Ibn Bājja and the classification of the sciences in Al-Andalus

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy

Volumn 16, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 287-307

  Forcada, Miquel ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60949571474     PISSN: 09574239     EISSN: 14740524     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0957423906000336     Document Type: Review

References (67)

1. The main works and writings of these authors are well known and there is no need here either to list them or to provide an exhaustive secondary bibliography. I address the reader to the following titles, which contain the necessary references: Louis Gardet & M. M. Anawati, Introduction à la théologie musulmane. Essai de théologie comparée (Paris, 1948), pp. 94-133;
2. Jean Jolivet "Classifications of the sciences", in Roshdi Rashed (ed.) (in collaboration with Régis Morelon), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Sciences, 3 vols. (London-New York, 1996), vol. III, pp. 1008-25;
3. Osman Bakar, "Science", in Seyyed Hosein Nasr & Oliver Leaman (eds.), History of Islamic Philosophy (London-New York, 1996), pp. 926-46.
4. This last author has written one of the most recent monographs on the subject, Classification of Knowledge in Islam. A Study of Islamic Philosophies of Science (London, 1998; first ed. Kuala Lumpur, 1992).
5. Darío Cabanelas, Ibn Sīda de Murcia. El mayor lexicógrafo de al-Andalus (Granada, 1966), pp. 72-4.
6. A study on Andalusian classifications of sciences can be found in the introductory study of the edition of Ibn H{dot below}azm's Marātib al-'ulūm by Anwar G. Chejne, Ibn H{dot below}azm (Chicago, 1982), in which the author also deals with Abū 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-Barr and S{dot below}ā'id al-Andalusī. An interesting chapter on this question and on the same authors can be found in Balty-Guesdon, Médecins et hommes de science, pp. 458-73. Further bibliographical references will be given below.
7. I have used the edition of Ángel González Palencia, Al-Fārābī. Catālogo de las ciencias (Madrid-Granada, 1953).
8. This book contains a translation into Spanish, the edition by Guilelmus Camerarius of Dominicus Gundissalinus' Latin translation and the Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona. As for the secondary bibliography, I refer the reader to the titles listed in note 1 above and also to the most interesting study by Muhsin S. Mahdi in his Al-Fārābī and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy (Chicago-London, 2001), chapter 4.
9. A recent summary of its contents can be found in Majid Fakhry, Al-Fārābī Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism. His Life, Works and Influence (Oxford, 2002), pp. 40-53.
10. A complete, recent biography and bibliography of Ibn 'Abd al-Barr can be found in the art. "Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, Abū 'Umar", by Maribel Fierro, in Jorge Lirola and José Miguel Puerta Vílchez (eds.), Enciclopedia de al-Andalus. Diccionario de autores y obras andalusíes (Granada, 2002), I, pp. 287-92.
11. On his classification of the sciences, see Chejne, Ibn H{dot below}azm, pp. 89-92 and index, and Balty-Guesdon, Médecins et homines de science, pp. 471-2.
12. Cf. Heinrich Suter, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke (Leipzig, 1900-1902; reprinted in Amsterdam, 1981), p. 104, no. 236.
13. e siècle: al-Mu'taman et Ibn Sayyid", in Menso Folkerts & Jan P. Hogendijk (eds.), Vestigia Mathematica: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Mathematics in Honour of H.L.L. Busard (Amsterdam-Atlanta, 1993), pp. 79-91.
14. We should mention some additional bibliography relating to Ibn H{dot below}azm. He deals with the classification of the sciences in his Marātib al-'ulūm, as stated, and in some other works which are listed in note 2 on p. 50 of the article by Salvador Gómez Nogales, "Teorǐa y clasificación de la ciencia según Ibn H{dot below}azm", Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos, 14-15 (1965-66): 49-73. This article remains a useful approach to this subject.
15. More recent studies can be found in Balty-Guesdon, Médecins et hommes de science, pp. 468-73;
16. Juan Vernet, Lo que Europa debe al Islam de España (Barcelona, 1999), pp. 58-9.
17. Cf. Chejne, Ibn H{dot below}azm, pp. 38-9.
18. Jolivet, "Classification", p. 1008.
