Profiles Grecian influences on tenth-century Arab society.

Al-Kindī, honoured as the 'philosopher of the Arabs', was the first philosopher of Islam. His pioneer philosophical writings engage with ideas that became available through the Graeco-Arabic translation movement. This volume makes his entire philosophical output-some two dozen works-available in English, most of them for the first time. An overall introduction, introductions to each work and extensive notes explain al-Kindī's ideas, sources, and influence.

Al-Kindi was the first philosopher of the Islamic world. He lived in Iraq and studied in Baghdad, where he became attached to the caliphal court. In due course he would become an important figure at court: a tutor to the caliph's son, and a central figure in the translation movement of the ninth century, which rendered much of Greek philosophy, science, and medicine into Arabic. Al-Kindi's wide-ranging intellectual interests included not only philosophy but also music, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. Through (...) deep engagement with Greek tradition al-Kindi developed original theories on key issues in the philosophy of religion, metaphysics, physical science, and ethics. He is especially known for his arguments against the world's eternity, and his innovative use of Greek ideas to explore the idea of God's unity and transcendence. Despite al-Kindi's historical and philosophical importance no book has presented a complete, in-depth look at his thought until now. In this accessible introduction to al-Kindi's works, Peter Adamson surveys what is known of his life and examines his method and his attitude towards the Greek tradition, as well as his subtle relationship with the Muslim intellectual culture of his day. Above all the book focuses on explaining and evaluating the ideas found in al-Kindi's wide-ranging philosophical corpus, including works devoted to science and mathematics. Throughout, Adamson writes in language that is both serious and engaging, academic and approachable. This book will be of interest to experts in the field, but it requires no knowledge of Greek or Arabic, and is also aimed at non-experts who are simply interested in one of the greatest of Islamic philosophers. (shrink)

What is the function of logic in al-Kindī's corpus? What kind of relation does it have with mathematics? This article tackles these questions by examining al-Kindī's theory of categories as it was presented in his epistle On the Number of Aristotle's Books, from which we can learn about his special attitude towards Aristotle theory of categories and his interpretation, as well. Al-Kindī treats the Categories as a logical book, but in a manner different from that of the classical Aristotelian tradition. (...) He ascribes a special status to the categories Quantity and Quality, whereas the rest of the categories are thought to be no more than different combinations of these two categories with the category Substance. The discussion will pay special attention to the function of the categories of Quantity and Quality as mediators between logic and mathematics. (shrink)

Al-Kindi was influenced by two Greek traditions in his attempts to explain vision, light and color. Most obviously, his works on optics are indebted to Euclid and, perhaps indirectly, to Ptolemy. But he also knew some works from the Aristotelian tradition that touch on the nature of color and vision. Al-Kindi explicitly rejects the Aristotelian account of vision in his De Aspectibus, and adopts a theory according to which we see by means of a visual ray emitted from the eye. (...) But in the same work, al-Kindi draws on Philoponus. (shrink)

This book collects papers on the greatest philosopher of late antiquity and founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (d. 270), and the founding figure of philosophy in the Islamic world: al-KindÄ« (d. ca. 873). A number of the contributions focus on the text that joins the two: the Theology of Aristotle, in fact an Arabic version of Plotinus' Enneads produced in al-KindÄ«'s translation circle. Adamson argues that this translation is best understood as a reinterpretation of Plotinus designed to appeal to contemporary readers (...) in the culture of the 'AbbÄ sid era. Other papers look at al-KindÄ«'s thought, exploring his ideas concerning metaphysics, free will, astrology, and optics. The traditions of Plotinus and al-KindÄ« are also treated, with papers on Plotinus' student Porphyry and his Arabic reception, and on followers of al-KindÄ«. Adamson argues that we can identify a 'Kindian tradition' in the 9th-10th centuries. He discusses the philosophical presuppositions of this movement, and the use of al-KindÄ«'s ideas made by one representative of the Kindian tradition, the Persian thinker Miskawayh. (shrink)

Al-Kindī's Forty Chapters was one of the most influential astrological texts in the Middle Ages in the Arabic and Latin-reading world. Yet it has never been studied by modern scholars and has not even been properly identified in the standard bibliographies and encyclopaedias of Arabic literature. This study describes the work as it appears in the Arabic MS, Jerusalem, Khālidī Library, 21-Astr.-2; sets it in the tradition of Greek, Persian and Arabic texts on catarchic astrology; and traces its influence on (...) later Arabic astrological works, which give evidence of a fuller text than that in the Khālidī Library. This fuller text appears in the two Latin translations made in the mid-twelfth century by Hugo of Santalla and Robert of Ketton. Finally some comments are added about the place of The Forty Chapters in al-Kindī's œ;uvre. Two appendixes give respectively details of the manuscripts of the Arabic text and the two Latin translations, and an edition of a specimen chapter from these three versions. Les quarante chapitres d'al-Kindī furent l'un des textes astrologiques les plus influents du moyen âge dans le monde arabe et dans le monde de culture latine. Néanmoins, malgre son importance ce trait´e n'a jamais été étudié ni même correctement identifié dans les bibliographies et les encyclopédies de base consacrées à l'histoire littéraire des Arabes. Cette étude décrit le texte tel qu'il se présente dans le MS Arabe 21-Astr.-2 de la bibliothèque Khālidī de Jérusalem, le replace dans les traditions grecque, persane et arabe d'écrits sur l'astrologie catarchique, et en suit l'influence sur des textes astrologiques arabes plus tardifs. Ces derniers démontrent l'existence d'une version des Quarante chapitres plus complète que celle du manuscrit de Jérusalem. C'est cette version plus complète qui apparaît dans les deux traductions latines rédigées au milieu du XII e siècle par Hugues de Santalla et Robert de Ketton. L'étude s'achève sur quelques commentaires visant à replacer les Quarante chapitres dans l'œuvre d'al-Kindī. Deux appendices donnent respectivement une description des manuscrits du texte arabe et des deux traductions latines, et l'édition d'un chapitre sur la culture et l'irrigation des terres dans chacune des trois versions. (shrink)

Recognized as one of the earliest Jewish neo-Platonist writers, Isaac ben Solomon Israeli influenced Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars through the Middle Ages. A native of Egypt who wrote in Arabic, Israeli explored definitions of such terms as imagination, sense-perception, desire, love, creation, and “coming-to-be” in his writings. This classic volume contains English translations of Israeli’s philosophical writings, including the _Book of Definitions_, the _Book of Substances,_ and the _Book on Spirit and Soul_. Additionally, _Isaac Israeli_ features a biographical sketch (...) of the philosopher and extensive notes and comments on the texts, as well as a survey and appraisal of his philosophy. Restored to print for the first time in decades, _Isaac Israeli _will be essential reading for students and scholars of medieval philosophy and Jewish studies. (shrink)