Avicennism

فبعض هذه الأمور إنما يجب عليه من جهة ما هُوَ طبيب أن يتصوره بالماهية فقط تصوراً علمياً، ويصدّق بهليته تصديقاً عَلَی أنه وضع له مقبول من صاحب الْعِلْم الطَّبِيعِيّ ، وبعضها يلزمه أن يبرهن عليه فى صناعته، فما كان من هذه كالمبادئ فيلزمه أن يتقلد هليتها، فإن مبادئ العلوم الْجُزْئِيَّة مسلمة وتتبرهن وتتبين فى علوم اُخَر أقدم منها، وهكذا حتّي يرتقي مبادئ العلوم كُلّها إلی الحكمة الأوْلی التي يقال لها علم ما بعد الطبيعة. وإذا شرع بعض المتطببين وأخذ يَتَكَلَّم فى إثبات العناصر والمزاج وما يتلو ذلك مما هُوَ موضوع الْعِلْم الطَّبِيعِيّ فإنه يغلط من حيث إنه يورد فى صناعة الطِّبِّ ما لَيْسَ من صناعة الطِّبِّ ويغلط من حيث يظن أنه يبيّن شيئاً ولا يَكُونُ قد بيّنه البتة .
و«جالينوس»، إذ حأوْل إقامة البرهان عَلَي  الْقِسْم الأوْل فلا يجب أن يحأوْل ذلك من جهة أنه طبيب ولكن من جهة أنه يحب  أن يَكُونَ فيلسوفاً يَتَكَلَّم فى الْعِلْم الطَّبِيعِيّ ، كما أن الفقيه إذا حاوْل أن يثبت صحة وجوب متابعة الإجماع فلَيْسَ ذلك له من جهة ما هُوَ فقيه، ولكن من جهة ما هُوَ متكلم ولكن الطبيب من جهة ما هُوَ طبيب والفقيه من جهة ما هُوَ فقيه لَيْسَ  يمكنه أن يبرهن عَلَي  ذاك بتة!  وإلا وقع الدَّوْر
القانون في الطب ابن سينا
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The current text expresses my reflections on Frank Griffel's recently published book "The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam." As mentioned in the text, many intellectual aspects of philosophy became gradually integrated into the theological discourse among Muslim thinkers. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī's contributions both in theology and philosophy (d. 1210) remark one of the most influential register of thought in the 6th/12th century.

The Risāla al-dahabiyya fī uṣūl al-ṭibb (Golden treatise on the principles of medicine) is the medical treatise attributed to the eight Shi‘ite imam ‘Alī al-Riḍā (m. 818), and supposed to be composed by the imam at the request of the caliph al-Ma’mūn.

This study has two goals: first, to show that Avicenna’s account of being and thing significantly influenced Aquinas’s doctrine of the primary notions; second, to establish the value of adopting a mereological construal of these primary notions in the metaphysics of Avicenna and Aquinas. I begin with an explication of the mereological construal of the primary notions that casts these notions in terms of wholes and parts. Being and thing refer to the same entitative whole and have the same extension, but they are distinct in intension according to the different entitative parts they signify. Existence and essence constitute the two most fundamental entitative parts of every entitative whole. Being is taken to mean that which has existence, and thing signifies that which has essence. I then show how this mereological construal of the primary notions clarifies a number of texts in Avicenna and Aquinas. Finally, I address a few arguments against employing this mereological interpretation of the primary notions.

De Haan, “A Mereological Construal of the Primary Notions Being and Thing in Avicenna and Aquinas” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Special Issue: Aquinas and the Arabic Philosophical Tradition, Richard Taylor ed., 88, 2 (2014): 335-360

This article (re-)introduces Risālat al-Bayān al-aẓhar, a short and by all appearances unfinished treatise by the Coptic scholar al-Rashīd Abū ’l-Khayr Ibn al-Ṭayyib (d. after 1270), to exemplify the pivotal role played by the works of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī during the ‘Renaissance’ of Copto-Arabic literature in the 13th and 14th centuries. Rāzī’s œuvre left its mark on both content and form of systematic religious thought in Eastern Christianity. Whilst the Risāla is available in a partial edition since 1938, it has never been studied so far. As we shall see, Ibn al-Ṭayyib’s critique of Rāzī’s deterministic concept of human agency as outlined in the Muḥaṣṣal came in an attempt to counteract what he perceived as a detrimental effect of the mounting popularity which Rāzī’s works enjoyed among contemporaneous Christian readers. The critique is based on a rich patchwork of sources that is characteristic of 13th century Copto-Arabic encyclopaedism.

