IBN SHADDAD
Baha’ al-Din Abu’l-Mahasin
Yusuf b. Rafi‘
Baha’ al-Din Abu’l-Mahasin Yusuf b. Rafi‘, a
leading scholar, writer, and official of the Jazira and Syria, wasn born in the
northern Mesopotamian city of Mosul in AH 439/1145 CE. After a period in
Baghdad as mu‘id (assistant teacher) at themadrasa(Islamic school), the celebrated
Madrasa al-Nizamiyya, founded by the Seljuk
vizier Nizam al-Mulk, he was made mudarris
(professor) in one of his native city’s madrasas.
During this period Baha’ al-Din was appointed
by the Zankid rulers of Mosul to several diplomatic missions, including two
embassies to Saladin. In AH 584/1188 CE, on his return home from the
pilgrimage, he was received by Saladin, who was besieging the northern Syrian
stronghold of Krak des Chevaliers. The
judicious presentation to the sultan by Baha’ al-Din of a treatise he had
written, titled Fada’il al-Jihad (The
Virtues of Holy War), resulted soon after in Baha’ al-Din’s appointment as
Saladin’s qadi al-‘askar (Islamic
judge of the army). He was later given judicial and administrative
responsibilities in Jerusalem. Baha’ al-Din became a close companion and
confidant of the sultan, remaining so until Saladin’s death at Damascus in AH
589/1193 CE. He then played an important part in negotiating the division of
power among Saladin’s heirs.
After two years in the service of Saladin’s
eldest son al-Malik al-Afdal ‘Ali, ruler of Damascus, in AH 591/1195 CE, Baha’
al-Din moved to Aleppo. There he was appointedqadi(Islamic judge) of the city
by its ruler, al-Malik al-Zahir Ghazi, who was another of Saladin’s sons. In AH
601/1204 CE, he founded his own religious school in Aleppo, the Madrasa
alSahibiyya, adding to it adar al-hadith (school for the study of prophetic
tradition). Linking the two foundations was a mausoleum that he prepared for himself.
Meanwhile, Baha’ al-Din’s diplomatic skills proved
useful to the ruler of Aleppo: He made several visits to Cairo on behalf of al-Malik al-Zahir in an effort to resolve disputes
among the Ayyubids. He continued to serve al-Zahir’s heir, al-Malik al-‘Aziz. In
AH 629/1232 CE, he headed the delegation that went to Cairo to bring the
daughter of the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt back to Aleppo to marry al-Malik
al-‘Aziz. Baha’ al-Din died at Aleppo in AH 632/1235 CE, at nearly ninety years
of age.
Baha’ al-Din’s most important work is his biography
of Saladin, Sirat Salah al-Din, also called al-Nawadir
al-sultaniyyah wa-l-mahasin al-Yusufiyyah (The Sultan’s Rare Qualities and
the Excellences of Yusuf [that is, Saladin]). It combines elements of
hagiography, propaganda, history, and autobiography. The first part of the work
describes the sultan’s accomplishments and moral excellence. Throughout the
work Saladin is presented as exhorting the Muslims not to slacken their efforts
against the Crusaders. The second part of the book is an account of Saladin’s
career from AH 558/1163 CE, when he accompanied his Uncle Shirkuh’s expedition
to Egypt, until his death in AH 589/1193 CE. For events after the summer of AH
584/1188 CE, when Baha’ al-Din joined the service of the sultan, the narrative
becomes the eyewitness account of someone in Saladin’s inner circle, and a
commensurately valuable source for the events of the Third Crusade.
Further Reading
Ahmad, M.
Hilmy M. ‘‘Some Notes on Arabic Historiography during the Zengid and Ayyubid
Periods (521/ 1127–648/1250).’’ In Historians of the Middle East, edited by B.
Lewis and P.M. Holt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962.
Cahen, C.La
Syrie du Nord a` l’e ´poque des Croisades. Paris, 1940.
Ibn Shaddad,
Baha’ al-Din. al-Nawadir al-Sultaniyya wa’l-mahasin al-Yusufiyya. Translated by
D.S. Richards asThe Rare and Excellent History of Saladin. Aldershot: Ashgate,
2001.
IBN SHAHIN, NISSIM BEN JACOB
(C. 990–1062)
Nissim was a Talmudic scholar of Qayrawan who
studied under his father, Rabbi Jacob ben Nissim, and Rabbi Hushiel, an
illustrious scholar of Italian origin. Nissim was supported financially by the
famed poet and patron of Jewish learning, Samuel Ibn Naghrela. The latter
composed a poem of consolation upon the death of Nissim’s young and only son and married his
son Joseph to Nissim’s daughter. Several works (some fragmentary) by Nissim
survive in addition to commentaries on tracts of the Talmud and a compilation
of legal rulings. Composed in JudeoArabic, his A Key to the Locks of the Talmudis a reference work of quotations
found in the Talmud, and his Revelation of Mysteriesis a topical treatment of
subjects such as biblical exegesis, religious polemics, respons, and explications
of sections of the Talmud and Midrash. These works exhibit tendencies toward systemization
and had profound effects on Jewish intellectuals in the Islamic and Christian
domains. The Judeo-Arabic collection of rabbinic tales titled Kitab al-faraj ba‘d al-shidda (Book of Relief after Adversity)
is addressed to console a relative called Dunash who had requested a book to
relieve him following the death of a son. Dunash had mentioned that the ‘‘heretics’’ (that is, Muslims)
possessed such a book on the subject of relief after adversity, possibly referring
to al-Tanukhi’s Kitab al-faraj ba‘d
al-shidda or a similar work. Al-Tanukhi’s work is anadabcollection on
various species of relief (foretold in omens, realized through dreams, freedom
from prison or execution, and so on) and aphorisms concerning relief from Qur’an,
hadith, and poetry. Ibn Shahin’s book is an anthology of stories, mostly
gleaned from rabbinic sources, that assures the reader of God’s justice (despite
its mysteries) and discusses the qualities of scholars, virtuous and perfidious
women, the wickedness of hypocrites, and the duty to pursue kindness and
charity while abstaining from evil. The book also draws on apocryphal Jewish
books (such asBen Sira)and,inall likelihood, stories from Islamic literature;
the book bears some earmarks of Arabic storytelling techniques. It enjoyed
great popularity in the medieval period (as testified by Geniza letters) and
had direct influence on later Jewish works, such as Joseph Ibn Zabarah’s Book of
Delights and Moses de Leon’sZohar.
Further Reading
Abramson,
Shraga.Rab Nissim Ga‘on, Hamishah Sefarim. Jerusalem: Mekitzei Nirdamim, 1965.
Ibn Shahin,
Nissim Ben Jacob.The Arabic Original of Ibn Shahin’s Book of Comfort Known as
the Hibbur Yaphe of R. Nissim B. Ya’aqobh. Edited by Julian Obermann. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1933.
———.An
Elegant Composition Concerning Relief after Adversity. Translated with
introduction and notes by William M. Brinner. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 1977.
Scholem,
Gershom. ‘‘The Paradisiac Garb of Souls and the Origin of the Concept ofHaluka
de-Rabbanan.’’ Tarbis 24 (1956): 290–306.
