ABSTRACT
Many of the classical sources praising ancient Egyptian sciences were well known to medieval Arab writers. Arab scholars were generous in their praise of the sciences of ancient nations, regarding scientists, irrespective of origin or creed, as ancestors who had contributed to a universal process to which every nation contributes its share in its own time. The Egyptian Hermes, known as Hermes the Copt, was perceived as the source of scientific knowledge. Arab fascination with pre-Islamic Egyptian sciences and scholars was not limited to past Egyptians but included their contemporaries as well. In many medieval Arabic sources, scientists from pre-Islamic Egypt and their achievements are described at length. These pre-Islamic scholars from Egypt were thought of as Egyptians but they wrote in Greek, and were thus often designated as Greek. Hero's book on Pneumatics, cited by Al-Qifi, survived only in its medieval Arabic translation.
