Search Results

Philosophy in the Islamic World Online: 8th - 10th Centuries is a comprehensive and unprecedented reference work devoted to the history of philosophy in the realms of Islam in its formative period: from its beginnings in the eighth century up to the tenth century AD. Both major and minor figures are covered, giving details of biography and doctrine, as well as detailed lists and summaries of each author’s works. It covers the period when philosophy began to blossom thanks to the translation of Greek scientific works into Arabic and the emergence of autochthonous intellectual traditions within Islam. Philosophy in the Islamic World Online: 8th - 10th Centuries is of unparalleled significance to anyone doing serious research on philosophy in the Islamic world: a unique source for both for specialists and graduate students.

Philosophy in the Islamic World is also available in print, starting with Volume 1 (the eighth to tenth centuries) as the first part of a projected 4 Volume-set. This is the English version of the relevant volume of the Ueberweg, the most authoritative German reference work on the history of philosophy (Philosophie in der Islamischen Welt Band I: 8.–10. Jahrhundert., Basel: Schwabe, 2012).
Author:

This volume is an English version of a book that originally appeared as Philosophie in der islamischen Welt. Band I: 8.–10. Jahrhundert (ed. by Ulrich Rudolph with assistance from Renate Würsch, Basel 2012). Both versions contribute to a wider project whose goal is to chart the history of philosophy in the Islamic world from its beginnings to the present day. This endeavour is described in detail in the original preface (see below, pp. xi–xiii). As explained there, four volumes are envisioned, w...

Author:

In: Introduction  previous chapter  Such deliberations largely concern the developments of recent centuries. In the early Islamic era, which forms the topic of the present volume, the situation of philosophy in the Islamic world was very different. As indicated above, we do need to expect various philosophical approaches, manifest on the one hand in the plurality of doctrines and methods which we encounter in the 9th and 10th century, and on the other hand in the fact that philosophy was already...

Author:

In Chapter 1, The Late Ancient Background  previous chapter  This orientation towards Aristotle, however, was to remain a solitary exception within late ancient philosophy. At the time when Themistius was active, (Neo-) Platonism had long since established itself as dominant doctrine, in the variants developed by Plotinus, Porphyry and especially Iamblichus. This tendency was reinforced in the 5th century, when Neoplatonist views came to dominate the philosophical discourse outright. The tone wa...