IBN SINA, OR AVICENNA
Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan Ibn Sina (ca. 980–1037 CE),
known in Latin as Avicenna, was a physician, natural philosopher,
mathematician, poetic mystic, and princely minister. Of Persian descent, he was
born in Afshana in the province of Bukhara. His philosophical chief work, Kitab al-shifa’ (Book of Healing), which
was known in Latin asLiber Sufficientia, together with its condensed revision, Kitab al-najat (Book of Deliverance),led
many to regard him as being the authoritative Neoplatonist integrator of the Aristotelian
corpus. However, his intellectual acumen elevates his station beyond that of a
commentator and lets him stand as an insightful thinker in his own right. His
philosophical investigations covered mathematics, music, logic, physical and
psychical sciences, as well as metaphysics and theology. In geometry, he critically
examined Euclid’s Elementsand attempted to prove its fifth postulate. In his
Aristotelian intromission conception of vision, he showed that the velocity of
light had a finite magnitude. Partly influenced by Porphyry’sI sagoge,
Aristotle’s Organon, and Galen’s logical investigations, he eventually
developed intricate forms of propositional logic. Furthermore, he founded a
prototheory of meaning that was partially embodied in his work Kitab al-hudud (Book of Definitions),
wherein he arrived at definitions by way of a rigorous distinction among
concepts while, unlike most Platonists, he celebrated the merits of the art of
persuasion and rhetoric. In astronomy he endeavored to systematize his
observations that were grounded by Ptolemy’s Almagest, and in mechanics he
built on the theories of Heron of Alexandria while also seeking to improve the
precision of instrumental readings. In his physical inquiries he studied
different forms of energy, heat, and force, while presenting a more coherent
account of the interconnection between time and motion than what is habitually
associated with Aristotle’s Physics. One of his important achievements in natural
philosophy is attested to in his account of the soul in Kitab al-nafs (Treatise on the Soul), which was preserved in his al-Shifaandal Najat, and was translated
into Latin under the title De Anima.
Therein, he presented an affirmation of the existence of the soul that rested
on a radical mindbody dualism in an argument that is customarily referred to as
‘‘the flying person argument,’’ which anticipates Descartes’s ‘‘cogito ergo
sum.’’ He also elucidated the notion of ‘‘intentionality’’ in the workings of
the internal sense of the faculty of estimation (wahm) and its pragmatic
entailments. Ranking among the most influential of metaphysicians in the history
of philosophy, Ibn Sina offered an original elucidation of the question of
‘‘being’’ (al-wujud) that was
mediated by a methodical distinction between essence and existence and oriented
by an ontological consideration of the modalities of necessity, contingency,
and impossibility. Taking the contingent to be a mere potentiality of being,
whose existence or nonexistence did not entail a contradiction, Ibn Sina construed
all creatures in actuality as being necessary existents due to something other
than themselves.
Consequently, any contingent had its essence
distinct from its existence while being existentially dependent on causes that
are external to it, which lead back to the One Necessary Existent due to Itself
Whose Essence is none other than Its Existence. In this, Ibn Sina eschewed Aristotle’s
reduction of ‘‘being’’ into the Greek conception of ousia (substance or essence),
and he conceived the Deity as being the metaphysical First Cause of existence
rather than being the physical Unmoved Cause of motion. Although his
consideration of Divine creation was
primarily mediated by an attempt to found a synthesis between Aristotle’s
naturalism and monotheistic creationism, his ontology remained more akin to Neoplatoni
stemanationism, which took the One Necessary Existent to be the Source of all
existential effusion. In this processional hierarchical participation in
‘‘being,’’ the Active Intellect played a necessary role in the genesis of human
knowledge. Following Plato, Ibn Sina held that knowledge, which consisted of
grasping the intelligible, did ultimately determine the fate of the rational
soul in the hereafter. Believing that the universality of our ideas was
attributed to the mind itself, he additionally held that our passive individual
intellects are in a state of potency with regard to knowledge, unlike the
Active impersonal and separate Intellect that is in a state of actual perennial
thinking. Consequently, our passive intellect quamind acquires ideas by being
in contact with the Active Intellect without compromising its own independent
substantiality or immortality. In a mystical tone that becomes most pronounced
in Kitab al-isharat wa-l-tanbihat
(Book of Hints and Pointers), Ibn Sina also maintained that certain elect souls
area pable of realizing a union with the Universal Active Intellect, thereby
attaining the station of prophecy. His philosophical views were debated by
Averroes and Maimonides, criticized by al-Ghazali, and integrated by intellectual
authorities in medieval Europe, such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Roger
Bacon. His thinking also impacted the course of development of the
ontotheological systems of prominent Muslim scholars such as Suhrawardi, Tusi,
and Mulla Sadra. In all of this, his philosophical wisdom did not outshine his
celebrated reputation as a physician, and his classic Kitab al-qanun fi’l-tibb (The Canon in Medicine), which was
translated into Latin in the twelfth century CE (Liber Canonis), commanded an
authority that almost surpassed that of Hippocrates and Galen and acted as the
decisive compendium of the GrecoRoman-Arabic scientific medicine, and as the reference
Materia Medica, throughout the
medieval period and up to the Renaissance.
Primary Sources
Ibn Sina.
Kitab al-shifa’, al-ilahiyyat. Edited by Ibrahim Madkour, George Anawati, and
Said Zayed. Cairo: al-Hay’a al-misriyya al-‘amma lil-kitab, 1975.
———.Kitab
al-shifa’, Kitab al-nafs. Edited by Fazlur Rahman. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1960.
———.Kitab
al-najat. Edited by Majid Fakhry. Beirut: Dar al-afaq al-jadida, 1985.
———.Kitab
al-hudud (Livre des de´finitions). Edited and translated by A.-M. Goichon.
Cairo: Institut franc ¸ais d’arche´ologie orientale du Caire, 1963.
———.Kitab
al-‘isharat wa’l-tanbihat (Le livre des directives et remarques). Edited and translated
by A.-M. Goichon. Paris: J. Vrin, 1999.
Further Reading
Afnan,
Soheil.Avicenna: His Life and His Works. London: Allen and Unwin, 1958.
Corbin,
Henry.Avicenne et le re´cit visionnaire. Tehran: Socie´te ´ des monuments
nationaux de l’Iran, 1954.
Gardet,
Louis.La connaissance mystique chez Ibn Sina et ses presuppose´s philosophiques.
Cairo: Institut franc ¸ais d’arche´ologie orientale du Caire, 1952.
Goichon,
A.-M.Le´xique de la langue philosophique d’Ibn Sina. Paris: Descle ´e de
Brouwer, 1938.
———. ‘‘Ibn
Sina.’’ InThe Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. III. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960.
———.La
philosophie d’Avicenne et son influence en Europe me´die´vale. Paris: Librairie
d’Ame ´rique et d’Orient, 1971.
Goodman,
Lenn E.Avicenna. London: Routledge, 1992.
Gutas,
Dimitri.Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988.
Hasse, Dag
Nikolaus.Avicenna’s De Anima in the Latin West. London: The Warburg Institute,
University of London, 2000.
Janssens,
Jules, and Daniel De Smet (Eds).Avicenna and His Heritage. Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 2002.
IBN TAGHRI BIRDI, ABU
‘L-MAHASIN YUSUF (C. 1410–1470 CE)
Ibn Taghri Birdi was a historian of the
Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria (1250–1517) known for his close ties to the
Mamluk elite. His father, Taghri Birdi, was a mamluk amir(holder of military rank) who rose through the ranks during the
reigns of the Mamluk sultans Barquq (r. 1382–1399) and Faraj (r. 1399–1412),
achieving the position of Viceroy in Damascus
prior to his death in 1412. Ibn Taghri Birdi’s eldest sister was married to
Faraj, and Ibn Taghri Birdi was a close companion of a son of sultan Jaqmaq (r.
1438–1453). Ibn Taghri Birdi received a grant of land revenues from Sultan
al-Mu’ayyad Shaykh (r. 1412–1421) and accompanied Sultan Barsbay (r. 1422–1437)
on a military campaign in Syria. He also knew Turkish quite well and was
familiar with court life in Mamluk Cairo. These and other connections served
him well during his career as religious stipendiary, scholar, and author.
