Islamic world contributions to Medieval Europe in the context of "History of gunpowder"

Western civilization traces its roots back to Europe and the Mediterranean. It began in ancient Greece, transformed in ancient Rome, and evolved into medieval Western Christendom before experiencing such seminal developmental episodes as the development of Scholasticism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the development of liberal democracy. The civilizations of classical Greece and Rome are considered seminal periods in Western history. Major cultural contributions also came from the Christianized Germanic peoples, such as the Longobards, the Franks, the Goths, and the Burgundians. Charlemagne founded the Carolingian Empire and he is referred to as the "Father of Europe". Contributions also emerged from pagan peoples of pre-Christian Europe, such as the Celts and Germanic pagans as well as some significant religious contributions derived from Judaism and Hellenistic Judaism stemming back to Second Temple Judea, Galilee, and the early Jewish diaspora; and some other Middle Eastern influences. Western Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, which throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture. (There were Christians outside of the West, such as China, India, Russia, Byzantium and the Middle East). Western civilization has spread to produce the dominant cultures of modern Americas and Oceania, and has had immense global influence in recent centuries in many ways.

Following the 5th century Fall of Rome, Europe entered the Middle Ages, during which period the Catholic Church filled the power vacuum left in the West by the fall of the Western Roman Empire, while the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) endured in the East for centuries, becoming a Hellenic Eastern contrast to the Latin West. By the 12th century, Western Europe was experiencing a flowering of art and learning, propelled by the construction of cathedrals, the establishment of medieval universities, and greater contact with the medieval Islamic world via Al-Andalus and Sicily, from where Arabic texts on science and philosophy were translated into Latin. Christian unity was shattered by the Reformation from the 16th century. A merchant class grew out of city states, initially in the Italian peninsula (see Italian city-states), and Europe experienced the Renaissance from the 14th to the 17th century, heralding an age of technological and artistic advance and ushering in the Age of Discovery which saw the rise of such global European empires as those of Portugal and Spain.

The Jewish Golden Age in Spain began shortly after the Muslim conquest in the 8th century and lasted until the Christian Reconquista resulted in the expulsion of Jews by the 15th century. During this period, Jews living in what was collectively called al-Andalus (Muslim-ruled Spain and Portugal) experienced relative tolerance, prosperity, and socio-cultural integration within the broader Muslim society that had come to dominate the region. Owing to this environment, Jewish culture flourished and several Jews rose to prominence in scholarly and religious spheres, including Maimonides, Hasdai ben Shaprut, Shmuel ha-Nagid, Solomon ben Judah, and Judah ha-Levi. The Jewish community of al-Andalus also contributed greatly to the Muslim world's advancements in astronomy, medicine, and science.

Jews under Muslim authority in Spain and Portugal were designated as dhimmi (Arabic: ذمي)—a legally protected class of non-Muslim subjects—in exchange for paying jizya (جِزْيَة) and accepting certain restrictions. Although they still held a second-class status relative to Muslims, the dhimmi framework in al-Andalus gradually allowed for the development of stability and co-existence that was otherwise uncommon in Jewish history in Europe; Jews were able to occupy a variety of positions in government and diplomacy, medicine, and science, while also playing a key role in the Muslim world's transmission of classical knowledge to Christian Europe. Further, the Jewish Golden Age in Spain brought about remarkable achievements in Hebrew poetry, religious scholarship, grammar, and philosophy. Some historians, however, view this to be more of a myth.

Abū 'l-Ḥasan al-Muḫtār Yuwānnīs ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdūn ibn Saʿdūn ibn Buṭlān (Arabic: أبو الحسن المختار إيوانيس بن الحسن بن عبدون بن سعدون بن بطلان listen; c. 1001 to 1025 – 8 Šauwāl 458 AH or 2 September 1066), commonly known as Ibn Buṭlān (ابن بطلان listen), was an Arab physician and Nestorian Christian theologian. Born in Baghdad, the erstwhile capital city of the Abbasid Caliphate, he travelled throughout Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia, during which time he practiced medicine, studied, wrote, and engaged in intellectual debates—most famously the Battle of the Physicians with the Egyptian polymath Ibn Riḍwān. In 1054, he was in Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, where he witnessed first-hand the East–West Schism among Christendom, contributing a work to the discussions surrounding it for Michael I Cerularius, who was serving as the Patriarch of Constantinople. After his time in Constantinople, Ibn Buṭlān remained in the Byzantine Empire and eventually became a monk for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch amidst the end of the Macedonian Renaissance.

He is most renowned for his work Taqwīm aṣ-Ṣiḥḥa (تقويم الصحّة listen, lit. 'Tabular Register of Health'), a handbook on dietetics and hygiene. It was named for its intricate tables, similar to those found within a Taqwīm as-Sana (تقويم السنة, lit. 'tabular register of the year'), a type of astrological almanac. He was the first person to use these tables in a non-astrological work, creating a new scientific writing format that may be seen as the main influence for works like Taqwīm al-Abdān fī Tadbīr al-Insān by the Arab physician Ibn Ǧazla and Taqwīm al-Buldān by the Kurdish geographer and historian Abū 'l-Fidāʾ. Translations of Taqwīm aṣ-Ṣiḥḥa into Latin are preserved in many manuscripts from the early modern period, and are thought to illustrate the relationship between medieval Europe and the Arab world in the field of medicine. Despite increased European contact with Egypt and Syria through the Crusades and trade into the 16th century, there are no Latin translations of Arabic medical texts after Ibn Buṭlān's era.