Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—falsafa ( lit. ' philosophy ' ), which refers to philosophy as well as logic , mathematics , and physics ; and Kalam ( lit. ' speech ' ), which refers to a rationalist form of Scholastic Islamic theology which includes the schools of Maturidiyah , Ashaira and Mu'tazila .
172-1244: Early Islamic philosophy began with Al-Kindi in the 2nd century of the Islamic calendar (early 9th century CE) and ended with Ibn-Rushd (Averroes) in the 6th century AH (late 12th century CE), broadly coinciding with the period known as the Golden Age of Islam . The death of Averroes effectively marked the end of a particular discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called the Peripatetic Islamic school, and philosophical activity declined significantly in Western Islamic countries such as Islamic Iberia and North Africa . Islamic philosophy persisted for much longer in Muslim Eastern countries, in particular Safavid Persia, Ottoman , and Mughal Empires, where several schools of philosophy continued to flourish: Avicennism , Averroism , Illuminationist philosophy, Mystical philosophy, Transcendent theosophy , and Isfahan philosophy. Ibn Khaldun , in his Muqaddimah , made important contributions to
344-421: A real sense and analogical reasoning in a metaphorical sense. On the other hand, al-Ghazali (1058–1111; and, in modern times, Abu Muhammad Asem al-Maqdisi ) argued that Qiyas refers to analogical reasoning in a real sense and categorical syllogism in a metaphorical sense. Other Islamic scholars at the time, however, argued that the term Qiyas refers to both analogical reasoning and categorical syllogism in
516-586: A central role in the subsequent development of European logic during the Renaissance . According to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy : For the Islamic philosophers, logic included not only the study of formal patterns of inference and their validity but also elements of the philosophy of language and even of epistemology and metaphysics . Because of territorial disputes with
688-428: A chain of cause and effect – to produce the desired result. In reality, these intermediary agents do not "act" at all, they are merely a conduit for God's own action. This is especially significant in the development of Islamic philosophy, as it portrayed the "first cause" and "unmoved mover" of Aristotelian philosophy as compatible with the concept of God according to Islamic revelation. Al-Kindi theorized that there
860-449: A circle. On the other hand, Euclidean optics provided a geometric model that was able to account for this, as well as the length of shadows and reflections in mirrors, because Euclid believed that the visual "rays" could only travel in straight lines. For this reason, al-Kindi considered the latter preponderant. Al-Kindi's primary optical treatise "De aspectibus" was later translated into Latin. This work, along with Alhazen 's Optics and
1032-571: A condition, divide the patients into two groups, perform bloodletting only on one group, watch both, and compare the results." Astronomy in Islam was able to grow greatly because of several key factors. One factor was geographical: the Islamic world was close to the ancient lands of the Greeks, which held valuable ancient knowledge of the heavens in Greek manuscripts. During the new Abbasid Dynasty after
1204-477: A different approach in medicine. Ibn Sina contributed inventively to the development of inductive logic , which he used to pioneer the idea of a syndrome . In his medical writings, Avicenna was the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method . Ibn Hazm (994–1064) wrote the Scope of Logic , in which he stressed on
1376-441: A distance. This dichotomy is duplicated in his writings on optics . Some of the notable astrological works by al-Kindi include: Al-Kindi was the first major writer on optics since antiquity. Roger Bacon placed him in the first rank after Ptolemy as a writer on the topic. In the apocryphal work known as De radiis stellarum , is developed the theory "that everything in the world ... emits rays in every direction, which fill
1548-587: A long period of time the personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians . Among the most prominent Christian families to serve as physicians to the caliphs were the Bukhtishu dynasty. Throughout the 4th to 7th centuries, Christian scholarly work in the Greek and Syriac languages was either newly translated or had been preserved since the Hellenistic period. Among
1720-470: A man deprived of sense experience by being blindfolded and free falling would still be aware of his existence. In epistemology , Ibn Tufail wrote the novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and in response Ibn al-Nafis wrote the novel Theologus Autodidactus . Both were concerning autodidacticism as illuminated through the life of a feral child spontaneously generated in a cave on a desert island . Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī played
1892-406: A method that could be generally used to determine the sum for any integral power. He used this to find the volume of a paraboloid . He could find the integral formula for any polynomial without having developed a general formula. Islamic art makes use of geometric patterns and symmetries in many of its art forms, notably in girih tilings. These are formed using a set of five tile shapes, namely
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#17327811557002064-482: A mosque, boarding house, and a library. It was maintained by a waqf (charitable endowment), which paid salaries of professors, stipends of students, and defrayed the costs of construction and maintenance. The madrasa was unlike a modern college in that it lacked a standardized curriculum or institutionalized system of certification. Muslims distinguished disciplines inherited from pre-Islamic civilizations, such as philosophy and medicine, which they called "sciences of
2236-755: A novel approach to logic in Kalam , but this approach was later displaced by ideas from Greek philosophy and Hellenistic philosophy with the rise of the Mu'tazili philosophers, who highly valued Aristotle 's Organon . The works of Hellenistic-influenced Islamic philosophers were crucial in the reception of Aristotelian logic in medieval Europe, along with the commentaries on the Organon by Averroes . The works of al-Farabi , Avicenna , al-Ghazali and other Muslim logicians who often criticized and corrected Aristotelian logic and introduced their own forms of logic, also played
2408-462: A particularly strong influence of Muslim philosophers being felt in natural philosophy , psychology and metaphysics . Islamic philosophy refers to philosophy produced in an Islamic society. As it is not necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor exclusively produced by Muslims , many scholars prefer the term "Arabic philosophy." Islamic philosophy is a generic term that can be defined and used in different ways. In its broadest sense it means
2580-413: A range of subjects ranging from metaphysics , ethics, logic and psychology , to medicine, pharmacology , mathematics, astronomy , astrology and optics , and further afield to more practical topics like perfumes, swords, jewels, glass, dyes, zoology, tides, mirrors, meteorology and earthquakes . In the field of mathematics , al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Hindu numerals to
2752-461: A real sense. The first original Arabic writings on logic were produced by al-Kindi (Alkindus) (805–873), who produced a summary on earlier logic up to his time. The first writings on logic with non-Aristotelian elements was produced by al-Farabi (Alfarabi) (873–950), who discussed the topics of future contingents , the number and relation of the categories , the relation between logic and grammar , and non-Aristotelian forms of inference . He
2924-431: A regular decagon , an elongated hexagon , a bow tie, a rhombus , and a regular pentagon . All the sides of these tiles have the same length; and all their angles are multiples of 36° (π/5 radians ), offering fivefold and tenfold symmetries. The tiles are decorated with strapwork lines (girih), generally more visible than the tile boundaries. In 2007, the physicists Peter Lu and Paul Steinhardt argued that girih from
3096-442: A religious nature, there would be many Islamic thinkers who were not as enthusiastic about its potential. But it would be incorrect to assume that they opposed philosophy simply because it was a "foreign science". Oliver Leaman , an expert on Islamic philosophy, points out that the objections of notable theologians are rarely directed at philosophy itself, but rather at the conclusions the philosophers arrived at. Even al-Ghazali , who
3268-420: A result of conquests, along with pre-Islamic Indian philosophy and Persian philosophy . Many of the early philosophical debates centered around reconciling religion and reason, the latter exemplified by Greek philosophy. In early Islamic thought, which refers to philosophy during the " Islamic Golden Age ", traditionally dated between the 8th and 12th centuries, two main currents may be distinguished. The first
3440-426: A significant role in the development of algebra , arithmetic and Hindu–Arabic numerals . He has been described as the father or founder of algebra . Another Persian mathematician, Omar Khayyam , is credited with identifying the foundations of Analytic geometry . Omar Khayyam found the general geometric solution of the cubic equation . His book Treatise on Demonstrations of Problems of Algebra (1070), which
3612-507: A source of law in place of qiyas and extension of the notion of sunnah to include traditions of the imams . The body of substantive Islamic law was created by independent jurists ( muftis ). Their legal opinions ( fatwas ) were taken into account by ruler-appointed judges who presided over qāḍī 's courts, and by maẓālim courts, which were controlled by the ruler's council and administered criminal law. Classical Islamic theology emerged from an early doctrinal controversy which pitted
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#17327811557003784-496: A strict rationalism with which to interpret Islamic doctrine. Their attempt was one of the first to pursue a rational theology in Islam. They were however severely criticized by other Islamic philosophers, both Maturidis and Asharites . The great Asharite scholar Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi wrote the work Al-Mutakallimin fi 'Ilm al-Kalam against the Mutazalites. In later times, Kalam was used to mean simply "theology", i.e.