Ibn Taghri Birdi wrote several works, but he
is best known today for his biographical dictionary and two historical chronicles.
The dictionary, Al-Manhal al-Safi wa
al-Mustawfi ba‘d al-Wafi,written in early adulthood, provides biographies
of rulers, scholars, and amirs for the period 1248–1451, with scattered additions
dating as late as 1458. His chronicle Al-Nujum
al-Zahira fi Muluk Misr wa-al-Qahira surveys Egyptian history from the
Muslim conquest in 641 up to 1468,
although the sections post-1441 are mainly
summaries taken from his second major chronicle, Al-Hawadith al-Duhur fi Mada al-Ayyam wa-al Shuhur, a detailed
account of Mamluk history covering the period 1441–1469. Ibn Taghri Birdi considered this second work a continuation of
al-Maqrizi’s important history, Kitab al-Suluk li-Ma‘rifat Duwal
wa-al-Muluk.
Ibn Taghri Birdi’s chronicles are focused on
the elite segments of Mamluk-era society. As a walad al-nass (Arabic ‘‘son of the people,’’ meaning literally a
son of those who mattered, that is, the Mamluks), it is perhaps not surprising
that comparative studies of his work have indicated a tendency by Ibn Taghri Birdi
to defend the actions and policies of the Mamluk rulers who were frequently
criticized by other observers such as al-Maqrizi. That said, his work also
contains frank and critical comments about specific officials both living and
dead, for which it is possible that Ibn Taghri Birdi suffered both verbal and
physical attacks.
Primary Sources
Ibn Taghri
Birdi, Abu ‘l-Mahasin Yusuf.History of Egypt
(845–854 A. H., A. D. 1441–1450): An Extract from Abuˆ l-Maha ˆsin ibn
TaghrıˆBirdıˆ’s Chronicle Entitled Hawa ˆdith ad-DuhuˆrfıˆMadaˆ l-Ayya ˆm
wash-Shuhuˆr. Translated by William Popper. New Haven: American Oriental
Society, 1967. American Oriental Series, Essays, 5
———.History
of Egypt, 1382–1469 AD, Translated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Maha ˆsin
ibn Taghrıˆ Birdıˆ. Translated by William Popper. 8 vols. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1954–1963.
University
of California Publications in Semitic Philology, vols. 13–14, 17–19, 22–24.
———.al-Manhal
al-Safi wa-al-Mustawfa´ ba‘da al-Wafi. Edited by Ahmad Yusuf Najati. Vol. 1.
Cairo: Matba‘at Dar al-Kutub, 1956.
———.al-Manhal
al-Safi wa-al-Mustawfa´ ba‘da al-Wafi. Edited by Muhammad Muhammad Amin. Vols.
2–7.
Cairo:
al-Hay’ah al-Misriyah al-‘Ammah lil-Kitab, 1984–1993.
Further Reading.
Darraj,
Ahmad. ‘‘La vie d’Abu’l-Mahasin Ibn Tagri Birdi et on oeuvre.’’Annales
islamologiques11 (1972): 163–181.
Perho,
Irmeli. ‘‘Al-Maqrizi and Ibn Taghri Birdi as Historians of Contemporary Events.’’
The Historiography of Islamic Egypt (c. 950–1800). Edited by Hugh Kennedy, 107–120.
Leiden: Brill, 2001.
Popper,
William.Egypt and Syria under the Circassian Sultans 1382–1486 AD: Systematic
Notes to Ibn Taghrıˆ Birdıˆ’s Chronicles of Egypt. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 1955, 1957. University of California Publications in
Semitic Philology, 15–16.
IBN TAYMIYYA
Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328)
has been called both the most important figure from the Mamluk Sultanate
of Egypt and Syria (1250–1517) and the
most significant Hanbali‘alimafter Ahmad b. Hanbal himself. The author of
numerous fatawa and many longer works, he was also imprisoned by the Mamluk
state six times for a cumulative period of more than six years between 1294 and
1328, including the last two years of his life.
Ibn Taymiyya’s family moved to Damascus when he
was a boy, fleeing from Mongol advances in upper Mesopotamia. Ibn Taymiyya was
educated within the Hanbali madhhab and by 1284 was teaching in a major madrasa
in Damascus. His subsequent career was marked by several brushes with state
power, the rivalry and admiration of other jurists, and significant popularity
among the Damascene population. His public life was marked by zealous devotion
to the principals he held dear and the courage to face those whom his statements
disturbed, even if that meant imprisonment. It has also been argued that his
popularity with the populace disturbed the Mamluk rulers who found it
threatening, and this may have contributed to his frequent imprisonment. His
contemporary biographers, most of them also jurists, write of his personal piety,
devotion to justice, and defiance of authority. There is a suggestion, however,
particularly in the writings of al-Dhahabi (d. 1339), that Ibn Taymiyya had a
difficult personality.
Known first as a Hadith scholar, Ibn
Taymiyya’s written output ranges far and wide. He wrote about and preached the
importance of jihad against enemies of the Muslim world, in particular against
the Mongols. (When Il-Khan Ghazan invaded Syria in1300, Ibn Taymiyya was a
spokesperson of the resistance in Damascus.) He stressed the important example
of the pious ancestors (al-salaf
al-salih) and condemned what he saw as the excesses of some Sufi practices.
In one of his major works, al-Siyasa al-Shar‘iyya,
Ibn Taymiyya argued that since state and religion were inseparable, the
temporal power and the revenues of the state must be harnessed to the path of
God. A primary goal of the state was to ensure the centrality of the shari‘a,
and this required the maintenance of order. Central to the state’s mission to
maintain order was its ability to use coercive power to enforce the Qur’anic
injunction ‘‘to command the good and forbid the wrong.’’
After his death, Ibn Taymiyya’s ideas were
further disseminated by his chief pupil Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350), an
individual who also shared in some of his teacher’s punishment. Many of Ibn Taymiyya’s ideas remain influential
today, notably as refracted through the writings of the eighteenthcentury
founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab.
Primary Sources
Peters,
Rudolph. Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam. (Chapter 5 translates an excerpt
from Ibn Taymiyya’s al-Siyasa al-Shar‘iyya.) Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers,
1996.
Further Reading
Laoust,
H.Essai sur les doctrines socials et politiques de Taki-d-Din Ahmad b. Taimiya.
Cairo: Institute Franc ¸ais d’Archeologe Orientale, 1939.
Little, D.
P. ‘‘The Historical and Historiographical Significance of the Detention of Ibn
Taymiyya.’’International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies4 (1973): 313–320.
Makdisi,
George. ‘‘Ibn Taymiya: A Sufi of the Qadiriya Order.’’American Journal of
Arabic Studies1 (1973): 118–129.
IBN TUFAYL
Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Malik Abu Bakr Ibn Tufayl
was born in Guadix, not far from Granada, in 1110. Reputed for his learning in
philosophy, jurisprudence, theology, and logic, as well as natural science, he
gained the favor of the Almohad ruler, Abu Ya‘qub Yusuf, whom he served for
many years as a political advisor and physician. Apart from his philosophical
novel, Hayy Ibn Yaqzan (Living the
Son of Awakened)—the only writing of his that has survived—Ibn Tufayl is known
for the important role he played in presenting Averroes to Abu Ya‘qub as the
person most capable of commenting on the works of Aristotle, this being a task
Ibn Tufayl considered beyond his own reach. He died in Marrakesh in 1185.
