Translation in the Abbasid Era
What is the role of translation in the development of science in the Abbasid era? And how did translation contribute to supporting the science of philosophy in the Abbasid era?
The Abbasid era or the Abbasid state is one of the Islamic golden ages for the development of various sciences and arts. And the Muslims reached in it of urbanization, authority, sophistication, development and prosperity that they had not attained before or after. This state was established at the hands of Abu Al-Abbas Al-Saffah after the fall of the Umayyad state in 132 AH (750 AD), and this state extended to 656 AH (1258 AD).[1] The Abbasids contributed to the development of many fields of science, knowledge, art, commerce, culture and others. Intellectual life flourished for many reasons, including the emergence of a large number of brilliant scholars and thinkers in various fields of science, knowledge, arts and ideas, and the great interest of the Abbasid Caliphs in science and knowledge and scholars and their encouragement to different sciences, composition, research and provision of everything Scholars need it in their research and studies, especially when the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid meant science and scholars. This indicates that conducting lessons in mosques, establishing schools and schools, choosing excellent teaching methods, libraries and scientific institutions contributed to the development of various sciences in this golden age.
Muslims have taken a good fortune in sciences and arts of all kinds and subjects from other civilizations such as Persian, European and Indian civilizations. And the Persian influence on Islamic civilization was stronger in the field of literature, as Eastern Persian literature was closer to the tastes and feelings of Arabs than Greek literature. Those who are fluent in Persian and Arabic translated Persian books in the Abbasid era, and among these were: Abdullah bin al-Muqaffa, Abna Khalid, and al-Hasan bin Sahl. He singled out Abdullah bin al-Muqaffa’, where he translated the history of the Persians, their values, customs, and the lives of their kings, as well as literary books, including Kalila wa Dimna, Al-Adab Al-Kabeer, Small Literature, and Al-Yamaha. The Persian civilization was not only in the field of literature, they had a heritage in other sciences such as engineering, astronomy and geography, but the influence of Greece in the mental sciences was stronger than the influence of the Persians.
As for the Greek influence in literature, it was limited and did not exceed the transmission of some words such as kantar, dirham, qastas, and paradise, in addition to some rulings. And the Greek civilization had a strong influence in the rational sciences, and this resulted from the beliefs of the Greeks themselves and their interest in the mind and its high status at the expense of handicrafts or the literary field, so the Arabs quoted them in the field of philosophy from Plato and Aristotle, and in the field of medicine from Galen and Hippocrates. The manifestations of Greek influence emerged during the Hellenistic era [2], where the civilization of Greece was mixed with the eastern section, and the Muslims took from them what was compatible with Islam and rejected what contradicted it.
The Indian influence began after the Islamic conquest movement that spread to India at the end of the first century AH, that is, in the caliphate of Al-Walid bin Abdul Malik (86–96 AH), and it resumed in the middle of the second century AH during the reign of Abu Jaafar Al-Mansur (136–158 AH) and became active Back in the fifth century AH, and some historians mentioned that India was famous for arithmetic, astrology, and the secrets of medicine and philosophy, and these sciences were transferred to the Arabic language.
The Al-Mansur was fond of the sciences of wisdom, especially medicine, astronomy and engineering. Al-Mansur was very keen on these books and recommended them to his son Al-Mahdi, and Al-Mahdi was little interested in books, especially after the spread of the heretics movement in Baghdad that occupied him, so the translation movement weakened during his reign. Scholars avoided translating books of wisdom and stars and books that discuss boredom, bees, whims and beliefs, but when the ruler Harun al-Rashid (170–193 AH / 786–808 AD), who is considered the true founder of Bait al Hakma, was very interested in the sciences of wisdom and translating its books from different languages, so the translation house expanded and increased The number of employees working in it, and in his time many stars of scientists met, and he wanted a place to keep the books he collected, so he established the Bait al Hakma, which later developed and became the most famous scientific academy known in history. This is until more than a century and a half, scholars have translated all the scientific, literary and philosophical texts that were available at their time. The translation movement began in the Bait al Hakma with the translation of Aristotle’s themes. At the time of al-Ma’mun, translators were no longer satisfied with Persian texts and turned to Greek texts, and among the most famous of what they translated were philosophers and scientists such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Galen. Moreover, new discoveries prompted consideration of ancient translations as they were modified, corrected, and new discoveries were added to them.