3956-458: A totally different meaning from "reason" in philosophy . The historiography of Islamic philosophy is marked by disputes as to how the subject should be properly interpreted. Some of the key issues involve the comparative importance of eastern intellectuals such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and of western thinkers such as Ibn Rushd, and also whether Islamic philosophy can be read at face value or should be interpreted in an esoteric fashion. Supporters of
4128-455: A young age with study of Arabic and the Quran , either at home or in a primary school, which was often attached to a mosque. Some students would then proceed to training in tafsir (Quranic exegesis) and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), which was seen as particularly important. Education focused on memorization, but also trained the more advanced students to participate as readers and writers in
4300-508: Is Kalam , which mainly dealt with Islamic theological questions, and the other is Falsafa , which was founded on interpretations of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism . There were attempts by later philosopher-theologians at harmonizing both trends, notably by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) who founded the school of Avicennism , Ibn Rushd (Averroes) who founded the school of Averroism , and others such as Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī . ʿIlm al-Kalām ( Arabic : علم الكلام )
4472-429: Is God's absolute oneness , which he considers an attribute uniquely associated with God (and therefore not shared with anything else). By this he means that while we may think of any existent thing as being "one", it is in fact both "one" and many". For example, he says that while a body is one, it is also composed of many different parts. A person might say "I see an elephant", by which he means "I see one elephant", but
4644-517: Is a spiritual substance separate from the body, it uses the body as a tool. The famous example given by Ibn Sina to show that the soul is a spiritual substance separate from the material body and to show one's self-awareness, is known as "insan-i tair" (flying person) and was used throughout the West in the Middle Ages. In this example, he asks his readers to imagine themselves suspended in the sky (in
4816-458: Is also credited for categorizing logic into two separate groups, the first being "idea" and the second being " proof ". Averroes (1126–1198), author of the most elaborate commentaries on Aristotelian logic, was the last major logician from al-Andalus . Avicenna (980–1037) developed his own system of logic known as "Avicennian logic" as an alternative to Aristotelian logic. By the 12th century, Avicennian logic had replaced Aristotelian logic as
4988-478: Is an accident of accidents" and also anticipated Alexius Meinong 's "view about nonexistent objects ." He also provided early arguments for "a " necessary being" as cause of all other existents ." The idea of "essence preced[ing] existence" is a concept which dates back to Avicenna and his school as well as Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and his Illuminationist philosophy . " Existence preced[ing] essence ",
5160-487: Is credited with being the first real Muslim philosopher . His own thought was largely influenced by the Neo-Platonic philosophy of Proclus , Plotinus and John Philoponus , amongst others, although he does appear to have borrowed ideas from other Hellenistic schools as well. He makes many references to Aristotle in his writings, but these are often unwittingly re-interpreted in a Neo-Platonic framework. This trend
5332-490: Is famous for his critique of the philosophers, was himself an expert in philosophy and logic . And his criticism was that they arrived at theologically erroneous conclusions. The three most serious of these, in his view, were believing in the co-eternity of the universe with God, denying the bodily resurrection, and asserting that God only has knowledge of abstract universals, not of particular things (not all philosophers subscribed to these same views). During his life, al-Kindi
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5504-493: Is filled with light. When these criteria are met, the "sensible form" of the object is transmitted through the medium to the eye. On the other hand, Euclid proposed that vision occurred in straight lines when "rays" from the eye reached an illuminated object and were reflected back. As with his theories on Astrology, the dichotomy of contact and distance is present in al-Kindi's writings on this subject as well. The factor which al-Kindi relied upon to determine which of these theories
5676-402: Is impossible. There is no process by which water or snow can be made to pass through glass. In explaining the natural cause of the wind , and the difference for its directions based on time and location, he wrote: When the sun is in its northern declination northerly places will heat up and it will be cold towards the south. Then the northern air will expand in a southerly direction because of
5848-461: Is knowledge of God. For this reason, he does not make a clear distinction between philosophy and theology, because he believes they are both concerned with the same subject. Later philosophers, particularly al-Farabi and Avicenna , would strongly disagree with him on this issue, by saying that metaphysics is actually concerned with being qua being, and as such, the nature of God is purely incidental. Central to al-Kindi's understanding of metaphysics
6020-562: Is listed in The Guinness Book Of Records as the world's oldest degree-granting university. The Al-Azhar University was another early madrasa now recognized as a university. The madrasa is one of the relics of the Fatimid caliphate. The Fatimids traced their descent to Muhammad's daughter Fatimah and named the institution using a variant of her honorific title Al-Zahra (the brilliant). Organized instruction in
6192-487: Is made up of lines of altitude and azimuth with an index, horizon, hour circle, zenith, Rete , star pointer, and equator to accurately show where the stars are at that given moment. Use of the astrolabe is best expressed in Al-Farghani 's treatise on the astrolabe due to the mathematical way he applied the instrument to astrology, astronomy, and timekeeping. The earliest known Astrolabe in existence today comes from
6364-437: Is matter eternal, but form is potentially inherent in matter; otherwise, it were a creation ex nihilo " (Munk, "Mélanges," p. 444). According to this theory, therefore, the existence of this world is not only a possibility, as Avicenna declared, but also a necessity. In early Islamic philosophy, logic played an important role. Sharia (Islamic law) placed importance on formulating standards of argument, which gave rise to
6536-471: Is most obvious in areas such as metaphysics and the nature of God as a causal entity. Experts have suggested that he was influenced by the Mutazilite school of theology, because of the mutual concern both he and they demonstrated for maintaining the singularity ( tawhid ) of God. A minority view however holds that such agreements are considered incidental. According to al-Kindi, the goal of metaphysics
6708-450: Is obligatory upon every Muslim". This injunction was seen to apply particularly to scholars, but also to some extent to the wider Muslim public, as exemplified by the dictum of al-Zarnuji , "learning is prescribed for us all". While it is impossible to calculate literacy rates in pre-modern Islamic societies, it is almost certain that they were relatively high, at least in comparison to their European counterparts. Education would begin at
6880-405: Is probably De Gradibus , in which he demonstrates the application of mathematics to medicine, particularly in the field of pharmacology. For example, he developed a mathematical scale to quantify the strength of a drug, and a system (based on the phases of the moon) that would allow a doctor to determine in advance the most critical days of a patient's illness. According to Plinio Prioreschi, this
7052-509: Is taken up with arguing that contingent existents cannot stand alone and must end up in a Necessary Existent." Theologians, particularly among the Muʿtazilites , agreed with Aristotelian metaphysics that non-existence is a thing ( s̲h̲ayʾ ) and an entity ( d̲h̲āt ). According to Aristotelian philosophy, non-existence has to be distinguished by absolute non-existence, that is absolute nothingness, and relative non-existence. The latter can refer to
Islamic philosophy - Misplaced Pages Continue
7224-560: Is the philosophy that seeks Islamic theological principles through dialectic . In Arabic , the word literally means "speech". One of the first debates was that between partisans of the Qadar ( قدر meaning "Fate"), who affirmed free will ; and the Jabarites ( جبر meaning "force", "constraint"), who believed in fatalism . At the 2nd century of the Hijra , a new movement arose in
7396-466: Is to find a different plaintext of the same language long enough to fill one sheet or so, and then we count the occurrences of each letter. We call the most frequently occurring letter the "first", the next most occurring letter the "second", the following most occurring letter the "third", and so on, until we account for all the different letters in the plaintext sample. Then we look at the cipher text we want to solve and we also classify its symbols. We find
7568-519: Is without description or definition and, in particular, without quiddity or essence ( la mahiyya lahu ). Consequently, Avicenna's ontology is ' existentialist ' when accounting for being– qua –existence in terms of necessity ( wujub ), while it is essentialist in terms of thinking about being– qua –existence in terms of "contingency– qua –possibility" ( imkan or mumkin al-wujud , meaning "contingent being"). Some argue that Avicenna anticipated Frege and Bertrand Russell in "holding that existence