La rivista, che si avvale della collaborazione degli studiosi di tutto il mondo, accoglie edizioni di testi, anche inediti e poco conosciuti, e studi sul pensiero filosofico della tarda Antichità e del Medioevo, spaziando dalla cultura latina a quella greca, araba ed ebraica. Le annate 1-3 sono state pubblicate in fascicoli semestrali; dall'annata 4 il periodico ha scadenza annuale.
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Abstract. This article deals with the divine knowledge of particulars in Averroes’ Tahāfut al-tahāfut and Ḍamīma. It examines how the concept of relation, generally neglected, is at the heart of the dispute between Avicenna, al-Ġazālī, and the Commentator. In al-Ġazālī’s eyes, Avicenna’s misconception of divine knowledge “in a universal way” is based on a misuse of relation in the case of God’s knowledge. If particulars change and God does not, his knowledge of particulars, insofar as it undergoes change, can be considered a pure relation without ontological consequences. Averroes contests both alĠazālī’s criticism and his proposal, despite the fact that, for different reasons involving the coming to-be of human knowledge, he too employs the notion of pure relation in his Long Commentary on the Physics.
Résumé. L’article porte sur la science divine des singuliers dans le Tahāfut al-tahāfut et la Ḍamīma d’Averroès. Il examine comment le concept de relation, généralement négligé, intervient au coeur de la dispute entre Avicenne, al-Ġazālī et le Cordouan. Aux yeux d’al-Ġazālī, Avicenne tire sa conception fautive d’une connaissance divine « par mode universel » d’un mauvais usage de la relation dans le cas de la science de Dieu. Si le singulier change et que Dieu, lui, ne change pas, l’idée serait d’envisager sa connaissance du singulier, en tant qu’il change, comme une relation pure, sans conséquence ontologique. Averroès conteste à la fois la critique d’al-Ġazālī et sa proposition, même si, d’un autre point de vue (le surgissement de la connaissance dans l’intellect humain), il recourt lui aussi à la relation pure dans son commentaire de la Physique.

Një ndër eksponentët më influencues të filozofisë dhe teologjisë Islame në epokën pas el-Ghazālīt (v. 1111), Fakhr el-Dīn el-Rāzī (ka jetuar afërsisht në vitet 1150-1210), rirregulloi strukturën e përmbledhjeve filozofike në Lindjen Islame dhe, gjithashtu, edhe kurrikulën e lëvrimeve filozofike. Vepra e tij plotëson procesin e integrimit të ligjërimit të filozofisë Aristoteliane (felsefe) në teologjinë racionaliste Muslimane (kelām), një proces që nisi fill para el-Gazalit. Origjinal në mendimin e tij, Fakhr el-Dīn el-Rāzī qe ndikuar nga filozofia sistematike e Avisenës (Ibn Sīnā, v. 1037). Veprat e tij qenë studiuar gjerësisht, sidomos gjatë shekullit të 13 dhe 14. Komentet e tij mbi veprat e Avisenës, ku ai mban shpesh një distancë kritike ndaj filozofisë (felsefe), u bënë subjekt i super-komenteve në mesin e teksteve më ndikuese në filozofinë Arabe dhe teologjinë Islame. Ndërkaq, më ndikuesja ishte komenti i tij madhështor i Kur’anit Çelësat e të Padukshmes (Mefātīḥ el-ghajb), ku përmes një analize të mirë-strukturuar racionaliste synoi të zgjidhte shumicën e çështjeve të parashtruara në tekstin e zbulesës së hyjnësishme.