19. and Gabriel Martinez Gros, "S{dot below}ā'id al-Andalusī", Encyclopédie de l'Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden, 1995), VIII, p. 889.
20. On philosophy in the kingdom of Toledo at that time, see Rafael Ramón Guerrero, "La filosofía en la corte de al-Ma'mūn de Toledo", Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos, 32-33 (1983-84): 167-79
21. I have used the editions by F. Dieterici, Al-Fārābī's philosophische Abhandlungen (Leiden, 1890), pp. 49-55
22. and Muh{dot below}ammad T. Dāneshpazūh, al-Mant{dot below}iqiyyāt li-al-Fārābī, I (Qum, 1408 / 1987-8), pp. 1-10
23. together with the Spanish translation by Rafael Ramón Guerrero, "Una introducción de al-Fārābī a la filosofia", Al-Qant{dot below}ara, 5 (1984): 5-14.
24. English translation by Sema'an I. Salem and Alok Kumar, Science in the Medieval World by S{dot below}ā'id al-Andalusī (Austin, 1991), p. 50.
25. On the classification of the sciences in S{dot below}ā'id and al-Fārābī's influence, see Balty-Guesdon, Médecins et hommes de science, pp. 458-63
26. and Forcada, "Biografías de científicos", pp. 221-8.
27. a Millás Vallicrosa, La poesía sagrada hebraicoespañola (Madrid, 1940), pp. 44-5 and 83
28. Eliahu Ashtor, "H{dot below}isdai ibn H{dot below}isday, Abū l-Fad{dot below}l", Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1972), VIII, p. 533, and section 4.1. below.
29. See al-Kindī, Risāla fī Kammiyyat Kutub Arist{dot below}ūt{dot below}ālīs, ed. Muh{dot below}ammad 'Abd al-Hādī Abū Rīda (Cairo, 1950), I, pp. 369 and 378.
30. Julio Samsó, Las ciencias de los antiguos en al-Andalus (Madrid, 1992), index;
31. p. 258 of Juan Vernet and Julio Samsó, "The development of Arabic science in Andalusia", in Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, I, 243-75.
32. Ibn Bājja's life has been widely studied. I refer the reader to the most recent biography, Joaquín Lomba and José Miguel Puerta Vílchez, "Ibn Bājja", Enciclopedia de al-Andalus, I, 624-63.
33. Ibn Bājja, Rasā'il falsafiyya li-Abī Bakr ibn Bājja. Nus{dot below}ûs{dot below} falsafiyya ghayr manshūra, ed. Jamal al-Dīn al-'Alawī (Beirut-Casablanca, 1983), pp. 78-9.
34. This letter appeared together with a manuscript of his Physics, as we can see on pp. 443-4 of Shlomo Pines, "La dynamique d'Ibn Bājja", Mélanges Alexandre Koyré (Paris, 1964), I, pp. 442-68;
35. reprinted in The Collected Works of Shlomo Pines (Jerusalem, 1986), vol. II, pp. 440-68.
36. Ibn Abī Us{dot below}aybi'a, 'Uyūn al-anbā' fī t{dot below}abaqāt al-at{dot below}ibbā', ed. N. Rid{dot below}ā (Beirut, 1965), pp. 499-500.
37. Ibn Bājja, Rasā'il, p. 79. The blank corresponds to some words that make no sense to the editor. Pines ("La dynamique", p. 444), who acknowledges the difficulties of this text, renders the last part of it as: "Puis je me suis consacré à la spéculation concernant la physique. Je n'ai pas pris cette décision pour travailler sur les choses claires qui se trouvent dans l'Akroasis Physiké (samā' al-t{dot below}abī'ī) [...] Je l'ai prise parce que cet ouvrage contient les principes, et tout ce qui vient après en est une conséquence".
38. Pines, "La dynamique", p. 444, n. 7.
39. J. Vernet, La transmisión de algunas ideas científicas de oriente a occidente y de occidente a oriente en los siglos XI-XIII (Rome, 1992), pp. 25-31;
40. Lomba, El Ebro, pp. 336-7.
41. and Muh{dot below}ammad T. Dāneshpazūh, al-Mant{dot below}iqiyyāt li-al-Fārābī, 3 (Qum, 1410 /1989-90), pp. 295-381.
42. Pp. 15-16 of M. Fakhrī's ed. of Ibn Bājja's Physics, Abū Bakr Ibn al-S{dot below}ā'iġ. Sharh{dot below} al-Simā' al-t{dot below}abī'ī li-Arist{dot below}ūt{dot below}alīs (Beirut, 1973).
43. See also pp. 82 and 130-1 of the same work, and Paul Lettink, Aristotle's Physics and its Reception in the Arabic World with an Edition of the Unpublished Parts of Ibn Bājja's Commentary on the Physics (Leiden-New York-Köln, 1994), pp. 13, 111 and 599-600.
44. In Ibn Bājja's commentaries to On Generation and Corruption and Meteorology we also find significant references to logical works (vz. p. 33 of the ed. by Josep Puig Montada, Avempace, Libro de la generación y corrupción [Madrid, 1995]
45. and pp. 415-23 of the ed. by P. Lettink in Aristotle's Meteorology and its Reception in the Arabic World [Leiden-Boston-Köln, 1999]).
46. See the epistle addressed to Ibn H{dot below}asdāy quoted above (Rasā'il, ed. 'Alawī, pp. 77-81)
