April 09, 2020 <Back to Index>
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Abu Yusuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Sabbah al-Kindī (Arabic: ابو يوسف يعقوب بن اسحاق الصبّاح الكندي, Latin: Alkindus) (c. 801 – 873 CE), known as "the Philosopher of the Arabs", was a Muslim Arab philosopher, mathematician, physician and musician. Al-Kindi was the first of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers, and is unanimously hailed as the "father of Islamic or Arabic philosophy" for his synthesis, adaptation and promotion of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy in the Muslim world. Al-Kindi was a descendant of the Kinda tribe. He was born and educated in Kufa, before going to pursue further studies in Baghdad. Al-Kindi became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom, and a number of Abbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language. This contact with "the philosophy of the ancients" (as Greek philosophy was often referred to by Muslim scholars) had a profound effect on his intellectual development, and led him to write hundreds of original treatises of his own on a range of subjects ranging from metaphysics, ethics, logic and psychology, to medicine, pharmacology, mathematics, astronomy, astrology and optics, and further afield to more practical topics like perfumes, swords, jewels, glass, dyes, zoology, tides, mirrors, meteorology and earthquakes. In the field of mathematics, al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Indian numerals to the Islamic and Christian world. He was a pioneer in cryptanalysis and devised several new methods of breaking ciphers. Using his mathematical and medical expertise, he was able to develop a scale that would allow doctors to quantify the potency of their medication. The central theme underpinning al-Kindi's philosophical
writings is the compatibility between philosophy and other
"orthodox" Islamic sciences, particularly theology. And
many of his works deal with subjects that theology had an
immediate interest in. These include the nature of God,
the soul and prophetic knowledge.
But despite the important role he played in making
philosophy accessible to Muslim intellectuals, his own
philosophical output was largely overshadowed by that of
al-Farabi and very few of his texts are available for
modern scholars to examine. Al-Kindi was born in Kufa to an aristocratic family of the Kinda tribe. His full name was, in Abū-Yūsuf Ya‘qūb ibn Isḥāq ibn as-Ṣabbāḥ ibn ‘Omrān ibn; (in Arabic: أبو يوسف يعقوب ابن اسحاق ابن الصّبّاح ابن عمران ابن اسماعيل الكندي). His father was the governor of Kufa, and al-Kindi received his preliminary education there. He later went to complete his studies in Baghdad, where he was patronized by the Abbasid Caliphs al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim. On account of his learning and aptitude for study, al-Ma'mun appointed him to House of Wisdom, a recently established center for the translation of Greek philosophical and scientific texts, in Baghdad. He was also well known for his beautiful calligraphy, and at one point was employed as a calligrapher by al-Mutawakkil. When al-Ma'mun died, his brother, al-Mu'tasim became Caliph. Al-Kindi's position would be enhanced under al-Mu'tasim, who appointed him as a tutor to his son. But on the accession of al-Wathiq, and especially of al-Mutawakkil, al-Kindi's star waned. There are various theories concerning this: some attribute al-Kindi's downfall to scholarly rivalries at the House of Wisdom; others refer to al-Mutawakkil’s often violent persecution of unorthodox Muslims (as well as of non - Muslims); at one point al-Kindi was beaten and his library temporarily confiscated. Henry Corbin, an authority on Islamic studies, says that in 873, al-Kindi died "a lonely man", in Baghdad during the reign of Al-Mu'tamid. After his death, al-Kindi's philosophical works quickly
fell into obscurity and many of them were lost even to
later Islamic scholars and historians. Felix Klein -
Franke suggests a number of reasons for this: aside from
the militant orthodoxy of al-Mutawakkil, the Mongols also
destroyed countless libraries during their invasion. However, he says
the most probable cause of this was that his writings
never found popularity amongst subsequent influential
philosophers such as al-Farabi and Avicenna, who
ultimately overshadowed him. Al-Kindi was a master of many different areas of thought. And although he would eventually be eclipsed by names such as al-Farabi and Avicenna, he was held to be one of the greatest Islamic philosophers of his time. The Italian Renaissance scholar Geralomo Cardano (1501 –
1575) considered him one of the twelve greatest minds of
the Middle Ages. According to Ibn al-Nadim, al-Kindi wrote
at least two hundred and sixty books, contributing heavily
to geometry (thirty - two books), medicine and philosophy
(twenty - two books each), logic (nine books), and physics
(twelve books). His influence in the fields of physics,
mathematics, medicine, philosophy and music were far
reaching and lasted for several centuries. Although most
of his books have been lost over the centuries, a
few have survived in the form of Latin translations
by Gerard of Cremona, and others have been rediscovered in
Arabic manuscripts; most importantly, twenty - four of his
lost works were located in the mid twentieth century in a
Turkish library. His greatest contribution to the development of Islamic philosophy was his efforts to make Greek thought both accessible and acceptable to a Muslim audience. Al-Kindi carried out this mission from the House of Wisdom, an institute of translation and learning patronized by the Abbasid Caliphs, in Baghdad. As well as translating many important texts, much of what was to become standard Arabic philosophical vocabulary originated with al-Kindi; indeed, if it had not been for him, the work of philosophers like Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and al-Ghazali might not have been possible. In his writings, one of al-Kindi's central concerns was
to demonstrate the compatibility between philosophy and
natural theology on the one hand, and revealed or speculative theology on the
other (though in fact he rejected speculative theology).
