{"title":"A Polemical Tale and its Function in the Jewish Communities of the Mediterranean and the Near East","authors":"Miriam Goldstein","doi":"10.1163/2212943X-00701011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701011","url":null,"abstract":"The parodical narrative Toledot Yeshu (TY) has been the object of burgeoning interest in the past decade. It has recently become evident that this work was quite popular in Judeo-Arabic, and circulated continuously in Arabic-speaking Jewish communities from at least the eleventh century until nearly the present day. The following is a first foray into the Judeo-Arabic textual tradition of this narrative. From the sixteenth century and beyond, TY circulated in Arabic-speaking communities in collections of folk narrative. Close examination of the textual tradition of TY in Judeo-Arabic as preserved in four parallel manuscript fragments from the twelfth—fifteenth centuries provides further, more subtle evidence linking TY to this genre, and suggests that TY served primarily as literary entertainment in the Near East. I conclude with consideration of the codicological context of TY manuscripts preserved in Europe, and propose that this Near Eastern function contrasts to TY’s primarily polemical function in Europe.","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88792361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Avicenna’s Theodicy and al-Rāzī’s Anti-Theodicy","authors":"A. Shihadeh","doi":"10.1163/2212943X-00701004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Avicenna’s Neoplatonic account of divine providence and theodicy was hugely influential on later philosophical and religious thought in the Islamic world. However, it was severely criticised by one of his earlier commentators, the theologian-philosopher Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210). While Avicenna champions an optimist theodicean thesis of a plenitude of good to support the theory of providence integrated into his cosmogony, his commentator counters by arguing for a plenitude of evil and an overall pessimist anti-theodicy. Rejecting Avicenna’s ontological-cum-cosmological account of evil, al-Rāzī argues that a theodicy must be strictly subject-centred and is ultimately a futile exercise. This article includes a study and translation of the relevant section in his commentary on Avicenna’s al-Išārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt (Pointers and Reminders).","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84963298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies (COMSt): An Introduction, by Alessandro Baussi (ed.)","authors":"J. Monferrer-Sala","doi":"10.1163/2212943X-00701009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91064188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Fragmentary Ninth/Tenth Century Andalusi Arabic Translation of the Epistle to the Galatians Revisited (Vat. lat. 12900, olim Seguntinus 150 BC Sigüenza)","authors":"J. Monferrer-Sala","doi":"10.1163/2212943X-00701007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701007","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers a new edition of the surviving fragment of the Epistle to the Galatians, currently in the Vatican Library (Vat. Lat. 12900), with the aim of correcting the mistakes of the former edition. We also offer a complete translation and analysis of the Arabic fragment to identify the techniques and strategies used by the translator. The text preserved in Vat. lat. 12900 was revised later. From this review process two witnesses have survived, MS BNM 4971 and MS Marciana Gr. Z. 11 (379), which we have used for a comparative analysis of the three texts to show the changes made in the two processes of revision exhibited by BNM 4971 and MS Marciana Gr. Z. 11 (379). As a result of this comparative analysis we propose a hypothesis according to which the fragment could be dated as early as in the ninth century, and more specifically at the end of the century from both the comparative analaysis and the information provided by the Visigothic writing of the Latin column.","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80221253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"La Providence divine (al-ʿināya l-ilāhiyya) comme instrument de la rédemption universelle (ḫalāṣ) dans l’ ismaélisme fatimide et ṭayyibite","authors":"D. D. Smet","doi":"10.1163/2212943X-00701005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701005","url":null,"abstract":"Le concept de ʿināya ilāhiyya (“providence divine”) a été introduit dans l’ ismaélisme par le philosophe fatimide Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī, qui l’ a probablement emprunté à al-Fārābī tout en lui donnant un sens spécifiquement ismaélien. Ainsi, dans le Kitāb Rāḥat al-ʿaql, al-Kirmānī présente la providence comme le principe qui régit le monde sensible dans le but d’ actualiser l’ intellect en puissance ou hayūlā, le deuxième émané procédant de l’ auto-intellection de l’ Intellect universel. La providence veille à la rédemption universelle, une notion qui sera pleinement développée dans le Kanz al-walad d’ al-Ḥāmidī, le texte fondateur de l’ ismaélisme ṭayyibite. Proche du manichéisme, al-Ḥāmidī conçoit l’ univers sensible comme une gigantesque machine pilotée par la providence afin de nettoyer les parcelles de lumière souillées au contact avec les ténèbres de la matière, et d’ effacer ainsi les séquelles d’ un drame cosmique primordial.","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80022551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Philosophy in the Islamic World: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps Volume 3, by Peter Adamson","authors":"Sajjad H. Rizvi","doi":"10.1163/2212943X-00701008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"81 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83873660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Matter and