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In Chapter 4, Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī  previous chapter  Al-Kindī was the first universal thinker to bring the Hellenic legacy into Arabic. He saw himself as a transmitter of the wisdom set forth by the ancients whom he admired as predecessors and role-models (On First Philosophy [*51: I 102–104]). Their work had been developed and completed over many generations; now, al-Kindī would present these teachings to ‘those who speak our language (ahl lisāninā)’ (from the commentary on Ptolemy’s Almagest, c...

In Chapter 4, Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī  previous chapter  5.1 Introductions to Philosophy – 5.2 Propaedeutic Ethics – 5.3 Metaphysics – 5.4 Soul and Intellect – 5.5 Physics and Cosmology – 5.6 Mathematical Sciences...

In Chapter 4, Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī  previous chapter  Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq b. al-Ṣabbāḥ belonged to a family of the ancient Arab tribe of the Kinda. His ancestor al-Ašʿaṯ b. Qays (d. ca. 40/661), a companion of the Prophet Muḥammad, played an important role in early Islamic history. The family line could be traced back to the legendary south-Arabian forefather Qaḥṭān. This gave al-Kindī, the ‘Philosopher of the Arabs’ (faylasūf al-ʿArab), a distinctive nobility amidst the scholars involved in...