Despite this, he did make clear that he believed
revelation was a superior source of knowledge to reason
because it guaranteed matters of faith that reason could
not uncover. And while his philosophical approach was not
always original, and was even considered clumsy by later
thinkers (mainly because he was the first philosopher
writing in the Arabic language), he successfully
incorporated Aristotelian and (especially) neo - Platonist thought into
an Islamic philosophical framework. This was an important
factor in the introduction and popularization Greek
philosophy in the Muslim intellectual world. Al-Kindi took his view of the solar system from Ptolemy, who placed the Earth at the center of a series of concentric spheres, in which the known heavenly bodies (the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and the stars) are embedded. In one of his treatises on the subject, he says that these bodies are rational entities, whose circular motion is in obedience to and worship of God. Their role, al-Kindi believes, is to act as instruments for divine providence. He furnishes empirical evidence as proof for this assertion; different seasons are marked by particular arrangements of the planets and stars (most notably the sun); the appearance and manner of people varies according to the arrangement of heavenly bodies situated above their homeland. However, he is ambiguous when it comes to the actual process by which the heavenly bodies affect the material world. One theory he posits in his works is from Aristotle, who conceived that the movement of these bodies causes friction in the sub-lunar region, which stirs up the primary elements of earth, fire, air and water, and these combine to produce everything in the material world. An alternative view found his treatise On Rays is that the planets exercise their influence in straight lines. In each of these, he presents two fundamentally different views of physical interaction; action by contact and action at a distance. This dichotomy is duplicated in his writings on optics. Some of the notable astrological works by al-Kindi include:
Two major theories of optics appear in the writings of al-Kindi; Aristotelian and Euclidian. Aristotle had believed that in order for the eye to perceive an object, both the eye and the object must be in contact with a transparent medium (such as air) that is filled with light. When these criteria are met, the "sensible form" of the object is transmitted through the medium to the eye. On the other hand, Euclid proposed that vision occurred in straight lines when "rays" from the eye reached an illuminated object and were reflected back. As with his theories on Astrology, the dichotomy of contact and distance is present in al-Kindi's writings on this subject as well. The factor which al-Kindi relied upon to determine which of these theories was most correct was how adequately each one explained the experience of seeing. For example, Aristotle's theory was unable to account for why the angle at which an individual sees an object affects his perception of it. For example, why a circle viewed from the side will appear as a line. According to Aristotle, the complete sensible form of a circle should be transmitted to the eye and it should appear as a circle. On the other hand, Eulcidian optics provided a geometric model that was able to account for this, as well as the length of shadows and reflections in mirrors, because Eulcid believed that the visual "rays" could only travel in straight lines (something which is commonly accepted in modern science). For this reason, al-Kindi considered the latter preponderant. There are more than thirty treatises attributed to al-Kindi in the field of medicine, in which he was chiefly influenced by the ideas of Galen. His most important work in this field is probably De Gradibus, in which he demonstrates the application of mathematics to medicine, particularly in the field of pharmacology. For example, he developed a mathematical scale to quantify the strength of drug and a system, based the phases of the moon, that would allow a doctor to determine in advance the most critical days of a patient's illness. As an advanced chemist, he was also an opponent of alchemy; he debunked the myth that simple, base metals could be transformed into precious metals such as gold or silver. He is sometimes credited as among the first distillers of alcohol. Al-Kindi authored works on a number of important mathematical subjects, including arithmetic, geometry, the Indian numbers, the harmony of numbers, lines and multiplication with numbers, relative quantities, measuring proportion and time, and numerical procedures and cancellation. He also wrote four volumes, On the Use of the Indian Numerals (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-Hindi) which contributed greatly to diffusion of the Indian system of numeration in the Middle East and the West. In geometry, among other works, he wrote on the theory of parallels. Also related to geometry were two works on optics. One of the ways in which he made use of mathematics as a philosopher was to attempt to disprove the eternity of the world by demonstrating that actual infinity is a mathematical and logical absurdity. Al-Kindi is credited with developing a method whereby variations in the frequency of the occurrence of letters could be analyzed and exploited to break ciphers (i.e., crypanalysis by frequency analysis). Al-Kindi also worked on music theory. While Muslim intellectuals were already acquainted with
Greek philosophy (especially logic), al-Kindi is credited
with being the first real Muslim philosopher.
