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[[File:Galen.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The writers of the Qur’an and hadith were influenced by Galen, the hugely influential 2<sup>nd</sup> Century Greek physician.]]
The [[hadith]] contain many statements about fluids from both the man and woman that were believed to form the human embryo. The [[Qur'an|Qur’an]] too says that the embryo is formed from emitted fluid, and in one verse perhaps indicates a mingling of male and female fluids. This article will trace the origins of each of these ideas at least as far back as the Jewish Talmud and the ancient Greek physicians.

The Prophet [[Muhammad]], who had been a well-traveled merchant, had extensive interactions with Jews in Arabia, and almost certainly with Nestorian Christians, who had large communities in Najran in the south and Hira to the north of the Arabian Peninsula.<ref>J. Stewart, "Nestorian Missionary Enterprise", p.70-74, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1928</ref><ref>Cyril Glasse, “The New Encyclopedia of Islam”, p.342-343, CA, USA: Altamira, 2001.</ref> Guillaume says of the Nestorians, “Such men were a familiar sight on all the caravan routes of Arabia”.<ref>Alfred Guillaume, “Islam”, p.15, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1990 (Reprinted)</ref> The Nestorians were based in Syria, where they already possessed and studied the works of Galen, the hugely influential 2<sup>nd</sup> century Greek physician.<ref>Allen O. Whipple, “[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1965836/pdf/bullnyacadmed00860-0027.pdf Role of the Nestorians as the connecting link between Greek and Arab medicine]”, Annals of Medical History 8 (1936) 313-323</ref> While this does not necessitate that the creators of the Qur’an and hadith directly copied from these works, it seems likely that they were, at the very least, indirectly influenced by these widespread ideas.