After the Persian, Greek and Indian influence, scholars distinguished between the sciences that are related to the Holy Qur’an, and the sciences that the Arabs took from other nations.
They called the first the al sharia sciences, and the second rational sciences or wisdom, and they are sometimes called foreign sciences, early sciences, ancient sciences, or exotic sciences.
The sharia sciences include the science of interpretation, the science of readings, the science of hadith, the science of jurisprudence, the science of theology, the science of grammar and morphology, the science of language, the science of rhetoric, and the science of literature.
The mental sciences include philosophy, engineering, musicology, astrology, medicine, chemistry, mathematics, history, geography, etc. [3]
Sharia sciences:
1. The science of interpretation is the clarification and clarification of the meanings of the Qur’anic verses. The commentators have taken two directions in interpreting the verses of the Noble Qur’an: 1.1 The first is known as the Al-Tafsir al-Maathour, which is what was reported from the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. Among the most famous interpreters of this type of interpretation are Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Ibn Attia al-Andalusi, al-Qurtubi and others. 2.1 The second is known as tafsir al-ra’i, which was more dependent on reason than on narration. Among the most famous interpreters of this type of interpretation are Abu Bakr al-Asamm, Abu Muslim Muhammad ibn Bahr al-Isfahani, Ibn Jarro al-Asadi and others.
2. The science of readings, which is the knowledge of the ways of performing the words of the Qur’an and their differences by attributing the carrier. Among the most famous reciters are Abdullah bin Katheer Al-Dari Al-Makki, Abdullah bin Amer Al-Yahsabi Al-Shami, Asim bin Abi Al-Nujud Al-Asadi Al-Kufi, Abu Amr bin Al-Ala Al-Basri, Hamza bin Habib Al-Zayat Al-Kufi, and Nafeh bin Abdul Rahman bin Abi Naim Al-Madani , and Abu al-Hasan Ali bin Hamza al-Kisa’i al-Nahwi al-Kufi.
The science of hadith is one of the most important sources of Islamic legislation, and it comes in importance after the Holy Qur’an. A group of hadith imams appeared in the second century AH, among them the most famous in Medina, Imam Malik bin Anas, in Kufa, Sufyan al-Thawri, in Basra, Hammad bin Salamah, in Sham al-Awza’i and others. Abu Dawud and Al-Nasa’i Ibn Majah and others. [4]
The science of jurisprudence is the science that is concerned with understanding the provisions of Islamic Sharia and deriving them from its detailed evidence in the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah in all aspects of a Muslim’s life, including the actions and acts of worship he is entrusted with. And that the first Abbasid era was the era of the imams of the four schools of the Sunnah, which is the school of Imam Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi’i and Ibn Hanbal. In the second Abbasid era, some prominent jurists who made schools of jurisprudence appeared, but they were not estimated to have stability, acceptance and publicity in front of these four schools of thought.
Theology is a science that refers to statements that were formulated on a logical or dialectical pattern, especially in beliefs, and those engaged in this science are called “the theologians.” The Mu’tazila had a significant impact on the development of theology. They claimed that the Qur’an was created, and they called for the negation of the Creator’s attributes, opposing the majority of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah. Among the most famous Mu’tazilite theologians are Abu Al-Hadhil Al-Allaf, Abu Al-Hussain Abdul Rahim bin Muhammad bin Othman Al-Khayyat, Abu Ali Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab Al-Jaba’i Al-Mu’tazili and others.
