The significance of
the epistles on a range of intellectual disciplines by the group of scholars
known as the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān
al-ṣafāʾ) has been known for some time, although one might argue that their significance for a proper assessment of Islamic intellectual history has been
neglected. The first two epistles published here by Nader el-Bizri in one volume are part of an exciting new project initiated by the
Institute of Ismaili Studies in London to re-edit the whole text with critical,
analytical translations and annotations undertaken by a number of specialists
around the world. For those of us who specialise in Islamic intellectual
history and need texts to use in the classroom, this is an excellent
development to be welcomed, especially since the volumes that I have seen are well rendered into English. The companion volume edited by el-Bizri that
attempts not only to make sense of who the Ikhwān were but also assess their
impact demonstrates that their significance was recognised by later traditions
even when it was occluded - and even when they were severely misunderstood as the contribution on Ibn Taymīya in that volume suggests. One small quibble about the whole project – it would have been good to see
the Arabic and English on facing pages, which may have been logistically
problematic. As it is, it makes the comparison of the original text with the
English a bit more difficult. In this way the Islamic Translations Series at Brigham Young University is a much better and user-friendly method of presenting the text.
The two epistles
translated here are the first in the sequence, and constitute part of the first
section of the Rasāʾil on the
mathematical and propaedeutical sciences (al-ʿulūm
al-riyāḍīya [wa-]l-taʿlīmīya). [Note: it may well be that riyāḍī and taʿlīmī are just two different translations for mathemata and hence it might not be useful distinguishing the two; the mathemata are what constitute the quadrivium] The translator, who happens to also be the
editor of the whole series, Nader el-Bizri is a historian of philosophy and
science in the world of Islam and has in recent times focused on the history of
geometry, mathematics, and optics, publishing widely on Ibn al-Haytham (d.
1040). El-Bizri has also written on Avicenna and written a pioneering Heideggerian study of Avicenna and the Seinsfrage. The two epistles form part of the ancient quadrivium that constituted a more advanced stage of study
associated with Boethius (d. 524) and based upon the mathematics of Nicomachus
of Gerasa, a Neopythagorean of the first century CE: training in arithmetic,
geometry, music and astronomy considered to be the very heart of a scientific
education. After the first two epistles, epistle 3 deals with astronomy, 4 with
cosmography, 5 with music (published in a masterful edition and translation by the eminent musicologist Owen Wright) and 6 with proportions (that ties the quadrivium
together) – and that is before they move onto the next set of propaeduetics,
namely the logical organon beginning
with epistles 7 and 8 on the theoretical and practical arts that provides a
classification of the sciences on which the approach to holism is based. From
these latter epistles, we can clearly see where the Ikhwān differ from their
contemporaries who had a greater impact on later Islamic philosophy such as
al-Fārābī (d. 950). The volume comprising the organon has been published by Carmela Baffioni and is a real contribution which has one surprising blindspot: the absence of a serious discussion of the Hellenic background and the role of both the commentators on Aristotle and the early reception from Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. c. 757) onwards. Incidentally it is worth commenting here that because the Hellenic legacy is important - although I certainly would not wish to reduce the achievements of those in the ʿAbbasid period to mere transmission - it is a serious desideratum to have a proper database of what was translated, by whom, when and where and for whom and include multiple versions of translations, paraphrases, Galenic epitomes and so forth. Given that there is hardly anyone out there who masters all the relevance languages and fields of inquiry such a collaborative database would help us all.
El-Bizri provides a scholarly introduction that locates the work of
the Ikhwān in the historical context of the creative 'school of Baghdad' that
developed the mathematical ideas of Nicomachus, and the wider tradition
associated with Archimedes of Syracuse (d. 212 BCE) and Apollonius of Perga (d.
190 BCE), analyses the contents of the epistles (he does a sterling job of
tracing influences and noting lacunae thereof) and comments on the manuscript
tradition and the process of editing and translating. I note later the main manuscript upon which much of the editions are based. The introduction and the
translations are well supported by scholarly annotation that indicates lines of
research for those interested. His own tastes for Ibn al-Haytham are clear –
and he points out some of the gaps in the work of the Ikhwān, notably the neglect
of algebra that was well established through the work of al-Khwārazmī (d. c. 846) and Qusṭā
ibn Lūqā’s reception of the arithmetic of Diophantus of Alexandria (3rd
century CE). The explanatory summary of the epistles focuses on the historical
contextualisation of the ideas – but only briefly touches upon the question of
the Neopythagorean influence of theological and mathematical mysticism,
although he suggests that there might be a link with Iamblichus’ approach to
mathematics, philosophy and mysticism. If there were any evidence (finding
Iamblichus in Arabic is notoriously difficult apart from possibly the
commentary on the so-called Golden Verses and perhaps some docta in the doxographical literature), it would be worth engaging.
