 Although the loss of texts makes it difficult to trace the origins of atomism in Islamic thought, scholars argue that ancient Greek theories may have reached the Mutakallimun by oral transmission if not by translation of texts; the indirect transmission may explain some divergences (Wolfson 1976; Dhanani 1994). Epicurean rather than Democritean ideas may have been transmitted through doxographies (van Ess 2018) or from Galen’s critiques (Langermann 2009); other possible routes of transmission that have been explored include the Greek sceptical tradition and the supposed atomism of the Pythagorean Ecphantus (Baffioni 1982). Attempts have also been made to link kalām atomism to the Indian tradition (Pines 1997; Wolfson 1976): echoes include a similar argument that a mountain and a mustard seed would be equal if bodies were infinitely divisible, and the fact that perceptible properties are ascribed to atoms, in contrast to the Greek tradition. Whatever its antecedents, the development of atomism in an Islamic context—where different philosophical questions prevailed—led to creative innovations and a distinctive critical tradition of atomist thought (Rashed 2005).