A translation and commentary on al-Kindi's “On First Philosophy,” a seminal work of early Islamic thought.

In the ninth century, Arabic philosophy was in ferment, and an inquisition of heretics was in process. Al-Kindi, a court scholar, physician, and philosopher functioning at Baghdad, courageously produced, in that context, a treatise, Fi al-Falsafah al-Ula, in which he attempted to unify the philosophical tradition, starting from Aristotle, with basic Islamic concepts. Part One of the treatise is here published for the first time in a non-Arabic language. Al-Kindi, in this treatise, tries to show, by philosophical reasoning, (...) that the world could not have come spontaneously into being ex nihilo, that there must be a unique, eternal being, and that the ad hoc unity and plurality of individual things rest on a prior, creative, self-subsisting, and eternal unity, which is the Ultimate Cause. This volume contains a résumé of al-Kindi studies, a description and analysis of the text, On First Philosophy, a "reevaluation" of al-Kindi’s relation to the Mu'Tazilah sect of Moslem theologians, a translation of On First Philosophy, and a learned passage-by-passage commentary on it, with perspicuous discussions of nuances in Arabic terminology. This is primarily a book for medieval specialists, but students of ontology and theology will find some of al-Kindi’s argumentation relevant to their concerns.—W.G. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 26, Issue 2, pp 149 - 173 In the fourth treatise of his legal-theological work _Kitāb al-Anwār wa-al-Marāqib_, Yaʿqūb al-Qirqisānī analyzes a criticism of the Aristotelian syllogism and its epistemological foundations. Qirqisānī defends Aristotelian logic by quoting a passage from an unknown commentary on Aristotle in which the Aristotelian theory of syllogism is explicated. This paper focuses on the historical, theological, and philosophical meanings of the criticism of the syllogism in Qirqisānī’s discussion and analyzes his interpretation of (...) the syllogism as a source of knowledge that should be applied in the realm of legal reasoning and in the interpretation of biblical law. (shrink)

It is known that the science of recitation is one of the important branches of Islamic sciences in terms of its subject. It is stated that the science of recitation is intertwined with the Qurʾān and has an important place in terms of tafsīr, ḥadīth and law sciences. In this respect, it is understood that the recitation of Yaʿqūbis one of the ten sound recitations accepted as authentic and mutawātir (Consecutive). Although there are comparative works in whichYaʿqūb's recitation is mentioned (...) together with other recitations, it is striking that there is no study in whichYaʿqūb's recitation is handled separately. In this study, it is aimed to clarify the issues in Yaʿqūb’s recitation, even though they are not in other recitations. It is understood that Yaʿqūb’s recitation has some differences compared to other recitations and contains some unique features. In this respect, these issues specific to Yaʿqūb reading are frequently encountered in dictionaries and tafsīr sources. In this article, it is planned to evaluate the recitation of Yaʿqūb in two parts. In the first chapter, the procedural rules of Yaʿqūb recitation are given and the subjects are explained with the sampling method. In the second part, attention is drawn to the points where Yaʿqūb recitation differs from other recitations. What is meant by the rules of procedure in the science of recitation is the set of general rules that take place when conditions such as madd, qasr, izhār, idghām and iqlāb are met. Farsh, recitation on the other hand, is the different reading of certain words independent of these rules. There are different views on the reading of the pronoun hā, which is evaluated within the framework of the rules of procedure. Recitation imams state that it is controversial whether the pronoun hā in the dual and plural pronouns which comes after the silent letter, can be read with damma (u sound) or kasrah (i sound). When the recitation of Ya'qūb is examined, it is understood that all pronouns of this type are read with damma and this view is preferred. It is stated that there is no consensus on the use of the letter mīm, which is a sign of plurality with kasrah or damma. In this regard, Ya'qūb subordinates the letter mīm to the letter hā, Where the letter hā is pronounced damma, it reads the letter mīm as damma, and where the letter hā is pronounced as damma, it reads the letter mīm with kasrah and does not go beyond this limit. Idghām, which is used as a concept in the science of recitation, is the combination of two letters that are mutamasil, mutaqārib or mutajānis, transforming them into a single letter and forming it. It is stated that Abu 'Amr was the imam of the recitation, who practiced İdghām-ı kabir, which is one of the important subjects of the science of recitation and tajwīd (the rules of recitation), and that Ya'kūb came later. It is seen that some recitation imams on the subject of waqf (stopping) did not make any changes regarding the words dedicated on it, by complying with the way it was written in the musḥaf (the Qur’ān). However, it is striking that there are some changes in the recitation of Ya'qūb. As a concept used in the science of recitation, farsh is the reading of the words in the Qur'ān in different ways by the recitation imams and attributing each recitation to its owner. Therefore, these differences take place in all recitations and this subject is also known as Farshu'l-Khurūf or al-Furū'. When we look at the difference between farsh and usūl in the science of recitation, it is seen that the usūl is realized within the framework of certain rules, while the farsh is formed independently of these rules. (shrink)

