The first Muslim of note who gave his attention to the study of logic was K͟hālid ibn Yazīd (A.H. 60), who is reported to have been a man of great learning, and who ordered certain Greek works on logic to be translated into Arabic. The K͟halīfah Maʾmūn (A.H. 198) gave great attention to this and to every other branch of learning, and ordered the translation of several Greek books of logic, brought from the library of Constantinople, into the Arabic tongue. Mulla Kātib Chalpi gives a long list of those who have translated works on logic. Stephen, named Istifānu ʾl-Qadīm, translated a book for K͟hālid ibn Yazīd. Batrīq did one for the K͟halīfah al-Manṣūr. Ibn Yaḥyā rendered a Persian book on logic into Arabic for the K͟halīfah al-Maʾmūn, also Ibn Naʿimah ʿAbdu ʾl-Masīḥ (a Christian), Ḥusain bin Bahrīq, Hilāl ibn Abī Hilāl of Ḥimṣ, and many others translated books on logic from the Persian. Mūsā and Yūsuf, two sons of K͟hālid, and Ḥasan ibn Sahl are mentioned as having translated from the language of Hind (India) into Arabic. Amongst the philosophers who rendered Greek books on logic into Arabic are mentioned Ḥunain, Abū ʾl-Faraj, Abū ʾl-Sulaiman as-Sanjari, Yaḥyā an-Naḥwī, Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, Abū Zaid Aḥmad ibn Sahl al-Balk͟hī, Ibn Sīnāʾ (Avicenna), and very many others.
An Arabic treatise of logic has been translated into English by the Bengal Asiatic Society.
LORD’S SUPPER. [[EUCHARIST].]
LOT. Arabic Lūt̤ (لوط). Heb. לוֹט. Held by Muḥammadans as “a righteous man,” specially sent as a prophet to the city of Sodom.
The commentator, al-Baiẓāwī, says that Lot was the son of Hārān, the son of Āzar, or Tarāḥ, and consequently Abraham’s nephew, who brought him with him from Chaldea into Palestine, where, they say, he was sent by God, to reclaim the inhabitants of Sodom and the other neighbouring cities, which were overthrown with it, from the unnatural vice to which they were addicted. And this Muḥammadan tradition seems to be countenanced by the words of the apostle, that this righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, “vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds,” whence it is probable that he omitted no opportunity of endeavouring their reformation. His name frequently occurs in the Qurʾān, as will be seen from the following selections:—
[Sūrah vii. 72–82]: “We also sent Lot, when he said to his people, Commit ye this filthy deed in which no creature hath gone before you? Come ye to men, instead of women, lustfully? Ye are indeed a people given up to excess. But the only answer of his people was to say, ‘Turn them out of your city, for they are men who vaunt them pure.’ And we delivered him and his family, except his wife; she was of those who lingered: and we rained a rain upon them: and see what was the end of the wicked!”
[Sūrah xxi. 74, 75]: “And unto Lot we gave wisdom and knowledge; and we rescued him from the city which wrought filthiness; for they were a people, evil, perverse: and we caused him to enter into our mercy, for he was of the righteous.”
[Sūrah xxix. 27–34]: “We sent also Lot: when he said to his people, ‘Proceed ye to a filthiness in which no people in the world hath ever gone before you? Proceed ye even to men? attack ye them on the highway? and proceed ye to the crime in your assemblies?’ But the only answer of his people was to say, ‘Bring God’s chastisement upon us, if thou art a man of truth.’ He cried: My Lord! help me against this polluted people. And when our messengers came to Abraham with the tidings of a son, they said, ‘Of a truth we will destroy the in-dwellers in this city, for its in-dwellers are evil doers.’ He said, ‘Lot is therein.’ They said, ‘We know full well who therein is. Him and his family will we save, except his wife; she will be of those who linger.’ And when our messengers came to Lot, he was troubled for them, and his arm was too weak to protect them; and they said, ‘Fear not, and distress not thyself, for thee and thy family will we save, except thy wife; she will be of those who linger. We will surely bring down upon the dwellers in this city vengeance from heaven for the excesses they have committed.’ And in what we have left of it is a clear sign to men of understanding.”
[Sūrah xxvi. 160–175]: “The people of Lot treated their apostles as liars, when their brother Lot said to them, ‘Will ye not fear God? I am your Apostle worthy of all credit: fear God, then, and obey me. For this I ask you no reward: my reward is of the Lord of the worlds alone. What! with men, of all creatures, will ye have commerce? And leave ye your wives whom your Lord hath created for you? Ah! ye are an erring people!’ They said, ‘O Lot, if thou desist not, one of the banished shalt thou surely be.’ He said, ‘I utterly abhor your doings: My Lord! deliver me and my family from what they do.’ So we delivered him and his whole family—save an aged one among those who tarried—then we destroyed the rest—and we rained a rain upon them, and fatal was the rain to those whom we had warned. In this truly was a sign; but most of them did not believe. But thy Lord! He is the Powerful, the Merciful!”
[Sūrah xxvii. 55–59]: “And Lot, when he said to his people, ‘What! proceed ye to such filthiness with your eyes open? What! come ye with lust unto men rather than to women? Surely ye are an ignorant people.’ And the answer of his people was but to say, ‘Cast out the family of Lot from your city: they, forsooth, are men of purity!’ So we rescued him and his family: but as for his wife, we decreed her to be of them that lingered: and we rained a rain upon them, and fatal was the rain to those who had had their warning.”