Medieval Islamic Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Medieval Muslim Philosophy - Essay typethat had been transmitted from Greece into these countries.In, 323-43 BC Greek classical philosophies experienced a drastic change. From being a essentially Greek product, it developed into an international and eclectic cultural movement in which Greek, Egyptian, Phoenician and former(a) in force(p) Eastern religious and ethical elements came together. This change is best represented by the role Alexandria played as the centre of varied streams of notions making up the new philosophy.At the same time as the Abbasid Caliphate was baffle up in Baghdad in 750 AD, the centre of learning progressively moved to the Abbasid corking, which became later the heir of Athens and Alexandria as the new cultural city of the medieval world. Nearly two centuries later Cordoba, capital of Muslim Spain, began to contend with Baghdad as the centre of ancient learning. From Cordoba, Greek-Arabic philosophy and science were spread across the Pyrenees to Paris, bologna and Oxford in the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries.During the time of the Abbasid Khalifah (Caliph) Mamun-al-Rashid who had established a Bait-el-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad, the influence of the alien thought seeped into Islamic culture. Works of Greek philosophy and natural sciences were available in Alexandria, Egypt, and some other Syrian cities. Mamun-al-Rashid employed scholars of all religions, Jewish, Christianity, Islam, etc. for the purpose of translating these works into Arabic. Regardless of the strong hold of Islamic theological doctrine on the minds of the Arabs, skepticism and rational thinking increasingly developed and flourished under the cost increase and protection provided by the Khalifah. The first reception of Greek-Hellenistic philosophy in the Islamic world was mixed. It was rejected in the beginning as being distrustfully foreign or pagan, and was thus scorned by conservativist theologians, legal scholars and grammarians as harmful or unessential. By the middle of the eighth century AD the public figure had changed to some extent, with the appearance of the rationalist theologians of Islam known as the Mutazilites, who were utterly inclined by the methods of discussion or dialectic supported by the Muslim philosophers. Of those philosophers, the two exceptional persons of the ninth and tenth centuries were al-Kindi and al-Razi, who welcomed Greek philosophy as a form of freedom from the fetters of doctrine or blind imitation (taqlid). For al-Kindi, the objectives of philosophy be rightly well matched with those of religion, and, for al-Razi, philosophy was the highest expression of mans intellectual goals and the noblest achievement of that noble people, who were incomparable in their pursuance for wisdom (hikma).Later scholars used this device with mixed results. For instance, Ibn Rushd stated (11), Since the religion (Islam) is true and summons to the reflect which leads to knowledge of the Truth, we the M uslims know definitely that demonstrative study does not lead to (conclusions) conflicting with what Scripture has stipulation us for truth does not oppose truth but accords with it and bears witness to it. Thus it was a condition that the Scripture was perfect and true, every