n Ishak-ben-Honein
and his nephew Hobeisch-Al-Asam also belonged. In the tenth century
(A.D.) Yahya-ben-Adi and Isa-ben-Zara'a translated some works and
corrected earlier translations of others. It is to these men that the
Arabs owe their chief acquaintance with Plato.

The study of Aristotle spread rapidly amongst the Muslim people,
especially amongst the heretical sects. The orthodox looked with grave
suspicion on the movement, but could not for a while stay the impulse.
The historian Makrizi says: "The doctrine of the Philosophers has
worked amongst the Muslims evils most fatal. It serves only to augment
the errors of the heretics and to increase their impiety."[178] It came
into contact with Muslim dogmas in such subjects as the creation of the
world, the special providence of God and the nature of the divine
attributes. To a certain extent the Mutazilites were supported by the
philosophical theories they embraced, but this did not diminish the
disfavour with which the orthodox looked upon the study of philosophy.
Still it grew, and men in self defence had to adopt philosophic
methods. Thus arose a later system of scholasticism. The earlier system
was confined mainly to matters of religion; the later school occupied
itself with the whole range of philosophic investigation, and thus went
farther and farther away from orthodox Islam.

The Muslims themselves did not write books on philosophy in the earlier
period. Men of liberal tendencies imbibed its teaching, but orthodoxy
finally gained the day over the earlier scholastics, and in the form
known as that of the Ash'arian School became again supreme.[179] The
great intellectual movement of the Philosophers proper, the later
scholastics (Mutakalliman), lasted longer, but by the end of the
twelfth century (A.D.) the whole Muhammadan world had again become
orthodox. Salah-ud-din (Saladin) and his successors in Egypt were
strong supporters of the Ash'arians.

{183}

The period now under review was one prolific of authors on grammar,
rhetoric, logic, exegesis, traditions and the various branches of
philosophy; but the men who stand out most prominently as philosophers
were then, and are now, considered heretics.[180]

Al-Kendi, was born at Basra, on the Persian Gulf. He died about 870
A.D. He was a very scientific man, but a th