El-Bizri also suggests that the approach to mathematics is more Platonist than
Pythagorean – again one would like to see what that means. The
conceptualisation of the relationship of mathematics to metaphysics to natural
philosophy seems to be based on the homologies between the human as the
microcosm and nature as the macrocosmic manifestation of the human but this
certainly needs some further analysis as most previous specialists on the
Ikhwān have stressed the importance of this theme. The epistle on geometry
draws heavily upon Euclid – as one would expect and we know his work became
canonical throughout the empire – as well as Pythagorean readings of works such
as Plato’s Timaeus. It also indicates
other applications of geometry such as magic – and refers to epistle 52 (which has already been translated and published in the current series). A number of earlier specialists such as Ian Netton pointed to the influence of Pythagoreanism; however, the volumes in this series that I have read suggest the actual citation and influence of Pythagoras is far lesser than specialists have thought so far. Given the
commitment of the Ikhwān to theosis,
the notion that the practice of philosophy as a way of living entails a desire
to become ‘god-like’ (the locus classicus is in Plato’s Theaetetus 176), it would be interesting to see how that relates to
their consideration of mathematics. The further interesting question for
historians looking for the transmission of ideas and networks would be to
consider whether the organisation and constitution of the epistles actually
denoted the pedagogy and curriculum for a group of thinkers in southern Iraq in
the period. And if that were the case, why did it die out? Was it because of
the success of alternative methodologies and pedagogies at the imperial centre
in Baghdad?
The introduction to
each of the epistles shows the awareness of how the sciences link together to
form an epistemic whole and the role of the two particular disciplines within
that process. Epistle 1 begins with a statement that the aim of the Ikhwān is
to study all the sciences that pertain to existent things (mawjūdāt) and into their arrangement, order and principles. One has
to start with the propaedeutics – and the first step is arithmetic (using a
transliteration of the Greek term), on the path to acquiring wisdom following
the way of the Pythagoreans. Given this last statement, the translator might
have wished to comment further on this. The classic fourfold division of the
sciences follow – propaedeutics (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy),
logic, natural sciences, and theological-metaphysical. This is the arrangement
of the Rasāʾil on the whole. This is
prefaced by a key statement about the nature of this quest: ‘The beginning of
philosophy is the love of the sciences, the middle of it is the knowledge of
the true nature of existent things by virtue of human ability and the end is
speech and action that is in accord with knowledge’ (p. 66). That is to say:
one begins with a desire to learn, then one acquires theoretical understanding
of reality, and then one acts ethically based on what one knows. I would
therefore take issue with part of this phrase translated – the phrase bi-ḥasabi l-ṭāqati l-basharīya should be
‘insofar as is humanly possible’ as it is a standard formulation of the limits
of knowledge that goes back to the ancients. The remaining 23 chapters of the
epistle deal with different aspects of the Ikhwān’s number theory.
The epistle on
geometry that is broadly based on Euclid’s Elements
is divided into 27 chapters. Although the earliest translation of the Elements
seemed to have been completed by the early ninth century, the translation of Ḥunayn
b. Iṣḥāq (d. 873) in the edition of Thābit b. Qurra (d. 901) are probably the ones available to the
Ikhwān [Note: it has been pointed out to me by Sonja Brentjes whose critical review I look forward to that it is more likely that they had one of the version done by al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf b. Maṭar (d. c. 830)]. The introduction to this epistle repeats the description of the
propaedeutics and defines geometry as the ‘science that inquires about
magnitudes, distances, and the quantity of their kinds’ (p. 104). Although much
of the epistle deals with axioms and their like, a few chapters stand out for
their implications on applications and also on a more reflective approach to
geometry. Chapter 15 on surveying makes it clear why the theoretical study of
geometry is useful in the wider world. Chapters 16 and 17 that follow then
stress the need for a collaborative approach to the study of the sciences in
order to avoid errors that might arise out of individual calculations.
