Greek Thought, Arabic Culture
The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasaid Society (2nd-4th/5th-10th c.) (Arabic Thought and Culture), Dimitri Gutas, Routledge 1998
From the middle of the eighth century to the tenth century, almost all non-literary and non-historical secular Greek books, including such diverse topics as astrology, alchemy, physics, botany and medicine, that were not available throughout the eastern Byzantine Empire and the Near East, were translated into Arabic.
Greek Thought, Arabic Culture explores the major social, political and ideological factors that occasioned the unprecedented translation movement from Greek into Arabic in Baghdad, the newly founded capital of the Arab dynasty of the 'Abbasids', during the first two centuries of their rule. Dimitri Gutas draws upon the preceding historical and philological scholarship in Greco-Arabic studies and the study of medieval translations of secular Greek works into Arabic and analyses the social and historical reasons for this phenomenon.
Dimitri Gutas provides a stimulating, erudite and well-documented survey of this key movement in the transmission of ancient Greek culture to the Middle Ages.
Table of contents
Title Page iii
Contents ix
Preface xiii
Note on Dates, Names,
and Transliteration xvii
Introduction 1
Part I - Translation
and Empire 9
1 - The Background of
the Translation Movement 11
2 - Al-ManṢŪr 28
3 - Al-MahdĪ and His
Sons 61
4 - Al-Ma’mŪn 75
Part II - Translation
and Society 105
5 - Translation in the
Service of Applied and Theoretical Knowledge107
6 - Patrons,
Translators, Translations 121
7 - Translation and
History 151
Epilogue187
Appendix: Greek Works
Translated into Arabic 193
Bibliography and
Abbreviations 197
Chronological
Bibliography of Studies on the Significance of the Translation Movement for
Islamic Civilization 212
General Index 216
Index of
Manuscripts 230