Nature","authors":"O. Lizzini","doi":"10.1163/2212943x-00701002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943x-00701002","url":null,"abstract":"The fundamental principle—ruling both Avicenna’s metaphysics and his ethics—that the action of superior causes cannot be explained in virtue of the existence of inferior effects—seems to deny any possibility of a consistent idea of providence in Avicenna’s system. Despite this fact, Avicenna recurs to the term (ʿināya; tadbīr) as well as to the idea of providence in various contexts in his oeuvre. More precisely, providence is equated to the flow of being that originates and explains the world; and this not only in respect to the fundamental, existential, positive and “good” properties that belong to it—the world itself is good, the flow is the principle of good and the First Principle is the cause of the world in so far as the order of good is concerned—but also as regards the marginal, negative, non-existential and “bad” properties that can affect its individuals and that are necessarily consequents of the good itself: evil is something the First Principle “wants”, although in an accidental way, and it is therefore implicit in and contained by divine causality. In this paper I shall outline the fundamental structure that explains the existence of individuals in the sublunary world. I do not claim to be exhaustive (some questions require further investigation); my aim is to provide an overview of the topic, with a main question in mind: on what principles does Avicenna base his idea of providence?","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83666251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Divine Providence","authors":"S. J. Badakhchani","doi":"10.1163/2212943X-00701006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (1201–1274), the most eminent Muslim thinker of thirteenth-century Iran occupies a unique place among the Muslim polymaths of the Middle Ages who have gained recognition both in the East and West. In the West, he is recognised as a scientist whose contribution to astronomy, trigonometry and mathematics influenced the course of scientific developments, and in the East as a supreme teacher who contributed significantly to the application of metaphysical argumentation and philosophical terminology in Sufism, Ismaili and Twelver Shiʿi theology, bringing the Ismaili humanistic and ethical tradition of philosophers into the centre of Islamic ethical discourse. The renown of his commentary on Avicenna’s “Hints and Indications” (al-Išārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt) seems to have gained him the position of the foremost master of Avicennian philosophy. From another aspect al-Ṭūsī can be considered a partisan of Nizārī Ismaili theological thinking, a doctrine that in his opinion was somehow in harmony with Avicennan philosophy when he equates Necessary Existence with God. However, while commenting on Avicenna’s theorem of Divine Providence, al-Ṭūsī finds the Avicennan position unacceptable. The conclusions reached in this paper uphold the influence of Nizārī Ismaili philosophical deliberations on the nature of the Divine and His knowledge, not only on al-Ṭūsī and al-Šahrastānī but also on Avicenna himself. Needless to say, the wide scope of the subject prevents us from reaching definitive answers to all the questions raised and this attempt endeavours to lay the ground for further investigations to reach a clearer understanding of the subject.","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84792039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān’s Parable of the Two Generous Men in Avicenna’s Decree and Determination (R. fī l-Qaḍāʾ wa-l-qadar)","authors":"J. Dube","doi":"10.1163/2212943X-00701003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00701003","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores Avicenna’s conception of divine providence in the light of his allegorical work Decree and Determination (R. fī l-Qaḍāʾ wa-l-qadar), wherein the philosopher stages interactions between the rational soul, the animal soul, and the Active Intelligence. Centering on the parable of the two generous men told in Decree and Determination by the legendary sage Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, this analysis draws parallels from numerous works of Avicenna—notably his other allegorical work, Alive, Son of Awake (R. Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān)—so as to bring into focus lesser-known facets of his philosophical worldview.","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90634503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Le mythe des préadamites en islam chiite","authors":"Daniel De Smet","doi":"10.1163/2212943x-00603002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943x-00603002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In apparent contradiction with the story of Adam as told in the Bible and the Qurʾān, Shiite tradition accepts the existence of several Adams (usually seven) prior to « our Adam », the father of mankind. Each Adam opened an era during which the earth was inhabited by « pre-Adamites », rational creatures preceding the appearance of the human species. In this paper we study the evolution of this myth of the pre-Adamites, starting from traditions attributed to the first Imams and their use in writings stemming from the Shiite milieu in Kūfa ; then we move to pre-Fatimid and Fatimid Ismailism, Druze and Nuṣayrī literature, before ending with the Ṭayyibī Ismailis. Although there are many differences in details, all these movements share a common myth, which was elaborated with a remarkable continuity from the first centuries of Islam until today. This myth is rooted in the sources of Shīʿism, which seem close to Manichaeism.","PeriodicalId":92649,"journal":{"name":"Intellectual history of the Islamicate world","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80618413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}