The Toledo School of Translation and its Historical and Cultural Significance

Abstract

The capture of Toledo is one of the most important events in Spanish history. By capturing Toledo, the Spanish not only liberated the old capital from the Muslims, but some of the Arabic and Hebrew translations of tjhe mosr important ancient and oriental texts preserved in the Toledo library also ended up in the hands of Christians.

Thanks to king Alfonso  VI, which meant creating conditions for peaceful coexistence for the followers of 3 religionns in Toledo, it became possible that Christians, Muslims and Jews should work together to translate these important works into Latin and bring them to Europe. Toledo turned out to be the city where the long-forgotten Greco-Latin heritage was translated and exported to neighboring Christian Kingdoms and new to Europe at that time, Eastern (Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Indian) knowledge. It was the School of Toledo that reminded Europe of Aristotle, along with other Greek thinkers and introduced it to Eastern civilization. The Toledo School of Translation gave impetus to Europe’s awakening from the dogmatic views of the Middle Ages and prepared it for the European Renaissance.

The later translation of texts into Spanish only, which was an initiative of Alfonso X the Wise, on the one hand, laid the foundation for the creation of important works in Spanish, he maintained and refined the “new developed” Castilian language and turned it into a written language, the language of literature an science.