Collaboration for the good is necessary for humans to transcend the illness and
crisis that humans face in this world as a result of ‘the offence committed by
our father Adam’:
‘To
secure your success and salvation from this world, which is the realm of
generation and corruption, and from the sufferings of hell and the company of
demons and Iblīs’ soldiers, and by way of ascending to the domain of the
celestial spheres and the vastness of the heavens, to the abode of the lofty
ones, and by way of neighbouring the angels of the Compassionate One who abide
in His proximity, you need the help of those who are brothers to you, who are
counsellors to you and virtuous friends, and who are knowledgeable about the
articles of the faith and are knowers of the truths of things…They will guide
you on the pathway of the afterlife and the way to reach it, in order to be
saved from what has entrapped us all because of the offense of our father
Adam!’ (pp. 138-39).
The echoes of the Platonic
tradition especially the very first chapter (mīmar) of the Theologia
Aristotelis on this text seem very clear – as well as the explicit
reference that follows to the Kalīla wa
dimna, another major cultural artefact of the time. The relationship between the circle of the Brethren and the Kindī circle in Baghdad that produced the Theologia would be worth investigating further in detail. The final two chapters
of the epistle indicate further uses of geometry: given that numbers and their
arrangements and quantities have an effect on the soul, they describe briefly
the use and construction of talismanic squares and refer the reader to epistle
52 for further detail. So in some ways the propaedeutics already refer the
initiate to magic that is part of the theological and metaphysical sciences
that lie at the culmination of one’s education.
Turning to the volume on the natural sciences: one does not need to
repeat the oft-stated observation that this project to edit and translate the
epistles of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān
al-ṣafāʾ) is a major undertaking to be welcomed and will greatly enhance
our understanding of the intellectual history of the philosophical sciences in
the pre-Avicennan period. Baffioni, senior research fellow at the Institute of
Ismaili Studies the sponsors of the project, is one of the leading specialists
on the Brethren, having spent an illustrious career at Naples (twenty-five
items in the bibliography constitute her major contributions to the study of
the Brethren alongside the editions and translations that she has contributed
to this series). She has already edited and translated the epistles on logic in
an earlier volume of this series – those epistles come immediately before the
seven that are published here (out of the seventeen epistles that comprise the
second section on the natural sciences) and are the culmination of the first
section on the mathematical sciences. The volume immediately after on epistle
22 on animals has been published many times and is arguably one of the most
famous of the Epistles: The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of the Jinns (published in this series
in the translation of Lenn Goodman and Richard MacGregor). With this, another
highly useful and impressive volume, she has made a major contribution to the
project. This large volume (around 1,000 pages of English and Arabic) comprises
a foreword by the general editor of the project, Nader el-Bizri, an
introduction that does an excellent job of contextualising the work, a
technical introduction that discusses the manuscripts especially Atif Efendi
1681 which is the oldest existing manuscript, followed by the translation of the
five epistles along with 3 appendices that include material added from some
manuscripts on epistles 15, 20 and 16. The Arabic editions of the epistles come
after at the end – something I have commented on before: surely it would be
better for a user of the volume to have the Arabic facing the English
translations. Alongside some of the early kalām
works, these epistles constitute some of the earliest Arabic investigations
into natural philosophy taken up not just themes in Aristotelianism but also
elements of their more Ismaili angelology and cosmology.
The introduction, as
if to compensate for the absence of any discussion of Greek antecedents in her
volume on logic, engages the Hellenic background extensively: the influence of
Aristotle’s De Caelo, doctrines on
matter and form, the four causes, the spherical nature of the earth, motion,
the Platonic notion of the human as microcosm as well as philosophy as the
imitation of God (theosis), and
Hippocrates. She also introduces the elements that are taken from scripture.
The real question is, of course, what constitutes the Brethren’s own
conceptualisation of natural philosophy starting with the important Ismaili
elements in the text; she stresses creationism, the idea that God created the
cosmos in space and time, their eschatology which tends towards the spiritual,
a belief in cosmic sympathy as an expression for the divine plan, and the
importance of astrology. Given the privileging of the spiritual over the
material, the study of natural phenomena are supposed to reveal spiritual
realities that lie beyond them. Baffioni notes that elements of the Brethren’s
cosmology seems to prefigure the later Ismaili philosopher Ḥamīd al-Din
Kirmānī (d. 1021), and that their notion of the evolution of the human anticipates the
idea of substantial motion and transformation (ḥaraka jawharīya) in the thought of the Safavid thinker Mullā Ṣadrā
Shīrāzī (d. 1635). The latter would not be surprising not least because Carlos Steel’s study of late Neoplatonism of Iamblichus, Priscianus (d. 518) and Damascius (d. c. 538) among
others presents a picture of a soul in transformation that seems to be similar
to Mullā Ṣadrā some centuries before the Brethren already. There are strong
parallels in the forms of Pythagorean Neoplatonism found in the work of the
Brethren and those much later in the Safavid period including Mullā Ṣadrā. This
discursive introduction is then followed by the technical introduction that
presents the codicological details of the manuscripts used especially the base
Atif Efendi and outlines Baffioni’s editing method with an extensive list of
corrected readings in order of the epistles. She also notes mistakes, ellipses
and particularities in orthography. The critical apparatus on readings and
variants in the footnotes to the Arabic edition supplement and clarify this
method.