Ibn Tufayl focused on the relationship
between the rational acquisition of knowledge and the path to it pursued by
those who favor mysticism or Sufism in the philosophical introduction to Hayy
Ibn Yaqzan. The work consists of three major parts. In the introduction, Ibn
Tufayl explains his reasons for writing a book such as this and provides a
general critique of philosophy, theology, and mysticism within the Arab world
during his time. It is followed by the story of Hayy and by a formal conclusion
in which Ibn Tufayl returns to the main theme of the work.
As he explains in the introduction, the tale
of Hayy ibn Yaqzan comes as a response
to a request from a friend that he unfold what he knows ‘‘of the secrets of the
Oriental wisdom mentioned by the master, the chief, Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina.’’ The
question, he says, moved him to a strange state and caused him to discern a
world beyond the present; it also caused him to discern the difficulty of
speaking intelligently and circumspectly about this state. To prove the latter point,
Ibn Tufayl passes in review what mystics and philosophers have said about it.
Desirous of avoiding their foolishness, he speaks about the state only to the extent
necessary, all the while pointing out the errors of his predecessors. He
insists it is to be reached by ‘‘speculative knowledge’’ and ‘‘deliberative
inquiry’’ and intimates that at least one philosopher—Ibn Bajja—reached that
rank or perhaps even managed to go beyond it.
Ibn Bajja did not describe this state in a
book; nor has any other philosopher—either because they had no awareness of it
or because it is too difficult to explain in a book. Ibn Tufayl dismisses as
useless this task that has come down from Aristotle, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and
all Andalusians prior to Ibn Bajja. Even Ibn Bajja, capable as he was of
providing an account, failed to do so.
To meet his friend’s request, Ibn Tufayl
promises to expose the truth and knowledge he has learned from Alghazali and
Avicenna, plus what he has gained from the philosophically inclined people of his
time via study and reflection. Even so, he hesitates to give the results of
what he has witnessed without also providing the principles, lest his
interlocutor be content with a lower degree of insight. To arouse his interlocutor’s
longing and encourage him to move along the path, Ibn Tufayl offers the tale of
Hayy ibn Yaqzan. In other words, to leave us short of the end, it will indicate
what the path is like.
Hayy is either self-generated from a lump of
clay or comes into being as do all humans but is then put into the sea in a
basket because his mother, the sister of a very proud monarch, has wedded
beneath her status in secret and fears for the fruit of this union should her
brother learn of Hayy’s existence. However generated, Hayy grows up on a
deserted island, nursed by a doe until he can fend for himself. During seven periods
of seven years each, he discovers his natural surroundings and the way they
interact, ascending by a series of inductions to embrace physics and its many divisions,
as well as mathematics and its parts. He also gains insight into the nature of
the heavenly bodies and into the character of the creator, as well as of his
messenger and prophet, Muhammad s.a.w.
Hayy’s education is all the more wondrous,
for his enforced solitude deprives him of language. Only when he encounters
Asal, the inhabitant of a neighboring island who is discontent with the way his
fellow citizens practice religion, does Hayy learn to speak. They return to
Asal’s island intent upon showing people the correct path, but they fail
miserably. Only Salaman, a friend of Asal’s who discerns that most people cannot
appreciate the truths Hayy wishes them to grasp and who is content to let them flounder,
understands the limits of human reason. He is also too complacent for Hayy and
Asal, not to mention most of Ibn Tufayl’s readers.
The tale ends with Hayy and Asal deciding to return
to the desert island to spend their remaining days meditating about divine
matters. The people on the mainland are left without a solution to the problems
that plague them, just as Ibn Tufayl’s interlocutor is left without a clear
answer to his quest. We readers, having been enticed by this story, must now
figure out for ourselves what it can possibly mean for us.
Further Reading
Fradkin, Hillel. ‘‘The Political Thought of Ibn Tufayl.’’ In The
Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy, Essays in Honor of Muhsin S. Mahdi,
edited by Charles E. Butterworth, 234–261. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1992.
Hayy ibn
Yaqzan. Translated by Lenn Evan Goodman. New York: Gee Tee Bee, 1995.
Mallet,
Dominique. ‘‘Les livres de Hayy.’’Arabica. 44, no. 1 (1997): 1–34.
IBN TULUN
Ibn Tulun, also Ahmad b. Tulun, was the
founder of the Tulunid dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria during the late ninth
and early tenth centuries CE. Following the example of the Tahirids in Khurasan
and the Aghlabids in North Africa, Ibn Tulun exploited his position in Egypt,
establishing a semi autonomous state a secure distance from the ‘Abbasid
capital in Baghdad while the caliphs battled rebellions and independence
movements in the East.
Ibn Tulun’s father, Tulun, entered the
caliphate’s service as a Turkish slave, reportedly sent to the caliph al-Ma’mun
from Bukhara. He formed part of a large
cadre of Turks who served in important military and administrative positions
during his time. He eventually rose to become chief of al-Ma’mun’s personal
guard.
Ibn Tulun received training in military
affairs and distinguished himself for his bravery. His widowed mother’s marriage
to the Turkish general Bakbak gave
him new opportunities for advancement. The caliph al-Mu‘tamid appointed Bakbak
over Egypt in 868. Ibn Tulun became his stepfather’s lieutenant.
Ibn Tulun increased his power through
scheming, marriage, and fortuitous circumstances. He cultivated good relations
with the caliph al-Mu‘tamid. After\ having the infamous controller of finances,
Ibn alMudabbir, removed, he assumed primary responsibility for Egypt’s
treasury, especially payments of tribute to Baghdad. When Ibn Tulun’s
stepfather was assassinated, the new governor, Yarjukh, to whom he was related by marriage, kept him as lieutenant
governor. The revolt of the governor of Palestine shortly afterward offered him
a pretext to purchase military slaves, though he did not actually put down the
revolt. These slaves were fiercely loyal to him and formed the core of his army. He soon gained control of the financial
administration of Syria, as well as Egypt.
The appointment of the caliph’s son, Ja‘far,
over Egypt and other Western provinces in 872 CE led to Ibn Tulun’s bid for autonomy.
Ja‘far was a minor so Ibn Tulun exercised nearly independent authority.The
caliph’s brother, al-Muwaffaq, who controlled the East and held most of the
caliphate’s effective power, was preoccupied with repelling Turkish incursions
and quelling independence movements. When Ibn Tulun failed to send a
satisfactory sum of tribute, al-Muwaffaq dispatched an expedition to remove him.
The expedition, however, returned without achieving its purpose. The ongoing
rebellion of the Zanj in southern Iraq prevented al-Muwaffaq from ressing the
matter further.
Ibn Tulun consolidated his power in the years
afterwards. He occupied Syria following al-Muwaffaq’s ailed expedition and led
raids against the Byzantines in Anatolia. These raids enhanced his stature as a
leader of holy war against the infidel. He later inscribed his name on his
coinage, in addition to that of the Ja‘far. He never openly opposed the
authority of the caliph. The prosperity of Egypt and Syria under his rule owes
in part to his skill as an administrator. He showed restraint in his taxation.
He kept, in addition, most revenues in these provinces rather than remitting
them to Baghdad. Upon his death in 884, rule went to one of his sons,
Khumarawayh.
Primary Sources
al-Balawıˆ.
Sıˆrat Aı`mad b. Øuluˆn. Edited by Kurd ‘Alı ˆ. Cairo, n.d.
Ibn Sa‘ıˆd
al-Andalusıˆ. Kitaˆb al-Mughrib fıˆı `ulaˆ al-Maghrib. Edited by K.L.
Tallquist. Leiden, 1899.
———.al-Mukaˆfa’a.
Cairo, 1941.
Further Reading
Hassan,
Z.M.Les Tulunides. Paris, 1937.
