ABSTRACT
The first great Islamic philosopher among those whom the Christian writers of the Middle Ages came to know was Alkindi (c.800-73), who lived first in Basra and then in Baghdad. His work, De Intellectu, belongs in the family of commentaries on Aristotle's De Anima, and clarifies the meaning of the Aristotelian distinction between the passive intellect which receives intelligible 'species', and the agent intellect which produces intelligible objects. The next important stage in Islamic philosophical-theological investigation of the nature and function of the soul is taken up in the work of Alfarabi. From God, the first intellect, emanates ten lesser intellects, culminating in the Tenth Intellect, which is the Agent or Active Intellect. This last power acts as a bridge between the heavenly world and the world below the moon. The work of Averroes marks the high point of Islamic medieval philosophy in the century just before the introduction of Aristotle's work to the European world.
