- The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy
- Contributors
- Introduction
- The Theology Attributed to Aristotle: Sources, Structure, Influence
- The Rise of Falsafa: Al-Kindī (d. 873), On First Philosophy
- Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (d. 925), <i>The Spiritual Medicine</i>
- Ibn Masarra’s (d. 931) Third Book
- Al-Fārābī’s (d. 950) On the One and Oneness: Some Preliminary Remarks on Its Structure, Contents, and Theological Implications
- Yaḥyā b. ʿAdī’s (d. 974) <i>Kitāb Tahdhīb al-akhlāq</i>
- Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037): Metaphysics of the Shifāʾ
- Reconciling Religion and Philosophy: Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s (d. 1088) <i>Jāmiʿ al-ḥikmatayn</i>
- Al-Ghazālī’s (d. 1111) <i>Incoherence of the Philosophers</i>
- Ismāʿīlite Critique of Ibn Sīnā: Al-Shahrastānī’s (d. 1153) Wrestling Match with the Philosophers
- Ibn Ṭufayl’s (d. 1185) <i>Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓan</i>
- Suhrawardī’s (d. 1191) Intimations of the Tablet and the Throne: The Relationship of Illuminationism and the Peripatetic Philosophy
- Averroes (d. 1198), <i>The Decisive Treatise</i>
- Al-Rāzī’s (d. 1210) Commentary on Avicenna’s Pointers: The Confluence of Exegesis and Aporetics
- Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274): Sharḥ al-Ishārāt
- Kātibī (d. 1277), Taḥtānī (d. 1365), and the <i>Shamsiyya</i>
- <i>Al-Mawāqif fī ʿilm al-kalām</i> by ʿAḍūd al-Dīn al-Ījī (d. 1355), and Its Commentaries
- Ibn Abī Jumhūr al-Aḥsāʾī (d. after 1491) and his <i>Kitāb Mujlī Mirʾāt al-munjī</i>
- Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī (d. 908/1502), Glosses on ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Qūshjī’s Commentary on Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s <i>Tajrīd al-iʿtiqād</i>
- Mīr Dāmād’s (d. 1631) al-Qabasāt: The Problem of the Eternity of the Cosmos
- Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s (d. 1635) <i>Divine Witnesses</i>
- The <i>Sullam al-ʿulūm</i> of (d. 1707) Muḥibb Allāh al-Bihārī
- Aḥmad al-Mallawī (d. 1767): Commentary on the Versification of the Immediate Implications of Hypothetical Propositions
- Faḍl-i Ḥaqq Khayrābādī’s (d. 1861), <i>al-Hadiyya al-saʿīdiyya</i>
- Haji Mullā Hādī Sabzawārī (d. 1878), <i>Ghurar al-farāʾid</i>
- Ali Sedad Bey’s (d. 1900), <i>Kavâidu’t-Taḥavvülât fî Ḥarekâti’z-Zerrât</i> (<i>Principles of Transformation in the Motion of Particles</i>)
- Muḥammad Iqbāl (d. 1938): The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
- Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr (d. 1979) on the Logical Foundations of Induction
- ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī (d. 1981), <i>Nihāyat al-ḥikma</i>
- Zakī Najīb Maḥmūd (d. 1993), <i>Naḥwa Falsafa ʿIlmiyya</i> (<i>Toward a Scientific Philosophy</i>)
- Index of Personal Names
- Index of Terms
Abstract and Keywords
The chapter deals with the metaphysical section (Ilāhiyyāt, “Science of Divine Things”) of Avicenna’s philosophical masterpiece Kitāb al-Šifāʾ (Book of the Healing), discussing preliminarily its presumed date of composition and place within Avicenna’s biography, and its distinctive traits with respect to other works of Avicenna dealing with metaphysics. Three further issues are then primarily addressed: the Ilāhiyyāt as a prime example of the idea that the science of metaphysics is first among the philosophical disciplines and possesses epistemological unity despite its internal articulation; the philosophical sources of the work, both in ancient Greek philosophy and in Arabic pre-Avicennian falsafa, and the cultural setting in which the Ilāhiyyāt is meant to circulate as well as its intended audience; its main doctrines, pertaining both to ontology (the doctrine of being qua being and its afferents) and to philosophical theology (God’s existence, nature, and agency).
