the abbasìd’s golden age 163described as weak and were not included in the category of eminent
scholars. Tawhìd became the knowledge of the methods of argu-
mentation, the manner of confronting adversaries, instead of being
the belief that all things come from God with no intermediary agents.
Circuits of Zikr, remembrance of God and His creation, turned into
meetings of preaching, lecturing and story-telling. Poetry, the use of
which was restricted as it was confined mainly to religious purposes,
became unrestricted. Subjects varied from personal eulogy as well as
defamation, to description of wine drinking circuits. Hakim, a word
used to describe a wise man, was used to describe physicians, astro-
logers and palm readers (Al-Ghazàlì, Vol. I).
Critique of the Greek philosophy
The interest of Muslims in Greek philosophy could be said to have
developed at the reign of the Abbasìd caliph al-Ma"mùn (813–833).
Ibn-Khaldùn tells us that al-Ma"mùn, who himself had a desire for
science, sent ambassadors to the Byzantine emperors to explore the
Greek science, and “have them copied into Arabic writing; he sent
translators for that purpose”, (Ibn-Khaldùn). The mission seemed to
have been successful as we learn from the same source that, “As a
result, a good deal of material was preserved and collected”, (ibid.)
Prior to al-Ma"mùn’s endeavour, the Muslim caliph was restricted
to mathematics. Al-Ma"mùn’s great grand father, the caliph Ja"afer
al-Mansùr, went to the Byzantine emperor and asked him to send
him “translation of mathematical works”, (ibid.). The Byzantine
emperor who seemed to be happy to oblige, sent him Euclid’s book.
Muslim thinkers developed a special interest in the Greek sciences
and achieved a notable skill. Some were keen to develop some philo-
sophical work, with an Islamic version, in parallel to that of the
Greek philosophers, such as al-Faràbì in his City in parallel with
Plato and his republic. Others provided a critique of the Greek work,
and contradicted the First Teacher (Aristotle) on many points and
surpassed their predecessors in intellectual sciences (ibid.). Consequently,
the Greek intellectual sciences succeeded to some degree in pene-
trating Islam, and “seduced many people who were eager to study
those sciences and accept the opinion expressed in them” (ibid.).
Therefore, in a period where writing on philosophy and the politi-
cal theories dominated the intellectual activities, there was much less
writing on Islamic economics.