Ibn Tufayl

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Ibn Tufayl
Muslim scholar
Muslim leader
Influenced by

Ibn Ṭufayl (full

astronomer, and vizier.[1]

As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the first

philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (The Living Son of the Vigilant), considered a major work of Arabic literature emerging from Al-Andalus.[2] As a physician, he was an early supporter of dissection and autopsy, which was expressed in his novel.[3]

Life

Born in Guadix, near

Almohad caliph,[4] to whom he recommended Ibn Rushd (Averroës) as his own future successor in 1169.[7] Ibn Rushd later reports this event and describes how Ibn Tufayl then inspired him to write his famous Aristotelian
commentaries:

Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl summoned me one day and told me that he had heard the Commander of the Faithful complaining about the disjointedness of Aristotle's mode of expression — or that of the translators — and the resultant obscurity of his intentions. He said that if someone took on these books who could summarize them and clarify their aims after first thoroughly understanding them himself, people would have an easier time comprehending them. "If you have the energy," Ibn Tufayl told me, "you do it. I'm confident you can because I know what a good mind and devoted character you have, and how dedicated you are to the art. You understand that only my great age, the cares of my office — and my commitment to another task that I think even more vital — keep me from doing it myself."[8]

Ibn Rushd became Ibn Tufayl's successor after he retired in 1182; Ibn Tufayl died several years later in

Nur Ed-Din Al-Bitruji was also a disciple of Ibn Tufayl. Al-Bitruji was influenced by him to follow the Aristotelian system of astronomy, as he had originally followed the Ptolemaic system of astronomy.[9]

His work in astronomy was historically significant as he played a major role in overturning the Ptolemaic ideas on astronomy.[10] This event in history is called the "Andalusian Revolt", where he influenced many, including Al-Bitruji, to desert the Ptolemaic ideas.[10] He was influential in the development of Islamic astronomy. Many later astronomers and scholars built upon his ideas and used his work as a basis for their own research and discoveries.[11]

Many Islamic philosophers, writers, physicians, and astronomers have been influenced by Ibn Tufayl and his work. These people include

Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari, and Ibn al-Khatib.[12]

Ibn Tufayl served as the secretary of the Almohad governor of Granada, and later as the secretary of the Almohad governor of Ceuta and Tangiers (Abū Saʿīd ʿUthmān, one of

Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, who was a prince at the time and later became the second Almohad caliph.[13]

Hayy ibn Yaqzan

Ibn Tufayl was the author of Ḥayy bin Yaqẓān (

desert island, who, without contact with other human beings, discovers ultimate truth through a systematic process of reasoned inquiry. Hayy ultimately comes into contact with civilization and religion when he meets a castaway named Absal (Asāl in some translations). He determines that certain trappings of religion, namely imagery and dependence on material goods, are necessary for the multitude in order that they might have decent lives. However, imagery and material goods are distractions from the truth and ought to be abandoned by those whose reason recognizes that they are. The names of the characters in the novel, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, Salamān, and Absāl were borrowed from Ibn Sina's tales.[14] The title of the novel is also the same as Ibn Sina's novel. Ibn Tufayl did this on purpose to use the characters and the title as a small reference to Ibn Sina, as he wanted to touch upon his philosophy.[14]

Ibn Tufayl's Philosophus Autodidactus was written as a response to al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers. In the 13th century, Ibn al-Nafis later wrote the Al-Risalah al-Kamiliyyah fil Siera al-Nabawiyyah (known as Theologus Autodidactus in the West) as a response to Ibn Tufayl's Philosophus Autodidactus.

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan had a significant influence on both

European literature,[15] and it went on to become an influential best-seller throughout Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.[16][17] The work also had a "profound influence" on both classical Islamic philosophy and modern Western philosophy.[18] It became "one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution" and European Enlightenment, and the thoughts expressed in the novel can be found "in different variations and to different degrees in the books of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant."[19]

A

philosophers, such as David Hume and George Berkeley. Hayy's ideas on materialism in the novel also have some similarities to Karl Marx's historical materialism.[24]
It also foreshadowed
Molyneux's Problem, proposed by William Molyneux to Locke, who included it in the second book of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.[25][26]
Other European writers influenced by Philosophus Autodidactus included
Quakers,[28] Samuel Hartlib,[29] and Voltaire.[30] In more recent readings, Nadia Maftouni has coined the term Sciart for intertwined artistic and scientific activities and has described Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan as a leading instant which touches on issues like human anatomy, autopsy, and vivisection within the confines of his novel.[31]