7740-474: The ahl al-hadith movement, led by Ahmad ibn Hanbal , who considered the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only acceptable authority in matters of faith, against Mu'tazilites and other theological currents, who developed theological doctrines using rationalistic methods. In 833 the caliph al-Ma'mun tried to impose Mu'tazilite theology on all religious scholars and instituted an inquisition ( mihna ), but
7912-721: The Al-Azhar Mosque began in 978. Arabic became a trade language . The Muslim-ruled Spanish capital of Córdoba , which surpassed Constantinople as the Europe 's largest city, also became a prominent world leading centre of education and learning producing numerous polymaths. Juristic thought gradually developed in study circles, where independent scholars met to learn from a local master and discuss religious topics. At first, these circles were fluid in their membership, but with time distinct regional legal schools crystallized around shared sets of methodological principles. As
8084-565: The Book of Cryptographic Messages , which contains the first use of permutations and combinations to list all possible Arabic words with and without vowels. In a treatise entitled as Risala fi l-Illa al-Failali l-Madd wa l-Fazr ( Treatise on the Efficient Cause of the Flow and Ebb ), al-Kindi presents a theory on tides which "depends on the changes which take place in bodies owing to
8256-686: The House of Wisdom ; others refer to al-Mutawakkil's often violent persecution of unorthodox Muslims (as well as of non-Muslims); at one point al-Kindi was beaten and his library temporarily confiscated. Henry Corbin , an authority on Islamic studies, says that in 873, al-Kindi died "a lonely man", in Baghdad during the reign of al-Mu'tamid ( r. 870–892 ). After his death, al-Kindi's philosophical works quickly fell into obscurity; many were lost even to later Islamic scholars and historians. Felix Klein-Franke suggests several reasons for this: aside from
8428-453: The Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) in the 10th century. It was easier to manufacture than parchment , less likely to crack than papyrus , and could absorb ink, making it difficult to erase and ideal for keeping records. Islamic paper makers devised assembly-line methods of hand-copying manuscripts to turn out editions far larger than any available in Europe for centuries. It
8600-534: The Illuminationist school , founded by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155–1191), who developed the idea of "decisive necessity", an important innovation in the history of logical philosophical speculation, and in favour of inductive reasoning . Avicenna 's proof for the existence of God was the first ontological argument , which he proposed in the Metaphysics section of The Book of Healing . This
8772-531: The Kitāb Kīmiyāʾ al-ʿiṭr wa-l-taṣʿīdāt ("The Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations"), contains one of the earliest known references to the distillation of wine. The work also describes the distillation process for extracting rose oils , and provides recipes for 107 different kinds of perfumes. Al-Kindi authored works on a number of important mathematical subjects, including arithmetic, geometry,
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#17327811557008944-680: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , translation of philosophical texts from Arabic to Latin in Western Europe "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world". The influence of Islamic philosophers in Europe was particularly strong in natural philosophy, psychology and metaphysics, though it also influenced the study of logic and ethics. Ibn Sina argued his " Floating man " thought experiment concerning self-awareness , in which
9116-694: The Timurid Renaissance under the Timurid dynasty . With a new and easier writing system , and the introduction of paper , information was democratized to the extent that, for probably the first time in history, it became possible to make a living from only writing and selling books. The use of paper spread from China into Muslim regions in the eighth century through mass production in Samarkand and Khorasan , arriving in Al-Andalus on
9288-648: The Translation Movement for some translations is estimated to be equivalent to about twice the annual research budget of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council . The best scholars and notable translators, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq , had salaries that are estimated to be the equivalent of professional athletes today. The House of Wisdom was a library established in Abbasid -era Baghdad , Iraq by Caliph al-Mansur in 825 modeled after
9460-515: The academy of Jundishapur . During this period, the Muslims showed a strong interest in assimilating the scientific knowledge of the civilizations that had been conquered. Many classic works of antiquity that might otherwise have been lost were translated from Greek , Syriac , Middle Persian , and Sanskrit into Syriac and Arabic, some of which were later in turn translated into other languages like Hebrew and Latin . Christians , especially
9632-465: The active intellect , which he believed to be the hypostasis by which God communicates truth to the human mind and imparts order and intelligibility to nature . His "Floating Man" thought experiment tells its readers to imagine themselves suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations , which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. He argues that, in this scenario, one would still have self-consciousness . He thus concludes that
9804-649: The duties of the heart as opposed to (or in conjunction with) fiqh (jurisprudence), the duties of the body . Falsafa is a Greek loanword meaning "philosophy" (the Greek pronunciation philosophia became falsafa ). From the 9th century onward, due to Caliph al-Ma'mun and his successor, ancient Greek philosophy was introduced among the Arabs and the Peripatetic School began to find able representatives. Among them were Al-Kindi , Al-Farabi , Avicenna and Averroes . Another trend, represented by
9976-438: The immortality of the human soul, using both demonstrative reasoning and material from the hadith corpus as forms of evidence . Later Islamic scholars viewed this work as a response to Avicenna 's metaphysical argument on spiritual resurrection (as opposed to bodily resurrection), which was earlier criticized by al-Ghazali . The Muslim physician -philosophers, Avicenna and Ibn al-Nafis , developed their own theories on
10148-437: The law of sines is attributed; he wrote " The Book of Unknown Arcs of a Sphere " in the 11th century. This formula relates the lengths of the sides of any triangle, rather than only right triangles , to the sines of its angles. According to the law, where a , b , and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle, and A , B , and C are the opposite angles (see figure). The earliest use of statistical inference
10320-507: The "form" of something without needing to perceive the physical entity to which it refers. Therefore, it would seem to imply that anyone who has purified themselves would be able to receive such visions. It is precisely this idea, amongst other naturalistic explanations of prophetic miracles that al-Ghazali attacks in his Incoherence of the Philosophers . While al-Kindi appreciated the usefulness of philosophy in answering questions of
10492-637: The "impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite" and of the "impossibility of completing an actual infinite by successive addition". In metaphysics , Avicenna (Ibn Sina) defined truth as: What corresponds in the mind to what is outside it. Avicenna elaborated on his definition of truth in his Metaphysics : The truth of a thing is the property of the being of each thing which has been established in it. Al-Kindi Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī ( / æ l ˈ k ɪ n d i / ; Arabic : أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي ; Latin : Alkindus ; c. 801–873 AD )
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#173278115570010664-415: The "world's first true scientist". Avicenna made rules for testing the effectiveness of drugs, including that the effect produced by the experimental drug should be seen constantly or after many repetitions, to be counted. The physician Rhazes was an early proponent of experimental medicine and recommended using control for clinical research. He said: "If you want to study the effect of bloodletting on
10836-471: The 12th century resulted in a weakening of the Islamic empire from which it never recovered. Regarding the end of the Gola, Mohamad Abdalla argues the dominant approach by scholars is the "decline theory.": The golden age is considered to have come into existence through a gigantic endeavor to acquire and translate the ancient sciences of the Greeks between the eighth and ninth centuries. The translations era
11008-487: The 15th century resembled quasicrystalline Penrose tilings . Elaborate geometric zellige tilework is a distinctive element in Moroccan architecture . Muqarnas vaults are three-dimensional but were designed in two dimensions with drawings of geometrical cells. Jamshīd al-Kāshī 's estimate of pi would not be surpassed for 180 years. Ibn Muʿādh al-Jayyānī is one of the several Islamic mathematicians on whom
11180-650: The 7th century with the process of Qiyas , before the Arabic translations of Aristotle's works. Later, during the Islamic Golden Age , there was debate among Islamic philosophers, logicians and theologians over whether the term Qiyas refers to analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning or categorical syllogism. Some Islamic scholars argued that Qiyas refers to inductive reasoning. Ibn Hazm (994–1064) disagreed, arguing that Qiyas does not refer to inductive reasoning but to categorical syllogistic reasoning in
