Syllogisms as the steps to heaven: al-mustaqīm

The translation movement initiated by the early ‘Abbāsid caliphs led to the introduction of Greek classical texts, including those on logic and other aspects of philosophy, into the milieu of early Islam (see Gutas 1998). The role played by Greek logic in Muslim intellectual life gradually increased over the centuries, and the historian Ibn Khaldūn (d. 808/1406), sums up al-Ghazālī’s pivotal role in this process in the following passage.