19.2.21 (Weaken Problem Set 11) Medieval Arabs

Accounts Playable

I got this question correct by POE since B-E were totally irrelevant. However, during BR, I am having a very hard time explicitly justifying why A is correct. How does this strengthen the idea that Homer was not translated into Arabic? Doesn't it sort of suggest the opposite since the translators had possession of the epics? I know that I am assuming too much when I say that it suggests that the translators actually translated the epics, but wouldn't this be a more reasonable assumption than assuming that they either consciously didn't translate them? or they just left them on their shelves forgotten?

nye8870

Hey there @"Accounts Playable" I feel like this plays out more like a necessary assumption question. If you negate ac(A) by saying: "No medieval Arab translators possessed
manuscripts of the Homeric epics in their original Greek." Then the theory that the poets were not interested falls apart. The reason they did not read Homer was not because they had no interest, rather they couldn't get their hands on a copy. So the argument in favor of the poets' disinterest is fortified by saying that there was an opportunity to translate but a choice was probably made not to do so.