----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Professor Rosser: My response to Ms. Duggan was not about the greatest medieval Muslim thinker; it was about whether or not Thomas Aquinas was the first scholar to view economic gain as positive. Ibn Khaldun (1332- 1406) was a great thinker and perhaps the first social scientist anywhere (many who know his works regard him the father of political science or even sociology). And Professors Haddad and Lois Baeck have called him the first development Economist. However, in terms of the first medieval Muslim thinkers to explicitly emphasize Economic gains and the market,we should really mention many Persian (i.e.,Iranian) and Arab writers who wrote on such issues 3 to 4 centries before Ibn Khadun.Those writers were not Social scientists--they were philosophers, theologians,or writers of books of counsel for kings. Hamid Hosseini ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]