Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy

Abu al-Hasan al-)Amiri was an important Muslim philosopher from eastern Iran, who is of particular interest for his unique approach to the problem of reason and revelation. His al-Amad ala al-abad is an attempt to demonstrate that philosophy, properly understood, is not in conflict with the teachings of Islam, but rather supports and complements the religion. Taking up a specific theological issue, that of the Afterlife, )Amiri presents a series of Neoplantonic proofs for the immortality of the soul, and then (...) attempts to justify philosophically the need for revelation to supplement intellectual inquiry in this question. ;My translation of the Arabic text of the Amad is accompanied by a running commentary, which is concerned with elucidating both the Greek background of the discussion and its relation to the major schools of thought among )Amiri's Muslim contemporaries. The bulk of the work is shown to be dependent on an unknown Neoplatonic commentary on the Phaedo of Plato, which, while reproducing interpretations from known figures of the late Greek school tradition, was probably put together by a later Christian writer himself anxious to reconcile philosophical doctrine with revealed dogma. In his introductory chapters, )Amiri offers a brief history of Greek philosophy; here also his biographical material is shown to go back to the late Greek schools, while his primary doxographical source is identified as the "Opinions of the Philosophers", an Arabic pseudepigraph attributed to Ammonius. ;Comparison with the works of )Amiri's philosophical contemporaries shows the relative unity of the tradition which they inherited; on the other hand, )Amiri's conservative treatment of Islam sets him apart, and represents rather a conscious continuation of the approach initiated a century before by Kindi. The interpretation of Islam which )Amiri presents in the Amad, and tries to reconcile with philosophy, is shown to be that of the emerging Ashari-Maturidi "orthodoxy", particularly as opposed to the Mutazilite school, which he attacks directly. ;My introduction to the translation surveys )Amiri's life and works, and attempts to give a broader picture of his role as an apologist for philosophy among the Muslims. (shrink)

Mukhtasar siw an al-hikma is a work hikma compiled by the twelfth century qadi-philosopher 'Umar b. Sahlan al-Sawi. This work, which has been until now in a manuscript form, is actually an abridgment of the famous but lost Siwan al-hikma, attributed traditionally to Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi al-Sijistani. The Mukhtasar is extremely important both in its relation to the Siwan al-hikma and in its own right. ;The work contains some 905 wise sayings from 60 Greek and 13 Muslim philosophers. These sayings (...) address various issues in ethics as well as politics, such as happiness, moral virtues and vices, the ideal just ruler and advice to the king. They also reflect the philosophers' views on God, worldly life, women, children, life and death, and love and friendship. ;This highly instructive work has not been available to general readers, nor has it been sufficiently studied by scholars. The present study shows that all works dealing directly with the text of the Mukhtasar by modern scholars, such as Franz Rosenthal, Manfred Ullmann, and Von Jorg Kraemer, cover only one-ninth of the entire body of sayings contained in it. The manuscript of the Mukhtasar, therefore, needs to be fully edited. ;The main purpose of my dissertation is to make the text of the Mukhtasar available to scholars in a critically edited form, and to put it in its proper place among philosophical works of medieval Islamic civilization, in a study introducing the edited text. (shrink)