The first sources that provided the material for translation came largely from Greek and Syriac. The first themes that were translated were not strictly philosophical, but rather themes that had a practical application. Scientific, medical, alchemical, astrological and astronomical texts were probably the first subjects to be translated into Arabic.

​

                The process of translating scientific and philosophical works began to intensify during the Abbasid period. During this period, Ptolemy's Almagest and Euclid's Elements were translated. At the same time, the famous Indian treatise on astronomy (Siddhanta) was also translated and the first astrolabe in Islam was constructed.

​

              This was also the period in which many apocryphal texts were sporadically translated, such as moral aphorisms attributed to Socrates, Solon, Hermes and Pythagoras. Yahya Ibn Al-Bitriq translated into Arabic a paraphrase by Galen of Plato’s Timaeus and a paraphrase by Themisthius of Aristotle’s On the Soul.

​

              Until the reign of Al-Mansur, translations were fortuitous and there was no group at the disposal of the caliphs as competent as the one that followed under the reign of Al-Ma'mun, a caliph who made a systematic and determined effort to acquire and translate the main monuments of Greek science and philosophy.

​