Dimitri Gutas-Greek Thought, Arabic Culture_ The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ‘Abbasaid Society (2nd-4th 5th-10th c.) (Arabic Thought & Culture) -Routledge (1998).pdf
Shots from the book in text format *Text under this accordion might not be accurate
INTRODUCTIONof the subject (0 this day. The first claims that the translationmovement was the rcsult ofthe scholarly zeal ofa fcw Syriac-speakingChristians who* fluent in Greek (because of their particular educa-tion) and Arabic (because of their historical circumstances), decidcdto translate certain works out of altruistic motives for (he improve-ment of society (or even, be itt the promotion of their own religion).
2The second theory, rampant in much mainstream historiography,attributes it to the ‘wisdom and open-mindedness of a few “en-lightened rulers’S who, conceived in a backward projection of Euro-pean cnlightcnmcnt ideology, promoted learning for its own sakeCertainly Che Syriac-speaking Chrisrians played a fundamental rolein the translation movement— the translators came overwhelmingly,though not exclusively.
ifferently; and yet, why (he Syriac Christians should have at alltranslated these books, or, to go a step farther, why patrons shouldhave paid out good moncy to commission the translation of thcscbooks from thc Syriac Christians, or cven why caliphSJ Arabs ofQurashite stock but a few generations away from rhe Prophet, shouldhave been at all interested in Greek books in translation, ate2 See, as decdedlyChristian perspecrwe, who accributes (he Chrisrian rranslatots a sense of socialand setitre d.
fiS transmission deanuque;آ» in “IA chrأ©riens arabes et 16 disciplines Prut•ht C.heأ¼irآ»,36. p. Fiey even today’s eastern Christians to feel proud of thecontribution Of dteir ;itk’OturS(749—1258’. Louvain, Secretariat do Corpus SCO, 1980. p- 31}. Mote recently. thethough different in Joel L. Kraemer’s rhe2nd Leidetii E.J. Brill, pp.. 76—7,3 For example. S, Taha, “AFTa”r/b 6 1976, 32,pp, X.
xd that thc actors that led the movermentsponsorship onee he had established CheEni;sbed building Baghdad, and che prosnorioo by “-Rand and some “hisminister$ of (he .tur Ies.31, *twibutes development of translati0Ci movement under al-Mahdi to hisSimilar st.itenxotscould yo[urnes. A to this poecion in medievalArabic Sources IS ostensible reading Ofaccount Aristotledream, of which 4.313