The “Yamani philosophy” signifies...

The “Yamani philosophy” signifies, in contrast to the rationalistic philosophy of the Greeks (falsafah-i Yunani), the wisdom revealed by God to man through the prophets and through illumination. It may be noted that the Yaman (Yemen) symbolises the right or the oriental side of the valley in which Moses is reported to have received the message and light (tajalli) of God.

The source of falsafah-i Yamani is, therefore, the divine illumination and it stands for light in contrast to the falsafah-i Yunani which being based merely on ratiocination and cogitation symbolises darkness. See also al-hikmat al-ishraqiyah and al-hikmat al-dhauqiyah. falak (pl. aflak) The celestial sphere surrounding the world and revolving around the earth as its centre. According to the cosmogony current with the Muslim philosophers, there are in: all nine such spheres.

surrounding each other like the peels of an onion so that the concave side of the shell of the surrounding sphere touches the convex surface of the one surrounded by it. All these spheres being transparent, one can see through them from the lowest to the highest.

The nine spheres in the descending order of their remoteness from the earth are: (1) the sphere of the primum mobile (al-falak al-aqsa or falak al-aflak); (2) the sphere of the fixed stars (al-kawakib al-thabitah); (3) the sphere of Saturn (Zuhal); (4) the sphere of Jupiter (Mushtari); (6) the sphere of Mars (Marikh); (6) the sphere of the Sun (Shams); (7) the sphere of Venus (Zuhrah); (8) the sphere of Mercury (‘Utarid); and (9) the sphere of the Moon (Qamar). See also al-kawakib al-sayyarah.

falak al-aflak The first celestial sphere or the primum mobile, also called al-falak al-aqsa, "the remotest sphere"; see falak. al-falak al-awwal "The first heaven", i.e. the outermost celestial sphere in the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology, i.e. the sphere of the fixed stars (al-kawakib al-thabitah, q.v.). falak al-tadwir A smaller sphere revolving on the circumference of a larger sphere, i.e. one making an epicycle. Fulutarkhis Plutarch (c. 50-c.

125 C.E.): Greek biographer, moralist and one of the enthusiastic champions of Platonism. A valuable account of him is to be found in al-Shahrastani's Kitab al-Milal wa'l-Nihal written in 625/1127-8. Fulutin Plotin or Plotinus (c. 203-270 C.E.), the greatest expositor and founder of Neoplatonism; see also al-Shaikh al-Yunani and al-Aflatuniyat al-Muhdathah.