This book fills the gap in the research of Leo Strauss (1899 - 1973) showing the influence of Alfarabi (870 - 950), Avicenna (980 - 1037) and Averroes (1126 - 1198) on his thought. The first part is historically-philologically oriented and contains neglected material where it presents a new approach to Leo Strauss's work. The second part discusses Strauss's reaction towards the crisis of modernity, stimulated by Islamic philosophy, as well as his nomic understanding of religion as the essential features of his political philosophy. Since Alfarabi is the Muslim Philosopher who had the greatest...

This book provides the first presentation of the bilingual textual material that illustrates the transmission of Islamic astronomy to scientists of the Indian Sanskritic tradition. It includes editions of the chapter of the Tadhkira in which the mid-thirteenth century Persian astronomer, Nasīr al-dīn al-ṭūsī discussed the new solutions that he devised to overcome certain technical problems in the lunar and planetary models of Ptolemaic astronomy and of the learned commentary composed by al-Birjandī in the early sixteenth century together with the Sanskrit...

This volume examines the approaches of Fakhr-al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 1209) and Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) to the question of the eternity of the world, which was one of the most heated issues of debate between theologians and philosophers in the Middle Ages. The first chapter of the book gives some background to the discussion from Greek philosophy, early Judaeo-Christian and Muslim traditions. The second and the third chapters discuss the approaches of Rāzī and Aquinas respectively to the question of the eternity of the world. The last chapter compares their approaches,...

This collection of essays reflects the wide range of David Pingree's expertise in the scientific texts (above all, concerning astronomy and astrology) of Ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, India, Persia, and the medieval Arabic, Hebrew and Latin traditions. Both theoretical aspects and the practical applications of the exact sciences-in time keeping, prediction of the future, and the operation of magic-are dealt with. The book includes several critical editions and translations of hitherto unknown or understudied texts, and a particular emphasis is on the diffusion of scientific learning from one...

This study of the Sicilian Questions of the philosopher and mystic Ibn Sabٴ īn of Murcia (ca. 1217-1270) reads the text, allegedly composed as an answer to questions sent by Frederick II as a reflection of intellectual life in the late Almohad Arab West. The first part of the book is dedicated to the author, his political and intellectual context and his impact. The second part analyses the structure and method of the text and relates it to Islamic and Jewish philosophical and mystical traditions in the Arab West. Furthermore, its literary category, context of composition...

The contributions in this volume offer the first comprehensive effort to describe and analyse the collection, classification, presentation and methodology of information in the knowledge society of medieval Islam in the disciplines of religious and legal learning, as well as the rational sciences of Hellenistic origin - philosophy, mathematical and medical sciences.The volume begins with a general discussion of the concept of encyclopaedia. Successive chapters explore the bases of authority in the institutions of religion and law; biographical literature and handbooks of law; compendia of...

This book examines the modern Arab rediscovery of the Muʿtazila through a critical assessment of the concept of "Neo-Muʿtazilism" and by concentrating on the various intentions and contexts of the use of Muʿtazilite ideas. The main part of the book analyzes five ways of understanding Mu'tazilite ideas -- liberal, historic-materialist, political-Islamic, literary-exegetical and through comparison with the philosophie des valeurs -- as well as one way of dealing with the school historically: the treatment of the miḥna. The book discusses a wide range of authors of...

This volume deals with the philosopher Abū l-Ḥasan al-ʽĀmirī (died 992) and his reception of Neoplatonism, focusing on his Kitāb al-Fuṣūl fī l-maʽālim al-ilāhīya, the Chapters on Metaphysical Topics (Arabic text with German translation). The Chapters on Metaphysical Topics paraphrase sections of the Elements of Theology by the Neoplatonist Proclus (died 485) and are therefore part of the Arabic Procliana. The commentary analyses al-ʽĀmirī's combination of Greek philosophy with...

This book examines the question whether medieval Muslim philosophers Avicenna (Arabic Ibn Sīnā 980-1037) and Averroes (Arabic Ibn Rushd 1126-1198) are determinists. With a focus on physics and metaphysics it studies their views on chance events in nature, as well as matter, in particular prime matter, and divine providence. In addition it sets their positions against the historical/philosophical background that influenced their response, the Greco-Arabic philosophical tradition - Aristotelian and Neoplatonic - on the one hand, and the tradition of Islamic theology...

The Muslim jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) is famous for polemic against Islamic philosophy, theology and rationalizing mysticism, but his positive theological contribution has not been well understood. This comprehensive study of Ibn Taymiyya's theodicy helps to rectify this lack. Exposition and analysis of Ibn Taymiyya's writings on God's justice and wise purpose, divine determination and human agency, the problem of evil, and juristic method in theological doctrine show that he articulates a theodicy of optimism in which God in His essence perpetually wills the best possible world from...