The Heritage of Pre-Islamic Philosophy and Science. During the two and a half centuries between 750 and 1000, nearly all the Greek works that were available in the Byzantine Empire and the Middle East were translated into Arabic. The only Greek works that were not translated into Arabic were literary and historical works and books of Christian theology. Muslim theologians avoided books of Christian theology for religious and political reasons, just as Christian theologians avoided books of Islamic theology. Modern scholars do not know why Muslims did not translate Greek literary and historical works. Perhaps they avoided these works because they referred to pagan gods. However, Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics, the two bestknown sources of Greek literary theory, had been translated into Arabic by the tenth century. Traces of Aristotle's teachings on these subjects can be found in a variety...