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Factors contributing to the rise of medieval universities and the Muslim contribution to their development

Summary:

The rise of medieval universities was influenced by the increasing demand for educated clergy and administrators, the growth of towns, and the intellectual revival of the 12th century. Muslim contributions included the preservation and translation of ancient Greek texts, advancements in science, mathematics, and medicine, and the establishment of libraries and centers of learning that inspired European institutions.

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What factors led to the rise of medieval universities and the Muslim contribution to their development?

The period in which the universities arose is often termed the "twelfth-century Renaissance." This period was marked by a rise of trade, especially in the Hanseatic League in Northern Europe and the great Italian trading cities such as Venice and Florence in the south. The Crusades also resulted in substantial contacts with other cultures (Byzantine and Islamic) as well as an increase in wealth, with looting the fabled riches of the east being as important a motivation for many Crusaders as plenary indulgences. The growth of large towns and cities, need for more members of the clergy to serve increased populations, and the increased wealth and complexity of the Papal bureaucracy also required a greater number of educated people, including a group of professors at a tertiary level who could instruct future teachers. 

The organization of universities was initially mobile and informal. Groups of teachers began to charge pupils for advanced...

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training. The masters and students together formed the university. As these informal associations grew, they began to operate in fixed locales and eventually became licensed and regulated by both the Church and local rulers. They were organized into faculties, specializing in different areas of education, including theology, law, and medicine. 

Much of the new learning taught in the universities was actually a revival of classical learning newly rediscovered through contact with Muslims in Spain (especially Toledo) and Byzantium. Many works of ancient Greek that had been lost to the west were initially rediscovered in in Arabic translation and read with the aid of the Islamic commentary tradition.

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What factors led to the rise of medieval universities?

Many factors led to the rise of medieval universities.  Rising population growth led to a need for more clergymen--the first goal of medieval universities was to produce well-trained members of the clergy.  Universities by the Central Middle Ages produced able bureaucrats and lawyers who got their position by merit and would be able administrators for governments.  Rulers such as Frederick Barbarossa also gave protection to traveling university students, which helped unite Europe culturally as more people looked at traveling between kingdoms as "normal."  As more families grew rich in the Central Middle Ages, they could afford to send their more intellectually able sons to school, thus giving them greater opportunities.  The universities themselves often improved the finances of the cities in which they were located, as students sought out housing, food, and entertainment, similar to how cities benefit from having universities today.   

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