Page 8 - Book of Crates

In the name of God, the lenient and merciful!

Lord, give us the grace to conduct ourselves in a righteous way!

Praise God who fills us with his kindness! May he pour out his
blessings on our Lord Mohammed, the prophet, and grant him and his
family salvation !

Fosathar de Misr was the first that was attributed the title of Emir.

I had been informed that the Emir repeated, according to what had
been told to him, that I had never ceased occupying myself in the work
on this matter. I had gathered a lot of things that no other person of our
time could have collected. I must add that the Emir was adept in
philosophy, and that he practiced the doctrines recounted in the works
of the philosophers, in accordance with the books where it had been
selected and put together.

The request that the Emir made to me, to give him excerpts of
works of which it would be possible to take advantage, could not be
imperatively commanded of me by anyone except him. It was actually
an order, and, considering the rank that he occupied, I had to put all
my care to help him with this. Few philosophers welcomed such
demands favorably: they have, indeed, often recommended not to
reveal the science to those that were not adepts in it; but they also said
they should not show themselves miserly in it with regard to fellow
initiates.

I address one of my books on philosophy to you. If the Ancients
could have read it, they would surely not have revealed its contents. All
of these philosophers composed a similar treatise, and when they
formulated in such a complete way their philosophical doctrines, they
held them secret and did not reveal them to the public, not even to most
of their fellow adepts. It was thus under the first caliphs, and it lasted
until the time when Christianity was eliminated.

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