Warriors of the cloisters : the Central Asian origins of science in the medieval world / Christopher I. Beckwith.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The recursive argument method of medieval science -- From college and universitas to university -- Buddhist Central Asian invention of the method -- Islamization in classical Arabic Central Asia -- Transmission to medieval Western Europe -- India, Tibet, China, Byzantium, and other control cases.

"In this provocative book, Christopher I. Beckwith traces how the recursive argument method was first developed by Buddhist scholars and was spread by them throughout ancient Central Asia. He shows how the method was adopted by Islamic Central Asian natural philosophers - most importantly by Avicenna, one of the most brilliant of all medieval thinkers - and transmitted to the West when Avicenna's works were translated into Latin in Spain in the twelfth century by the Jewish philosopher Ibn Dā'ūd and others. -- Book jacket.