11352-508: The Arabic grammarians, Islamic philosophers were very interested in working out the relationship between logic and language, and they devoted much discussion to the question of the subject matter and aims of logic in relation to reasoning and speech. In the area of formal logical analysis, they elaborated upon the theory of terms , propositions and syllogisms as formulated in Aristotle's Categories, De interpretatione and Prior Analytics. In
11524-515: The Arabic language), he successfully incorporated Aristotelian and (especially) neo-Platonist thought into an Islamic philosophical framework. This was an important factor in the introduction and popularization of Greek philosophy in the Muslim intellectual world. Al-Kindi took his view of the solar system from Ptolemy , who placed the Earth at the centre of a series of concentric spheres, in which
11696-410: The Arabic translations of Ptolemy and Euclid's Optics , were the main Arabic texts to affect the development of optical investigations in Europe, most notably those of Robert Grosseteste , Vitello and Roger Bacon . There are more than thirty treatises attributed to al-Kindi in the field of medicine, in which he was chiefly influenced by the ideas of Galen . His most important work in this field
11868-512: The Arabic writings attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (written c. 850–950), would remain the basis of all theories of metallic composition until the eighteenth century. Likewise, the Emerald Tablet , a compact and cryptic text that all later alchemists up to and including Isaac Newton (1642–1727) would regard as the foundation of their art, first occurs in the Sirr al-khalīqa and in one of
12040-693: The Brethren of Purity, used Aristotelian language to expound a fundamentally Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean world view. During the Abbasid caliphate , a number of thinkers and scientists, some of them heterodox Muslims or non-Muslims, played a role in transmitting Greek, Hindu and other pre-Islamic knowledge to the Christian West . Three speculative thinkers, Al-Farabi, Avicenna and Al-Kindi , combined Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam. Ahmad Sirhindi , 17th century Indian Islamic scholar, has viewed that
12212-494: The Creator" in a realm of pure intelligence. In the view of al-Kindi, prophecy and philosophy were two different routes to arrive at the truth. He contrasts the two positions in four ways. Firstly, while a person must undergo a long period of training and study to become a philosopher, prophecy is bestowed upon someone by God. Secondly, the philosopher must arrive at the truth by his own devices (and with great difficulty), whereas
12384-490: The Creator. This means that He acts as both a final and efficient cause. Unlike later Muslim Neo-Platonic philosophers (who asserted that the universe existed as a result of God's existence "overflowing", which is a passive act), al-Kindi conceived of God as an active agent. In fact, of God as the agent, because all other intermediary agencies are contingent upon Him. The key idea here is that God "acts" through created intermediaries, which in turn "act" on one another – through
12556-488: The First Intellect must always be thinking about everything. Once the human intellect comprehends a universal by this process, it becomes part of the individual's "acquired intellect" and can be thought about whenever he or she wishes. Al-Kindi says that the soul is a simple, immaterial substance, which is related to the material world only because of its faculties which operate through the physical body. To explain
12728-430: The First Intellect. The analogy he provides to explain his theory is that of wood and fire. Wood, he argues, is potentially hot (just as a human is potentially thinking about a universal), and therefore requires something else which is already hot (such as fire) to actualize this. This means that for the human intellect to think about something, the First Intellect must already be thinking about it. Therefore, he says that
12900-512: The Greek philosophy about creations are incompatible with Islamic teaching by quoting several chapters of Quran . Furthermore, Sirhindi criticize the method of interpretating the meaning of Quran with philosophy. By the 12th century, Kalam , attacked by both the philosophers and the orthodox, perished for lack of champions. At the same time, however, Falsafa came under serious critical scrutiny. The most devastating attack came from Al-Ghazali , whose work Tahafut al-Falasifa ( The Incoherence of
13072-571: The Hindu numbers, the harmony of numbers, lines and multiplication with numbers, relative quantities, measuring proportion and time, and numerical procedures and cancellation. He also wrote four volumes, On the Use of the Hindu Numerals ( Arabic : كتاب في استعمال الأعداد الهندية Kitāb fī Isti`māl al-'A`dād al-Hindīyyah ) which contributed greatly to diffusion of the Hindu system of numeration in
13244-772: The Islamic period. It was made by Nastulus in 927-28 AD and is now a treasure of the Kuwait National Museum . In about 964 AD, the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi , writing in his Book of Fixed Stars , described a "nebulous spot" in the Andromeda constellation , the first definitive reference to what is now known to be the Andromeda Galaxy , the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way . The geocentric system developed by Ptolemy placed
13416-525: The Islamic world, and their further development into Arabic numerals along with al-Khwarizmi which eventually was adopted by the rest of the world. Al-Kindi was also one of the fathers of cryptography . Building on the work of al-Khalil (717–786), Al-Kindi's book entitled Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages gave rise to the birth of cryptanalysis , was the earliest known use of statistical inference , and introduced several new methods of breaking ciphers, notably frequency analysis . He
13588-484: The Middle-East and the West. In geometry, among other works, he wrote on the theory of parallels. Also related to geometry were two works on optics. One of the ways in which he made use of mathematics as a philosopher was to attempt to disprove the eternity of the world by demonstrating that actual infinity is a mathematical and logical absurdity. Al-Kindi is credited with developing a method whereby variations in
13760-730: The Persian contribution to this new Islamic civilization is of immense importance. The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavor, including Arabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a very significant contribution." While cultural influence used to radiate outward from Baghdad, after the Mongol destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, Arab influence decreased. Iran and Central Asia, benefiting from increased cross-cultural access to East Asia under Mongol rule , flourished and developed more distinctively from Arab influence, such as
13932-641: The Philosophers ) attacked the main arguments of the Peripatetic School. Averroes, Maimonides ' contemporary, was one of the last of the Islamic Peripatetics and set out to defend the views of the Falsafa against al-Ghazali's criticism. The theories of Ibn Rushd do not differ fundamentally from those of Ibn Bajjah and Ibn Tufail , who only follow the teachings of Avicenna and Al-Farabi. Like all Islamic Peripatetics, Averroes admits
14104-557: The Quran and hadith. The classical theory of Islamic jurisprudence elaborates how scriptures should be interpreted from the standpoint of linguistics and rhetoric. It also comprises methods for establishing authenticity of hadith and for determining when the legal force of a scriptural passage is abrogated by a passage revealed at a later date. In addition to the Quran and sunnah, the classical theory of Sunni fiqh recognizes two other sources of law: juristic consensus ( ijmaʿ ) and analogical reasoning ( qiyas ). It therefore studies
14276-433: The absence of a quality or the potentiality of something. Muʿtazilite thinkers such as al-Fārābī and ibn Sīnā hold the position that things had a relative existence prior to creation. God knew what he was going to create and God gave them the accident of existence. Contrarily, Asharites regard existence as essence. Islamic philosophy, imbued as it is with Islamic theology , distinguishes more clearly than Aristotelianism
14448-712: The adherents of the Church of the East ( Nestorians ), contributed to Islamic civilization during the reign of the Umayyads and the Abbasids by translating works of Greek philosophers and ancient science to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic . They also excelled in many fields, in particular philosophy , science (such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq , Yusuf Al-Khuri , Al Himsi , Qusta ibn Luqa , Masawaiyh , Patriarch Eutychius , and Jabril ibn Bukhtishu ) and theology . For
14620-404: The air), without any sensory contact, isolated from all sensations: The person in this state is still realizing himself even though there is no material contact. In that case, the idea that the soul (person) is dependent on matter, that is, any physical object, does not make sense, and the soul is a substance on its own. (Here, the concept of “I exist even though I am not in the dense-rough matter of
14792-453: The ancients" or "rational sciences", from Islamic religious sciences. Sciences of the former type flourished for several centuries, and their transmission formed part of the educational framework in classical and medieval Islam. In some cases, they were supported by institutions such as the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, but more often they were transmitted informally from teacher to student. The University of Al Karaouine , founded in 859 AD,