———. ‘‘Ahmad
b. Tulun.’’ InEncyclopedia of Islam.2d ed, vol. I. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960
(504 words, S.D. Sears, Roger Williams University).
Kennedy,
H.The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. London and New York, 1986, 309–313
IBN TUMART
The founder of the al-Muwahhidun
confederation, Abu Abdillah Muhammad b. Abdillah b. Tumart, a Masmudian Berber,
was born (AH 471/1078 CE or AH 474/1081 CE) in the city of Sus, located in Morocco’s
Anti-Atlas Mountains. We do not have much information about his youth.
Observing negative developments such as moral and social decadence, the
abandonment of religious principles, and the spread of the anthropomorphist
conception of God under the al-Murabitun dynasty, Ibn Tumart was convinced of
the necessity of social reform. He went to Cordoba to study theological
sciences (499/ 1106). After taking lessons for about a year from Abu Abdillah
Muhammed b. Ali b. Hamdin, Kadhi of Cordoba, he traveled to Mahdiya in Tunisia;
there he participated in theological congregations of Abu Abdillah al-Mazeri.
Studying with Ibn Abu Rendeka et-Turtushi in Alexandria, Kiyaˆ el-Herraˆs in
Baghdad, Abu Bakir Muhammed b. Ahmed al-Shashi, and Mubarek b. Abdilcabbar, Ibn
Tumart also read Imam Malik’s al-Muvatta’
with Abu Abdillah Muhammed b. Mansur al-Hadhrami. He traveled back to Maghreb from
Alexandria in 510–511/1116. He also served his duty of pilgrimage to Mecca in
this traveling period of eleven years. Traveling first to Bougie, and then to
Beni Mallal, he met his first disciple and future successor Abdulmu’min
al-Kumıˆ. His courageous personality caused him to be expelled from Vansharıˆs,
Tlemcem, Shubat Enlil, and Fez; so he went to Marrakech, the capital of the
al-Murabitun dynasty, but his activities there also caused him to be expelled to Aghmat. He then went on to Tin Mal
and continued his ‘‘common knowledge and forbid from denied’’(al-amr bi’l-ma‘ruˆf wa al-nahy an
al-munkar) activities. Rejecting Ali b. Yusuf b. Tashfin’s invitation to
return to Marrakech, he retreated to a cave, the Ghar al-muqaddas, and in
Maghreb he began to spread the idea that Mahdi’s appearance was near (515/1121).
That same year, his disciple Abdulmu’min and nine
other men declared that Ibn Tumart was the Mahdi and that they would be loyal
to him for all their lives. Ibn Tumart then started a violent rebellion in the
command of Abdulmu’min el-Kumi ve Abu Muhammed al-Bashir against al-Murabitun,
claiming that they supported an anthropomorphist conception of God, that they
were unjust and causing the corruption of society, they had designs upon people’s
lives and properties, and that they had thus given up the Islamic faith. There
were many battles in the AntiAtlas region and the city of Sus for the next two
years. Against al-Murabitun’s efforts to build up their strength, Ibn Tumart
moved to Tin Mal to have a stronger defense (517/1123).
Ibn Tumart began a large campaign in the
command of Abu Muhammed al-Bashir to acquire Marrakech in 524 AH/1130. However,
al-Muwahhidun could not gain hold of the city after a siege of six weeks and
was defeated in the battle of Buhayra; five members of the council of ten were
lost in this battle. Ibn Tumart passed away several months after this defeat in
14 Ramadhan 524/August 21, 1130. His successor, Abdulmu’min, and close friends
concealed his death for about three years.
His works include: (1) Kitabu Aazzi mayutlab (edited by Ignaz Goldziher) Algeria 1903 and
Amm Ar U` Alibi (Algeria, 1985); (2) al-Murshida
(published by Goldziher with a French translation (ZDMG,XLl, 72–73; XL1V,
168–170); (3) al-Aqide. In addition
to the Egypt edition (Cairo, 1328), another edition is also available in
French, translated by Henri Masse (Paris, 1928); (4) Muhazzi’l-Muwau`u`a’ (Hiza ˆnatu’l-Karawiyyin, no. 40/181; Rabat
elHizaˆnetul-e`Amma, no. 840c, 1222c; published by Goldziher as Muwatta’u’l-Imaˆm al-Mahdıˆ (Algeria, 1905).
(5) Mukhtasaru Sahihi Muslim (Ibn Yu
ˆsuf Library, Marakesh, no. 403).
Thinking himself a religious reformist, Ibn
Tumart emphasized the notion of unity and doctrine of the imamate in his theory
of faith. He defines knowledge, which he takes as the only basis for faith, as
‘‘the divine radiance in the heart which allows us to make a distinction
between facts and qualities,’’ thus suggesting that only the qualities of
objects and events can be known, not their essences. Because of Ibn Tumart’s
emphasis on the unity of God, his followers were known as al-Muwahhidun (that
is, Unitarians). God’s existence was known from intelligence; however, this
knowledge was not innate, but deductive. Ibn Tumart ascribed some negative and
demonstrative attributes to Allah. However, he gave intelligence no function in
his definition of the relationship between the individual and his attributes.
Therefore, his approach to this problem cannot be taken as the suspension of all
attributes but a distinctive approach that avoided comparison and
solidification. According to Ibn Tumart, predicative attributes in the dogmas must
be believed, without trying to look for analogies.
Ibn Tumart considered the imamate as a
religious obligation and maintained that Imam was innocent (mae`sum), therefore, we can assert that Ibn Tumart was influenced
by Shi‘i doctrine. However, he considered only the first three caliphs as
legitimate Imams. Ibn Tumart received the acknowledgment of fealty through his
disciples, who acknowledged him as the Mahdi, and he named only those who
obeyed him as al-Muwahhidun; all others were regarded as infidels. He accepted
the idea that the only creator is Allah and believed that the power of acting
in a good or bad way was given by Allah to mankind; thus empowerment is the act
in the place of the power of the human being.
According to Ibn Tumart, all canonical
judgements originated only from the Qur’an and Sunnah, all convictions and
conventions reached by syllogisms were not primary, but supplementary;
intelligence had no law-making authority. Ibn Tumart accepted ideas of several
religious sects on some matters: He was more like an Ash‘ari in subjects
concerning faith, a Maliki in subjects of fiqh, and also followed Ibn Hazm’s
zahiri-salafi thought on some matters. However, the movement initiated by him can
be regarded as a political movement to put an end to Al-Murabit’s confederation
more than being a movement of religion and faith.
Further Reading
Abdulmacid
an-Naccar.al-Mahdi b. Tumart. Beyrouth, 1983, 24–30, 73–83, 116–117, 145–158,
449–450.
Abu an-Nasr,
J.M.A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period. Cambridge, 1987, 90.
Ammaˆr
at-Talibi, ‘‘Ibn Tumart.’’ Mawsu’atu’l-hadareti’lIslamiyya. Amman, 1993.
Aytekin, A.
‘‘Ibn Tuˆmert.’’Isla ˆm AnsiklopedisiIstanbul, 1999, XX.
Basset, R.
‘‘Ibn Tumert.’’IAVol. 2, s. 831–833.
Cornell,
V.J. ‘‘Understanding is the Mother of Ability:
Responsibility
and Action in the Doctrine of ibn Tumart.’’Sudia IslamicaParis LXVI, (1987):
71–103.
Ibnu’l-Athir.al-KAmil
fi’t-tArio`. Edited by C.J. Tornberg. Leiden, 1851–1876/Beyrouth, 1979, X,
569–578.
Ibn Khaldun,
al-IIbar wa diwanu’l-mubtada’ wa’l-khabar. Vols. I–VII. Bulaq, 1284/1979, VI,
225–229.
