ABSTRACT
The Abbasids promoted further a cosmopolitan civilization with Baghdad as its centre and Arabic as its lingua franca. It was not specifically a Muslim one, since only its language, law and theology were that. The rest of its ingredients came from non-Muslim sources, such as Greek philosophy and science (which as we shall see were later rejected with significant consequences), and Persian and Indian influences. Its culture was multiracial, since much of its philosophical literature was written by Christians and Jews; its medical and mathematical treatises were written by Persians and Indians.