His own thought was largely influenced by the Neo -
Platonic philosophy of Proclus, Plotinus and John
Philoponus, amongst others, although he does appear to
have borrowed ideas from other Hellenistic schools as
well.
He makes many references to Aristotle in his writings, but
these are often unwittingly re-interpreted in a Neo -
Platonic framework. This trend is most obvious in areas
such as metaphysics and the nature of God as a causal
entity. Earlier experts
had suggested that he was influenced by the Mutazilite school of
theology, because of the mutual concern both he and they
demonstrated for maintaining the pure unity (tawhid) of
God. However, such agreements are now considered
incidental, as further study has shown that they disagreed
on a number of equally important topics. According to al-Kindi, the goal of metaphysics is the knowledge of God. For this reason, he does make a clear distinction between philosophy and theology, because he believes they are both concerned with the same subject. Later philosophers, particularly al-Farabi and Avicenna, would strongly disagree with him on this issue, by saying that metaphysics is actually concerned with qua being, and as such, the nature of God is purely incidental. Central to al-Kindi's understanding of metaphysics is God's absolute oneness, which he considers an attribute uniquely associated with God (and therefore not shared with anything else). By this he means that while we may think of any existent thing as being "one", it is in fact both "one" and many". For example, he says that while a body is one, it is also composed of many different parts. A person might say "I see an elephant", by which he means "I see one elephant", but the term 'elephant' refers to a species of animal that contains many. Therefore, only God is absolutely one, both in being and in concept, lacking any multiplicity whatsoever. Some feel this understanding entails a very rigorous negative theology because it implies that any description which can be predicated to anything else, cannot be said about God. In addition to absolute oneness, al-Kindi also described
God as the Creator. This means that He acts as both a
final and efficient cause. Unlike later Muslim Neo - Platonic philosophers
(who asserted that the universe existed as a result of
God's existence "overflowing", which is a passive act),
al-Kindi conceived of God as an active agent. In fact, of
God as the agent, because all other intermediary
agencies are contingent upon Him. The key idea here
is that God "acts" through created intermediaries, which
in turn "act" on one another - through a chain of cause
and effect - to produce the desired result. In reality,
these intermediary agents do not "act" at all, they are
merely a conduit for God's own action.
This is especially significant in the development of
Islamic philosophy, as it portrayed the "first cause" and
"unmoved mover" of Aristotelian philosophy as compatible
with the concept of God according to Islamic revelation. Al-Kindi theorized that there was a separate, incorporeal and universal intellect (known as the "First Intellect"). It was the first of God's creation and the intermediary through which all other things came into creation. Aside from its obvious metaphysical importance, it was also crucial to al-Kindi's epistemology, which was influenced by Platonic realism. According to Plato, everything that exists in the material world corresponds to certain universal forms in the heavenly realm. These forms are really abstract concepts such as a species, quality or relation, which apply to all physical objects and beings. For example, a red apple has the quality of "redness" derived from the appropriate universal. However, al-Kindi says that human intellects are only potentially able to comprehend these. This potential is actualized by the First Intellect, which is perpetually thinking about all of the universals. He argues that the external agency of this intellect is necessary by saying that human beings cannot arrive at a universal concept merely through perception. In other words, an intellect cannot understand the species of a thing simply by examining one or more of its instances. According to him, this will only yield an inferior "sensible form", and not the universal form which we desire. The universal form can only be attained through contemplation and actualization by the First Intellect. The analogy he provides to explain his theory is that of wood and fire. Wood, he argues, is potentially hot (just as a human is potentially thinking about a universal), and therefore requires something else which is already hot (such as fire) to actualize this. This means that for the human intellect to think about something, the First Intellect must already be thinking about it. Therefore he says that the First Intellect must always be thinking about everything. Once the human intellect comprehends a universal by this process, it becomes part of the individual's "acquired intellect" and can be thought about whenever he or she wishes. Al-Kindi
says that the soul is a simple, immaterial substance,
which is related to the material world only because of its
faculties which operate through the physical body. To
explain the nature of our worldly existence, he (borrowing
from Epictetus) compares it to a ship which has, during
the course of its ocean voyage, temporarily anchored
itself at an island and allowed its passengers to
disembark. The implicit warning is that those passengers
who linger too long on the island may be left behind when
the ship sets sail again. Here, al-Kindi displays a stoic
concept, that we must not become attached to material
things (represented by the island), as they will
invariably be taken away from us (when the ship sets sail
again). He then connects this with a Neo - Platonist idea,
by saying that our soul can be directed towards the
pursuit of desire or the pursuit of intellect; the former
will tie it to the body, so that when the body dies, it
will also die, but the latter will free it from the body
and allow it to survive "in the light of the Creator" in a
realm of pure intelligence. In the view of al-Kindi, prophecy and philosophy were two different routes to arrive at the truth. He contrasts the two positions in four ways. Firstly, while a person must undergo a long period of training and study to become a philosopher, prophecy is bestowed upon someone by God. Secondly, the philosopher must arrive at the truth by his own devices (and with great difficulty), whereas the prophet has the truth revealed to him by God. Thirdly, the understanding of the prophet - being divinely revealed - is clearer and more comprehensive than that of the philosopher. Fourthly, the way in which the prophet is able to express this understanding to the ordinary people is superior. Therefore al-Kindi says the prophet is superior in two fields: the ease and certainty with which he receives the truth, and the way in which he presents it. However, the crucial implication is that the content of the prophet's and the philosopher's knowledge is the same. This, says Adamson, demonstrates how limited the superiority al-Kindi afforded to prophecy was. In addition to this, al-Kindi adopted a naturalistic view
of prophetic visions. He argued that, through the faculty
of "imagination" as conceived of in Aristotelian
philosophy, certain "pure" and well prepared souls, were
able to receive information about future events.
