Final answer:
The last Greek philosophers fled to the Islamic world in response to Christian persecution, where intellectual pursuits were encouraged. The assimilation of Greek philosophies in the Middle East was facilitated by Hellenization and was further developed by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scholars who integrated these philosophies with their religious beliefs.
Step-by-step explanation:
Greek Philosophy and Its spread during Christian Persecution
In the face of Christian persecution, the last of the Greek philosophers fled primarily to the Islamic world, particularly to the Abbasid Caliphate's capital of Baghdad. This migration occurred because the early Islamic caliphates were centers of learning and intellectual activity, encouraging the study of Greek philosophy and the sciences.
Ancient Greek philosophies gained acceptance in the Middle East due to a confluence of factors. Greek and Roman imperialism had spread Hellenistic culture throughout the region. Jews and later Christians in the Middle East, significantly influenced by Hellenism, integrated classical Greek and Roman philosophy within their theological frameworks.
With the expansion of Arab conquerors and traders into the Middle East and Africa, the Muslim world came into contact with these philosophical works. Islamic scholars translated, adopted, and further developed many of these classical ideas, which enriched the intellectual landscape of the Middle East.
Philosophy's tension between rational inquiry and theological dogma persisted in these regions, as it had earlier in Greek thought.
The Hellenization of Jewish communities after the conquests of Alexander the Great led to figures like Philo of Alexandria, who harmonized Jewish scriptural tradition with Greek philosophical ideas, laying a foundation for subsequent religious philosophy.
The continuation of Philo's work largely fell to Christians, after Hellenized Jewish communities collapsed under Roman repression.
Thus, while the Greeks began a tradition of philosophy rooted in reason over myth, subsequent Jewish, Christian, and Islamic philosophers would continue to expand on this groundwork, infusing it with their theological perspectives while also grappling with and developing great Greek philosophical traditions.