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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Dictionary of Islamic Philosophical Terms PREFACE A Dictionary of Muslim Philosophy In this short work, the first of its kind in the English language, an attempt has been made to give reliable definitions and clear explanations of the major terms used by the medieval Muslim philosophers in logic, metaphysics, psychology and other allied disciplines.

Among the many works consulted in the compilation of this dictionary are the Ta‘rifat by ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Jurjani, Mafatih al-‘Ulum by Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi, Lexique de la Langue philosophique d’ Ibn Sina by A. M. Goichon and Imam al-Ghazali’s Maqasid al-Falasifah. For fuller explanation of certain terms the monumental Kashf ‘Istilahat al-Funun has been resorted to, while quite a few terms have been culled from Sayyid Ja‘far Sajjadi’s Mustalihat Falsafi Sadr al-Din Shirazi.

Nicholas Rescher’s Studies in the History of Arabic Logic has been helpful in the selection and elucidation of a number of logical terms. To the important terms selected have been added some variants of Arabicised Greek names and titles which though commonly found in such source books as Ibn al-Nadim’s al-Fihrist, alQifti’s Tarikh al-Hukama’, Ibn abi ‘Usaibi‘ah’s ‘Uyun al-’Anba’ fi Tabaqat al-’Atibba’, are yet likely to be unfamiliar to the modern reader.

All terms given in Arabic script with transliteration in English have been arranged alphabetically except for the definite article "al" which has been disregarded in the listing of both the single words and the compounds. Where the technical meaning of a term differs widely from its literal meaning, the latter has also been given.

I feel deeply indebted to a large number of learned authors, both Oriental and Occidental, whose valuable works have been of great help to me in compiling this dictionary; the present work, however, is not a mere translation of what has been written on Muslim philosophy or its terminology in Arabic, or Persian, or German, or French.