...gures such as Hermes, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Alexander the Great, and Galen, receive the rank of Hellenistic semi-gods. Written in an Islamic Shi’i context (the Fatimid court in Cairo), the work, based on earlier compilations and translations, and widely circulating in later Arabic literature, calls for a re-appraisal of the Greek and Hellenistic roots of both the Judaeo-Christian and Islamic ci ...