Al-Kindī’s Two-Volume Compendium of Aristotelian Philosophy: Al-Falsafa al-Ūlā and al-Falsafa al-Dākhila

This study argues that the first two titles listed in the bibliography of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Kindī (d. ca. 259/873) presented in the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 380/990) – his well-known work al-Falsafa al-ūlā (First Philosophy), on metaphysics, and a lost work entitled al-Falsafa al-dākhila (Internal Philosophy) – form an intentional pair. Together, they presented an epitome of Aristotle’s collective works on philosophy, including an outline of metaphysics in al-Falsafa al-ūlā and a discussion of detailed questions of logic, physics, psychology, and metaphysics in al-Falsafa al-dākhila. Drawing primarily on al-Kindī’s work On the Quantity of Aristotle’s Books, the study suggests several emendations to the full title of al-Falsafa al-dākhila as recorded in the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadīm.

The Kitāb al-ʿIlm of al-Bukhārī: A Handbook on Knowledge

The Kitāb al-ʿIlm of al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870), positioned at the beginning of his Ṣaḥīḥ, represents an innovative turn in terms of structural arrangement and thematic discourse within the context of “books” and narratives on knowledge (ʿilm). Al-Bukhārī’s construction of ʿilm differs from preceding discussions and reveals a unique portrayal. I suggest that the early interdependence between ʿilm-ḥadīth and adab conveyed by al-Bukhārī echoes the Kitab al-Adab written by his teacher, Ibn Abī Shayba (d. 235/849). In light of understanding this intertextual dynamic, I will compare earlier ʿilm narratives with particular themes introduced by al-Bukhārī. Similarly, I will discuss how the early correlation between knowledge and education helped motivate his authorial intent, concluding that the Kitāb al-ʿIlm represents an original, technical and pedagogical work of taḥammul al-ʿilm, the actual practice of teaching knowledge.

ʿAnqāʾ Mughrib: The Poetics of a Mythical Creature

In early Arabic literature, ʿAnqāʾ Mughrib is the name of the quintessential mythical bird. The ʿAnqāʾ appears in a myriad of medieval sources of different genres: poetical, narrative, proverbial, scientific, philosophical, and mystical. This paper draws attention to the multiple ways in which this bird was represented and the functions it fulfilled in different literary contexts. It explores the intricate web of quotations, allusions, and literary innovations that facilitated its multifarious uses and re-uses. I explore the various manifestations of the ʿAnqāʾ to demonstrate the different and at times contradictory meanings ascribed to it and its diverse literary functions: as a creature of speculative zoology; as metaphor of scarcity or non-existence; as a metaphor of God; as a marker of fictionality; and more.

Al-Maʿarrī’s Anxious Menagerie: The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule

Around the year 411/1021, blind author and controversial freethinker Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (449/1057) wrote Risālat al-ṣāhil wa-l-shāḥij (The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule), a meandering prose work populated by animal characters who talk about Syrian society on the eve of the crusades. The story exudes a brand of fictionality, namely creative literary exaggeration designed to call forth mental pictures, that sets it apart from other animal texts due to the overwhelming ambiguity it creates. The animal characters suffer existential anxiety when, for instance, they realize that concepts like genus (jins) and species (nawʿ) turn out to be fuzzier than they thought, thereby calling into question whether any species—be it biological or linguistic—is a stable class. Animal ontology gets further confused by just-so stories about hybrids and crossbreeds, and by terms for philosophical contingency that question whether talking animals even exist—this is not just a story that did not happen, but a story that cannot happen except in the imagination. On the other hand, those same philosophical terms may yet affirm that speaking animals could exist, and that they have value in themselves, by hinting at their place in a cosmic order that radiates the goodness of its Source.

Between History and Fictionality: The Telescoping Advice in Ibn Ẓafar’s Sulwān al-muṭāʿ and Its Reception

The first part of the article focuses on the opening and closing chapters of Sicilian born polymath Ibn Ẓafar’s (d. ca. 566 /1171) mirror for princes, Sulwān al-muṭāʿ, which are devoted to “trusting [God]” (tafwīḍ) and “self-denial” (zuhd) respectively, and analyzes the combination of historical narratives and animal fables contained therein. In the complex “telescoping” structure devised by Ibn Ẓafar, both types of narratives represent an essential tool for reflecting on political circumstances related to the role of a local ruler. From this perspective, the analysis targets the relationship between history and fictionality set by the author and the transition from one dimension to the other. The final part of the article considers the reception of the Sulwān al-muṭāʿ by Ayyubid and Mamluk authors and their different approaches to various types of narratives when quoting (more or less substantial) parts of Ibn Ẓafar’s work.

When the Beasts Lost Their Voice: Fables, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ and Dramatic Irony in The Case of the Animals versus Man of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ

The most famous piece of the collection of Rasāʾil written by the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ is probably the animal fable included in Epistle 22, known in its English translation as “The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of the Jinn.” The complexity and thematic richness of the work allows multiple readings and it has often been interpreted as a fable denouncing cruelty against animals. The abrupt ending of the work recognising the superiority of men, however, seems to contradict the ecological spirit that animates the debate. This article approaches this contradiction from a narratological point of view. Together with the genre of animal fables, especially the Kalīla wa-Dimna, the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ rely heavily on the tradition of the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ to recreate a setting that would have evoked in the educated audiences both the descriptions of the pre-Adamite era, where animals were free and had the ability to speak, and the consequences of the creation of Adam and his preordained fall. The recognition of these parallelisms and other proleptic clues creates a gap between the expectations of the characters and those of the readers, which can be interpreted as dramatic irony.

Order in the House: Epilogue

The contributions to this Special Issue of the Journal of Abbasid Studies show that the later third/ninth to the early fifth/eleventh century witnessed the output of a variety of voluminous books, not only in the Arabic-Islamic tradition, but in chronologically parallel cultures as well. For an overall understanding of the writerly culture of the era, further exploration of the organisation of information and the development of tools to locate data is called for. My epilogue offers a step in this direction against the backdrop of fourth/tenth-century caliphal administration and the organisation of archives on the one hand, and a comparison with the later and much more studied Mamluk writerly culture on the other.

Navigating the Ocean of Dharma: The Composition of Sanskrit Scriptural Digests in the Dharmaśāstra and Śaiva Siddhānta Traditions

Scholars of Sanskrit literature in the second millennium CE had to deal with sizeable collections of sources claiming authority on different branches of knowledge and human experience. The need for ordering such sources went hand in hand with the establishment of “canons” of authoritative texts. This article will explore the topic of the composition of digests in two main traditions — the Dharmaśāstra and the Śaiva Siddhānta — to illustrate the breadth of this phenomenon, both in terms of its popularity and of its chronological range.