This book is a translation of Maghze Mutafakkir Jehan Shia, the famous Persian book, which has been published four times in Tehran, Iran. The Persian book is itself a translation from a French thesis published by The Research Committee of Strasbourg, France, about the contribution of Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) to science, philosophy, literature etc.
Members of the Research committee have done a wonderful job and deserve thanks and gratitude from all those who love the Imam (a.s.). However, I cannot help commenting that when the learned scholars, who were engaged in research, failed to find worldly sources of Imam’s knowledge, they indulged in wild speculations and guesswork and were even guilty of misrepresenting historical facts to prove that Imam Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) had acquired their knowledge through the following sources:
The Great Library of Alexandria.
Coptic Scholars of Egypt.
Books of Greek Philosophers.
Persian Physicians.
LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA
The library, which was established by Ptolemy I, was burnt down about 600 years before Muslims entered Egypt. There was no trace of scientific books of Coptic scholars in that country at the time of the Imam. Philip K. Hitti has described the burning of that library in The History of The Arabs:
“The story that by the order of the Caliph, Amr, for six months fed numerous bath furnaces of the city with volumes of Alexandrian Library is one of those tales that makes good fiction but bad history. The great Ptolemic library was burnt as early as 48 BC by Julius Caesar. A later one referred to as the Daughter Library, was destroyed about AD 389 as a result of an edict by Emperor Theodosius. At the time of the Arab conquest, therefore, no library of any importance existed in Alexandria.
COPTIC SCHOLARS OF EGYPT
Macedonian General, Ptolemy I, had become Pharaoh, with a court that spoke Greek. He established a museum and a library in Alexandria. During the reign of the first two Ptolemies, the two institutions proved to be of great help in spreading knowledge, but even before they were burnt and destroyed by the Romans, they had ceased to serve any useful purpose. When the Arabs conquered Egypt, the country was under total darkness. There was no lamp and no light that could have illuminated the Muslim world. H.G. Wells has described the state of affairs in Alexandria, after the first two Ptolemies, in the following words:
“For a generation or so during the reigns of Ptolemy I, and Ptolemy II, there was such a blaze of knowledge and discovery at Alexandria as the world was not to see again until the sixteenth century A.D. but it did not continue. The Museum produced little good work after the first century of activity.”
“So it was this blaze of intellectual enterprise never reached beyond a small circle of people in touch with the philosophers collected by the first two Ptolemies.
It was like the light in a dark lantern, which is shut off from the world at large. Within, the blaze may be blindingly bright, but nevertheless, it is unseen. Presently a darkness of bigotry fell upon Alexandria. Thereafter, for a thousand years of darkness, the seed that Aristotle had sown lay hidden. Then it stirred and began to germinate.”
The name of the Christian, Jewish, Sabean, and Zoroastrian scholars, who made contributions to the intellectual awakening and progress of the Arabs after the conquest of Syria, Iran and Iraq, are recorded in history. Many of them had become converts to Islam.
However, we do not find the name of a single Coptic scholar in the list of these luminaries. Learned members of the Committee, who researched the life of Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.), did not and could not mention a single Coptic scholar who might have come to Medina to educate the Muslims.
If there were any Coptic scholars in Egypt they would have gone to Baghdad, which was nearer to Alexandria and was the seat of the government, where they could have gained favor of the caliph, won fame, and made a fortune. They would not have made a long and arduous trek to Medina to give lessons to the Imams (a.s.) in astronomy, geography, physics and chemistry with no hope of recovering their expenses. Moreover, by doing so they would have definitely incurred the wrath of the people in power who were hostile to the Imams (a.s.).
There was also the language problem. It would have been very difficult for Coptic scholars to translate into Arabic what they had learnt in Greek, when there were no equivalent scientific and technical terms in Arabic. Even up to the time of Ma’mun, who was giving gold equal to the weight of Greek books, which were translated into Arabic, there were few scholars in the Muslim world, who could do the job, take that rich reward, earn fame and get a lucrative post in the Translation Bureau of the Caliph.
Since there were no scholars who were proficient in Greek as well as in Arabic languages, most of the Greek works were first translated into Syriac, an old language of Syria, by the scholars, who knew Greek as well as Syriac. Then they were translated from Syriac into Arabic by young Syriac knowing scholars who had also studied Arabic. The difficult passages in the original were translated word for word. Where no Arabic equivalent was known, the Greek terms were simply transliterated with some adaptations.
BOOKS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHERS
Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) had attacked the theories of Ptolemy and Aristotle, when he was a student in the Academy of his father, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (a.s.), who died in A.H. 114, when the Umayyads were in power. No scientific, mathematical, or philosophical books were received or translated in that period. The work of collection and translation of books began when al-Mansur assumed the caliphate in A.H. 136. In the year 154 of the Hijra, six years after the death of Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) an Indian traveler introduced a treatise on astronomy in Baghdad, which was translated into Arabic by Muhammad Ibne Ibrahim on the order of al-Mansur. The same traveler introduced another treatise on Mathematics by means of which the numerals, which are called Arabic numerals, entered the Muslims world. It was the temptation of a handsome reward, which had lured the people to bring books to Baghdad.