Ibn
Khallikan,Wafayatu’l-Ayan wa abna’u abna’i’z-zaman. Edited by I. Abbas. Vols.
I–VIII/Beyrouth, 1968–1972.
Salinger, G.
‘‘A Christian Muhammad Legend and a Muslim ibn Tumart Legend in the 13 Th Century.’’
InZeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandichen Gesellchaft.
Leibzig/Wiesbaden
1967, CXVII, 318–328.
SelAwi.al-lstiqsa
li akhbari’d-duwali’l-maaribi’l-aqsA. Edited by C. an-Nasiri-M. An-Nasiri. Vols
I–IX. Daru’lBeyza, 1954–1956.
Ebuˆ Bekir
b. Ali es-Sanhaci.Akhbaˆru’l-Mahdi b. Tumart wa bidAyatu dawlati’l-Muwahhidin.
Rabat, 1971.
IBN WASIL, MUHAMMAD B. SALIM
JAMAL AL-DIN
Ibn Wasil (1208–1298) was a Syrian scholar most
renowned for his chronicle Mufarrij
al-kurub fi akhbar bani Ayyub (The Dissipater of Anxieties on the Reports
of the Ayyubids), which covers, in detail, historical events of the twelfth and
the first half of the thirteenth century. This work has drawn modern interest
because it presents succinctly the main Crusading campaigns from a Middle
Eastern point of view. Although Ibn Wasil relied on an array of earlier sources
for the earlier parts of his work, some of which has been lost since then, he
based his account of thirteenth-century
events (such as the Crusade of Louis IX, King of France, to Egypt in 1249–1250)
on eyewitnesses or his own experiences.
Ibn Wasil was well placed to observe the
political developments and military events in the Middle East during his
lifetime, as he was widely traveled and closely linked to the ruling echelons
of society. Originating from Hama in northern Syria, he visited or dwelled in the
main urban centers such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus. Although descending
from a family of relatively low prominence, he forged close relationships with
prominent administrators and military commanders, as well as with Ayyubid and
Mamluk rulers. In his sixties he returned to his hometown, where he led a low-profile
life as the town’s chief judge.
His educational and professional
specialization was law, but no writings of his in this field are traceable.
Rather, his extant oeuvre focuses on history, poetry, logic, and astronomy, all
of which were of profit to him at various courts. For example, in 1261, while
staying in southern Italy at the court of Manfred, the Staufer ruler of Sicily
and son of Frederick II, as ambassador of the Mamluk ruler Baybars I, his knowledge
of logic gained him the ruler’s praise. It is the immersion into these fields
of knowledge that allowed him throughout his life close contacts with non-Muslim
scholars. Consequently, one finds in his aforementioned chronicle passages where
he discusses, for example, the conflict between the emperor and the papacy in
thirteenth-century Europe, which is rarely found in other medieval chronicles
by Muslim authors.
Ibn Wasil’s chronicle did not enjoy wider
popularity in the following centuries and was only ‘‘rediscovered’’ in the late
nineteenth century with the rising interest in Crusading history.
Primary Sources
Ibn
Wasil.Mufarrij al-kurub fi akhbar bani Ayyub. 5 vols. Edited by J. al-Shayyal,
H. al-Rabi‘, and S. ‘Ashur. Cairo, 1953 (final sixth volume not published yet).
Short
extracts of Ibn Wasil’s chronicle are translated in Arab Historians of the Crusades.
Selected and Translated from the Arabic Sources. Edited by Francesco Gabrieli. Translated
from the Italian by E.J. Costello. New York: Dorset Press, 1989.
Further Reading
Hillenbrand,
Carole.The Crusades. Islamic Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 1999.
Robinson,
Chase F.Islamic Historiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
el-Shayyal,
Gamal el-Din. ‘‘Ibn Wasil.’’ InEncyclopaedia of Islam. New Ed. 11 vols. Prepared
by a number of leading orientalists. Leiden: Brill, 1960–2002
IBN YUNUS, ‘ALI IBN ‘ABD
AL-RAHMAN, D. FUSTAT, EGYPT
Ibn Yu ˆnus was the leading astronomer of
medieval Egypt and perhaps the most important of the entire Muslim world. He
was a careful observer, a highly competent mathematician and calculator, and proposed
much that was original. He was also the principal initiator of a tradition of
astronomical timekeeping (‘ilm al-mıqat)
in Islamic society, which is of prime importance because it included the
regulation of the times of prayer. He compiled a monumental zıˆj, or astronomical handbook with
tables, some four times the size of that of his predecessor al-Battanı (q.v.).
This was called al-Zıˆj al-Hakimı because
it was dedicated to the Fatimid ruler al-Hakim (q.v.). One of its most remarkable
features is a record of more than one hundred observations of planetary conjunctions
and solar and lunar eclipses, made by his predecessors in ninth- and
tenth-century Baghdad and by himself. His solar, lunar, and planetary tables were
much appreciated in later Egypt and the Yemen, but some of them were also
adopted in a modified form in Iran. It was Ibn Yunus who compiled the first batch
of the tables for timekeeping by the sun and regulating the times of Muslim
prayer that later became part of the Cairo corpus of nearly two hundred pages
of tables. These tables were used there until the nineteenth century. The
medieval tables of this kind for such centers of astronomical activity as Damascus,
Jerusalem, Aleppo, Istanbul, Tunis, and Taiz were inspired by the Cairo corpus.
Further Reading
Caussin de
Perceval, A.P. Le livre de la grande table Hake´-mite.Notices et extraits des
manuscrits de la Bibliothe`que nationale 7 (An XII [¼1804]), 16–240, with
separate pagination in the separatum. [Contains the observation reports.]
King, David
A.The Astronomical Works of Ibn Yuˆnus. Doctoral dissertation. Yale University,
1972. [Deals only with spherical astronomy.]
———. ‘‘Ibn
Yuˆnus.: InDictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol XIV. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1976, 574–580.
———.In
Synchrony with the Heavens.... Vol. 1: The Call of the Muezzin.... Leiden:
Brill, 2004. [Detailed discussion of the Cairo corpus.]
IBN ZUR‘A, ABU ‘ALI ‘ISA
ISHAQ
The philosopher Ibn Zur‘a (AH
331–398/943–1008 CE) was born and died in Baghdad. Shortly after his death, the
dominance of the Baghdad school of philosophy, with its close adherence to the
Platonizing commentary tradition and involvement in translation, yielded to
other centers of power and learning. Typical for the Baghdad school, Ibn Zur‘a
was a Jacobite (Syrian Orthodox) Christian who associated on equal terms with
Muslim and Jewish intellectuals.
Ibn Zur‘a’s character and way of life can be
seen from three viewpoints. Most significantly, there are contemporary
references in his eight short treatises of Christian apologetics. Second, Ibn
Zur‘a was known to the writer Abu Hayyan at-Tawhidi, whose books record
discussions that took place, often under the patronage of powerful Buyid
viziers. Finally, the medical biographer
Ibn Abi Usaybi‘a gives ‘‘case notes’’ regarding the treatment of Ibn Zur‘a’s last illness, including mention of
aspects of the philospher’s apparently stressful lifestyle.
Ibn Zur‘a earned his living as a merchant,
and traded with Byzantium. As a philosopher he was the devoted pupil and close
friend of the leading logician Yahya ibn ‘Adi (d. 974 CE). The Ibn ‘Adi circle,
including Ibn al-Khammar, Ibn al-Samh, Miskawayh, and ‘Isa ibn ‘Ali, attended the
salons(majalis)of the vizier and patron Ibn Sa‘dan. Abu Hayyan was also there, although
he was scornful of Ibn Zur‘a’s ‘‘vaunting of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and
Hippocrates.’’
