His book is a work of a researcher that goes beyond the controversies surrounding these subjects faraway look around the transmission of Greek philosophical texts intellectuals of the West. The question of the influence of the Muslim philosophers Avicenna and Averroes mainly took the last few years a political dimension which tends to distort the facts.
The very detailed analysis of Rémi Brague for understanding the reality of philosophical thinking in the West, in countries under Muslim rule and in the Jewish community: it shows the limits of the philosophers and the real influence they exercised.
The very meaning given to philosophy is very different and assumptions on an alleged tranmission or an affiliation between the philosophers of Cordoba and St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, are called into perspective and widely criticized by the author.
Rémi Brague is a true expert on the subject and his argument is built and served by convincing examples and quotations. His work has inspired many researchers, particularly with Sylvain Guggenheim "Aristotle at Mont Saint Michel" which partly his work.
Far from mastering it, I enjoyed this book, even if it is a bit difficult to follow in the first chapters. His thesis is strong and the author tries to convince with clear and accessible terms. He succeeds and makes you want to read the book to better absorb it.
A rare moment.