During the Middle Ages the Arab Dynasty grew. During this time the Arab transcribers and philosophers helped bring the ideas of Aristotle and even to some extent, Plato, to an ever growing population.  While Christians were conquered by barbarians for over a thousand years, the Eastern Empire continued to house and refine the great works of many Greek Philosophers.

 The Hegira started with Mohammed, about 10 years before his death. This movement began the Arab’s great conquests over Syria, Persia, India, Constantinople, Egypt, Spain, Carthage, and many other locations.  The Hegira period marked great trade and the growing of intellect and ideas; these being gathered from all over the world.

 The two most acclaimed Arab Philosophers were Avincena (Ibn Sina) and Averros (Ibn Rushd). Both worked at explaining Aristotle Ideology for the Arab world. Both not only transcribed Aristotle’s work, but worked hard to add their own ideas and nuances to his work. By making it more palatable for Arabs, these two helped spread Greek: Science; Medicine, Anatomy; Mathematics; Astrology; and other western knowledge.

  Avicenna was well known for “Thought brings about the Generality in forms” a book describing Genera, (Universals):

“Genera-that is, universals are-at once before things, in things, and after things …They are before things in God’s understanding, (God decides, for instance, to create cats. This requires that He should have the idea “cat”…),(History of Western Philosophy, Russell b, 1972)

 Avicenna points out that for God to create things, he had to have an idea of what those things he created are. Thus they must have existed, even only as ideas, before God.

 Averroes was also, a great admirer of Aristotle. His devotion to Aristotle was seen by some to almost take on a religious like fever or pitch. Averroes was like minded with Thomas Aquinas, believing that God can be proven through reason independent of revelation.

 Due to Averroes zeal in studying Aristotle, many Christians resisted his teachings and translations. Thus when the Arabs helped bring Greek Philosophy back during the middle ages, his works were resisted as European prejudice against Arabs grew in Europe. This same problem was equally shared by many of his Muslim and other religious leaders. His same energy and texts were seen as distractions from God. Thus anything in text form besides the Koran, was a distraction from God. This led to the burning of many texts and the killing of many Greek Western Philosophers of Arab descent in Arabia.

Summing Up:

 During Mohammed’s time, The Hegira, was a great movement leading to Arabic translations of Greek works by many Philosophers. During this period the Arab world grew with conquests all over the world. These Arabs helped ensure that during the Christianity Dark Ages these texts were not lost.  While there was a need for these texts, most were accepted with growing disdain as prejudice against Arabs grew in Christian circles. Two of the Greatest Philosophers were Avicenna, known for his work with Genra’s, and Averroes who was known for his zeal and love of Aristotle. These philosophers left their own marks on Aristotle’s work while contemplating new philosophies. We owe the Muslims and these philosophers, for helping us to save the Greek: Science, Medicine, Philosophy and other studies, as Christianity was taken over by Barbarians.