ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Compilation of Islamic Philosophy and Theology [edited] Chapter Eight: Al-Kindi Abu Yusuf Ya’qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi is generally held to have been the first Muslim philosopher. This does not mean, however, that the Muslims prior to al-Kindi had no cognizance at all of Greek philosophical ideas. On the contrary some philosophical knowledge, though fragmentary, can be attributed to the early Mu’tazili kalam.

Some of their main representatives - Abu’l-Hudhayl al-‘Allaf and al-Nazzam -developed a theology built on certain Greek philosophical elements. Thus the theologian Abu’l-Hasan al-Ash’ari named Aristotle as the source of some of Abu’l-Hudhayl’s doctrines, and al-Baghdadi blamed al-Nazzami for having borrowed from Greek philosophers the idea the idea of matter being infinitely divisible.

The impact of Greek philosophy upon early Mu’tazili kalam is eveident and has been stated also by early Muslim theologians and heresiographers. But this impact remained after marginal; for none of the early Mu’tazili theologians ever elaborated an encyclopediac system of Greek philosophy as this was out the range of their interests.

It was al-Kindi who pursued this aim and who may therefore rightly be called the first Muslim philosopher, whereas the representatives of Mu’tazili kalam were theologians and no philosophers. This fact alone puts al-Kindi in some opposition to the Mu’tazili with whom he should not be identified. Ibn al-Nadim listed some 260 titles of al-Kindi’s, and ernomous scientific bibliography, even if many of the works may have been of small extent.

Al-Kindi’s treatises encompass the whole classical encyclopedia of sciences: philosophy, logic, arithmetic, spherical, music, astronomy, geometry, cosmology, medicine, astrology, etc., according to Ibn al-Nadim’s arrangement. Ibn al-Nadim’s bibliographical list reveals al-Kindi’s predilection for natural science. Only few manuscripts, approximately ten per cent of all his literary output, have come to light and been edited up to now.

It seems that the vast majority of the manuscripts have been lost. It is hardly surprising that later Muslim philosophers rarely quote from any of al-Kindi’s philosophical treatises. Both facts -loss of the bulk of his manuscripts and the lack of reference to him by later authors -need an explanation.