Qadis, Dar al-Hikma

To clear up a few questions that were left hanging. The word qadi means judge. When the `Abbasids took power they curried favor with the `ulama, those learned in the Islamic sciences, especially hadith and Qur'an interpretation, by appointing them to the major judgeships throughout the empire. Until that point judges were appointed by governors as deputies; their authority was derived from the governor's.

The Dar al-Hikma was as everyone has said primarily an institution in which the vast corpus of Hellenistic (and Sasanian) learning was translated into Arabic. The Hellenistic fields of knowledge - medicine, pharmacology, mathematics, geometry, logic, the sciences in general - were translated in the first instance from Syriac translations of the original Greek. Syriac was much closer to Arabic, and Syriac Christian writers had made many translations from the Greek, so naturally that is where they started. As the Dar (or Bayt - no need to memorize that one) al-Hikma hit its stride it tried to put translation on a more scientific basis. Two problems confronted these scholars: going back to the most authoritative sources, which led them to the original Greek, and developing a standard Arabic vocabulary for the technical terms in all of these fields. Hitherto, with translations being made from the Syriac, and with each translator coming up with his own technical vocabulary, the translations were not of the highest quality, nor could anyone expect that one translator's terminology would be used by others. The Dar al-Hikma solved both of these problems and bequeathed to future generations of scholars (including later European ones) accurate and standardized translations. It is from this point that

"Arabic science", as it was known in the west, took off. The dubiety quotes are there because many of the greatest scientists were in fact Persians and other non-Arabs, as Ibn Khaldun points out. The objection to the term seems to me an example of hyper-correctness, as for a long time the language of the sciences, mathematics, and philosophy was Arabic and ethnicity was a secondary consideration throughout the post-Abbasid period.

Someone suggested that the term `ulama means the religious scholars learned in the sciences of hadith and the Qur'an. That is correct: we don't use the term `ulama with respect to scholars primarily interested in the Hellenistic sciences, though as one poster pointed out many scholars were not exclusively one or the other. The other fields the `ulama studied were to help them elucidate the meaning of the Qur'an and of hadith, so henceforth there were `ulama who made contributions to grammar, lexicography, biography (important when assessing the reliability of hadith transmitters), among others. But Qur'an and hadith were their principal concerns. In the early `Abbasid period they tried with some success to bring these fields into the law, hence the close and permanent connection between the `ulama and the development and application of Islamic law. I'm getting a little ahead here, so no need yet to think about Islamic law except insofar as the `Abbasids adopted a new policy of appointing `ulama as qadis throughout the empire.

Hope this helps, good luck tomorrow. I'm impressed, good discussion.