This book offers an annotated English translation of one of the oldest pharmacological works preserved in the Arabic language, viz. The small dispensatory of Sābūr ibn Sahl . The translation is framed by an introductory study and various glossaries.

This book offers an Arabic edition and English translation of a recension of Sābūr ibn Sahl's famous dispensatory as prepared by the physicians of a Baghdad hospital around the middle of the 11th century CE.

Sābūr ibn Sahl's al-Aqrābādhīn al-saghīr is the earliest Arabic pharmacopoeia known to have survived. Finding fragments of Sābūr's pharmacopoeia in the Cairo Genizah shows that it was used by the medical practitioners of the Jewish community of Cairo, possibly long after it is supposed to have been superceded by other works. We present here a synoptic edition of two Arabic fragments, T-S Ar. 40.5 and Ar. 41.90. These fragments overlap to a large extent, but are not exactly the same. (...) We suggest that one may be the work of a professional scribe, while the other was copied by a practitioner for his personal use. (shrink)

This article continues and improves the research already accomplished in Géométrie et dioptrique au Xe siècle (1993). It presents two fragments and an additional treatise which enlarge our understanding of the work of Ibn Sahl on the geometrical constructions and projections. All the necessary corrections are included.

El poeta andalusí Ibrāhīm ibn Sahl (609/1212-649/1251), que se convirtió del judaísmo al islam, escribió poemas pertenecientes al subgénero de la poesía amorosa conocida como al-ġazal al-ʿuḏrī sobre los amados Moisés, y con menor frecuencia Mahoma. Las investigaciones sobre Ibn Sahl se han centrado, tradicionalmente, en la cuestión acerca de si la conversión histórica al islam fue sincera o si sus poemas sobre Moisés reflejan un anhelo oculto por el judaísmo. Este artículo problematiza esta cuestión, prestando atención a (...) lo que se sabe de las circunstancias históricas en las que vivió Ibn Sahl y por medio de una discusión crítica del fenómeno de la conversión. Luego redirijo la conversación sobre la poesía de Ibn Sahl: en lugar de tratar de comprender la sinceridad de la conversión de Ibn Sahl a través de su poesía este artículo lee sus poemas como textos literarios, con atención a sus juegos de palabras, imágenes e intertextualidad. El análisis de la poesía de Ibn Sahl, que presta mucha atención a esta significativa intertextualidad, ilumina la red de referencias religiosas que hay en ella y las formas en las que funcionan dentro de la poesía. La conclusión, tras la lectura atenta de poemas seleccionados del dīwān de Ibn Sahl, es que el mérito de estos poemas y las características que los han hecho atractivos para el público proceden de las formas en que mantienen la posibilidad de diferentes interpretaciones, por lo que continuamente avivan la curiosidad del público, así como su uso, que induce a los portentos del lenguaje figurativo, la intertextualidad y los juegos de palabras. (shrink)

R. Rashed, Géométrie et dioptrique au Xesiècle, Ibn Sahl, al-Qūhī et Ibn al-Haytham ; OEuvres philosophiques et scientifiques d'al Kindī, vol. I: L'Optique et la catoptrique ; Les Catoptriciens grecs.

Summary This paper offers a positive identification of Sahl ibn Bishr's Kitāb al-˒ aḥkām ˓alā ˒n-niṣba al-falakiyya as the Arabic source text for what is perhaps the most characteristic feature of the medieval Perso-Indian style of astrology known as tājika: the sixteen yogas or types of planetary configurations. The dependence of two late sixteenth-century tājika works in Sanskrit – Nīlakaṇṭha's Tājikanīlakaṇṭhī and Gaṇeśa's Tājikabhūṣaṇa – on Sahl, presumably through one or more intermediary texts, is demonstrated by a comparison (...) of the terminology and examples employed; and the Indian reception of Arabic astrology is discussed, including reinterpretations of technical terms occasioned partly by corrupt transmission. (shrink)

The only traces which remain of Abū Sahl al-Qūhī's work on centers of gravity are the correspondence he maintained with Abū Is[hdotu]āq al-[Sdotu]ābi', and the first chapter of the Kitāb Mīzān al-[hdotu]ikma, which 'Abd al-Ra[hdotu]mān al-Khāzinī attributes to al-Qūhī and to Ibn al-Haytham, without distinguishing between their respective contributions. The author of the present article attempts to confront the texts and to analyse all the testimonies which have come down to us on this subject, which are susceptible of shedding (...) light upon al-Qūhī's contribution and the importance of his work on centers of gravity. (shrink)

In Bangladesh, due to economic growth and greater access to education, more girls and women are veiling, even as they are also more likely to be in school or employed. Some scholars identify this trend of women appearing both “more modern” and “more religious” as paradoxical. On the basis of 114 in-depth interviews with Bangladeshi migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, and South Korea and their wives in rural Bangladesh, I claim that Muslim women in middle-class Bengali families who (...) veil are cultivating symbolic boundaries guided by an accountability structure of middle-class religiosity and gender conservatism. The increasing tendency of middle-class Muslim women to appear both “more modern” and “more religious” can be explained by examining the role that veiling plays in signaling class status through conspicuous consumption, moral superiority, and respectable femininity, differentiating them from lower class women. I conclude that “doing gender” through veiling must be understood as also “doing middle-class difference” in Bengali Muslim families in rural Bangladesh. (shrink)