14964-507: The application and limits of analogy, as well as the value and limits of consensus, along with other methodological principles, some of which are accepted by only certain legal schools. This interpretive apparatus is brought together under the rubric of ijtihad , which refers to a jurist's exertion in an attempt to arrive at a ruling on a particular question. The theory of Twelver Shia jurisprudence parallels that of Sunni schools with some differences, such as recognition of reason ( ʿaql ) as
15136-420: The attempts to impose a caliphal writ in matters of religious orthodoxy ultimately failed. This controversy persisted until al-Ash'ari (874–936) found a middle ground between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, using the rationalistic methods championed by Mu'tazilites to defend most substantive tenets maintained by ahl al-hadith . A rival compromise between rationalism and literalism emerged from
15308-438: The belief of atomism. But the real role of al-Kindi in the conflict between philosophers and theologians would be to prepare the ground for debate. His works, says Deborah Black , contained all the seeds of future controversy that would be fully realized in al-Ghazali's Incoherence of the Philosophers . Al-Kindi was a master of many different areas of thought and was held to be one of the greatest philosophers. His influence in
15480-400: The boundaries of the schools became clearly delineated, the authority of their doctrinal tenets came to be vested in a master jurist from earlier times, who was henceforth identified as the school's founder. In the course of the first three centuries of Islam, all legal schools came to accept the broad outlines of classical legal theory, according to which Islamic law had to be firmly rooted in
15652-567: The caliphate, or to "six and a half centuries", while another would have it end after only a few decades of Rashidun conquests, with the death of Umar and the First Fitna . During the early 20th century, the term was used only occasionally and often referred to as the early military successes of the Rashidun caliphs . It was only in the second half of the 20th century that the term came to be used with any frequency, now mostly referring to
15824-405: The caliphates is a convenient cut-off point based on a historical landmark, but it can be argued that Islamic culture had entered a gradual decline much earlier; thus, Khan (2003) identifies the proper golden age as being the two centuries between 750 and 950, arguing that the beginning loss of territories under Harun al-Rashid worsened after the death of al-Ma'mun in 833, and that the crusades in
15996-404: The cultural flourishing of science and mathematics under the caliphates during the 9th to 11th centuries (between the establishment of organised scholarship in the House of Wisdom and the beginning of the crusades ), but often extended to include part of the late 8th or the 12th to early 13th centuries. Definitions may still vary considerably. Equating the end of the golden age with the end of
16168-443: The decline theory has become the preferred paradigm in general academia. The various Quranic injunctions and Hadith (or actions of Muhammad ), which place values on education and emphasize the importance of acquiring knowledge, played a vital role in influencing the Muslims of this age in their search for knowledge and the development of the body of science. The Islamic Empire heavily patronized scholars. The money spent on
16340-459: The difference between essence and existence . Whereas existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a being beyond the accidental. This was first described by Avicenna 's works on metaphysics , who was himself influenced by al-Farabi . Some orientalists (or those particularly influenced by Thomist scholarship) argued that Avicenna was the first to view existence ( wujud ) as an accident that happens to
16512-687: The dominant system of logic in the Islamic world. The first criticisms of Aristotelian logic were written by Avicenna (980–1037), who produced independent treatises on logic rather than commentaries. He criticized the logical school of Baghdad for their devotion to Aristotle at the time. He investigated the theory of definition and classification and the quantification of the predicates of categorical propositions , and developed an original theory on " temporal modal " syllogism. Its premises included modifiers such as "at all times", "at most times", and "at some time". While Avicenna (980–1037) often relied on deductive reasoning in philosophy, he used
16684-521: The end of the Islamic Golden Age as late as the end of 15th to 16th centuries, including the rise of the Islamic gunpowder empires . The metaphor of a golden age began to be applied in 19th-century literature about Islamic history , in the context of the western aesthetic fashion known as Orientalism . The author of a Handbook for Travelers in Syria and Palestine in 1868 observed that
16856-418: The entire matter whose temperament is prepared to receive that soul" and he defined the soul as nothing other than "what a human indicates by saying ‘ I ’." While he was imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan , Avicenna wrote his "Floating Man" thought experiment to demonstrate human self-awareness and the substantiality of the soul. He referred to the living human intelligence , particularly
17028-463: The essence ( mahiyya ). However, this aspect of ontology is not the most central to the distinction that Avicenna established between essence and existence. One cannot therefore make the claim that Avicenna was the proponent of the concept of essentialism per se , given that existence ( al-wujud ) when thought of in terms of necessity would ontologically translate into a notion of the "Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself" ( wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi ), which
17200-577: The essence of objects flows into the eyes. Alhazen correctly argued that vision occurred when light, traveling in straight lines, reflects off an object into the eyes. Al-Biruni wrote of his insights into light, stating that its velocity must be immense when compared to the speed of sound. The early Islamic period saw the establishment of some of the longest lived theoretical frameworks in alchemy and chemistry . The sulfur-mercury theory of metals , first attested in pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana's Sirr al-khalīqa ("The Secret of Creation", c. 750–850) and in
17372-571: The fields of physics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and music were far-reaching and lasted for several centuries. Ibn al-Nadim in his Kitab al-Fihrist praised al-Kindi and his work stating: The best man of his time, unique in his knowledge of all the ancient sciences. He is called the Philosopher of the Arabs. His books deal with different sciences, such as logic, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy etc. We have connected him with
17544-466: The frequency of the occurrence of letters could be analyzed and exploited to break ciphers (i.e. cryptanalysis by frequency analysis ). His book on this topic is Risāla fī Istikhrāj al-Kutub al-Mu'ammāh (رسالة في استخراج الكتب المعماة; literally: On Extracting Obscured Correspondence , more contemporarily: On Decrypting Encrypted Correspondence ). In his treatise on cryptanalysis, he wrote: One way to solve an encrypted message, if we know its language,
17716-645: The heat due to the contraction of the southern air. Therefore most of the summer winds are merits and most of the winter winds are not. Al-Kindi was the first great theoretician of music in the Arab-Islamic world. He is known to have written fifteen treatises on music theory , but only five have survived. He added a fifth string to the 'ud . His works included discussions on the therapeutic value of music and what he regarded as "cosmological connections" of music. While Muslim intellectuals were already acquainted with Greek philosophy (especially logic ), al-Kindi
17888-432: The heavenly realm. These forms are really abstract concepts such as a species, quality or relation, which apply to all physical objects and beings. For example, a red apple has the quality of "redness" derived from the appropriate universal. However, al-Kindi says that human intellects are only potentially able to comprehend these. This potential is actualized by the First Intellect, which is perpetually thinking about all of
18060-609: The hypothesis of the intelligence of the spheres and the hypothesis of universal emanation, through which motion is communicated from place to place to all parts of the universe as far as the supreme world—hypotheses which, in the mind of the Arabic philosophers, did away with the dualism involved in Aristotle's doctrine of pure energy and eternal matter. But while Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and other Persian and Muslim philosophers hurried, so to speak, over subjects that trenched on traditional beliefs, Ibn Rushd delighted in dwelling upon them with full particularity and stress. Thus he says, "Not only
18232-442: The idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing , and that the soul should not be seen in relative terms , but as a primary given, a substance . This argument was later refined and simplified by René Descartes in epistemic terms when he stated: "I can abstract from the supposition of all external things, but not from the supposition of my own consciousness." While ancient Greek philosophers believed that