We know from bibliographies, such as those
of Ibn Zur‘a’s associate Ibn an-Nadim,
of works such as On the Intellect, On the
Reason for the Luminosity of the Planets,and On the Immortality of the Soul.
These did not survive, although a shortDefense of Logicians and Philosophers
against the Charge of Irreligionis
known. To later generations of Arab philosophers, Ibn Zur‘a was probably best known
as a translator. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) used Ibn Zur‘a’s translation of Aristotle’s
Sophistici elenchi, and Ibn Rushd may
have used his translation of the Compendia
of Nicolaus of Damascus. Among other translations, it is
notable that part of a lost commentary by John Philoponus on Galen’s On the
Uses of the Parts of the Bodyappears to survive in Ibn Zur‘a’s version. Ibn
Zur‘a translated from Syriac into Arabic, and he probably did not know Greek.
The importance of Syriac in the transmission of Greek philosophy to the Arabs
is well known. Ibn Zur‘a played a role in making philosophy available to a
wider audience, which demanded introductions and translations in idiomatic
Arabic. Some of Ibn Zur‘a’s introductions to Aristotle’s logic have been
published.
In 979 CE, Ibn Zur‘a saw his late teacher,
Yahya ibn ‘Adi, in a dream commanding him to write a treatise solving a problem
with Ibn ‘Adi’s definition of God the Father as intellect (‘aql).Ibn Zur‘a was then asked to write an account of this vision
by an unnamed ‘‘lord and brother.’’ This work, On the Composite Intellect,is
the earliest of his dated treatises of Christian apologetics, which were
generally not written for philosophers but at the request of a friend or in
response to an opponent. At least twice the request for treatises came from
Muslim friends, and often, addressees were high-ranking. One treatise is a refutation
of the rationalist theologian (mutakallim)
Abu ’l-Qasim al-Balkhi. The letter to Bishr ibn Finhas, written to a Jewish
friend, is typical of the way Ibn
Zur‘a combines rationalistic arguments with
references to contemporary debates in these apologetic treatises. The work
begins by setting out three different
categories of law before concluding that the Mosaic law has been superseded.
Then Ibn Zur‘a describes Plato’s tripartite division of the soul and argues
that only Christianity teaches the virtues of the rational faculty to the highest
degree. Ibn Zur‘a sets out the definition of the Trinity as Intellect, Active
Intellect, and the Intellected (‘aql,
‘aqil, ma‘qul),which he learned from Ibn ‘Adi. In addition to such arguments,
Ibn Zur‘a includes a discussion of proof texts, referring in passing to a group
of Jews who expected the Messiah in 970–971 CE. At the end of the treatise Ibn Zur‘a
gives an account of two problems concerning the resurrection, which he
discussed with Jews.
The account we have of Ibn Zur‘a’s death is
tragic. One of the physicians who treated him relates that business opponents from
the Syriac community ‘‘took him many times to the ruler, money was confiscated,
and he was overtaken by many disasters.’’ The physician adds that other reasons
for Ibn Zur‘a’s collapse were his hot temperament, and the pressure of writing a
treatise on the immortality of the soul.
Primary Sources
Gihami,
Ge´rard, and Rafiq al-‘Ajam (Eds). Mantiq Ibn Zur‘a. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr
al-Lubnani, 1994.
Rescher,
Nicolas (Ed). ‘‘A Tenth-Century Arab-Christian Apologia for Logic.’’ InIslamic
Studies. Vol. 2. Islamabad: Islamic Reseach Institute, 1963. The translation was
republished in Nicolas Rescher,Studies in Arabic Philosophy. Pittsburgh: University
of Pittsburgh Press, 1967.
Sbath, Paul
(Ed).Vingt traite´s philosophiques et apologe ´-tiques d’auteurs arabes chre ´tiens
du 1Xe au XIVe sie `cle. Cairo: Friedrich and Co., 1929.
Further Reading
Haddad,
Cyrille.‘Isa ibn Zur‘a, philosophe arabe et apologiste chre´tien. Beirut: Dar
al-Kalima, 1971.
Kraemer,
Joel L.Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 1986.
Pines,
Shlomo. ‘‘La Loi naturelle et la socie´te ´: La doctrine politico-the´ologique
d’Ibn Zur‘a, philosophe chre´tien de Baghdad.’’ InStudies in Islamic History
and Civilization, edited by U. Heyd. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1961.
Starr,
Peter. ‘‘The Epistle to Bishr ibn Finhas.’’ Ph.D. dissertation. United Kingdom:
University of Cambridge, 2000.
IDRISI
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd
Allah ibn Idris al-‘Ala bi-Amr Allah (ca. AH 493–560/1100–1165 CE) was the
greatest medieval geographer. As a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, this
Muslim Arab scholar was titled al-Sharif al-Idrisi, but in the West he was
known for a long time as Geographus
Nubiensis, the Nubian Geographer. Born in Morocco and educated in Cordoba,
he worked in Palermo at the court of the Norman king Roger II. The most
important book he produced is a world geography in 1154, Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (Entertainment for One
Desiring to Travel Far); it is also called Kitab
Rujjar (Book of Roger).He later wrote a shorter geography, known under a
variety of Arabic titles and usually referred to as ‘‘The Little Idrisi.’’ Both
are extensively illustrated with maps; the maps in Nuzhat al-mushtaq are oriented to the South, the maps in the latter
book are smaller and often oriented to the east.
Al-Idrisi traveled in Asia Minor, Europe, and
North Africa, and in Sicily he was able to consult both European and Islamic
sources procured from books and travel reports. Thus his Geography is a synthesis of information and cartographic traditions
from both Islamic and European cultures; it is unsurpassed in narrative geography
and maps of the Middle Ages. Because the work is a compilation and the data
occasionally anachronistic, al-Idrisi’s work sometimes has been judged
unoriginal. However, he introduced a new type of map that strongly impacted
later cosmographers and thinkers, such as Ibn Khaldun, and used a projection
that remains unexplained. Al-Idrisi produced more regional maps of the world
than any other medieval cartographer, and his description of certain regions,
such as the Balkans or northern Europe, is remarkably precise. The parts
dealing with Africa remained an important source for Islamic and European
cosmographers into the seventeenth century. Al-Idrisi’s distinctive cartography
and narrative method make it possible to identify later imitations as works in ‘‘The
Idrisi School.’’ Medieval European Mediterranean cartographers may have had
some knowledge of his maps. The book
Nuzhat al-mushtaq became the first secular Arabic work printed in Europe
(Rome, 1592); a Latin translation was published in Paris in 1619.
Al-Idrisi credited his patron Roger with the construction
of a large world map, but the work was done by al-Idrisi. The text is a
detailed description of the map, engraved on a silver disk and based on the
Arabic version of Marinus’s map
reportedly created under the caliph al-Ma’mun (813–833). The silver prototype
was lost, but the book contains a round, schematic map of the world and seventy
rectangular maps of the seventy parts into which al-Idrisi had divided the
world. Ten manuscripts of Nuzhat al-mushtaqsurvive, eight of them with maps; there
is no complete good translation.