47. On this treatise, see p. 151 and passim of the article by Gerhard Endress, "Mathematics and philosophy in medieval Islam", in Jan P. Hogendijk and Abdelhamid I. Sabra (eds.), The Enterprise of Science in Islam (Cambridge-London, 2003), pp. 121-76.
48. The study of tas{dot below}dīq and tas{dot below}awwur in Ibn Bājja is beyond the scope to this article. He addresses the famous couplet in many treatises and his glosses to al-Fārābī's logic are the most important source on this question (see, particularly, his Ta'ālīq to Burhān, already quoted, and to al- Isāghūjī and al-Fus{dot below}ūl al-Khamsa, edited by M. Fakhry in Ta'ālīq Ibn Bājja 'alā Mant{dot below}iq al-Fārābī (Beirut, 1994)
49. and by Dāneshpazūh in al-Mant{dot below}iqiyyāt li-al-Fārābī, 3). Consequently, Ibn Bājja's thought about this issue is profoundly indebted to that of al-Fārābī; on the latter, see the following studies: Deborah L. Black, Logic and Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics in Medieval Arabic Philosophy (Leiden et al., 1990), pp. 71-8;
50. Miriam Galston, Opinion and Knowledge in Fārābī's Understanding of Aristotle's Philosophy, unpublished Ph.D. thesis of the University of Chicago, 1973, pp. 204-10;
51. Joep Lameer, Al-Fārābī and Aristotelian Syllogistics. Greek Theory and Islamic Practice (Leiden et al., 1994), pp. 266 and seq. and 275 and seq.
52. pp. 18-19 of Muhsin Mahdi's translation in Al-Fārābī's Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle [New York, 1962]).
53. On the equivalence of this term, see pp. 181-2 in Richard Lemay, "Gerard of Cremona", Dictionary of Scientific Biography, XV (supplement I), (New York, 1978), pp. 173-92.
54. I have used the edition by Dāneshpazūh, al-Mant{dot below}iqiyyāt li-al-Fārābī, 1, pp. 28-39, together with the edition and translation into English by Donald M. Dunlop, "Al-Fārābī's Eisagoge", Islamic Quarterly, 3 (1956): 117-38.
55. See also the Spanish translation and a helpful introduction by R. Ramón Guerrero, "Al-Fārābī lógico. Su exposición a la Isagogé de Porfirio", Revista de Filosofía, 3 (1990): 45-67.
56. D. M. Dunlop noted many years ago the presence of materials from Risāla S{dot below}udira and Ih{dot below}s{dot below}ā' in this text by Ibn Bājja (cf. "Al-Fārābī's Introductory Risālah", p. 224).
57. Al-Fārābī, Ih{dot below}s{dot below}ā', Arabic text, p. 88.
58. Cf. Mahdi, Al-Fārābī and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy, p. 80
59. and al-Fārābī, Falsafat Arist{dot below}ūt{dot below}ālīs, trans. by Mahdi, Al-Fārābī's Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, p. 82.
60. About this classical question, see also A. I. Sabra, "Avicenna on the subject matter of logic". The Journal of Philosophy, 77 (1980): 746-64
61. (reprinted in A. I. Sabra, Optics, Astronomy and Logic [Aldershot-Brookfield, 1994])
62. For a study of the reasons that underlie al-Fārābī's conception of the hierarchy of the sciences and their classification, see Bakar, Classification of Knowledge, pp. 43-151 and 263-6.
63. Ibn Bājja, Kitāb al-Nafs, ed. Muh{dot below}ammad S{dot below}aghir H{dot below}asan al-Ma's{dot below}ūmī (Beirut, 1992), pp. 29-30, and ed. Jamāl Rāshiq (Fās, 1999), pp. 93-4. As it is well known, psychology plays an essential role in Ibn Bājja's philosophy, but an account of this question is far beyond the scope of this paper. I refer the reader to the updated bibliographical references in the article by Lomba and Puerta Vílchez, "Ibn Bājja", quoted above.
64. As is well known, this expression was coined by Sabra in his "The Andalusian revolt against Ptolemaic astronomy", in Everett Mendelsohn (ed.), Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences: Essays in Honor of I. Bernard Cohen (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 133-53
65. On this subject and on Ibn Bājja's contribution, see M. Forcada, "Averroes y la ciencia", Averroes y los averroísmos. Actas del III Congreso Nacional de Filosofía Medieval (Zaragoza, 1999), pp. 49-102.
66. This paper contains the necessary bibliographical references, with the exception of the recent article by José Luis Mancha, "Al-Bit{dot below}rūjī's theory of the motions of the fixed stars", Archive for the History of Exact Sciences, 58 (2004): 143-82, which sheds new light on the question, and the article by G. Endress quoted above.
67. Cf. pp. 53 and 56-7 of Juliane Lay, "L'Abrégé de l'Almageste, un inédit d'Averroès en version hebraïque", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 6 (1996): 23-61.