he scientific works of Greece were translated into Arabic, often
through the Syriac, and at the same time the influence of Sanskrit
works made itself felt. Astronomy seems in this way to have come
chiefly from India. The study of mathematics learned from Greece and
India was developed by Arabian writers, who in turn became the
teachers of Europe in the 16th century. Medical literature was
indebted for its origin to the works of Galen and the medical school
of Gondesapur. Many of the Arabian philosophers were also physicians
and wrote on medicine. Chemistry proper was not understood, but
Arabian writings on alchemy led Europe to it later. So also the
literature of the animal world (cf. Damiri) is not zoological but
legendary, and the works on minerals are practical and not scientific.
See ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY and historical sections of such scientific
articles as ASTRONOMY, &c. (G. W. T.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For the general history of the succeeding period see CALIPHATE;
EGYPT: _History_, S "Mahommedan."

[2] For further details of this period, see Egypt: _History_,
"Mahommedan Period," S 8.

[3] On the subject of transmission cf. Th. Noldeke's _Beitrage zur
Kenntniss der Poesie der alten Araber_ (Hanover, 1804); and W.
Ahlwardt's _Bemerkungen uber die Aechtheit der alten arabischen
Gedickte_ (Greifswald, 1872).

[4] For details see the introduction to Noldeke's translation of
Tabari's _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden_
(Leiden, 1879).

[5] Published in excerpt by Wustenfeld along with Azraqi (Leipzig,
1857-1859).

[6] Of this work the Gotha Library has a portion containing 290-320
A.H., of which the part about the West has been printed by Dozy in
the Bayan, and the rest was published at Leiden in 1897.

[7] A fragment (198-251 A.H.) is printed in de Goeje, _Fragm. Hist.
Ar._ (vol. ii., Leiden, 1871).

[8] The first part was rendered into French by Dubeux in 1836. There
is an excellent French translation by Zotenberg (1874).

[9] The chief Arabian geographical works have been edited by M.J. de
Goeje in his _Bibliotheca Geographorum arabicorum_ (Leiden, 1874
ff.).

ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY. What is known as "Arabian" philosophy owed to Arabia
little more than its name and its language. It was a system of Greek
thought, expressed in a Semitic tongue, and modified by Oriental
influences,