Grammar and morphology is a science concerned with the study of the origins by which the conditions of Arabic words are known in terms of syntax and construction after their regularity in the sentence. Through this science, we can know what the word should be, whether it is a nominative, an accusative, a drag, or an assertion. And the science of grammar is inseparable from the science of morphology, for these two scholars are intertwined, the science of morphology is the science that studies the formulas and weights of single Arabic words before they are regular in the sentence. And two grammar schools arose under the name of the Kufic Grammar School in the city of Kufa in Iraq in the days of the Abbasids, led by Imam Ali bin Hamza al-Kisa’i. And the visual grammar school in the city of Basra in Iraq in the days of the Abbasids, headed by Imam Sibawayh.
Linguistics: Linguistics developed in the second Abbasid era, with the development of grammar and the organization of dictionaries.
The third century AH is an era of language transmission. At the end of the second century, he won the first attempt at controlling the language and the work of dictionaries, when Al-Khalil bin Ahmed developed the “Kitab Al-Ain” curriculum for his student Al-Layth bin Al-Muzaffar. And Ibn Duraid — the Imam in Language — (223–321 AH) created his book “Jamarat al-Lughah” [5] and among those who wrote an extensive lexicon in the language on the way of Hebron, Abu Ali al-Qali al-Baghdadi (228–356 AH), the author of the book “The Adept in the Language”, And the book “Al-Amali” on language and literature. This indicates that Al-Sahib bin Abbad (326–385 AH) wrote the book “Al-Muhit” in seven volumes, and Ibn Faris is the author of the book “Al-Majmal”, and Abu Mansour Al-Azhari (282–370 AH) is the author of the book “Al-Tahdheeb”.
The most famous linguist of the fourth century at all was Ismail bin Hammad Al-Jawhari, author of the book “Al-Sahih fi Al-Lughah” and other prominent linguists.
The sciences of rhetoric are three: the science of rhetoric, the science of rhetoric, and the science of meanings, and each of them has multiple branches. Rhetoric is the conformity of eloquent speech to the requirement of the situation, or the eloquence of eloquent speech according to the situation according to the places, just as rhetoric is not a description of the word or the speaker, but rather a description of speech, and rhetoric carries many meanings in a few words, so rhetoric is a word that is used to reveal the rest of speech concisely and eloquently. for meaning. Composition in the sciences of rhetoric began with the beginning of the stage of authorship in Islamic sciences in the middle of the second century AH, and rhetoric passed through various roles until it reached the stage of maturity. The science of literature includes poetry, i.e., systems and prose. As for poetry, its meanings developed in-depth, intensity and accuracy in photography, so they came to include human facts. The poets moved away from the old meanings to new meanings, helped by what the Abbasid mind gained from philosophy, theology and logic, and the artistic methods they reached based on verbal and moral improvements. This indicates that the Abbasid prose made great strides, keeping pace with the renaissance of the age and becoming able to absorb scientific, philosophical and artistic aspects, and the prose topics varied and included various aspects of life. Literature reached the pinnacle of development and sophistication in this golden age.
Philosophy and Muslims:
Muslims did not have a rational idea of philosophy and its sciences before the translation movement from Greek into Arabic, and specifically translation from Greek into Arabic began in the Abbasid era. Manuscripts, especially books of Greek philosophy, because Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire, is known as the City of Wisdom.
But al-Farabi made it clear (that this science — by which he means philosophy — as it is said: It was in the ancient Chaldeans, who are the people of Iraq, then became to the people of Egypt, then moved to the Greeks) [6] and Charles Vernera says that Greek philosophy is only It arose from the contact of Greece with the East [7] and it appears from this that philosophy originated in the countries of the East, then reached the Western countries, especially Greece, and developed in Greece, then moved from Greece to the Arabic language in the era of the Abbasid Islamic state when the translation and Arabization movement began in this period.
How did philosophy originate?