18404-463: The importance of sense perception as a source of knowledge. Al-Ghazali (Algazel) (1058–1111) had an important influence on the use of logic in theology, making use of Avicennian logic in Kalam . Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (b. 1149) criticised Aristotle's " first figure " and developed a form of inductive logic , foreshadowing the system of inductive logic developed by John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Systematic refutations of Greek logic were written by
18576-449: The influence of Greek systems of philosophy such as Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism . Some schools of thought within Islam deny the usefulness or legitimacy of philosophical inquiry. Some argue that there is no indication that the limited knowledge and experience of humans can lead to truth. It is also important to observe that, while "reason" ( 'aql ) is sometimes recognised as a source of Islamic law, it has been claimed that this has
18748-738: The institution, and it placed its holder within a genealogy of scholars, which was the only recognized hierarchy in the educational system. While formal studies in madrasas were open only to men, women of prominent urban families were commonly educated in private settings and many of them received and later issued ijazas in hadith studies, calligraphy and poetry recitation. Working women learned religious texts and practical skills primarily from each other, though they also received some instruction together with men in mosques and private homes. Madrasas were devoted principally to study of law, but they also offered other subjects such as theology, medicine, and mathematics. The madrasa complex usually consisted of
18920-404: The island), as they will invariably be taken away from us (when the ship sets sail again). He then connects this with a Neo-Platonist idea, by saying that our soul can be directed towards the pursuit of desire or the pursuit of intellect; the former will tie it to the body, so that when the body dies, it will also die, but the latter will free it from the body and allow it to survive "in the light of
19092-556: The known heavenly bodies (the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and the stars) are embedded. In one of his treatises on the subject, he says that these bodies are rational entities, whose circular motion is in obedience to and worship of God. Their role, al-Kindi believes, is to act as instruments for divine providence. He furnishes empirical evidence as proof for this assertion; different seasons are marked by particular arrangements of
19264-418: The latter thesis, like Leo Strauss , maintain that Islamic philosophers wrote so as to conceal their true meaning in order to avoid religious persecution , but scholars such as Oliver Leaman disagree. The main sources of classical or early Islamic philosophy are the religion of Islam itself (especially ideas derived and interpreted from the Quran ) and Greek philosophy which the early Muslims inherited as
19436-413: The medieval Islamic world include the synthesis of ammonium chloride from organic substances as described in the works attributed to Jābir, and Abū Bakr al-Rāzī's experiments with vitriol , which would eventually lead to the discovery of mineral acids like sulfuric acid and nitric acid by thirteenth century Latin alchemists such as pseudo-Geber . Al-Biruni (973–1050) estimated the radius of
19608-499: The mid-twentieth century in a Turkish library. His greatest contribution to the development of Islamic philosophy was his efforts to make Greek thought both accessible and acceptable to a Muslim audience. Al-Kindi carried out this mission from the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma), an institute of translation and learning patronized by the Abbasid Caliphs, in Baghdad. As well as translating many important texts, much of what
19780-545: The militant orthodoxy of al-Mutawakkil, the Mongols also destroyed countless libraries during their invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia . However, he says the most probable cause of this was that his writings never found popularity amongst subsequent influential philosophers such as al-Farabi and Avicenna , who ultimately overshadowed him. His philosophical career peaked under al-Mu'tasim, to whom al-Kindi dedicated his most famous work, On First Philosophy , and whose son Ahmad
19952-404: The most beautiful mosques of Damascus were "like Mohammedanism itself, now rapidly decaying" and relics of "the golden age of Islam". There is no unambiguous definition of the term, and depending on whether it is used with a focus on cultural or on military achievement, it may be taken to refer to rather disparate time spans. Thus, one 19th century author would have it extend to the duration of
20124-410: The most occurring symbol and change it to the form of the "first" letter of the plaintext sample, the next most common symbol is changed to the form of the "second" letter, and the following most common symbol is changed to the form of the "third" letter, and so on, until we account for all symbols of the cryptogram we want to solve. Al-Kindi was influenced by the work of al-Khalil (717–786), who wrote
20296-453: The movement of the capital in 762 AD to Baghdad, translators were sponsored to translate Greek texts into Arabic. This translation period led to many major scientific works from Galen , Ptolemy , Aristotle , Euclid , Archimedes , and Apollonius being translated into Arabic. From these translations previously lost knowledge of the cosmos was now being used to advance current astrological thinkers. The second key factor of astronomy's growth
20468-496: The names that come directly from Arabic origins or are the translations of Ptolemy's Greek descriptions which are still in use today. Alhazen played a role in the development of optics . One of the prevailing theories of vision in his time and place was the emission theory supported by Euclid and Ptolemy, where sight worked by the eye emitting rays of light, and the other was the Aristotelean theory that sight worked when
20640-544: The natural philosophers because of his prominence in Science. Al-Kindi's major contribution was his establishment of philosophy in the Islamic world and his efforts in trying to harmonize the philosophical investigation along with the Islamic theology and creed. The philosophical texts which were translated under his supervision would become the standard texts in the Islamic world for centuries to come, even after his influence has been eclipsed by later Philosophers. Al-Kindi
20812-622: The nature of God, the soul and prophetic knowledge . Al-Kindi was born in Kufa to an aristocratic family of the Arabian tribe of the Kinda , descended from the chieftain al-Ash'ath ibn Qays , a contemporary of Muhammad . The family belonged to the most prominent families of the tribal nobility of Kufa in the early Islamic period, until it lost much of its power following the revolt of Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath . His father Ishaq
20984-463: The nature of our worldly existence, he (borrowing from Epictetus ) compares it to a ship which has, during the course of its ocean voyage, temporarily anchored itself at an island and allowed its passengers to disembark. The implicit warning is that those passengers who linger too long on the island may be left behind when the ship sets sail again. Here, al-Kindi displays a stoic concept, that we must not become attached to material things (represented by
21156-496: The opposite (existentialist) notion, was developed in the works of Averroes and Mulla Sadra 's transcendent theosophy . Ibn al-Nafis wrote the Theologus Autodidactus as a defense of "the system of Islam and the Muslims' doctrines on the missions of Prophets, the religious laws, the resurrection of the body, and the transitoriness of the world." The book presents rational arguments for bodily resurrection and
21328-402: The other (though in fact he rejected speculative theology). Despite this, he did make clear that he believed revelation was a superior source of knowledge to reason because it guaranteed matters of faith that reason could not uncover. And while his philosophical approach was not always original, and was even considered clumsy by later thinkers (mainly because he was the first philosopher writing in
21500-529: The philosophy of history. Interest in Islamic philosophy revived during the Nahda ("Awakening") movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and continues to the present day. Islamic philosophy had a major impact in Christian Europe , where translation of Arabic philosophical texts into Latin "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world", with
21672-407: The planets and stars (most notably the sun); the appearance and manner of people varies according to the arrangement of heavenly bodies situated above their homeland. However, he is ambiguous when it comes to the actual process by which the heavenly bodies affect the material world. One theory he posits in his works is from Aristotle, who conceived that the movement of these bodies causes friction in
21844-564: The planets. One of the first to criticize this model was Ibn al-Haytham , a leader of physics in the 11th century in Cairo. Then in the 13th century Nasir al-Din al-Tusi constructed the Maragha Observatory in what is today Iran. Al-Tusi found the equant dissatisfying and replaced it by adding a geometrical technique called a Tusi-couple , which generates linear motion from the sum of two circular motions. Then, Ibn al-Shatir who
22016-637: The prominent centers of learning and transmission of classical wisdom were Christian colleges such as the School of Nisibis and the School of Edessa , the pagan center of learning in Harran , and the renowned hospital and medical Academy of Gondishapur, which was the intellectual, theological and scientific center of the Church of the East. Many scholars of the House of Wisdom were of Christian background and it
