With the accession of the Arab dynasty of the 'Abbasids to power and the foundation of Baghdad, a Graeco-Arabic translation movement was initiated, and by the end of the tenth century, almost all scientific and philosophical secular Greek works that were available in late antiquity had been translated into Arabic. This book explores the social, political and ideological factors operative in early 'Abbasid society that sustained the translation movement.

Profiles Grecian influences on tenth-century Arab society

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.

The medical compendium entitled Zād al-musāfir wa-qūt al-ḥāḍir (Provisions for the Traveller and the Nourishment for the Sedentary) and compiled by Ibn al-Jazzār from Qayrawān in the tenth century is one of the most influential medical handbooks in the history of western medicine. In the eleventh century, Constantine the African translated it into Latin; this translation was the basis for the commentaries by the Salernitan masters from the twelfth century on, and was popular in Jewish circles as well, as is attested by the fact that it was translated into Hebrew three times. The current volume covers Book 7, chapters seven to thirty of Ibn al-Jazzār’s compendium. These chapters cover a wide variety of external afflictions such as measles and smallpox; bites and stings; rabies; tumours; warts and calluses, leprosy, scurf and eczema, pruritus and scabies, furuncles, scrofula, sharā and heat rashes; fractures and dislocations; haemorrhages caused by a sword, knife or arrow; whiteness of the nails and paronychia; burns; wounds caused by pressure from the shoes; and fissures in the hands and feet.

Patristic Literature in Arabic Translations explores the Arabic translations of the Greek and Syriac Church Fathers, focusing on those produced in the Palestinian monasteries and at Sinai in the 8th–10th centuries and in Antioch during Byzantine rule (969–1084). These Arabic translations preserve patristic texts lost in the original languages. They offer crucial information about the diffusion and influence of patristic heritage among Middle Eastern Christians from the 8th century to the present. A systematic examination of Arabic patristic translations sheds light on the development of Muslim and Jewish theological thought. Contributors are Aaron Michael Butts, Joe Glynias, Habib Ibrahim, Jonas Karlsson, Sergey Kim, Joshua Mugler, Tamara Pataridze, Alexandre Roberts, Barbara Roggema, Alexander Treiger.

From the Greeks to the Arabs and Beyond written by Hans Daiber, is a six volume collection of Daiber’s scattered writings, journal articles, essays and encyclopaedia entries on Greek-Syriac-Arabic translations, Islamic theology and Sufism, the history of science, Islam in Europe, manuscripts and the history of oriental studies. It also includes reviews and obituaries. Vol. V and VI are catalogues of newly discovered Arabic manuscript originals and films/offprints from manuscripts related to the topics of the preceding volumes.