Greek Thought, Arab Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries) (Arabic Thought and Culture)

Manufacturer: Routledge Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours List Price:$125.00 Our Price:$125.00 Authors: Dimitri Gutas Description:

Reviews:

Very impressive
Excellent book. A well written, well document reference on an era that remained disjointed in information, and vaguely referred to. Gutas collects the various pieces necessary to put things in order and clarify to most of us a history whose aftermath is known, but not the process. Very impressive. A highly recommended book.


Profound and interesting academic introduction
A superb review of the subject. I thought I knew a bit about the translation movement into Arabic through Syriac, but Gutas showed me I knew nothing almost. Very deeply researched, by an editor of Brill's Mediaeval Greek and Arabic lexicon. There can be few scholars with such a grasp of Greek-Arabic translation, or of Arabic translations of Greek works. He demolishes some old myths - the idea that Ma'mun's "Bait al-Hikma" in Baghdad was anything other than a library is shown to be baseless speculation, for example - and provides us with a view of the translators that I'd have thought impossible before. The analysis of what was translated was most interesting.

Who knows who "Jake", "Kevin" and the anonomous reader are! I see they - or he, as I suspect - have only done a single review apiece. If "they" are really disappointed by the work, it would be helpful if "they" did a fuller review of the book to let us what in "their" view the book's weaknesses are, supported by the text, if possible. I suspect however that it's Professor Gutas' public opposition to the damage to Iraq's cultural heritage resulting from the war in Iraq that's "their" issue.

For more general reading on the adoption of parts of the Classical tradition by the Arabic-speaking world, I can recommend Franz Rosenthal's reader on the subject, "The Classical Heritage in Islam". His introduction is excellent and the texts well-chosen.

I thought the Gutas book interesting enough, by the way, to give a copy to my mediaevalist sister-in-law as a present.


AWFUL
The worst book I have ever read in my life. Joseph Cummings is actually the author in disguise, don't be fooled, readers. This book will disgust you with its inaccuracies and poor scholarship.


Gutas a First-Rate Scholar
Reviews below under the headings "Jake" and a "more matt" request an answer -- not because they are negative, but because they are false and fallacious. "Jake" claims that "Gutas is not an Eastern specialist near in studies, thus it is not qualified as an author." The truth is that Gutas is chair of the Eastern department near to languages and ages of the university of Yale. "more chechmate" affirms that the intelligent people know that Gutas is not a disciple. The truth is that Gutas is one of the first erudite experts as regards world on the movement medieval Graeco-Arab of translation. The readers can be in dissension with the conclusions of Gutas, and nonthe specialists can find its topics obscure (although they have the major relevance with the modern exits), but surely the erudite qualifications of Gutas as an expert in this field are above conflict.


Pathetic
Incredibly horrible. Pathetic. Moronic. These are the only words that I can employ to describe the book of Dimitri Gutas. The book is supposedly for specialists in the field, but Gutas is not an Eastern specialist near in studies, thus he is not qualified as an author. Seek other authors for an erudite account of the movement Graeco-Arab of translation. As for this book: Tear-the with the scraps. Throw it in a swimming pool and leave it to drown. Bury it under the ground. It does not deserve to be published or read by no matter whom. Absolutely frightening. Ridiculous. Hateful. Dimitri Gutas is the weakest excuse for an author and a disciple.


response
Expensive more chechmate that a butter knife, it is a book for specialists in the field. Why did you buy it if you were not a specialist in the field? As for the second post, on page 13 written Gutas, "discutablement the most important factor for the dissemination of the information in general was the introduction of paper transforming technology into the Islamic world..." Gutas reads languages English, French, German, Greek, Arab, Turkish, and some others. While you cannot like his work, I believe that the load that he is not a disciple is forced a little.


Duller than a Butter Knife
This book is absurd. The author is very self-satisfied and thinks that he is a scholar. Intelligent people know better! He is writing about such an obscure subject, who even cares? When I was finished with this book, I donated it to a prison! Dimitri Gutas is the worst writer in the entire world, ancient or modern.


Interesting, but myopic
Filled of detail concerning of the books translated by people living under Abbasid reign, Gutas omits any reference to the contemporary revolution in the manufacture of paper. Surely, it would be appropriate the drop of 90% in material costs of writing contributed to the flowering of the publication of book (if written hand motionless). Moreover, Gutas does not mention the education of the scribers nor the practice of reading Coran and Hadif. Instead of that, the hearth is almost entirely on intellect. Little Gutas considers has the temporal context. The Aristote discussions finished of Abbasid could just like easily take place in Alexandria de Ptolémée. There are a valuable article, but limited discussion of Moslem evangelization and interactions between the Moslem rules and the Christian sects. I would have appreciated more. Gutas wire-drawer owing to the fact that the motivation for the translation emerged from the need for Abbasid for assimilating the Persan empire (of Sassanid). The primary influence in the tradition of Sassanid was philosophy of Zoroastrian and its mondialism. While it is entirely plausible, it strikes me as exaggerated. Moreover, logic obtains a little twisted as it develops. Towards the end of the book, the conjectured influence of Sassanid made Aristote, not Zoroaster, the principal center of a philosophical attention. However much broader in the race, a much better analysis of the movement of translation can be found in "paper before copy: History and impact of paper in the Islamic world "by Jonathan Mr. Bloom



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