Öz
World history has witnessed the foundation of many civilizations, the achievement of the basic gains that distinguish them from other civilizations and their diffusion in geographical, political and cultural terms. It is certain that, as in the Roman, Greek, Persian, Egyptian and Indian civilizations, each of the deep-rooted cultures and civilizations has both intellectual and formal characteristics peculiar to themselves. Some of these civilizations came to prominence with the culture of law, some with the culture of philosophy, some with the culture of literature and politics. The Islamic civilization has also created one of the richest civilizations in the world in terms of resources in many fields, especially in religious sciences, politics, law and philosophy, by making use of the accumulations of ancient cultures, provided that the religious thought of Islam is at the center. In this case, the accumulation of philosophy for the Islamic civilization fed by the ancient Eastern and Mediterranean civilizations constitutes only one of this wealthiness. Philosophy essentially doesn’t belong to İslamic civilization itself. As a matter of fact, the Islamic world inherited philosophy from the accumulations of other civilizations before it, especially Greek civilization and culture, in a certain period. This process, that is, the transfer of philosophy to the Islamic world, both the translations made from different languages, and the works and products that are mostly produced within the framework of the problems of philosophy and religion, seem to have been studied and examined. However, the texts, as mentioned, should be regarded as the products of social, political and economic environments and not independent from historical conditions, but also as answers given to the needs of historical conditions and problems. In this sense, the way philosophy came to and held on to the Islamic world, the context and form in its native land, in other words, whether philosophy in the Muslim Middle East gained a different aspect than it did in the Greek political, religious and sociocultural context still remains problematic.
This study is limited to early Islamic thought and refers to sum up process that is meant by the phrase "early period", the process in which religious sciences are formed and the process in which philosophical disciplines are transferred to the Islamic world. In this sense, the context of philosophy in both the Greek and the Islamic world is questioned, because the function and context of philosophy have changed in parallel with the changes in the determinants, contexts and means that give rise to philosophy in the process. While philosophy in Greek is a characteristic of everyday life in "the police" and a product of the lifestyle; the factors that make philosophy necessary in the Islamic world present a very different view. The geographic expansion, which started with the conquests of the Umayyads, evolved to let into non-Arab elements both administratively and politically with the ‘Abbāsids and so, they have developed a multicultural political identity that represents different philosophical ideas, religious beliefs, ethnic, civilized and cultural elements.
In the historical flow, ‘Abbāsids who did not hesitate to apply to various elements in their content in line with various practical and theoretical need were given philosophy and philosophical sciences a warm welcome. While the attitudes towards philosophy were generally positive in the early periods, especially among the people of the palace, philosophy led to negative perceptions among the people who took the religion to the center and lived a simple daily life; in the hands of people with different world views and beliefs, it seems to have turned into different arguments for defense and justification. In this sense, philosophy was brought to the Islamic world by the palace, basically to satisfy a need. In this circumstance, while philosophy in Greece creates politics, the fact that politics in the Islamic world creates philosophy appears as an important point of separation. In order to determine the historical position of philosophy in the Islamic world and to make sense of its current situation, it is necessary to investigate why philosophy has appeared in different ways in different social stratums of Islamic society and discuss the reasons for acceptance or rejection of philosophy.