In Doubts on Avicenna, Ayman Shihadeh brings to light an important new source, which marks a key moment of transition in twelfth-century Arabic philosophy. Sharaf al-Dīn al-Masʿūdī’s al-Mabāḥith wa-l-Shukūk ʿalā l-Ishārāt (Investigations and Objections on the Pointers) offers major insight into the dialectic between the two traditions of Avicennan philosophy and rational theology, particularly Ashʿarism, which by the end of the century culminates in the systematic philosophical theology of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī. Inaugurating the long and distinguished commentarial tradition on Avicenna’s Ishārāt (Pointers), al-Masʿūdī’s Shukūk uniquely consists of aporias on selected passages, as opposed to exegesis. This monograph provides an overview and the first critical edition of the text, and in-depth case studies of metaphysical aporias and their Avicennan background.

Paper given at the Colloquium on Avicenna and Avicennisms held at SOAS, 6–7 June 2014 (Convenors: Ayman Shihadeh (SOAS) and Sajjad Rizvi (Exeter) under the auspices of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship).
Audio & slides are accessible at http://meti.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/home/meti-info/2014-avicenna/
© Gregor Schwarb, 7 June 2014

""An extremely useful volume of great academic value." Joaquín Lomba (University of Zaragoza).

"This brief volume goes right into the matter of, and sheds light upon, Avicenna's difficult discourse." Emilio Tornero (Complutense University of Madrid).

Abstract: Desde que, traducida al latín a mediados del siglo XII, suscitó el interés de los filósofos medievales, la obra de Abu 'Ali b. Sina (Avicena) no ha cesado de ser estudiada en Occidente. Principalmente su llamada Metafísica, es decir, la cuarta sección de la enciclopedia intitulada *al-Shifa’* (La curación), sección a la que él dio sin embargo el título de *Ilahiyyat* (Cuestiones divinas). Pero son aun muchos los problemas que el pensamiento de Avicena plantea a la reflexión filosófica. Y quizá el principal de todos ellos consista en comprender las causas de la desigual recepción que le dispensaron los propios pensadores musulmanes: del cuestionamiento sunnita de sus premisas y objetivos a su prolongación en clave shi'íta e iluminativa, fenómenos, ambos, no siempre debidamente valorados por los historiadores occidentales de la filosofía islámica. Tres son por lo demás las traducciones íntegras de las Ilahiyyat en lenguas europeas que han visto la luz durante los últimos cien años: la de M. Horten al alemán (1907), la de G.C. Anawati al francés (1978-1985) y la de O. Lizzini al italiano (2002); mientras que M. Cruz Hernández editó en 1950 una muy amplia Antología en castellano. La presente Selección de Textos, basada en tales aportaciones pero también en la lectura del texto árabe original editado por M.Y. Musa, S. Dunya y S. Zayid en 1960, recoge pasajes pertenecientes a los libros I, VI, VIII, IX y X de las Ilahiyyat, en los cuales Avicena expone los fundamentos de su teología, de la que, desde hace cincuenta y cinco años, apenas nadie había vuelto a ocuparse monográficamente en España.

Review: "Carlos A. Segovia hace una selección de pasajes en español de los libros I, VI, VIII, IX y X de la Metafísica de Avicena. La traducción va precedida de una amplia biografía. Sigue con un planteamiento objetivo, claro y profundo, el contenido de la teología o metafísica aviceniana, señalando con precisión las complejas fuentes de su pensamiento. Ofrece una amplia bibliografía y termina con un cuadro cronológico de los acontecimientos ocurridos desde el 945, poco antes del nacimiento de Avicena, hasta 1150 en que se hacen en Occidente las primeras traducciones al latín de las obras de Avicena. Los pasajes de la Metafísica aviceniana están cuidadosamente seleccionados acompañados de notas a pie de página aclaratorias de los textos más complejos. Con esta antología el lector puede tener una idea muy adecuada y completa de las bases metafísicas de Avicena. Es ésta una obra de gran valor científico y sumamente útil." Joaquín Lomba (Universidad de Zaragoza). *Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval* 13 (2006) 243-44.