Philosophy is a field of research and thinking that seeks to understand the mysteries of existence and reality. It also tries to discover what truth and knowledge are and to realize their fundamental value and great importance in life. Philosophy also considers the relationships between man and nature, and between the individual and society. The philosophy stems from wonder, curiosity, and a desire for knowledge and understanding. It is a process that includes analysis, criticism, interpretation and reflection. And when man became aware of himself in this world, he wondered about the reality of his existence, and the existence of this world around him. And since his thinking was in its primitive stage, he was satisfied with some simple answers, religious and mythical, the origin of the world is due to a struggle between unseen forces (the gods), but then men appeared who was not convinced by these answers, so they re-asked the same questions, but this time they provided answers that depend On the mind, these answers are called philosophy.
Defining philosophy in language and terminology:
Philosophy ( Al Falsfa) is a word borrowed from Arabic from the Greek language, and its origin in Greek is a word consisting of two parts: Philos, which means “friend or lover,” and the second is Sophia, meaning “wisdom,” so it means “the lover of wisdom.”
And it seems that the word Sophia is not of Greek origin, but rather is taken from an oriental language, as confirmed by contemporary Western researcher M. Bernal. Thus, the word “philosophy” from an etymological point of view denotes the love or preference for wisdom, and the Arabs transferred it into their language in this sense in the era of translation.[8]
As for the definition of philosophy idiomatically, it was defined by the Muslim philosophers in different ways and in various terms. The famous philosopher Yaqoub bin Ishaq al-Kindi defined it, saying: “It is the science of things with their facts as much as a human being is capable of, because the philosopher’s purpose in his work is to strike the truth, and in his work is to work with the truth.” (Al-Kindi Philosophical Letters 1/172). And it came in the book “Uyun Al-Anba’ fi Tabaqat Al-Tibaba’” by Ibn Abi Asaba’a, “Abu Nasr Al-Farabi defined philosophy by saying: The name of philosophy is Greek, and it is an outsider in Arabic, and it is on the doctrine of their tongue, Philosophy, meaning preference for wisdom, and it is in their tongue a compound of villa and Sophia, Sophia and Sophia. Wisdom.” And it came in Al Mohit Dictionary that among the meanings of the word “wisdom” is knowledge and forbearance.[9] As for Ibn Sina, he defined philosophy in a comprehensive moral definition when he said (nine letters 71): “Wisdom is an artefact of insight from which a person benefits by acquiring what is required for all existence in himself and what is obligatory from what he should earn by doing so that he honours himself and completes it, and becomes a reasonable scholar. comparable to the existence, and preparing for the ultimate happiness in the Hereafter, according to human energy.” As for Ibn Rushd, he defined it and made it a knowledge of the connection between the existent and its creator when he said ( Fasl al makal 27): “The act of philosophy is nothing more than looking at existing beings in terms of their indication of the Creator and the more complete the knowledge of its maker, the more complete the knowledge of its Maker.
There is a purpose for every art or science or knowledge of knowledge because things do not exist without a purpose and a purpose, and on this philosophy has one goal, which is the search for truth. And the searcher for the truth must strip his search from the minor goals of emotional, social and material: he must start his search on a specific one and then accept what his research leads to, whatever the result he will reach.