Significantly, he does not attribute such visions or
dreams to revelation from God, but instead explains that
imagination enables human beings to receive the "form" of
something without needing to perceive the physical entity
to which it refers. Therefore, it would seem to imply that
anyone who has purified themselves would be able to
receive such visions. It is precisely this idea, amongst
other naturalistic explanations of prophetic miracles that
al-Ghazali attacks in his Incoherence of the
Philosophers. While al-Kindi appreciated the usefulness of philosophy in answering questions of a religious nature, there would be many Islamic thinkers who were not as enthusiastic about its potential. But it would be incorrect to assume that they opposed philosophy simply because it was a "foreign science". Oliver Leaman, an expert on Islamic philosophy, points out that the objections of notable theologians are rarely directed at philosophy itself, but rather at the conclusions the philosophers arrived at. Even al-Ghazali, who is famous for his critique of the philosophers, was himself an expert in philosophy and logic. And his criticism was that they arrived at theologically erroneous conclusions. The three most serious of these, in his view, were believing in the co-eternity of the universe with God, denying the bodily resurrection, and asserting that God only has knowledge of abstract universals, not of particular things (but it should be noted that not all philosophers subscribed to these same views). During his life, al-Kindi was fortunate enough to enjoy
the patronage of the pro - Mutazilite
Caliphs al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim, which meant he could
carry out his philosophical speculations with relative
ease. In his own time, al-Kindi would be criticized for
extolling the "intellect" as being the most immanent
creation in proximity to God, which was commonly held to
be the position of the angels. He also engaged in
disputations with the Mutazilites,
whom he attacked for their belief in atoms.
But the real role of al-Kindi in the conflict between
philosophers and theologians would be to prepare the
ground for debate. His works, says Deborah Black,
contained all the seeds of future controversy that would
be fully realized in al-Ghazali's Incoherence of the
Philosophers. Ibn Sahl (Arabic: ابن سهل) (Abu Saʿd al-ʿAlaʾ ibn Sahl ) (Arabic: أبو سعد العلاء ابن سهل) (c. 940 - 1000) was a Muslim Iranian mathematician, physicist and optics engineer of the Islamic Golden Age associated with the Abbasid court of Baghdad. Ibn Sahl's 984 treatise On Burning Mirrors and Lenses sets out his understanding of how curved mirrors and lenses bend and focus light. Ibn Sahl is credited with first discovering the law of refraction, usually called Snell's law. He used the law of refraction to derive lens shapes that focus light with no geometric aberrations, known as anaclastic lenses. In the reproduction of the figure from Ibn Sahl's manuscript, the critical part is the right angled triangle. The inner hypotenuse shows the path of an incident ray and the outer hypotenuse shows an extension of the path of the refracted ray if the incident ray met a crystal whose face is vertical at the point where the two hypotenuses intersect. According to Rashed, the ratio of the length of the smaller hypotenuse to the larger is the reciprocal of the refractive index of the crystal.
In the remaining parts of the treatise, Ibn Sahl dealt with parabolic mirrors, ellipsoidal mirrors, biconvex lenses, and techniques for drawing hyperbolic arcs. Ibn Sahl's treatise was used by Ibn al-Haitham (965 – 1039), one of the greatest Arab scholars of optics. In modern times, Rashed found the text to have been dispersed in manuscripts in two different libraries, one in Tehran, and the other in Damascus. He reassembled the surviving portions, translated and published them. |