纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 062希伯来星盘（7）（在线收听）

By the fourteenth century, this scholarly legacy was embedded in European thought, in science and medicine as well as philosophy and theology. The astrolabe became the indispensable attribute for astronomers, astrologers, doctors, geographers, or indeed anyone with intellectual aspirations - even a ten-year-old English boy like Chaucer's son.

The shared inheritance of Islamic, Christian and Jewish thinkers, would survive for centuries. But the 'convivencia' of the three faiths did not. Although medieval Spain is today often hailed by politicians as a beacon of tolerance and the model for multi-faith co-existence, the historical truth is distinctly less comfortable. Here's Sir John Elliott again.

"As regards actual religious tolerance, it's rather less clear cut than coexistence. Christendom in general, though, was a pretty intolerant society, and very opposed to deviants of all kinds. And that intolerance was particularly directed against the Jews. For instance, England expelled its Jews in 1290, and France a decade later, and as far as Christian-Muslim relations were concerned, there was a hardening of religious attitudes, really from the twelfth century onwards. And as the Christians preached the Crusades, and the Almohads who moved into Spain from North Africa, preached the Jihad, there was an increasing aggressiveness on both sides."

到了十四世纪，他们的文化遗产已经深深扎根于包括科学、医学、哲学与神学在内的欧洲思想中。星盘成了天文学家、占星学家、医生、地理学家乃至所有受过一定教育的群体的必备工具。就连乔叟的儿子这样的十岁小男孩也需要它。最终，这件多功能的物品分裂为地球仪、印刷地图、六分仪、经线仪和罗盘，各司其职。

穆斯林、犹太人和基督教思想家们的共同遗产在数个世纪间不断流传，但三种信仰之间的交流却没有延续下去。虽然如今的政治家常宣称中世纪欧洲为文化包容的楷模和多元文化并存的典范，但历史的真相并非如此轻松。约翰·埃利奥特爵士接着说：

真正的宗教宽容并不像各民族共存那样简单明了…总体来说，基督教世界是相对苛刻的社会，不能容忍任何背离正统的行为，尤其是对待犹太人。比如在一二九年，英国驱逐了境内所有的犹太人，一百多年后的法国也出现了同样的现象。至于基督徒与穆斯林，十二世纪之后二者的关系便逐渐僵化。基督教派出了十字军团，来自北非的穆瓦希德王朝则发动了圣战。双方的攻击性都在逐渐增强。