Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Kindī (d. c.256/870) is recognised as the first Hellenising philosopher to write in Arabic. He was known as the "philosopher of the Arabs," a particularly apt honorific. He came from the important Arab tribe of Kinda and could trace his lineage back to a companion of the Prophet. He was arguably the first "philosopher" of the Islamic world, at least if "philosopher" means someone who draws on the sciences of the Greeks. Despite occasional reports that he translated from Greek, it seems