From a lecture by the prominent Sri Lankan emigré intellectual Dr. A.C.L. Ameer Ali, who now resides and teaches in Australia:
By way of illustrating my point, let me cite this episode from history. It was the great Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur who initiated the famous translation movement in the ninth century which rediscovered the ancient Greek intellectual treasures of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and others. Arabic language became the vehicle currency for the exchange of intellectual thought and storage of ancient European knowledge. Al-Mamun, the grandson of al-Mansur, not only continued with the translation movement but also created the Baytul Hikma or the House of Wisdom which became the repository of those translated works. Incidentally, it was that translation movement started by the Arab Muslims that gave the English language the word dragoman, a derivation from the Arabic word tarjuma. Today, that work of translation under the Arabic title al-Hikma is being continued in a reverse direction, i.e., from Arabic to English in the Brigham Young University, the heart of Mormon Christianity in the United States. Just as the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, and Socrates came to the world of Islam in the ninth century, the works of ibn-Sina, ibn-Rushd, al-Ghazzali, Mulla Sadra, and a host of other medieval Muslim savants are now being made available to the English speaking world. At a time when many Muslims are looking at the West-Islam relationship rather negatively, here is a positive development that they are refusing to acknowledge.
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/14500
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