The influence of classical antiquity on the religious disciplines, theology, mysticism and law of Islam cannot be overestimated. This work demonstrates the significance of the classical heritage by drawing together a great range of literary renderings, paraphrases, commentaries and imitations, as well as independent Islamic elaborations. Professor Rosenthal's collection includes the work of early authors, authors of the Golden Age and later writers who imitated their works. The Classical Heritage in Islam reveals that the Muslim adoption of and dependence on classical texts was not blind imitation or a casual compounding of traditions, but rather an original synthesis and therefore a unique achievement.

Rosenthal, Franz

Introduction; Chapter 1 Translation Technique and Textual Criticism; Chapter 2 Biography and Cultural History; Chapter 3 The Classification of the Sciences and Methods of Research and Teaching; Chapter 4 Philosophy; Chapter 5 Natural Science; Chapter 6 Medicine; Chapter 7 Geometry, Arithmetic and Optics; Chapter 8 Geography and Astronomy; Chapter 9 Musicology; Chapter 10 Mechanics; Chapter 11 The Occult Sciences; Chapter 12 Literature and Art;