Harakat at-targama: den grekisk-arabiska översättningsrörelsen

The Graeco-Arabic translation movement was initiated for ideological, political and practical reasons by the second Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur and supported by his successors. This large-scale translation activity went on for about 200 years, from the end of the eighth to the end of the tenth century, during which almost all Greek philosophical and scientific literature was translated into Syriac – the predominant scientific language among Christian scholars until the second half of the ninth century – and Arabic. The commissioners of translations belonged to the political and scholarly elite of Abbasid society. They paid large sums for qualified translations and this made translation of Greek texts into a prestigeous and lucrative occupation that attracted well-educated scholars. Translation was an integral part of scientific and scholarly work; the translators were also scientists in their own right and wrote original works on a wide range of topics.