers of Ibn al yasmin not arabic numbers. Easten coutries uses indian numbers. You can check moroccan money of that time. Spain was under control of morocco so its not spanish numbers

[@m.rizkyrisyah8558]

Hi, Could you please put indonesia subtitle please? Thanks!

[@yazhari3589]

Belajar Bahasa inggeris agar Kamu tidak ketinggalan

[@octavioust.talium9110]

3:55 Thank is too specific as a word, I would only congratulate him

[@zakiazzeh]

And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with [definite] preference. .....from sura Al -Esra’ verses 70 Holly Quran O you mankind, surely We created you of a male and a female, and We have made you races and tribes that you may get mutually acquainted. Surely the most honorable among you in the Providence of Allah are the most pious; surely Allah is Ever-Knowing, Ever-Cognizant......from sura Al-hujurat 13 Holly Quran يا أيها الناس إنا خلقناكم من ذكر وأنثى وجعلناكم شعوبا وقبائل لتعارفوا إن أكرمكم عند الله أتقاكم إن الله عليم خبير

[@muhammadaminsayfullayev4836]

Roman Pope Sylvester II is only Roman Pope to study at Al-Qarawiyyin university.

[@normal9591]

I saw that there 1 hate comment that said : "man i hope islam doesn't exist" i mean like bruhh if islam doesnt exist theres no technology like we saw now. Thanks all to alkhuwarizmi...

[@zollani4363]

if they knew human beings are above the technologies they wouldn't fight like right now

[@AnahideCastro]

❤️❤️❤️

[@heyab4507]

I don’t get this who are those 7 folks who disliked this SMH

[@younesfar517]

BUT what she didn't say in this video, that the same Pope known as Sylvester II (Gilbert d´Aurillac) who learned everything from our civilization and having spent a few years at the university of al Qarawiyyin in Fes My city in Morocco, ended up declaring war on the civilization and the culture that welcomed and taught him, he was behind the idea and the project of crusades against Muslims in the middle east.

[@mamun2864]

madam your channel doing very good work. madam your channel spread love that is the very best thing in christian.

[@shaharslan9051]

I have question for this channel. Why the face of quraan learners like Raad Al-Kurdy and many more is glowing all the time. Even they dont use any glowing creme??

[@misterbk1791]

There was a computer by definition hundreds of years before him

[@CH-ek2bm]

3:07 How can a book be written in a religion (Hindu)?

[@horisadiafyama]

As far as I know, Hindu/hindi is a universal term to describe people and their cultural identity, including religious beliefs and language in the area known as India/Hindustan. 🙏

[@faizj7994]

This was my question as well - is "Hindu" an old term for "Sanskrit"? As the other comment mentioned "Hindu/Hindi" as a "universal term", such may likely have been the case in the past, but not in the present-day.

[@rahathasan92]

This KZbin channel is very fantastic,,,,, We Muslim believe in jissu ,,,he was a prophet ,,,,, But when people did fully change ingil ,I mean bibel ,,,,,and people were getting darkness ,, Allah send Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam with a new religious Islam and religious book Al Quran ,,,,

[@ni3ach]

Wonder why 30 haters/dislikers?

[@kaedanyl3572]

I mean 30 against 1.8k its very good for an video like this other vids can get 300 dislikes

[@xXxArdenTdevilxXx]

I use to be anti- theist , now I’m having faith in the God of the Abrahamic believes

[@NK-mp5xp]

If you belive in tha Abrahamic God, whats stoping you from following his last revelation Book?

[@precisereview]

unbiased

[@sevinjhidayat2977]

Al-Khwarizmi was not arab or persian. He was of turkic origin. He was born in Khiva, Turkmens and Uzbeks land. His another nickname was "magician".

[@khajismumin3001]

Inonesia subtitle please

[@yazhari3589]

Belajar Bahasa inggeris, jadi Kamu tidak ketinggalan

[@mikhailv67tv]

Wow what a wonderful unknown story. 4 years as Pope pity he wasn't Pope for 50 years the world would of been so much greater

[@newdawn2362]

I love you guys please consider me one of you....

[@octavioust.talium9110]

Ah, the science made in the middle east.. Both the libraries of Alexandria and the House of Wisdom were there.. Both of them turned to ashes.. Sad.. Beautiful video though..

[@SahilFardeen8BallPool]

First!!!!!

[@ifeanyinnebedum]

Why the repost?

[@theleakyprophet]

She looks like Willie Nelson

[@stevenv6463]

Good video but translated from Hindu?

[@handsunion9202]

Allahu Akbar, may Allah bless you all and my praying to Allah for supporting you to follow the right way to paradise, and avoiding fire of the lastlife by follow Islam and being muslim only for Allah "the one god" between you and Allah only