22188-406: The prophet has the truth revealed to him by God. Thirdly, the understanding of the prophet – being divinely revealed – is clearer and more comprehensive than that of the philosopher. Fourthly, the way in which the prophet is able to express this understanding to the ordinary people is superior. Therefore, al-Kindi says the prophet is superior in two fields: the ease and certainty with which he receives
22360-442: The rise and fall of temperature." In order to support his argument, he gave a description of a scientific experiment as follows: One can also observe by the senses... how in consequence of extreme cold air changes into water. To do this, one takes a glass bottle, fills it completely with snow, and closes its end carefully. Then one determines its weight by weighing. One places it in a container... which has previously been weighed. On
22532-434: The soul originating from the heart , whereas Ibn al-Nafis on the other hand rejected this idea and instead argued that the soul "is related to the entirety and not to one or a few organs ." He further criticized Aristotle's idea that every unique soul requires the existence of a unique source, in this case the heart. Ibn al-Nafis concluded that "the soul is related primarily neither to the spirit nor to any organ, but rather to
22704-526: The soul. They both made a distinction between the soul and the spirit, and in particular, the Avicennian doctrine on the nature of the soul was influential among the Scholastics . Some of Avicenna's views on the soul included the idea that the immortality of the soul is a consequence of its nature, and not a purpose for it to fulfill. In his theory of "The Ten Intellects", he viewed the human soul as
22876-464: The spirit of Aristotle, they considered the syllogism to be the form to which all rational argumentation could be reduced, and they regarded syllogistic theory as the focal point of logic. Even poetics was considered as a syllogistic art in some fashion by most of the major Islamic Aristotelians. Important developments made by Muslim logicians included the development of "Avicennian logic" as a replacement of Aristotelian logic. Avicenna 's system of logic
23048-514: The sub-lunar region, which stirs up the primary elements of earth, fire, air and water, and these combine to produce everything in the material world. An alternative view found in the treatise On Rays ( De radiis ) is that the planets exercise their influence in straight lines; but this treatise, written by a Latin author, probably around the middle of the 13th century, is apocryphal. In each of these, two fundamentally different views of physical interaction are presented; action by contact and action at
23220-405: The sun, moon, and other planets in orbit around the Earth. Ptolemy thought that the planets moved on circles called epicycles and that their centers rode on deferents . The deferents were eccentric , and the angular motion of a planet was uniform around the equant which was a point opposite the deferent center. Simply, Ptolemy's models were a mathematical system for predicting the positions of
23392-411: The surface of the bottle the air changes into water, and appears upon it like the drops on large porous pitchers, so that a considerable amount of water gradually collects inside the container. One then weighs the bottle, the water and the container, and finds their weight greater than previously, which proves the change. [...] Some foolish persons are of opinion that the snow exudes through the glass. This
23564-466: The tenth and final intellect . Avicenna and Ibn al-Nafis (Ibn al-Nafis), Islamic philosophers and physicians who followed Aristotle, put forward a different theory about the soul than Aristotle's, and made a distinction between soul (In. spirit) and soul (In. soul). [32] Especially Avicenna's teaching on the nature of the soul had a great influence on the Scholastics. According to Ibn Sina, the soul
23736-424: The term 'elephant' refers to a species of animal that contains many. Therefore, only God is absolutely one, both in being and in concept, lacking any multiplicity whatsoever. Some feel this understanding entails a very rigorous negative theology because it implies that any description which can be predicated to anything else, cannot be said about God. In addition to absolute oneness, al-Kindi also described God as
23908-496: The theological school of Basra , Iraq . A pupil of Hasan of Basra , Wasil ibn Ata , left the group when he disagreed with his teacher on whether a Muslim who has committed a major sin invalidates his faith. He systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites and Jabarites. This new school was called Mu'tazilite (from i'tazala , to separate oneself). The Mu'tazilites looked in towards
24080-478: The tradition of commentary on the studied texts. It also involved a process of socialization of aspiring scholars, who came from virtually all social backgrounds, into the ranks of the ulema . For the first few centuries of Islam, educational settings were entirely informal, but beginning in the 11th and 12th centuries, the ruling elites began to establish institutions of higher religious learning known as madrasas in an effort to secure support and cooperation of
24252-517: The translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language . This contact with "the philosophy of the ancients" (as Hellenistic philosophy was often referred to by Muslim scholars) had a profound effect on him, as he synthesized, adapted and promoted Hellenistic and Peripatetic philosophy in the Muslim world . He subsequently wrote hundreds of original treatises of his own on
24424-752: The truth, and the way in which he presents it. However, the crucial implication is that the content of the prophet's and the philosopher's knowledge is the same . This, says Adamson, demonstrates how limited the superiority al-Kindi afforded to prophecy was. In addition to this, al-Kindi adopted a naturalistic view of prophetic visions. He argued that, through the faculty of "imagination" as conceived of in Aristotelian philosophy, certain "pure" and well-prepared souls, were able to receive information about future events. Significantly, he does not attribute such visions or dreams to revelation from God, but instead explains that imagination enables human beings to receive
24596-415: The ulema. Madrasas soon multiplied throughout the Islamic world, which helped to spread Islamic learning beyond urban centers and to unite diverse Islamic communities in a shared cultural project. Nonetheless, instruction remained focused on individual relationships between students and their teacher. The formal attestation of educational attainment, ijaza , was granted by a particular scholar rather than
24768-488: The universals. He argues that the external agency of this intellect is necessary by saying that human beings cannot arrive at a universal concept merely through perception. In other words, an intellect cannot understand the species of a thing simply by examining one or more of its instances. According to him, this will only yield an inferior "sensible form", and not the universal form which we desire. The universal form can only be attained through contemplation and actualization by
24940-573: The universe had an infinite past with no beginning, early medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. This view was inspired by the creationism shared by Judaism , Christianity and Islam . The Christian philosopher John Philoponus presented a detailed argument against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite past. Muslim and Arab Jewish philosophers like Al-Kindi , Saadia Gaon , and Al-Ghazali developed further arguments, with most falling into two broad categories: assertions of
25112-425: The whole world." This theory of the active power of rays had an influence on later scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham , Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon . Two major theories of optics appear in the writings of al-Kindi: Aristotelian and Euclidean . Aristotle had believed that in order for the eye to perceive an object, both the eye and the object must be in contact with a transparent medium (such as air) that
25284-495: The work of al-Maturidi (d. c. 944), and, although a minority of scholars remained faithful to the early ahl al-hadith creed, Ash'ari and Maturidi theology came to dominate Sunni Islam from the 10th century on. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) played a major role in interpreting the works of Aristotle, whose ideas came to dominate the non-religious thought of the Christian and Muslim worlds . According to
25456-449: The works attributed to Jābir. Substantial advances were also made in practical chemistry. The works attributed to Jābir, and those of the Persian alchemist and physician Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (c. 865–925), contain the earliest known systematic classifications of chemical substances. However, alchemists were not only interested in identifying and classifying chemical substances, but also in artificially creating them. Significant examples from
25628-418: The world view of Islam, as derived from the Islamic texts concerning the creation of the universe and the will of the Creator. In another sense it refers to any of the schools of thought that flourished under the Islamic empire or in the shadow of the Arab-Islamic culture and Islamic civilization. In its narrowest sense it is a translation of Falsafa , meaning those particular schools of thought that most reflect
25800-550: The world's largest city by then, to translate the known world's classical knowledge into Arabic and Persian . The period is traditionally said to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258. There are a few alternative timelines. Some scholars extend the end date of the golden age to around 1350, including the Timurid Renaissance within it, while others place
