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GREEK OR TO BE PRECISE HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY CAME INTO THE MUSLIM WORLD BY WAY OF
[2] At first, some of the translations were not from good original
copies but as the demand for the philosophical literature was up more
and better copies were found. Interestingly however, some important
works never made it into Arabic for example the politics of Aristotle
(c.f. Aristu) was never found. Also among the bad copies/translations
was Aristotle's poetics. To make matters even worst, some of Plotinus'
Enneads (available online c.f. Enneads) would be translated under the
title of the “Theology of Aristotle”, so the Muslims had a skewed if not
a contradictory view of Aristotle. Some writers questioned its
attribution to Aristotle but no one could research this further. One of
those who strongly apposed the view that the “Theology” was a work
of Aristotle is Averroes (d. 1198). As Greek was not one of the
languages that many Arabic speaking Muslims learned. The perceived
superiority of the Arabic language deterred many from learning or
writing in any other language.
[12] To prove his point al-Ghazali did two things first of all he
wrote a summary (titled Maqasid al-falasifah (Aims of the philosophers)
of philosophical teachings concentrating on metaphysics and logic.
This summary proved useful and with the missing introduction and
closing remarks would earn him the title of “the expositor of
Avicennain philosophy” in the west. His stated goal is that in order to
be able to refute philosophy one had to be competent in it. This he did,
much to the dismay of his compatriots who claimed that you have
done the philosophers task by simplifying their teachings for the
layperson. Ibn Rushd would vent his anger on him years later for doing
this as well. How could he bring to the masses the literature of the elite
that has been hidden by complex terminology and vague statements
that only the ‘select’ were understand after undergoing through
‘training’.
[16] The point the author here is trying to make is that religion
can be arrived at naturally without the aid of revelation. Interestingly
this concept is not so foreign to Islam, which sees itself as the “Natural
religion”. Surprisingly, this neo-Platonist would be the mentor of the
most famous Arab Aristotelian, Ibn Rushd. [Historical Note: This last claim of Ibn
Rushd's mentor is really open to question perhaps it is the stuff of legend along with a similar historical claim that
Ibn 'Arabi learned philosophy from Ibn Rushd. Perhaps Ibn 'Arabi learned (if not emptied) Ibn Rushd of Ibn
Tufail's philosophical (read Sufi) thought.]
[19] To his credit, Ibn Rushd would have quite an influence on the
medieval philosophy of Europe through Latin translation of his works.
He would also cast doubt on the authenticity of the attribution of the
“theology of Aristotle” to Aristotle. The work, as mentioned above, was
a compilation of some of the chapters from Plotinus’ Enneads.