In Chapter 4, Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī
Al-Kindī was the first universal thinker to bring the Hellenic legacy into Arabic. He saw himself as a transmitter of the wisdom set forth by the ancients whom he admired as predecessors and role-models (On First Philosophy [*51: I 102–104]). Their work had been developed and completed over many generations; now, al-Kindī would present these teachings to ‘those who speak our language (ahl lisāninā)’ (from the commentary on Ptolemy’s Almagest, cited by ¶ Rosenthal 1956 [*317: 445]; we find the same expression in On the Prostration of th…