Al-Mansur dispatched emissaries as far as Constantinople to Emperor Leo, in quest of Greek works, and is reported to have received from the Byzantine emperor a number of books including Euclid.
Al-Hajjaj Ibne Yusuf Ibne Matar (169-216 A.H) is credited with making the first translation of the Elements of Euclid and one of the first of Almagest of Ptolemy. But these translations had not been done properly and had to be revised or retranslated during the caliphates of ar-Rashid and al-Mamun.
One of the pioneer Greek translator was Abu-Yayha ibn al-Batriq (179-189 A.H.). He is reported to have translated major works of Galen and Hippocrates for al-Mansur. He is also said to have translated Ptolemy’s Quadripartitum.
Translation work was done sporadically for al-Mansur and ar-Rashid. In A.H. 213 al-Mamun established his Bayt-al-Hikma, which was a combination of Library, Academy and Translation Bureau. He appointed Hunayn ibn-Ishaq as the Superintendent of the Bayt-al-Hikma. As the chief translator of scientific works he was assisted by his son, Ishaq, his nephew Hubaysh ibn al-Hasan and many other students.
Since most of the translators were Aramaic (Syriac) speaking, many of the Greek works, were translated first into Aramaic (Syriac) before their rendition into Arabic. In many cases Hunayn did the initial translation from Greek into Syriac and his colleagues took the second step and translated them from Syriac into Arabic. Aristotle’s Hermeneutica, for instance, was first done from Greek into Syriac by the father and then from Syriac into Arabic by the son, Ishaq, who had studied Arabic. He is credited with translating the works of Galen, Hippocrates and Dioscorides as well as Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Categories, Physics and Magna Moralia.
Another famous group of translators was Thabit ibn Qurrah (219-284 A.H) and his disciples, who were mostly Sabeans from Harran.
They were star-worshippers and as such were interested in astronomy and mathematics. Most probably they studied those subjects from Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) or his students. Thabit and his disciples are credited with translating Greek mathematical and astronomical works including those of Archimedes. He also revised the previous translation of Euclid.
PERSIAN PHYSICIANS
In those days there were no colleges in many places like Jundi Shahpur, where students could go and learn the science of medicine. If someone wanted to work as a physician, he had to serve for decades as an apprentice under an experienced physician. Medical knowledge could not be acquired simply by reading books, since they were not available.
Iran made little contribution to the world of science, medicine and philosophy. Only one book of astronomy is reported to have been translated from Pahlavi into Arabic in A.H. 198 by al-Fadl ibn Nawbakht, the chief librarian of ar-Rashid. Ibn al-Muqaffa translated the famous book of fables, Kalilah and Dimna, from Pahlavi into Arabic.
“Except in the arts of belle-letters Persia did not have much that was original to contribute. The aesthetic temperament of Iranian population was a sorely needed element in the cultural life of Semitic Arabians. Next to the artistic, the literary, rather than scientific or philosophical was the influence most clearly felt from Persia.
Jundi Shahpur in Iran was noted for its Academy of Medicine, which was established by Anusharwan in 555 A.D. According to some historians, the Greek system of medicine was being taught in that institute, but the language of instruction was Aramaic (Syriac). In A.D. 765 Caliph al-Mansur appointed Jurjis ibn-Bakhtishu, the dean of the hospital, as his court physician. Abbasid caliphs, who were patrons of the Academy, could not find a single book on philosophy, medicine or any scientific subject which was considered suitable for translation into Arabic.
Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) did not serve as an apprentice under any Persian physician; and he could not have obtained and studied the books on medicine, written in Pahlavi script during the pre-Islamic period. It is, therefore, preposterous to presume that he had learned the science of medicine from the Iranians.
The above facts conclusively prove the contention of the Shias that their Imams had supernatural knowledge (Ilm-e-Ladunni). Said Ali Ibn Abi Talib (a.s.):
“You should know that the knowledge, which came from heaven for Adam and every kind of knowledge which adorned all the prophets of God including Prophet Muhammad (May Allah bestow His Blessings upon him and his progeny) is with his descendants.”
Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander, was well- known to the Arabs. They called him Muellim (the teacher). They must also have become familiar with the names of Ptolemy, Socrates, Plato and other philosophers of Greece and Alexandria, but they did not know what they had written and what they had said.
Imam Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) knew that the Muslim world would be flooded with books of the philosophers of Greece and Alexandria and that the Muslims would blindly accept everything they had written as Gospel truth. Thus, many of their false and fallacious theories would catch their imagination, corrupt their minds, and keep them under total darkness for centuries, which is actually what happened. For example, the theory of Ptolemy that the earth is the center of universe and the sun, the planets and the stars rotate around it was generally accepted by the Muslims as correct.
The two Imams explained to their students, who were to spread their teachings among the Muslims, the theories of those philosophers, pointed out their mistakes and presented their own correct theories. Similarly they taught them physics, chemistry, geography, etc, prior to the translation of these subjects from Indian, Greek and Persian into Arabic. Because they were the Imam’s (representatives of Allah on earth) they had the knowledge of the theories of Greek philosophers and others. There can be no other explanation.