ABSTRACT
The question of the transmission of Greek philosophy and science to the Islamic world covers an extremely vast area: the last centuries of the Hellenistic world, the Sassanian Empire and its specific Christian church, and the Islamic period. In order to understand the question of transmission we cannot avoid referring to the first two cultures which constitute the backbone and the playground of this historical development. We will be concerned with the underlying forces which brought about changes in each period and opened the path for the actual transmission.
