Research Catalog

Title

Epistles of the Brethren of Purity : on composition and the arts : an Arabic critical edition and English translation of epistles 6-8 / edited and translated by Nader el-Bizri and Godefroid de Callataÿ ; foreword by Nader El-Bizri.

Author

Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ, author.

Publication

• Oxford : Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2018.
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• El-Bizri, Nader
• Callataÿ, Godefroid de
• Institute of Ismaili Studies.
• Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ. Rasāʼil. 6-8.

Description

xxiii, 189, 154 pages; 25 cm

Summary

"The Ikhwan al-Safa' (Brethren of Purity), the anonymous adepts of a tenth-century esoteric fraternity based in Basra and Baghdad, hold an eminent position in the history of science and philosophy in Islam due to the wide reception and assimilation of their monumental encyclopaedia, the Rasa 'il Ikhwan al-Safa' (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity). This compendium contains fifty-two epistles offering synoptic accounts of the classical sciences and philosophies of the age; divided into four classificatory parts, it treats themes in mathematics, logic, natural philosophy, psychology, metaphysics, and theology, in addition to didactic fables. Epistles 6 to 8 are from the first division of the Epistles, on the propaedeutical and mathematical sciences. Epistle 6 develops ideas concerning natural numbers and their arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic ratios, marked by the influence of Nicomachus of Gerasa and of Euclid. The Brethren here emphasize practical applications of proportionality in music, medicine, and alchemy. Epistle 7 addresses theoretical scientific knowledge as directed towards the spiritual realities of souls, the goal of which is to actualize human potential; this epistle also presents a remarkable classification of sciences. Epistle 8 surveys material cultures in the Islamic mediaeval milieu, embellished by a consideration of the effects of the heavenly bodies on the predisposition of individuals to follow specific trades. These three epistles are, of course, underpinned by the Brethren's perennial tropes of the microcosm/macrocosm analogy and the emanative hierarchy of existents."--

Series Statement

• Epistles of the Brethren of Purity
• Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ. Rasāʼil. Oxford University Press.

Uniform Title

• Rasāʼil. 6-8. English
• Epistles of the Brethren of Purity.

Alternative Title

• Rasāʼil. 6-8.
• On composition and the arts : an Arabic critical edition and English translation of epistles 6-8
• ‏رسايل اخوان الصفاء و خلان الوفاء (6-8) : القسم الاول في العلوم الرياضية التعليمية
• Rasāʼil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ wa-khullān al-wafāʼ (6-8) : al-qism al-awwal fī al-ʻulūm al-riyāḍīyah al-taʻlīmīyah

Subject

• Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ
• Ikhwān al-bafāʼ
• Philosophy, Arab > Early works to 1800
• Islamic philosophy > Early works to 1800
• Islamic philosophy
• Philosophy, Arab

Genre/Form

Early works.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [173]-179) and index.

Language (note)

• In Arabic and English.
• ‏بالعربية والانكليزية.

Contents

Epistle 6 : introduction, English translation. -- Epistle 7 : introduction, English translation. -- Epistle 8 : introduction, English translation -- English translation. -- Arabic edition of Rasa-ʼil 6-8.

Call Number

JFE 18-4611

ISBN

• 9780198816928
• 0198816928

OCLC

1021281619

Author

Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ, author.

Title

Epistles of the Brethren of Purity : on composition and the arts : an Arabic critical edition and English translation of epistles 6-8 / edited and translated by Nader el-Bizri and Godefroid de Callataÿ ; foreword by Nader El-Bizri.

Publisher

Oxford : Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2018.

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Epistles of the Brethren of Purity

Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ. Rasāʼil. Oxford University Press.

Epistles of the Brethren of Purity.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [173]-179) and index.

Language

In Arabic and English.

Alternate Script for Subject

اخوان الصفاء. رسايل.

Alternate Script for Subject

اخوان الصفاء. رسايل.

Added Author

El-Bizri, Nader, editor, writer of foreword.

Callataÿ, Godefroid de, editor.

Institute of Ismaili Studies.

Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ. Rasāʼil. 6-8.

Added Title Page Title

Rasāʼil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʼ wa-khullān al-wafāʼ (6-8) : al-qism al-awwal fī al-ʻulūm al-riyāḍīyah al-taʻlīmīyah

Alternate Script for Added Title Page Title

رسايل اخوان الصفاء و خلان الوفاء (6-8) : القسم الاول في العلوم الرياضية التعليمية

Research Call Number

JFE 18-4611