The book's introduction sketches in the historical and geographical background of the Islamic nation and summarizes the influence of Oriental (notably Persian and Indian) and Greek (Plato and Aristotle) thought on Islamic thinking, Chapter Two covers the philosophical and practical bases of the five "Arab sciences": grammar, ethics, dogmatics, (study of doctrine), literature, and history. The next four chapters are devoted to individual thinkers, covering biographical details, ideas, critical arguments, and the influence of al-Razi, the Brethren of Basra, the Karmatites, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Maskawaih, Avicenna, Ibn al-Haitham, Gazali, the Epitomists, ,Ibn Baddja, Ibn Tofail, Averroes, and others. The conclusion discusses Ibn Khaldun and scholasticism.
Readers who are dissatisfied with the cursory treatment usually given Islamic thought in survey texts will welcome the full coverage they will find here. At the same time, the text never assumes an expert's background; it is an excellent primary text for area students and for students of the history of philosophy.