Philosophy dealt with the theory of research in the manifestations of existence. As for science, it is the use of the correct results reached by philosophy. When the ancients were talking about the composition of matter from atoms or elements, they were philosophizing. When our contemporaries were able to use atomic energy for the purposes of war and peace, they became scholars.[10]
Muslim scholars did not translate philosophical books except in the days of al-Ma’mun because he was fond of it. This is because Muslims have become accustomed from the beginning of Islam to the freedom of speech and thought and equality among them, so if someone had an opinion about a caliph or emir, the prestige of the king would not prevent him from expressing his opinion. This was also their case in religion, so if one of them understood a verse or hadith other than what the other understood, he stated his opinion and argued about it. The era of the Companions of the Messenger Muhammad did not end until the sects multiplied and branched out, and among the Mu’tazilites among them.The basis of the Mu’tazila doctrine is the application of the Mu’tazila rulings to religious texts. And the doctrine of the Mu’tazila appeared at the end of the first century AH, and it was quickly printed, because the mind was comfortable with its evidence. Discussions took place on Islamic beliefs, so they needed Greek philosophical books, especially in the days of the Mahdi, to push back the heretics’ sayings. Al-Baramkeh was also among the people of opinion, who had intelligence and a penchant for knowledge, so they worked in translating ancient books before al-Ma’mun. And when the caliphate led to al-Ma’mun (198–218 AH) and he supported the Mu’tazilites, because with his acumen and vastness of knowledge he was very inclined to analogy and rational evidence. And he learned, understood, and read what was transmitted during his time from the books of the ancients. And he declared statements that no one had preceded for fear of the wrath of the jurists, and in general, he said that the Qur’an was created. The councils debated on this subject and ordered the transmission of the Greek books, but the people were not persuaded of his proof. And when he despaired of convincing people with proofs and analogies.
As for philosophy in and of itself, its owners were accused of unbelief, and affiliation with it was synonymous with affiliation with ta’til (ِAl Ta’til which is the denial of the Creator, and denial of his words and religion, and denial of his worship and laws.), and among their sayings: “So-and-so was accused of his religion because Intellectual sciences prevail over him.” This spread in Baghdad among the common people, even in the days of al-Ma’mun, and that is why some of them called him the Emir of the Unbelievers, But they were not pretending to do so, until the time of al-Ma’mun, al-Mu’tasim and al-Wathiq passed, and the Caliph al-Mutawakkil, who showed an inclination to the Sunnah and supported its people and chose the Shafi’i school of thought, was the first to follow it from among the Muslim caliphs. He was engrossed in jurisprudence, Sunnah and science, and he ended the sedition of the ordeal of the creation of the Qur’an, and Ahmed bin Hanbal was released from prison and deposed him. And he brought the modernists to Samarra, and he was generous with their gifts. In his time, the devotees of philosophy avoided appearing in it or denying it, so they were working in it secretly and they established secret societies for this purpose, one of which is the Society of the Brethren of Purity ( Ikhwan al Safa ).
The Ikhwan al-Safa Society is a secret philosophical society, formed in Baghdad in the middle of the fourth century AH
Among its members are Abu Suleiman Muhammad bin Muasher Al-Basti, known as Al-Maqdisi, Abu Al-Hasan Ali bin Harun Al-Zanjani, Abu Ahmed Al-Mahrani, Al-Awfi, and Zaid bin Rifa`ah. They meet secretly and discuss all kinds of philosophy until they have a special doctrine in it, which is the summary of the researches of Muslim philosophers after learning about the views of Greece, Persians and India, and modifying them according to what Islam requires.
The basis of their doctrine is that Islamic legitimacy has been defiled with ignorance and mixed with delusions, and there is no way to wash and purify it except through philosophy because it contains belief wisdom and discretionary interest and that when Greek philosophy and Arab law are organized, perfection has occurred.
They wrote down this philosophy of theirs in fifty letters, which they called the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, and they wrote their names. It represents Islamic philosophy as it was at the time of its maturity, and it includes consideration of the principles of the existents, the origins of beings in the antithesis of the world, the nature and the image, the nature of nature, the earth, the sky, the face of the earth and its changes, the universe and corruption. And the upper monuments, the sky and the world, the science of the stars, the formation of minerals, the botany, the descriptions of animals, the location of the sperm and how the soul is attached to it, the structure of the body, the sense and the senses, the mind and the intelligible, and Scientific and practical artefacts, number and its properties, geometry, music, logic and its branches, the difference in morals, the nature of numbers, and that the world is a large human being and man is a small world, the spheres and roles, the nature of love, and broadcasting And the publication, and the genera of movements, and the causes and effects, and the limits and drawings, and in general, they included every natural, mathematical, philosophical, divine or rational science.
