The book approaches the conceptual background of Avicenna's account of efficient causality, outlining the positions held by him and his early interpreters (eleventh and twelfth centuries), as well as the arguments that support those positions.
In early Islamic philosophy, poetry was regarded as a means to transmit the eternal truths of philosophy to the masses and to move them to virtuous conduct by the use of poetical syllogisms.
In the history of Islam, royal courts and other centers of wordly power played a major role in the survival and development of the sciences and the arts.