Aristotle is the main source for the so-called Presocratics in the Arab world. Other than Aristotle, sources for them include biographers, bibliographers, and doxographers, as well as works on history, literature, heresiography, and philosophers. The former are the most reliable because of their antiquity, while Muslim historians and philosophers usually adapt the data on ancient thought to their own purposes or place ancient thinkers in theoretical frameworks. The amount of data at our disposal is less than what might appear, however, because the sources rely on one another.
Only Presocratics whose doctrines can be reconciled with Muslim theology are considered: Parmenides, for example, is seldom quoted, probably because his conception of ‘‘being’’ (to on) as an absolute but impersonal entity was at odds with the Qur’anic idea of God. This entry deals with Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, and Democritus. The eleventh century heresiographer al-ShahrastanI selected ‘‘the seven wise men’’ of antiquity that had been ‘‘illuminated from the lamp of prophecy.’’ Sa‘id al-AndalusI (d. 1070) in his Genealogy of Nations names Thales, Empedocles, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, and Democritus as the ‘‘five philosophers par excellence.’’
The names of the Presocratics are variously transcribed in Arabic; their chronologies are uncertain, often as a result of confusion: Zeno of Elea is confused with Zeno of Cyzicus for example, and sometimes anecdotes refer to persons with the same name.
Sources say little about their education, philosophical activity, disciples, physical appearance, or the titles of their writings. Al-ShahrastanI introduces Empedocles as a contemporary of the prophets David and Luqman. Anaxagoras is among the most quoted Presocratic thinkers, though the dates and places oforigin proposed for him are diverse: some sources place him immediately after Anaximenes - hence al-ShahrastanI links him with the Milesian school, not the town of Clazomenes - but others consider him a contemporary of Zeno of Elea, of Democritus, or of Aristotle; sometimes he is quoted together with Pythagoras, Democritus, and Diogenes the Cynic. According to the eleventh century Egyptian historian and savant Mubashshir b. Fatik and to the thirteenth century Illuminationist philosopher al-Shahrazurl, his works were burnt at the time of Galen. Democritus is often introduced as a contemporary of the Persian king Artaxerxes I. He is by far the most quoted Presocratic, though not always with reference to atomism or to his moral statements (cf. the Greek Democrates). Ibn al-NadIm, the tenth century author of the famous al-Fihrist (''The Index’’) of names of authors and works in different fields of knowledge, places Democritus among the “makers of gold and silver,’’ perhaps because of confusion between Democritus of Abdera and Bolos of Mendes, the Hellenistic author of Geoponika in the fourth century to third century BCE, also called Bolos Democritus. Unlike the other Greek supporters of atomism - Leucippus, Epicurus, and Metrodoros of Chios - Democritus is associated with various names; some generic titles are attributed to him, as is a book on animals showing what they have in common with humans.
World History