A summary of these letters is carefully typed, in about 650 large pages. It appears from the close examination that its authors wrote it after careful research and long consideration. In all of that there are opinions that the people of this time have not reached better than them, and in the end of the book is a chapter on how the ten Brothers of Safa and their cooperation with sincerity of affection and compassion, and that the purpose of it is mutual support in religion. And they mentioned the conditions for accepting the brothers in it and other things.[11]
Contributions of Muslim scholars to the development of philosophy:
The clear contributions of Muslim scholars to the science of philosophy and its development were manifested in the refutation of the information in the books and writings of Greece, the correction of errors in them, the connection between the scattered knowledge and fragments that came at its edges, the addition of adequate explanations to them, and the addition of new information that reached It was referred to by Muslim scholars and no one else from the previous ones knew it, so it was that there were many aspects of philosophical thinking in Islam, and the most important of them were: theology, Sufism, and pure Islamic philosophy, and this is a brief summary of each of them.
Theology:
This science is considered one of the first things in the Islamic mentality, and it is, as Ibn Khaldun defines it: “It is a science that includes pilgrims about faith beliefs with rational evidence and responding to innovators who deviate in beliefs from the doctrines of the predecessors and Ahl al-Sunnah, and the secret of these faith beliefs is monotheism.”[12]
This science is considered of Islamic origin. At least in its inception, it arose in order to defend religious beliefs and their interpretation or rational interpretation when misguidance and heresy appeared, and through this science the great philosophical doctrines emerged, and the brilliant work of Muslims appeared in the interpretation of the universe and the discovery of natural laws, and their arrival to a concept of existence, movement and cause, Contrasted with the concept of Greece and preceded it by modern European thinkers and philosophers. Perhaps the speakers’ interest in their approach to vision and reason is what prompted some orientalists to consider theology as an innovation in Islamic philosophical thinking, and as evidence of intellectual originality among Muslims, and in this the French orientalist Renan says: “As for the real philosophical movement in Islam, it should be sought in the doctrines of the theologians. [13]
Sufism:
Sufism is one of the fields of Islamic philosophical thinking. Because although in essence, it is a spiritual experience that the mystic suffers from, though is mixed with reality, and science is mixed with work in this experience, and thus it is not a pure philosophy concerned with theoretical rational research in the nature of existence with the aim of arriving at an integrated metaphysical theory free of contradiction, but it is a special philosophy in life that mixes In it, emotion is in thought, and the reason is in the heart, aiming at realizing the true existence, and from here there were opinions, doctrines and theories in Sufism that are the fruit of the integration of the three human energies: reason, conscience and behaviour. And because of the results of this experiment in the same man who practices it, he is in this description a human phenomenon of a spiritual nature that is not limited by temporal or spatial boundaries and is not limited to a nation of nations or a race of human races.
Pure philosophy:
It is the philosophy of those who admired Greek philosophy and devoted themselves to studying, explaining and analyzing it and were familiar with its patterns, such as Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Baja and Ibn Tufayl, this group of Muslim philosophers who were a beacon that illuminated the world and Western civilization.
Conclusion
The Abbasid state is considered a golden age for the development of various and diverse sciences and arts and their reaching the top. The Abbasids contributed to the development of many fields of science, knowledge, art, commerce, culture and others. Intellectual life flourished for many reasons, especially after Arabization and translation from Greek, Persian and Indian languages. Philosophy is one of the important sciences that developed in the Abbasid era, although Islamic philosophy began after the emergence of the Mu’tazila after the murder of the third Caliph Uthman. However, Greek philosophy was transferred to the Arabic language in the Abbasid era. Prominent scholars who wrote and commented on philosophical books appeared.
