Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
" . . . an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician and musician. . . . Al-Kindi was born in Kufa and educated in Baghdad. He became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom, and a number of Abbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language. . . . In the field of mathematics, al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Indian numerals to the Islamic and Christian world." [Wikipedia] "Al Kindi's book on optics, translated into Latin under the title of De Aspectibus, which undoubtedly influenced Roger Bacon (1214-94), had the final word on the subject until Ibn-al-Haytham began his investigation and experiments, and wrote on 'Light' and its properties. . . . He reached the conclusion that philosophy is all-comprehensive, comprising every branch of knowledge, and that religion and philosophy are not competitive. Religion, the product of prophetic Revelation, is accepted by faith, whereas philosophy is apprehended by reason." [Balyuzi: Muhammad and the Course of Islam, p. 300, 312]