Review: "El objetivo que persigue esta selección de textos de la Metafísica de Avicena es ir al fondo de su pensamiento filosófico-teológico. Los textos seleccionados responden al fin buscado, pues son, sin duda, los textos clave y más importantes para ello y su traducción es exacta. El hilo argumental de los textos, pese a las supresiones hechas, oportunamente señaladas con puntos suspensivos, se sigue muy bien, puesto que tales supresiones y paráfrasis añadidas entre corchetes no tiene otra finalidad, precisamente, que hacer inteligible el difícil discurso de Avicena. Hay que decir que el editor consigue brindarnos un texto sumamente coherente e inteligible. Este pequeño, pero sustancioso, estudio, junto con los breves textos, pero asimismo, importantísimos, nos introducen de lleno y sin rodeos en el meollo de la filosofía de Avicena." Emilio Tornero (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). *Anaquel de Estudios Árabes* 18 (2007) 238-39."

For Avicenna, happiness in the afterlife is twofold: on the one hand, it consists, as it does in this life, of the perception of bodily pleasure (this is also how revealed Law explains it); on the other, it is intellectual and involves the soul, in so far as the latter is separate from the body. In this respect, the pleasure of the soul – whose destiny is to become an intellectual world – is absolute. The bases of this doctrine are Avicenna’s intellectual psychology and his theory of knowledge, which in turn explains his philosophical elitism.

In this three-year thesis I explored the world of Islamic civilization of North Africa - from a religious, legislative and cultural point of view - with particular attention to the Moroccan area. The University of Al-Qarawiyyin, mistakenly defined as "madrasa", was named from the UNESCO as the oldest university in the world (bibliographic note 149, p. 72), in the sense of a modern structure as we know it today, different from the Koranic schools or the madrasas of the Seljuk age. The university was founded by a woman, Fatima al-Fihriyya who, with the help of her sister Maryam, founded the first center for modern studies and research. The history of the medina is told, from its foundation to the present day, with the restoration of the university library and the fundamental role it has as the religious and cultural center of the city. Al-Qarawiyyin University is also considered an exceptional example of waqf (islamic pious foundation), from the 9th century to the present perpetually dedicated to the same purpose: education and the spread of knowledge.

It has been customary to see the Muslim theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) as a vehement critic of philosophy, who rejected it in favour of Islamic mysticism (Sufism), a view which has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.

This book argues that al-Ghazali was, instead, one of the greatest popularisers of philosophy in medieval Islam. The author supplies new evidence showing that al-Ghazali was indebted to philosophy in his theory of mystical cognition and his eschatology, and that, moreover, in these two areas he accepted even those philosophical teachings which he ostensibly criticized. Through careful translation into English and detailed discussion of more than 80 key passages (with many more surveyed throughout the book), the author shows how al-Ghazali’s understanding of "mystical cognition" is patterned after the philosophy of Avicenna (d. 1037). Arguing that despite overt criticism, al-Ghazali never rejected Avicennian philosophy and that his mysticism itself is grounded in Avicenna’s teachings, the book offers a clear and systematic presentation of al-Ghazali’s "philosophical mysticism."

Challenging popular assumptions about one of the greatest Muslim theologians of all time, this is an important reference for scholars and laymen interested in Islamic theology and in the relations between philosophy and mysticism.

D’emblée, l’auteur nous confronte à un paradoxe : ce qui semble poser problème dans la « philosophie islamique », c'est bien à la fois « la Philosophie » et « l'Islam ». En effet, nous retrouvons liés dans une même formule le terme de Philosophie qui renvoie à un exercice profane et critique de la raison et d'autre part un qualificatif qui réfère au fait de la Révélation, laquelle relève du Mystère et fait sens pour le croyant. N’aurions-nous donc pas affaire avec cette expression à un concept contradictoire qui se détruirait lui-même, et qui de surcroît, ne correspondrait finalement à aucune réalité historique objective ?
Pour autant, force est de constater à la suite de l'auteur combien ces philosophes jamais ne rompent avec l'horizon de la Révélation sans pour autant renier l’exercice de leur Raison et de leur Liberté. Le rôle de cette philosophie dans la formation de la pensée européenne, sa contribution au progrès de la civilisation universelle doivent être au premier rang des préoccupations des intellectuels musulmans européens. Apparaît alors comme une évidence la nécessité de se réapproprier cet héritage, de le faire fructifier de façon à proposer une nécessaire alternative à la pensée théologique enfermée dans une casuistique fossilisée. Les études qui figurent dans ce volume témoignent de cette prise de conscience.