Philosophy is a historical phenomenon that resulted from a combination of economic, social, political, cultural and other factors. In its history, it witnessed several stages. In the Greek stage, it was concerned with ontological (existential) issues, while in the Islamic stage it focused on the relationship between philosophy and religion and technical. Philosophy, as human knowledge, is distinguished from other forms of knowledge by a set of manifestations, chief among them: rationality, i.e. basing philosophical thinking on the principles of logic, and reliance on the method of doubt, i.e. reviewing all our previous convictions and putting them into question. The main motive for philosophizing is to be amazed at the familiar and ordinary phenomena, while the goal of philosophy is to search for the truth.
Philosophy is a special way of thinking that depends on a set of tools, on top of which is the philosophical question, and the concept, which is the tool that transfers the philosopher’s language from its normal and natural level to its abstract theoretical level. Evidence and arguments, which are mechanisms that the philosopher employs to defend his positions and perceptions, and finally, the systemic, which gives philosophical ideas a kind of unity and integration. Philosophy seeks to produce noble human values and ideals as the ultimate goals of human existence, such as belief indifference, dialogue, tolerance and coexistence, rejection of intolerance, respect for human rights, women, children, people with special needs, and so on. This explains that philosophy is not just an intellectual luxury that has nothing to do with human reality, but rather it is knowledge related to human life and behaviour. Philosophy is one of the important mental sciences that is still developing with the passage of time from the Greek period to the Abbasid period, and from the Abbasid period is still alive today.
List of sources and references:
[1] The Collector in the History of Arabic Literature, Ancient Literature by Hanna Al-Fakhouri, first edition in 1986 AD, publisher Dar Al-Jeel, Beirut, Lebanon, pp. 518–521.
[2] A period in ancient history in which Greek culture was rich in many aspects of civilization at that time, and this period began after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and lasted about 200 years in Greece and about 300 years in the Middle East. The term Hellenistic is used to distinguish this period from the Hellenistic period, the period of the ancient Greeks, which was considered the height of the genius and greatness of Greek thought, science and philosophy under the Athenian Empire.
[3] Dr. Hassan Ibrahim Hassan, History of Political, Religious, Cultural and Social Islam, Part Three, Publisher, Al-Nahda Press, Cairo. Third edition in 1955, p. 338.
[4] Dr. Hassan Ibrahim Hassan, History of Political, Religious, Cultural and Social Islam, Part Three, Publisher, Al-Nahda Press, Cairo. Third edition in 1955, p. 343.
[5] It is located in three huge volumes, not for indexes. It was printed in Hyderabad in the year 1345 AH, and there are two manuscript copies of it in the Egyptian House of Books.
[6] Principles of Islamic Philosophy, Part One, by Abdul-Jabbar Al-Rifai, publisher Dar Al-Huda for printing, publishing and distribution, first edition in 1422 AH — 2001 AD, p. 17.
[7] Same source, pg. 19.
[8] Principles of Islamic Philosophy, Part One, by Abd al-Jabbar al-Rifai, publisher Dar al-Huda for printing, publishing and distribution, first edition in 1422 AH — 2001 AD, pg. 9.
[9] Al-Wajriz in Philosophy by Mahmoud Yacoubi, published, printed and distributed by Al-Baath Library and Press, Laka Nkord Nahj, Musta’ia, Algeria, pg. 19.
[10] Omar Farroukh, The History of Arab Thought to the Days of Ibn Khaldun, publisher, Dar Al-Ilm for Millions, fourth edition, April 1983, p. 19.
[11] The History of Islamic Civilization, by Jerji Zaidan, the creator of the Crescent, Part Three, the new edition reviewed and commented by Dr. Hussein Munis, Dar Al-Hilal in 2001, pg. 199.
[12] Introduction to Ibn Khaldun, pg. 429.
[13] Studies in Islamic Philosophy by Abu al-Wafa al-Taftazani, p. 18.