The translations of
the epistles are clear and supplemented with scholarly footnotes that identify
passages in Aristotle, for example, from which the Brethren are drawing as well
as commenting further on the material in the text. Epistle 15 on matter and
form (al-hayūla wa-l-ṣūra) comprises
14 chapters on issues of hylomorphism and constituents of natural bodies. It
also discusses the nature of place, motion and time and ends with a section
that explains the subject matter of the epistles that follow (since this is the
first of the section on the natural sciences). An overarching theme of the
epistle is the idea of alchemy as a process of transforming bodies, both
natural and celestial and especially souls, as well as the notion of spiritual
and cosmological hierarchy that places Prophets and successors above the
generality of those in the world of generation and corruption as more perfect
manifestations of the universal soul. Epistle 16 moves onto their De Caelo and includes the Brethren’s
argument for creationism against the eternity of the cosmos and comprises 29
chapters, the longest epistle in this volume. It introduces the theme of the
homology of the human and the cosmos – the latter as a ‘macroanthropos’ and the
former as a microcosmos. The celestial bodies are spheres in rotation, types of
motion are discussed as well as heliocentrism. Two chapters are of particular
theological significance: chapter 19 on the analogy of the circumambulation (ṭawāf) of the Kaʿba during pilgrimage
applied to the rotation of the spheres, and the (symbolically important) final
chapter on resurrection of souls at death that are linked to the higher
celestial souls. Epistle 17 is on generation and corruption (al-kawn wa-l-fasād), features of this
world and includes 14 short chapters. The final chapter here again is
theological poignant dealing with the nature of the human body as one of those
things that undergo generation and corruption: they repeat their refrain to
‘arise from the slumber of ignorance’ and recognise one’s innate spiritual
nature that transcends the body. Epistle 18 comprising 17 chapters is on
meteorology and includes some of their presentation of astrology, broadly
following books I-III of Aristotle’s Meteorology.
It ends with a chapter that recalls the Qurʾanic notion of the spheres and the
celestial bodies as signs on which to ponder. Beginning with an affirmation of
the Qurʾanic account of creation ex
nihilo, they move onto discussing the horizontal hierarchy in the world. A
key chapter 12 returns to the theme of eschatology that runs throughout and the
spiritual nature of those perfected in the afterlife. Epistle 19 on minerals
includes 13 chapters and follows book IV of the Meteorology. Epistle 20 moves onto a discussion on nature but not
in the Aristotelian sense of ṭabīʿa/phūsis
and is relatively short including 13 chapters; in fact it discusses angelology
and prophetology. Much of this epistle is taken with an affirmation of
astrological principles of how the higher bodies and souls affect the lower
ones and how the angels associated with the spheres have a spiritual power. A
central chapter 7 returns to the motif of the symbolism of the pilgrimage and
the circumambulation of the Kaʿba. Epistle 21 discusses plants in three
chapters, on which no work of Aristotle’s has survived. It includes
descriptions and uses of various plants including palms, figs and almonds. The
appendices deal with additional material: appendix A deals with some issues on
motion and place that supplements epistle 15 and includes the Arabic edition
and translation with a brief commentary; appendix B supplements epistle 20 by
discussing the nature of physicians and how they are similar to and different
from prophets; and finally appendix C supplementing epistle 16 demonstrates the
Ismaili cosmology of the Brethren.
Baffioni has
produced a serious, academic and worthwhile contribution that is a pleasure to
read and use and testifies to the value of the series. Once read alongside the
early translations of Aristotle, Galen and other Hellenic authors and the
production of the Kindī circle and the Baghdad Peripatetics, it will allow us
to understand the different trajectories of thinking on the natural sciences
that were inherited by the classical period starting with Avicenna and moving
onto the medieval period. It demonstrates to us that from an early period one
finds a holistic approach to the sciences that means that when we encounter the
occult in the medieval period as a science, we should not be surprised and
realise that the juxtaposition of astrology, alchemy and magic with physics,
logic, and mathematics has a long pedigree. This volume is a major achievement
worthy of the highest praise. On the whole, this series continues to produce contributions that will radically inform our intellectual history of the course of philosophy in the world of Islam.