25972-442: The world” is treated.) This "proving by reflection" study by Ibn Sina was later simplified by René Descartes and expressed in epistemological terms as follows: “I can isolate myself from all supposed things outside of me. , but I can never (abstract) from my own consciousness.”. According to Ibn Sina, immortality of the soul is not a goal, but a necessity and consequence of its nature. Avicenna generally supported Aristotle 's idea of
26144-403: Was a period of scientific, economic and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam , traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom , which saw scholars from all over the Muslim world flock to Baghdad ,
26316-446: Was a separate, incorporeal and universal intellect (known as the "First Intellect"). It was the first of God's creation and the intermediary through which all other things came into creation. Aside from its obvious metaphysical importance, it was also crucial to al-Kindi's epistemology , which was influenced by Platonic realism . According to Plato, everything that exists in the material world corresponds to certain universal forms in
26488-412: Was a significant step in the development of algebra, is part of the body of Persian mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. Yet another Persian mathematician, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī , found algebraic and numerical solutions to various cases of cubic equations. He also developed the concept of a function . Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) discovered the sum formula for the fourth power, using
26660-424: Was able to create a scale that would enable doctors to gauge the effectiveness of their medication by combining his knowledge of mathematics and medicine. The central theme underpinning al-Kindi's philosophical writings is the compatibility between philosophy and other "orthodox" Islamic sciences, particularly theology, and many of his works deal with subjects that theology had an immediate interest in. These include
26832-686: Was also an important figure in medieval Europe . Several of his books got translated into Latin influencing western authors like Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon . The Italian Renaissance scholar Geralomo Cardano (1501–1575) considered him one of the twelve greatest minds. In 1986, the Royal Commission for Riyadh City inaugurated the Al Kindi Plaza in the Diplomatic Quarter district of Riyadh , Saudi Arabia . Islamic Golden Age The Islamic Golden Age
27004-537: Was also well known for his beautiful calligraphy , and at one point was employed as a calligrapher by Caliph al-Mutawakkil ( r. 847–861 ). When al-Ma'mun died, his brother, al-Mu'tasim became caliph. Al-Kindi's position would be enhanced under al-Mu'tasim, who appointed him as a tutor to his son. But on the accession of al-Wathiq ( r. 842–847 ), and especially of al-Mutawakkil, al-Kindi's star waned. There are various theories concerning this: some attribute al-Kindi's downfall to scholarly rivalries at
27176-457: Was an Arab Muslim polymath active as a philosopher , mathematician , physician , and music theorist . Al-Kindi was the first of the Islamic peripatetic philosophers , and is hailed as the "father of Arab philosophy ". 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
27348-400: Was followed by two centuries of splendid original thinking and contributions, and is known as the "golden age" of Islamic science. This so-called "golden age" is supposed to have lasted from the end of the ninth to the end of the eleventh century. The era after this period is conventionally known as the "age of decline". A survey of literature from the nineteenth century onwards demonstrates that
27520-574: Was fortunate enough to enjoy the patronage of the pro- Mutazilite Caliphs al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim , which meant he could carry out his philosophical speculations with relative ease. In his own time, al-Kindi would be criticized for extolling the "intellect" as being the most immanent creation in proximity to God, which was commonly held to be the position of the angels. He also engaged in disputations with certain Mutazilites, whom he attacked for their belief in atoms, as not all Mutazilites accepted
27692-430: Was from these countries that the rest of the world learned to make paper from linen. The centrality of scripture and its study in the Islamic tradition helped to make education a central pillar of the religion in virtually all times and places in the history of Islam. The importance of learning in the Islamic tradition is reflected in a number of hadiths attributed to Muhammad, including one that states "Seeking knowledge
27864-524: Was given by Al-Kindi (c. 801–873, also known as "Alkindus" in Europe), in Risalah fi Istikhraj al-Mu'amma ( A Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages ) which contains the first description of the method of frequency analysis . Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) was a significant figure in the history of scientific method , particularly in his approach to experimentation, and has been described as
28036-498: Was led by Christian physician Hunayn ibn Ishaq , with the support of Byzantine medicine . Many of the most important philosophical and scientific works of the ancient world were translated, including the work of Galen , Hippocrates , Plato , Aristotle , Ptolemy and Archimedes . Persians also were a notably high proportion of scientists who contributed to the Islamic Golden Age. According to Bernard Lewis : "Culturally, politically, and most remarkable of all even religiously,
28208-412: Was most correct was how adequately each one explained the experience of seeing. For example, Aristotle's theory was unable to account for why the angle at which an individual sees an object affects his perception of it. For example, why a circle viewed from the side will appear as a line. According to Aristotle, the complete sensible form of a circle should be transmitted to the eye and it should appear as
28380-615: Was responsible for the introduction of hypothetical syllogism , temporal modal logic and inductive logic . Other important developments in early Islamic philosophy include the development of a strict science of citation , the isnad or "backing", and the development of a method to disprove claims, the ijtihad , which was generally applied to many types of questions. Early forms of analogical reasoning , inductive reasoning and categorical syllogism were introduced in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Sharia and Kalam (Islamic theology) from
28552-475: Was the governor of Basra and al-Kindi received his preliminary education there. He later went to complete his studies in Baghdad, where he was patronized by the Abbasid caliphs al-Ma'mun ( r. 813–833 ) and al-Mu'tasim ( r. 833–842 ). On account of his learning and aptitude for study, al-Ma'mun appointed him to the House of Wisdom , a recently established center for the translation of Greek philosophical and scientific texts, in Baghdad. He
28724-482: Was the first attempt at serious quantification in medicine. Al-Kindi denied the possibility of transmuting base metals into precious metals such as gold and silver, a position that was later attacked by the Persian alchemist and physician Abu Bakr al-Razi ( c. 865 – c. 925 ). One work attributed to al-Kindi, variously known as the Kitāb al-Taraffuq fī l-ʿiṭr ("The Book of Gentleness on Perfume") or
28896-420: Was the first attempt at using the method of a priori proof , which utilizes intuition and reason alone. Avicenna's proof of God's existence is unique in that it can be classified as both a cosmological argument and an ontological argument. "It is ontological insofar as ‘necessary existence’ in intellect is the first basis for arguing for a Necessary Existent". The proof is also "cosmological insofar as most of it
29068-440: Was the religious observances followed by Muslims which expected them to pray at exact times during the day. These observances in timekeeping led to many questions in previous Greek mathematical astronomy, especially their timekeeping. The astrolabe was a Greek invention which was an important piece of Arabic astronomy. An astrolabe is a handheld two-dimensional model of the sky which can solve problems of spherical astronomy. It
29240-411: Was to become standard Arabic philosophical vocabulary originated with al-Kindi; indeed, if it had not been for him, the work of philosophers like al-Farabi , Avicenna , and al-Ghazali might not have been possible. In his writings, one of al-Kindi's central concerns was to demonstrate the compatibility between philosophy and natural theology on the one hand, and revealed or speculative theology on
29412-551: Was tutored by al-Kindi. According to Arab bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim , al-Kindi wrote at least two hundred and sixty books, contributing heavily to geometry (thirty-two books), medicine and philosophy (twenty-two books each), logic (nine books), and physics (twelve books). Although most of his books have been lost over the centuries, a few have survived in the form of Latin translations by Gerard of Cremona , and others have been rediscovered in Arabic manuscripts; most importantly, twenty-four of his lost works were located in
29584-660: Was working in Damascus in 1350 AD employed the Tusi-couple to successfully eliminate the equant as well as other objectionable circles that Ptolemy had used. This new model properly aligned the celestial spheres and was mathematically sound. This development by Ibn al-Shatir, as well as the Maragha astronomers remained relatively unknown in medieval Europe. The names for some of the stars used, including Betelgeuse , Rigel , Vega , Aldebaran , and Fomalhaut are several of
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