Keywords: metaphysics, Avicenna, ancient Greek philosophy, Aristotle, being, One, God, philosophical theology
Amos Bertolacci (Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Florence, and in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Yale University) is Associate Professor of History of Islamic Philosophy at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy). He is the author of The Reception of Aristotle’s Metaphysics in Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ: A Milestone of Western Metaphysical Thought (Brill, Leiden-Boston 2006), and of an Italian annotated translation of the metaphysics of Avicenna’s Šifāʾ (UTET, Torino 2007).
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- The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy
- Contributors
- Introduction
- The Theology Attributed to Aristotle: Sources, Structure, Influence
- The Rise of Falsafa: Al-Kindī (d. 873), On First Philosophy
- Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (d. 925), <i>The Spiritual Medicine</i>
- Ibn Masarra’s (d. 931) Third Book
- Al-Fārābī’s (d. 950) On the One and Oneness: Some Preliminary Remarks on Its Structure, Contents, and Theological Implications
- Yaḥyā b. ʿAdī’s (d. 974) <i>Kitāb Tahdhīb al-akhlāq</i>
- Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037): Metaphysics of the Shifāʾ
- Reconciling Religion and Philosophy: Nāṣir-i Khusraw’s (d. 1088) <i>Jāmiʿ al-ḥikmatayn</i>
- Al-Ghazālī’s (d. 1111) <i>Incoherence of the Philosophers</i>
- Ismāʿīlite Critique of Ibn Sīnā: Al-Shahrastānī’s (d. 1153) Wrestling Match with the Philosophers
- Ibn Ṭufayl’s (d. 1185) <i>Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓan</i>
- Suhrawardī’s (d. 1191) Intimations of the Tablet and the Throne: The Relationship of Illuminationism and the Peripatetic Philosophy
- Averroes (d. 1198), <i>The Decisive Treatise</i>
- Al-Rāzī’s (d. 1210) Commentary on Avicenna’s Pointers: The Confluence of Exegesis and Aporetics
- Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274): Sharḥ al-Ishārāt
- Kātibī (d. 1277), Taḥtānī (d. 1365), and the <i>Shamsiyya</i>
- <i>Al-Mawāqif fī ʿilm al-kalām</i> by ʿAḍūd al-Dīn al-Ījī (d. 1355), and Its Commentaries
- Ibn Abī Jumhūr al-Aḥsāʾī (d. after 1491) and his <i>Kitāb Mujlī Mirʾāt al-munjī</i>
- Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī (d. 908/1502), Glosses on ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Qūshjī’s Commentary on Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s <i>Tajrīd al-iʿtiqād</i>
- Mīr Dāmād’s (d. 1631) al-Qabasāt: The Problem of the Eternity of the Cosmos
- Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s (d. 1635) <i>Divine Witnesses</i>
- The <i>Sullam al-ʿulūm</i> of (d. 1707) Muḥibb Allāh al-Bihārī
- Aḥmad al-Mallawī (d. 1767): Commentary on the Versification of the Immediate Implications of Hypothetical Propositions
- Faḍl-i Ḥaqq Khayrābādī’s (d. 1861), <i>al-Hadiyya al-saʿīdiyya</i>
- Haji Mullā Hādī Sabzawārī (d. 1878), <i>Ghurar al-farāʾid</i>
- Ali Sedad Bey’s (d. 1900), <i>Kavâidu’t-Taḥavvülât fî Ḥarekâti’z-Zerrât</i> (<i>Principles of Transformation in the Motion of Particles</i>)
- Muḥammad Iqbāl (d. 1938): The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
- Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr (d. 1979) on the Logical Foundations of Induction
- ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī (d. 1981), <i>Nihāyat al-ḥikma</i>
- Zakī Najīb Maḥmūd (d. 1993), <i>Naḥwa Falsafa ʿIlmiyya</i> (<i>Toward a Scientific Philosophy</i>)
- Index of Personal Names
- Index of Terms