This article revisits the controversy between Abū Bakr al-Rāzī and Abū al-Qāsim al-Balḫī. Based on the testimony of the Kitāb taṯbīt dalāʾil al-nubuwwa of the Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Ǧabbār, it is shown that the two philosophers must have clashed at the court of Aḥmad b. Sahl al-Marwazī, governor of Balḫ, during the 910s, and that the virulence of the tone of their exchange can be explained above all by this context of professional rivalry. In terms of content, their conversation must (...) have focused on the question of divine justice and on the best way to give an account of prophecy and Qurʾanic wisdom. We then turn to the study of chap. VIII, 4 of Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī's Al-maṭālib al-ʿāliya and show that, contrary to a recently held view, this chapter constitutes an echo not of Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, but of the first argument of Ibn al-Rāwandī's Kitāb al-zumurrud, which contrasted the autonomy of reason with the necessity of prophecy in order to conclude from the former to the negation of the latter. Finally, it is suggested that Abū Bakr al-Rāzī's doctrine of prophecy, like that of the great theologians of his time, both Muʿtazilites and Ašʿarites, aims to escape the dilemma set up by Ibn al-Rāwandī a few decades earlier. (shrink)

There are three facets to the colonial project: a practice, a body of knowledge, and mental engineering. The third is the result of colonialism as text, for such a text bolsters the minds behind colonizing practices and is simultaneously a prison house for the minds of the colonized. The battle between the colonial text and its dialectical opposite, the anti-colonial text, is central to decolonization. Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit) and Achebe (Things Fall Apart) are shown to exemplify this struggle.

The colonial project has three interrelated facets. It is at once a practice; a body of knowledge; and a technology for mind change, or simply mental engineering. Decolonization is necessarily a negation of the three-in-one character of the colonial process, to produce a third possibility: independence, liberation and social justice. Colonialism as mind-engineering results from colonialism as practice and text but it also aids them. Mind-engineering is directly the result of colonialism as text, for the colonial text is simultaneously a (...) boost to the minds behind colonizing practices and a prison house for the mind of the colonized. The battle between the colonial text and its dialectical opposite, the anti-colonial text, is central to the entire process of decolonization. Achebe and Hegel exemplify this. (shrink)

The Exalted Fath: Ha-Emunah ha-Ramah Transleted by Solomon Ibn Lavi, Ha-Emunah ha-Nissaʼah Transleted by Samuel Ibn Matut, The Anonymous Commentary to HaEmunah ha-Ramah.

The Arabic philosophical fable _Hayy Ibn Yaqzan _is a classic of medieval Islamic philosophy. Ibn Tufayl, the Andalusian philosopher, tells of a child raised by a doe on an equatorial island who grows up to discover the truth about the world and his own place in it, unaided—but also unimpeded—by society, language, or tradition. Hayy’s discoveries about God, nature, and man challenge the values of the culture in which the tale was written as well as those of every contemporary society. (...) Goodman’s commentary places _Hayy Ibn Yaqzan _in its historical and philosophical context. The volume features a new preface and index, and an updated bibliography. “One of the most remarkable books of the Middle Ages.”—_Times Literary Supplement_ “An enchanting and puzzling story.... The book transcends all historical and cultural environments to settle upon the questions of human life that perpetually intrigue men.”—_Middle East__ Journal_ “Goodman has done a service to the modern English reader by providing a readable translation of a philosophically significant allegory.”—_Philosophy East and West_ “Add[s] bright new pieces to an Islamic mosaic whose general shape is already known.”—_American Historical Review_. (shrink)

Solomon Ibn Gabirol The Fountain of Life (Fons Vitae) TRANSLATED BY Harry E. Wedeck WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Theodore ...

Solomon Ibn Gabirol The Fountain of Life (Fons Vitae) TRANSLATED BY Harry E. Wedeck WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Theodore E. James L ...

A translation of the Fons vitae of Solomon ibn Gabirol (born 1021/1022), who was the first Jewish philosopher in Spain. In the Fons vitae, Gabirol argues that there is a sensible and an intelligible world. These doctrines profoundly influenced medieval Christian thinkers. Because of the Fons vitae, Gabirol is today widely recognized as one of the greatest Jewish Neoplatonists.

Freethought and atheism in classical Islam -- Arabic philosophy and its influence on Western freethought -- The treatise of the three impostors : Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, and its origins in Islam -- Averroes and Ibn Tufayl, and their influence on Western freethought -- Atheism, freethought and Islam in the 19th, 20th, and 21st Century -- Conclusion : The Allah that failed.

... as the source of life for the intellectually oriented Jews of the Western world. As such it suffered almost complete sterility right from the start. ...