A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul”
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Maha Baddar
Abstract
This article examines the beginnings of the global medieval Arabic engagement with the Greek and Neo-Platonic philosophical traditions by analyzing al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul.” As the first Arabic philosopher and head of one of the first translation circles in Baghdad during the Medieval Arabic Translation Movement, al-Kindī is a significant figure to study when examining the global nature of medieval Arabic philosophy. This paper focuses on one of his treatises on the soul, “A Short Treatise on the Soul,” where he claims to be summarizing Aristotle’s, Plato’s, and Pythagoras’s views on the soul for Aḥmad, son of the Abbasid caliph, al-Mu’taṣim. The document shows clear knowledge of the tradition of Neo-Platonic commentary tradition on Aristotle as well. It provides an Islamic account of the nature of the soul and Islamizes many of the Greek and Neo-Platonic references, and does so in a traditional Arabic style. The global significance of this treatise lies in presenting these Greek and Neo-Platonic ideas through an Islamic lens and within an Arabic rhetorical framework. The global aspect of al-Kindī’s work in general is that, as the head of one of the two translations circles, knowledge from many eastern languages and cultures, such as Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and Syriac, were put in direct dialogue with the Western thinking of the Hellenic and Neo-Platonic traditions. This encounter resulted in the emergence of new theories of knowledge in many fields that was the result of the hybridization, analysis, and experimentation with these older theories and replacing them with more accurate theories in fields that ranged from logic, astronomy, and mathematics to optics, pharmacology, and medicine. In its turn, this knowledge was adopted by the West during the Renaissance to start a new golden age for human knowledge.
Abstract
This article examines the beginnings of the global medieval Arabic engagement with the Greek and Neo-Platonic philosophical traditions by analyzing al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul.” As the first Arabic philosopher and head of one of the first translation circles in Baghdad during the Medieval Arabic Translation Movement, al-Kindī is a significant figure to study when examining the global nature of medieval Arabic philosophy. This paper focuses on one of his treatises on the soul, “A Short Treatise on the Soul,” where he claims to be summarizing Aristotle’s, Plato’s, and Pythagoras’s views on the soul for Aḥmad, son of the Abbasid caliph, al-Mu’taṣim. The document shows clear knowledge of the tradition of Neo-Platonic commentary tradition on Aristotle as well. It provides an Islamic account of the nature of the soul and Islamizes many of the Greek and Neo-Platonic references, and does so in a traditional Arabic style. The global significance of this treatise lies in presenting these Greek and Neo-Platonic ideas through an Islamic lens and within an Arabic rhetorical framework. The global aspect of al-Kindī’s work in general is that, as the head of one of the two translations circles, knowledge from many eastern languages and cultures, such as Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and Syriac, were put in direct dialogue with the Western thinking of the Hellenic and Neo-Platonic traditions. This encounter resulted in the emergence of new theories of knowledge in many fields that was the result of the hybridization, analysis, and experimentation with these older theories and replacing them with more accurate theories in fields that ranged from logic, astronomy, and mathematics to optics, pharmacology, and medicine. In its turn, this knowledge was adopted by the West during the Renaissance to start a new golden age for human knowledge.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
