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GREEK THOUGHT, ARABIC CULTURE With the accession of the Arab dynasty of the ‘Abbasids to power and the foundation of Baghdad (762 AD), a Graeco-Arabic trans- lation movement was initiated that lasted for well aver cwo centuries. By the end of the tenth century, almost all scientific and philo- sophical secular Greck works that were available in late antiquity, including such diverse topics as astrology, alchemy, physics, mathe- matics, medicine, and philosophy, had been translated into Arabic, Greek Thought, Arabic Culrare explores the social, political, and ideological factors operative in carly “Abbasid sociery that occasioned and sustained the translation movement. Ie discusses the social groups that supported and benefited from the translation movement and studies the paramount role played by the incipient Arabic scientific and philosophical tradition in its symbiotic relationship with the translation movement. Finally, it traces the legacy of the translation movement in Islamic lands and abroad, suggesting a direet link with the ninch-century classical revival in Byzantium. Greck Thought, Arabic Culture provides a stimulating, erudite and well-documented analysis of this key movement in the transmission of ancient Greek culture to the middle ages. Dimitri Gutas is Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at Yale University. He is the author of Greek Wisdom Literature in Arabic Translation (1975), Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition (1988), and, with Gerhard Endress, A Greek and Arabic Lexicon (1992-). GREEK THOUGHT, ARABIC CULTURE The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early “Abbasid Society (2nd—4th/8th-10th centuries) Dimitri Gutas TLE 3 Os a tH cm, ne

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