Four Persian Philosophers: A Look into Medieval Islamic Philosophy

By Albert Shansky

This book reveals the early philosophy which began after the revelation of the Prophet Muhammad. It identifies the stepwise growth of Islamic philosophy up until the four major contributors: Alfarabi, Avicenna, Algazali, and Averroes, whose work from the eleventh century to the fourteenth century is still discussed and debated today. Muslim scholars invented algebra, translated writings of Plato and Aristotle, and made important contributions to a variety of nascent sciences at a time when European Christians were luxuriating in the most abysmal ignorance. It was through the Muslim conquest of Spain that classical Greek texts found their way into Latin translation and seeded the Renaissance in Western Europe. In this way, early Islamic philosophy made foundational contributions to human culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524573256

Albert Shansky

Albert Shansky studied philosophy and religion at Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut. He received Shambhala training at the Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and studied Islam at the Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. He has trained as a lay monk at the Hosshinji Monastery in Obama, Japan, and at Eiheiji Monastery in Fukui, Japan. He is a member of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, the American Academy of Religion, the American Philosophical Association, and the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Albert Shansky.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016921491

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-7327-0

                Softcover        978-1-5245-7326-3

                eBook             978-1-5245-7325-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Picture on the Front Cover: Taj Mahal. A monument and tomb, built between 1632 and 1647, at Agra in India by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jehan (1592-1666) for his favorite wife Mumtaz-i-Mahal. Shah Jehan was also buried within it, their tombs being surrounded by a marble screen bearing the ninety-nine names of Allah. The photo was taken by the author.

Rev. date: 12/28/2016

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

753017

CONTENTS

Ancient Islamic Philosophy

Mysticism (Sufism)

Pirs u Murshid (The Sufi Masters)

Classical Islamic Philosophy

The Medieval Era

The Four Persian Philosophers

Philosophical Considerations

Names of Persons and Places

Also by Albert Shansky

The Extinction of Illusion

Shinran and Eshinni

An American’s Journey into Buddhism

Two Trips in Search of the Buddha

1. A Trip Through the Inland Sea

2. The Divine Walk

A Trio of Buddhist Stories

1. The Roshi

2. The Japanese Castaway

3. Escape From Exile Island

The Inn of Dreams

The Dream of Zenran

Field-Being Interpretation of Buddhist Philosophy

Seven Persian Poets

The Woman on the Beach (a one-act play with Maurice Siegel)

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to Dr. R. James Long, professor of philosophy at Fairfield University, who taught me the great ideas from Maimonides to Mysticism.

Vita somnium breve (life is a short dream)

And

Graham Joseph Silberstein, my great grandson, in whose hands I leave the world.

Orbis manu tenere (He holds the world in his hand)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I must recognize the participation of my wife, Pearl Brody Shansky, in the writing of this book. There were times I had taken my literary pretentions as nothing more than the self-deception of a dilettante. I wanted to give up. She had the ability to advert my attention back to the task with great counsel using honest simplicity, which is not derived from books, but from a tradition, learned and direct, wise and alive. She has been an invaluable consultant in all my writings. I hope that all my books are worthy of all her help.

Once again kudos to the Interlibrary Loan department of the Westport, CT Library for finding for me many of the obscure books cited in this work. In addition, I would like to recognize the Pequot Library of Southport, Connecticut for providing me, at times, a comfortable place to pursue much of this writing. Also, thanks go to Jennifer Lipps of Norwalk Community College for the use of her good offices. Lastly, I must recognize the two libraries: the DiMenna-Nyselius Library of Fairfield University for permitting me access to their considerable holdings as well as the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University as is evidenced by the listings of books on the Bibliography section; thanks to both.

Ad Referendum:

This subject, Four Persian Philosophers, was originally designed as a course to be offered at Norwalk Community College which, unfortunately, never came to pass. I, therefore, also want to recognize the author Seyyed Hossein Nasr whose two books, The Heart of Islam and Islamic Philosophy from its Origin to the Present, was designated as texts for the above course but were used instead as a prime reference for this treatise.

Apologia

In defense of the title, Seven Persian Philosophers, I would like to explain my divagations. I could have titled the book, Seven Islamic Philosophers; but I thought this might give the impression of a religious text. Then, of course I could have titled it, Seven Arabic Philosophers; but this would not have been completely accurate since the four philosophers were not really Arabs. The use of the title stems from the fact that the land from whence the four philosophers came was once the Persian Empire. Thus it seemed appropriate to use the title, Four Persian Philosophers.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The Qur’an used in this treatise is:

The Holy Qur’an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, 3rd Edition,

Hafner Publishing Company, New York, NY

All Arabic words and names are presented in this book in their simplest form and most recognizable in English. The following, however, will render greater understanding to the transliteration:

The use of an apostrophe in a word indicates a glottal and is pronounced almost like a hiccup. For example, Sa’di is pronounced Sa adi.

The letter h within a word or name is pronounced almost like a gargle. For example, Ahmed is pronounced something like Akkmed.

As to the meaning of names:

Ibn means son of

al- before a name is an honorific and means The.

ad-Din within a name means of the faith.

The letter I after a city name (usually at the end of a name) means from city such as Shirazi means from Shiraz. For example, Jamal ad-Din al- Afghani is one of the beginners of the Muslim reform movement; his name means, Jamal, of the Faith, from Afghan. Or, in addition, Jabalah ibn al-Ayham, an aristocrat whose name means Jabalah son of Ayham.

Finally, the proper pronunciation of Muslim is with a soft s like Musslim not Muzlim. The proper name is Muslim not Moslem as often appears in older literature and writings which were once acceptable. The proper name of the Holy Book is Qur’an or Quran even though the word Koran still appears in literature. Likewise, the Prophet’s name is Muhammad not Mohammed or any other variation.

The calendar is most important. In this treatise I shall use the Gregorian calendar only (which is in common use with the designation BCE (BC) or CE (AD) but it should be noted that in Islamic literature the Hijra calendar is used which starts with the designation 1 AH (After Hijra). A useful formula for converting AH to CE (AD) is 622 CE (AD) = 1 AH.

INTRODUCTION

To write a book about philosophers without defining philosophy reeks of vacuity. This would be particularly true of philosophers of the middle ages, especially those of Persia (Iran). Philosophic problems are universal; Philosophers and thinkers the world over, from time immemorial, have puzzled and struggled with the same central issues in metaphysics, epistemology, theology, logic, and ethics. So, what is philosophy?

The word philosophy comes from two Greek words – philein, which means to love, and sophos which means wisdom; hence philosophy has come to mean the love of wisdom. To understand what philosophy means we must know precisely what wisdom means. To understand what philosophy is about is to understand what philosophers do, and what philosophers do is found in the way they think about certain kinds of puzzles and problems. In order to understand this conatus we must examine the five subfields of philosophy confronting philosophers and gain some insight into their meaning.

Metaphysics. The philosopher who is engaged in metaphysics is concerned with questions about the nature of ultimate reality as opposed to what merely seems real or appears real.

Epistemology. The philosopher who is engaged in epistemology is concerned with