Theologus Autodidactus
Author | Ibn al-Nafis |
---|---|
Original title | الرسالة الكاملية في السيرة النبوية ("The Treatise of Kāmil on the Prophet's Biography") |
Language | Arabic |
Genre | Theological fiction |
Theologus Autodidactus (English: "The Self-taught Theologian") is an Arabic novel written by
Plot
The protagonist of the story is Kamil, an autodidactic adolescent feral child who is spontaneously generated in a cave and living in seclusion on a desert island.[2] He eventually comes into contact with the outside world after the arrival of castaways who are shipwrecked and stranded on the island,[1] and later take him back to the civilized world with them. The plot gradually develops into a coming-of-age story and then incorporates science fiction elements when it reaches its climax with a catastrophic doomsday apocalypse.[2]
Themes
Ibn al-Nafis uses the plot to express many of his own religious, philosophical and scientific themes on a wide variety of subjects, including
Ibn al-Nafis described the book as a defense of "the system of Islam and the Muslims' doctrines on the missions of Prophets, the religious laws, the resurrection of the body, and the transitoriness of the world". He presents rational arguments for bodily resurrection and the immortality of the human soul, using both demonstrative reasoning and material from the hadith corpus to prove his case.[1] The novel also includes references to his new physiology and his theories of pulmonary circulation and pulsation, which he uses to justify bodily resurrection. Some have thus argued that it was his attempts at proving bodily resurrection that led him to his discovery of the pulmonary circulation.[1] Later Islamic scholars viewed this work as a response to Avicenna's metaphysical claim that bodily resurrection cannot be proven through reason, a view that was earlier criticized by al-Ghazali.[1]
The plot of Theologus Autodidactus was intended to be a response to
Biomedical portions
Theologus Autodidactus also contains some passages that are of significance to medicine, particularly physiology and biology, such as the following statement:[2]
"Both the body and its parts are in a continuous state of dissolution and nourishment, so they are inevitably undergoing permanent change."
This is seen as the first example of the concept of metabolism, which comprises catabolism, where living matter is broken down into simple substances, and anabolism, where food builds up into living matter.[2]
Theologus Autodidactus also criticizes the idea of wine being used as self-medication, an idea believed by Ancient Greek physicians as well as some unorthodox Muslim physicians in his time, despite the Islamic cultural though not Koranic prohibition of alcohol. The novel further argues that the consumption of alcohol, along with the prevalence of homosexuality among a small minority of Muslims at the time, were the cause of the
The novel also contains a reference to the pulmonary circulation which Ibn al-Nafis had previously described in his Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon, which is briefly described by the character Kamil when he observes the heart:[1]
"[Its] right ventricle is filled with blood and its left ventricle is filled with spirit."
Another passage has a reference to Ibn al-Nafis' theory of pulsation:[1]
"Its left ventricle is filled with spirit, and this ventricle contracts, thereby sending this spirit in the arteries to the organs. Then it expands, and this spirit returns to it."
Ibn al-Nafis makes use of his new systems of anatomy, physiology and psychology which he had developed in his previous works in order to defend his views on bodily resurrection in Theologus Autodidactus. This may have been one of the reasons that initially motivated his discovery of the pulmonary circulation.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Fancy, Nahyan A. G. (2006). "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288)". Electronic Theses and Dissertations. University of Notre Dame.
- ^ a b c d e f Dr. Abu Shadi Al-Roubi (1982), "Ibn Al-Nafis as a philosopher", Symposium on Ibn al-Nafis, Second International Conference on Islamic Medicine: Islamic Medical Organization, Kuwait (cf. Ibn al-Nafis As a Philosopher, Encyclopedia of Islamic World [1])
- ^ Muhsin Mahdi (1974), "The Theologus Autodidactus of Ibn at-Nafis by Max Meyerhof, Joseph Schacht", Journal of the American Oriental Society 94 (2), p. 232-234.