Iqbals The Development of Metaphysics in Persia [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

22thinkers. It is, I
believe, largely due to the influence of foreign thought that the old monistic
tendency when it reasserted itself about the end of the 8^th century,
assumed a much more spiritual aspect; and, in its later development, revivified
and spiritualised the old Iranian dualism of Light and Darkness. The fact,
therefore, that Greek thought roused into fresh life the subtle Persian
intellect, and largely contributed to, and was finally assimilated by the
general course of intellectual evolution in Persia, justifies us in briefly
running over, even though at the risk of repetition, the systems of the Persian
Neo-Platonists who, as such, deserve very little attention in a history of
purely Persian thought.

It must, however, be remembered that Greek wisdom flowed towards the
Moslem east through Harran and Syria. The Syrians took up the latest Greek
speculation i.e. Neo-Platonism and transmitted to the Moslem what they believed
to be the real philosophy of Aristotle. It is surprising that Mohammedan
Philosophers, Arabs as well as Persians, continued wrangling over what they
believed to be the real teaching of Aristotle and Plato, and it never occurred
to them that for a thorough comprehension of their Philosophies, the knowledge
of Greek language was absolutely necessary. So great was their ignorance that an
epitomised translation of the Enneads of Plotinus was accepted as "Theology of
Aristotle." It took them centuries to arrive at a clear conception of the two
great masters of Greek thought; and it is doubtful whether they ever completely
understood