Author: Avner Ben-Zaken
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801899729
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
Commonly translated as "The Self-Taught Philosopher" or "The Improvement of Human Reason," Ibn-Tufayl's story Hayy Ibn-Yaqzān inspired debates about autodidacticism in a range of historical fields from classical Islamic philosophy through Renaissance humanism and the European Enlightenment. Avner Ben-Zaken's account of how the text traveled demonstrates the intricate ways in which autodidacticism was contested in and adapted to diverse cultural settings. In tracing the circulation of the Hayy Ibn-Yaqzān, Ben-Zaken highlights its key place in four far-removed historical moments. He explains how autodidacticism intertwined with struggles over mysticism in twelfth-century Marrakesh, controversies about pedagogy in fourteenth-century Barcelona, quarrels concerning astrology in Renaissance Florence, and debates pertaining to experimentalism in seventeenth-century Oxford. In each site and period, Ben-Zaken recaptures the cultural context that stirred scholars to relate to ayy Ibn-Yaqān and demonstrates how the text moved among cultures, leaving in its wake translations, interpretations, and controversies as various as the societies themselves. Pleas for autodidacticism, Ben-Zaken shows, not only echoed within close philosophical discussions; they surfaced in struggles for control between individuals and establishments. Presented as self-contained histories, these four moments together form a historical collage of autodidacticism across cultures from the late Medieval era to early modern times. The first book-length intellectual history of autodidacticism, this novel, thought-provoking work will interest a wide range of historians, including scholars of the history of science, philosophy, literature, Europe, and the Middle East.
Author: Lawrence I. Conrad
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004101357
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332
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Book Description
This collection of interdisciplinary essays on a unique work by a physician and political figure in 12th-century Spain and North Africa casts important light on the social and intellectual history of the period and breaks new ground in the critical assessment of medieval Arabic literary works.
Author: Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Tufayl
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 90
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Book Description
The story of Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Risalat hayy ibn yaqzan) is described by its author, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Tufayl, as an introduction to the philosophy or 'wisdom' intimated by one of the most renowned philosophers of Islam, the Sheikh and Master, Abu' Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna). It was written to counter what Ibn Tufayl perceived to be the damaging influence of pseudo-philosophic ideas then current in Muslim Spain. Hayy ibn Yaqzan is thus, on one level a sort of primer on medieval Islamic Philosophy. The book establishes its frame of reference with a short and selective critique of Islamic philosophy before introducing the narrative framework of a boy of obscure origins reared by a gazelle on a desert island without human contact. The very uncertainty of the boy's origin is used by the author as an oppurtunity to include a theory of the origins of life. As the boy gradually becomes aware of his surroudings, he begins to understand that he is somehow different from the other animals, yet superior by virtue of the technical advantages he can realise with his hands.
Author: John L. Esposito
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199880417
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 768
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Book Description
Lavishly illustrated with over 300 pictures, including more than 200 in full color, The Oxford History of Islam offers the most wide-ranging and authoritative account available of the second largest--and fastest growing--religion in the world. John L. Esposito, Editor-in-Chief of the four-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, has gathered together sixteen leading scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim, to examine the origins and historical development of Islam--its faith, community, institutions, sciences, and arts. Beginning in the pre-Islamic Arab world, the chapters range from the story of Muhammad and his Companions, to the development of Islamic religion and culture and the empires that grew from it, to the influence that Islam has on today's world. The book covers a wide array of subjects, casting light on topics such as the historical encounter of Islam and Christianity, the role of Islam in the Mughal and Ottoman empires, the growth of Islam in Southeast Asia, China, and Africa, the political, economic, and religious challenges of European imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Islamic communities in the modern Western world. In addition, the book offers excellent articles on Islamic religion, art and architecture, and sciences as well as bibliographies. Events in the contemporary world have led to an explosion of interest and scholarly work on Islam. Written for the general reader but also appealing to specialists, The Oxford History of Islam offers the best of that recent scholarship, presented in a readable style and complemented by a rich variety of illustrations.
Author: Lawrence Conrad
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004452664
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
The World of Ibn ṭufayl consists of ten essays by scholars in different fields in Arab-Islamic studies on Ibn ṭufayl's ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, one of the most extraordinary works of medieval Arabic literature, and a text with important dimensions in social and intellectual history, literature, mysticism, philosophy, medicine and science. Most of the essays were presented at a groundbreaking conference at the Wellcome Institute in London, which marked the first attempt at a critical assessment of any medieval Arabic text by drawing together scholars from widely varying fields. The studies cast light on numerous aspects of social and intellectual life in North Africa and Spain in medieval Islamic times, and explore important aspects of the textual intercommunication between author and audience.
Author: Peter Heath
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812231519
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
Explores the use of allegory in the writing of the renowned 11th- century Muslim philosopher known in the West as Avicenna, showing how it fit into the tradition of Islamic allegory, and has influenced later developments in the East and West. His Mi'rag Nama is translated here as a prime example of the journey allegory. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Author: Pico della Mirandola
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107015871
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 317
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Book Description
A new translation of Pico della Mirandola's most famous work, with extensive notes and commentary.
Author: Bridget Lim
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1508171416
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 114
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Book Description
The man we call Averroes was one of the great thinkers of the Muslim world during the Middle Ages. An accomplished physician and judge, Averroes is most renowned for writing comprehensive commentaries on Aristotle, ranging from short paraphrases of the great Greek philosopher’s words to lengthy, line-by-line analyses approachable by only the most learned scholars. In time, Averroes’s commentaries introduced Europe, which had been plunged into the Dark Ages, to the breadth of Greek philosophy. As one of the greatest interpreters of Aristotle, Averroes and his work forged a crucial link between ancient and modern thought.
Author: Samar Attar
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739162330
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 196
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Book Description
The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment is a collection of essays which deal with the influence of Ibn Tufayl, a 12th-century Arab philosopher from Spain, on major European thinkers. His philosophical novel, Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, could be considered one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution. Its thoughts are found in different variations and to different degrees in the books of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Kant. But if Ibn Tufayl's fundamental values, such as equality, freedom and toleration, which the thinkers of the European Enlightenment had adopted as theirs, paved the way to the French Revolution, they certainly marked the end of the age of reason in southern Spain and the rest of the Islamic world. Ibn Tufayl's philosophy was appropriated, subverted, or reinvented for many centuries. But the memory of the man who wrote such an influential book was buried in the dust of history. The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment reexamines Ibn Tufayl's momentous book and its continued influence over contemporary philosophy. This intriguing book will appeal to those interested in comparative literature and religion.
Author: Gerhard Bowering
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691134847
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 704
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Book Description
"In 2012, the year 1433 of the Muslim calendar, the Islamic population throughout the world was estimated at approximately a billion and a half, representing about one-fifth of humanity. In geographical terms, Islam occupies the center of the world, stretching like a big belt across the globe from east to west."--P. vii.