A propos de l'auteur
Docteur en philosophie (Sorbonne Paris-IV), Omar Merzoug enseigne la philosophie et la civilisation Islamiques à l'Institut Al-Ghazali de la Grande Mosquée de Paris. Il est par ailleurs professeur de sociologie à l'Ecole Française des Attaché(e)s de Presse (EFAP).
Traducteur d'Arabe et journaliste, il collabore au Quotidien d'Oran et à Algérienews pour lesquels il chronique l'actualité culturelle française.

سنت های علمی و فلسفی پویا همواره با بررسی و نقد اندیشه پیشینیان و هم اندیشی و مباحثات علمی با معاصران همراه است. فلسفه اسلامی نیز به عنوان یکی سنت دانشی در جهان اسلام با نقد و ارزیابی دیدگاه های پیشینیان شکل گرفته و در این راستا، در دوره هایی معاصران علمی نیز به نقد و بررسی دیدگاه های یکدیگر پرداخته اند.
در این مسیر ابن سینا به عنوان شاخص ترین چهره فلسفی علمی جهان اسلام با پدید آوردن آثار متعدد در شاخه های مختلف دانش و به ویژه فلسفه و پزشکی جایگاه مهمی در سنت علمی و فلسفی تمدن اسلامی دارد. آثار و اندیشه های او با نقد و ارزیابی دیدگاه های فلسفی پیشین همراه بوده و خود نیز توسط معاصران و پسینیان مورد بررسی و نقد قرار گرفته است و از این رو، آثار سینوی مواد خوبی را در عرصه مطالعات نقد در اختیار پژوهشگران می گذارد.
امروزه با گسترش یافتن مسئله نقد و نقادی به عنوان یکی از زمینه های علم ورزی و نگارش آثار تحقیقی عرصه ای با عنوان فرانقد پدید آمده که از جمله به اصول اخلاقی نقد می پردازد. در این مقاله کوشش شده است با تأکید بر یکی از آثار ابن سینا –المباحثات- که در آن بررسی و نقدهای بوعلی و معاصران وی انعکاس یافته است، مباحث اخلاق نقد از دیدگاه بوعلی بازخوانی شود. با بررسی عبارت های بوعلی ویژگی هایی چون نقدپذیری، اعتراف به عجز علمی و تضرع به باری تعالی در یافتن مسائل، انتخاب مسؤولانه، مطالعه جدی و کوشش در صدد فهم و تفسیر صحیح متن مورد نقد و ارائه تصویر درست از دیدگاه ها با رعایت اصل خیرخواهی، دقت و شفافیت در بیان با توجه به اصل صداقت، امانت و شجاعت  و همینطور انديشه گستري و جستجوی علمی مُجدّانه به عنوان برخی اصول اخلاقی نقد یافت می شود.

The paper analyses some interesting cases of doctrinal divergence between the text of al-Ġazālī's "Maqāṣid al-falāsifa" [Intentions/Doctrines of the Philosophers] and that of its Persian source, Avicenna's "Dānešnāme-ye ʿAlāʾī" [Book of Science for ʿAlāʾ-ad-Dawlā], showing that Ġazālī's philosophical work already displays the clear signs of a critical attitude towards the theoretical complex of the 'falsafa', and a distinct trend towards theological formulations, closer to Islamic religion and revelation.

La recepción del pensamiento árabe en el mundo latino ocupa un lugar importante en la historia de la filosofía. Uno de los fenómenos que se produce durante los primeros años es la incorporación de las doctrinas de los autores de ambas tradiciones. Una de esas incorporaciones generó lo que Gilson denominó agustinismo avicenizante. En el presente artículo se desarrolla algunos elementos de la tradición neoplatónica comunes al mundo árabe y latino, con especialmente en la doctrina de Agustín de Hipona y Avicena. Y cómo este marco común hizo que se facilitara la absorción de las nuevas síntesis filosóficas.