The system developed by al-Idrisi used the
Ptolemaic foundation adopted by the early Islamic scholars, whereby the round
earth is divided into quarters and only the Inhabited Quarter is described. It
is astronomically divided into seven latitudinal belts (‘‘climates’’), leaving
off the extreme north and equatorial south. Although familiar with coordinates,
alIdrisi did not use them; in addition to the parallel boundaries of the climates,
he introduced, instead of meridians, ten longitudinal divisions. Thus the map and
the narrative became divided into seventy sections. The numbering of climates
is from south to north, the numbers of sections go west to east, again showing Greek
influence. The text follows this arrangement after a brief general introduction,
describing important geographical features of each section: cities, mountains,
rivers, seas, islands, and so on, progressing eastward. Al-Idrisi names the
most toponyms since Ptolemy, expanding and updating the medieval Arabic
geographical inventory. He is academically unbiased, and all locations get more
or less equal attention; he describes many identifiable locations for the first
time in the geographical literature. Only ten of al-Idrisi’s sources are named,
and contemporary information gets indis criminately mixed with data compiled
from the Greek, Latin, and earlier Islamic sources.
The narrative follows itineraries, connected
by travel distances expressed in miles (mil),
units (farsakh) (three miles),
caravan stages (marhala),day marches,
or days of sailing. The earth is depicted as surrounded by the Encircling Sea, al-Bahr al-Muhit (the Greek Ocean).
Africa is extended eastward to form the southern coast of the Indian ocean,
which, however, remains open in the Far East. The southern limit of the
inhabited world is north of the equator in
Nuzhat al-mushtaq, but south of the equator in The Little Idrisi. The southern
portion of the round world map is filled with the African landmass, not shown
on sectional maps. The western limit is the prime meridian drawn through the
westernmost part of Africa, but the Fortunate Isles in the Atlantic are
included. The easternmost country is Sila
(Korea), supposedly at 180 E. The northern limit is at the Polar Circle (64 N.).
The color-coded maps demonstrate a thoughtful and somewhat artistic approach,
but neither the degrees nor itineraries are drawn on them, and their practical
value is doubtful. A pieced-together Latin version of this map was produced in
Paris by Petrus Bertius in the 1620s.
Primary Sources
Al-Idrisi,
Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad.Opus geographicum; sive, ‘‘Liber ad eorum delectationem
qui terras peragrare studeant.’’9 vols.
Edited by Enrico Cerulli a.o. Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale di
Napoli and Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1970–1984.
———.Uns
al-muhaj wa-rawd al-furaj. Edited by Fuat Sezgin. Frankfurt: Institut fu¨r
Geschichte der arabischislamischen Wissenschaften, 1984.
Al-Idrisi,
al-Sharif.Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq. Reprint of the 1592 Rome edition. Frankfurt:
Institut fu¨r Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, 1992.
Miller,
Konrad.Mappae Arabicae. Arabische Welt- und Landkarten6 vols. Stuttgart:
Miller, 1926–1927, vol. I, part 2 and vol. VI. Reprint: Frankfurt: Institut
fu¨r Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, 1994.
Further Reading
Ahmad, S.
Maqbul. ‘‘Cartography of al-Sharif al-Idrisi.’’ In The History of Cartography,
vol. 2, book 1:Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian
Societies, edited by J.B. Harley and David Woodward, 156–174.
Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Drecoll,
Carsten.Idrı´sı´aus Sizilien: der Einfluss einers arabischen Wissenschaftlers
auf die Entwicklung der europa¨ischen Geographie. Egelsbach; New York: Ha
¨nselHohenhausen, 2000.
Khuri,
Ibrahim.Al-Sharif al-Idrisi: Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq. Al-‘Ayn:
Markaz Zaydi lil-Turath waal-Ta’rikh, 2000.
Tolmacheva,
Marina. ‘‘The Medieval Arabic Geographers and the Beginnings of Modern
Orientalism.’’International Journal of Middle East Studies27/2 (1995): 141–156.
———.
‘‘Bertius and al-Idrisi: An Experiment in Orientalist
Cartography.’’Terrae
Incognitae28 (1996): 49–59.
Vernay-Nouri,
Annie, Aleksandra Sarrabezolles, and JeanPaul Saint-Aubin.La ge´ographie
d’Idrisi: un atlas du monde au XIIe sie`cle. CD-ROM. Paris: Bibliothe `que nationale
de France; Montparnasse multime´dia, 2000
IDRISIDS
The Idrisids, a local dynasty of Arab origin,
emerged out of the shifting Berber tribal groupings of Islamic northwestern
Africa (al-Maghrib) in the late eighth century CE. Surviving, often tenuously
for some two centuries, the dynasty is notable for having founded the city of
Fez (Fas), which was their capital, and
for establishing Arabo-Islamic religious and political culture in this area.
In 789, the leader of a powerful Berber
tribal group, the Awraba, determined to politically and religiously legitimize
his dominion, invited a localsharif, Idris ibn ‘Abd Allah, a descendant of ‘Ali
b. Abu Talib, to serve as the regime’simam, or spiritual leader. After imam Idris
was assassinated in 791, a period of political unrest followed, after which one
of his young sons was namedimam as Idris II (808– 828). Idris II gained the
political initiative from his Berber sponsors in 809 by founding a new capital
city, Fez, and inviting Arabs from al-Andalus and the Aghlabid territories to
settle there. Fez soon became the capital of the most powerful and dynamic
state in the Maghrib, Idrisid power having expanded to include most of modern
Morocco. Idris II was succeeded by his brother Muhammad (828–836), who passed
the throne on to his son ‘Ali (836–859), who was then followed by his brother
Yahya (859– 863). This was the period of greatest stability for the Idrisids,
and Fez continued to be a favored destination of refugees and immigrants from
al-Andalus and Ifriqiyya.
The reign of the weak Yahya II (863–866)
ushered in the decline of the dynasty, which was beset by internal rivalries
and degenerated into a state of civil war. This was aggravated in the early
tenth century by the rise of the Fatimids, who made them tributaries in 917.
Eventually expelled from their capital by Miknasa Berbers, the Idrisids were
driven into an alliance with the Umayyads of Cordoba, who allowed the dynasty
to reconstitute itself, this time in the ROf mountains in the 930s, where their
capital was the fortress of Hajar al-Nasr. For the following half century the
Idrisids survived in semiautonomy by playing off the Umayyads and Fatimids, all
the while beset by a host of tribal enemies. Following a defeat of the Umayyads
in 958, the family recognized the authority of the Fatimids. In 972, the
Umayyads rallied, defeated the Fatimid forces, and took members of the Idrisid family
as prisoners to Cordoba, formally deposing al-Hasan b. al-Qasim Gannun in 974.
Eventually al-Hasan made his way to Egypt and was reinstalled by the Fatimids
in 985. That same year, al-Mansur, ruler of Umayyad al-Andalus, dispatched an
army to depose al-Hasan, who was taken prisoner and executed.
Fez is the Idrisid’s greatest legacy. The two
great mosques, al-Qarawiyyin and al-Andalusiyyin, founded by refugees from
Tunisia and al-Andalus, became centers of a vibrant religious culture, further stimulated
by the dynasty’s connection to the family of ‘Ali. The city remained the
cultural capital of the Maghrib until the dawn of the colonial period.
Further Reading
Cressier,
Patrice. ‘‘Hagar al-Nasr, capitale idreisside du Maroc septentrional: arche´ologie
et historiore (Ive H./Xe ap. J.C.).’’InGene`se de la villa islamique en
alAndalus et au Mghreb occidental, edited by P. Cressier and M. Garcı´a-Arenal,
305–334. Madrid: Casa de Vela´zques, 1998.
Manzano
Moreno, Eduardo and Mercedes Garcı´a-Arenal. ‘‘Le ´gitimite´ et villes idrissides.’’
In Gene`se de la villa islamique en al-Andalus et au Mghreb occidental, edited by
P. Cressier and M. Garcı´a-Arenal, 257–284. Madrid: Casa de Vela´zques, 1998.
Taha,
‘Abdulwahid Dhan ˛n. The Muslim Conquest and Settlement of North Africa and
Spain. London: Routledge, 1989.
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