The Ismailis, among whom are the followers of the Aga Khan, rose to prominence during the fourth Islamic/tenth Christian century. They developed a remarkably successful intellectual programme to sustain and support their political activities, promoting demands of Islamic doctrine together with the then newly imported sciences from abroad. The high watermark of this intellectual movement is best illustrated in the writings of the Ismaili theoretician Abu Ya´qub al-Sijistani. Using both published and manuscript writings of al-Sijistani that have hitherto been largely (...) hidden, forgotten or ignored, Dr Paul Walker reveals the scholar's major contribution to the development of philosophical Shiism. He analyses his role in the Ismaili mission of that time and critically assesses the major themes in his combination of philosophy and religious doctrine. (shrink)

On the life and eminence of Kindī, d. ca. 873, noted Muslim philosopher, mathematician, physicist from Iraq.

Taguergoust (Morocco), history; Cities and towns; Morocco; history.

[1] Lev Yehudah ḥeleḳ 1, u-vo ḥidushim u-veʼurim be-ʻinyanim shonim. Lev Yehudah ḥeleḳ 2, u-vo heʻarot ṿe-heʼarot ḳetsarot. Boʼu ḥeshbon, u-vo heʻarot be-ḥeshbonot u-midot Ḥazal -- [2] Ḳunṭres Boʼu ḥeshbon ḥeleḳ 2.

La fuente principal antes de 1972 para conocer el pensamiento de Ibn Masarra era una breve descripción que Ibn Ḥazm hizo de algunos elementos fundamentales de su teología. En 1972, Muḥammad Kamāl Ibrāhīm Ŷaʿfar atribuyó a Ibn Masarra dos obras, Risālat al-Iʿtibār and Kitāb Jawāṣṣ al-ḥurūf, que se encuentran en un manuscrito de la Chester Beatty Library. El contenido de estas dos obras difiere de las descripciones que hacen las fuentes primarias del pensamiento de Ibn Masarra, pues en estas últimas (...) se le considera de manera mayoritaria un teólogo con creencias de corte qadarī, como al-waʿd wa-l-waʿīd e istiṭāʿa. A la vista de las dos obras que Ŷaʿfar atribuyó a Ibn Masarra, la erudición posterior ha tachado la mayoría de fuentes primarias sobre Ibn Masarra de imprecisas, tendenciosas o mal informadas, de modo que las ha descartado. La fuente más esclarecedora sobre Ibn Masarra, al-Inbāʾ fī šarḥ ḥaqāʾiq al-ṣifāt wa-l-asmāʾ de Ibn al-Uqlīšī, parece haber pasado desapercibida hasta fechas recientes. Tomando como base la información que aporta Ibn al-Uqlīšī, este artículo sugiere la atribución a Ibn Masarra de al-Radd ʿalā l-Kindī, o Refutación de Sobre la Filosofía primera de al-Kindī, obra ya editada, si bien bajo la atribución a Ibn Ḥazm. Esta obra coincide con descripciones del pensamiento de Ibn Masarra en fuentes primarias, si bien excluyendo de las fuentes primarias las dos obras que Ŷaʿfar le atribuye. (shrink)

Risālah fī al-falsafah al-ūlá -- Risālah fī al-ḥīlah li-dafʻ al-aḥzān -- Risālah fī al-ʻaql -- Risālah fī ḥudūd al-ashyāʼ wa-rusūmihā.