Works

  • Raǧaz ṭawīl fī aṭ-Ṭibb (
    Rajaz metre. It was only found recently in the capital of Morocco, which is Rabat.[9][32]
  • Arabic text of Hayy bin Yaqzan from Wikisource
  • Full pdf of French translation of Hayy bin Yaqzan from Google Books
  • English translations of Hayy bin Yaqzan (in chronological order)
    • The improvement of human reason, exhibited in the life of Hai ebn Yokdhan, written in Arabic above 500 years ago, by Abu Jaafar ebn Tophail, newly translated from the original Arabic, by Simon Ockley. With an appendix, in which the possibility of man's attaining of the true knowledge of God, and things necessary to salvation, without instruction, is briefly considered. London: Printed and sold by E. Powell, 1708.
    • Abu Bakr Ibn Tufail, The history of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, translated from the Arabic by Simon Ockley, revised, with an introduction by A.S. Fulton. London: Chapman and Hall, 1929. available online (omits the introductory section)
    • Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzān: a philosophical tale, translated with introduction and notes by Lenn Evan Goodman. New York: Twayne, 1972.
    • The journey of the soul: the story of Hai bin Yaqzan, as told by Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Tufail, a new translation by Riad Kocache. London: Octagon, 1982.
    • Two Andalusian philosophers, translated from the Arabic with an introduction and notes by Jim Colville. London: Kegan Paul, 1999.
    • Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings, ed. Muhammad Ali Khalidi. Cambridge University Press, 2005. (omits the introductory section; omits the conclusion beginning with the protagonist's acquaintance with Absal; includes §§1-98 of 121 as numbered in the Ockley-Fulton version)
    • Ben-Zaken, Avner, "Taming the Mystic", in Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). .

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Avempace, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007.
  2. ^ Stearns, Peter N. "Arabic Language and Literature." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. Oxford University Press, 2008.
  3. .
  4. ^ a b Thatcher, Griffithes Wheeler (1911). "Ibn Ṭufail" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 223.
  5. ^ Carra de Vaux, B., "Ibn Ṭufayl", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 16 April 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3394
  6. ^ "Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Tufayl". Encyclopedia of World Biography. 8: 96. 2004 – via Gale eBooks.
  7. .
  8. .
  9. ^ a b c "Ibn Tufayl, Abü Bakr Muhammad". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 13: 488–489. 2008 – via Encyclopedia.com.
  10. ^ a b Božović, Mihajlo (2017). "The Process of Civilization in Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzan". Kom (Beograd). 2: 77–90 – via ResearchGate.
  11. ^ "Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on Judaic Thought". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 10 December 2007.Retrieved 2023-02-22.
  12. ^ Matar, Nabil (2013). "Ibn Tufayl (ca. 1105–85)". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought: 241–242 – via Gale eBooks.
  13. S2CID 230610974
    .
  14. ^ a b Corbin, Henry (2006). "Ibn Ṭufayl (d. 580 AH/1185 CE)". Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 4: 550–551 – via Gale eBooks.
  15. ^ a b Martin Wainwright, Desert island scripts, The Guardian, 22 March 2003.
  16. .
  17. .
  18. .
  19. .
  20. ^ Nawal Muhammad Hassan (1980), Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature, Al-Rashid House for Publication.
  21. .
  22. ^ Amber Haque (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists", Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357–377 [369].
  23. .
  24. .
  25. ^ "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik Ibn Tufayl and Léon Gauthier (1981), Risalat Hayy ibn Yaqzan, p. 5, Editions de la Méditerranée".

    "If you want a comparison that will make you clearly grasp the difference between the

    blind, endowed however with a happy natural temperament, with a lively and firm intelligence, a sure memory, a straight sprite, who grew up from the time he was an infant in a city where he never stopped learning, by means of the senses he did dispose of, to know the inhabitants individually, the numerous species of beings, living as well as non-living, there, the streets and sidestreets, the houses, the steps, in such a manner as to be able to cross the city without a guide, and to recognize immediately those he met; the colors alone would not be known to him except by the names they bore, and by certain definitions that designated them. Suppose that he had arrived at this point and suddenly, his eyes were opened, he recovered his view, and he crosses the entire city, making a tour of it. He would find no object different from the idea he had made of it; he would encounter nothing he didn’t recognize, he would find the colors conformable to the descriptions of them that had been given to him; and in this there would only be two new important things for him, one the consequence of the other: a clarity, a greater brightness
    , and a great voluptuousness."

  26. .
  27. .
  28. .
  29. .
  30. Saudi Aramco World
    , September–October 1976.
  31. .
  32. ^ "عندما كُـتب الطب شعرا.. أرجوزة ابن طفيل في وصف الأمراض وعلاجها". www.aljazeera.net (in Arabic). Retrieved 2021-08-21.

References

External links