Godefroid de Callatay

Does the famous animal fable, as narrated by the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ in Epistle 22 of their Rasāʾil, possess an inner meaning? The issue is not new, but it may be useful to address it again today, considering the recent, significant re-evaluation of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity in the overall history of medieval thinking. It is also important to return to this issue since it was largely left aside by the editors of Epistle 22 who are part of the ongoing project by Oxford University and the Ismaili Institute to critically edit the entire collection of the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ. In the present article, I argue that the Ikhwān’s animal fable does indeed contain an esoteric level of reading and that it must be understood in line with the Brethren’s Ismaʿili or Ismaʿili-like aspirations but also, and more importantly, with their wish to take an approach as universal and syncretic as possible. The following motifs are discussed in detail: a) God’s Intimates; b) Seventy / Seventy-Two; c) Seven; d) Yaʿsūb, Commander of the Bees; e) the Return of the Conjunction; f) Equator.

Como continuación a estudios anteriores sobre la recepción de las Rasā’il Ijwān al-Ṣafā’ en al-Andalus, en este artículo se sostiene que entre los estudiosos andalusíes de la Edad Media era una creencia generalizada considerar al astrónomo Maslama al-Maŷrīṭī (m. 395/1004 o poco después) como el autor no solo de la Rutbat al-ḥakīm y la Gāyat al-ḥakīm – hoy ambas correctamente atribuidas a Maslama Ibn Qasīm al-Qurṭubī (m. 353/964) – sino también de todo el corpus enciclopédico de las Rasā’il. La primera parte del artículo trata de explicar a través de qué serie de sucesivas confusiones estas tres obras llegaron a ser identificadas como los tres escalones de una escalera filosófica y cómo esta trilogía acabó siendo después asignada al científico Maslama al-Maŷrīṭī. La otra parte se centra en dos anotaciones de carácter biográfico que aparecen en las portadas de dos manuscritos de la Rutbat al-ḥakīm, aún inédita. Además de proporcionarnos evidencias adicionales sobre la difusión de esta concepción entre los eruditos medievales, esos documentos también nos ofrecen información interesante y a veces sin igual sobre los dos Maslamas, sus respectivos escritos y seguidores, así como sobre la amplia circulación de las Rasā’il por toda la Península. La edición, traducción y comentario de estas dos anotaciones biográficas son ofrecidas aquí por primera vez.

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. The Rasa'il constitutes a paradigmatic legacy in the canonization of philosophy and the sciences in mediaeval Islamic civilization, as well as having shown a permeating influence in Western culture. This is the fifth volume in a series presenting the very first critical edition of the Rasa'il in its original Arabic, complete with the first fully annotated English translation. Epistle 52: On Magic is the last in the corpus, and presents the short version of the 'Epistle on Magic, Incantations, and the Evil Eye'. Within its pages the authors of the epistle argue for the legitimacy of magic and the other occult sciences, and seek confirmation of their views in authorities as diverse as Plato, the Qur'ân, the Torah, the astrologer Abû Ma'shâr, and the mysterious sect of pagan star-worshippers known as the Sabians of Harrân. As in all other volumes of the series, this volume provides the first critical edition of the Arabic text, together with an English translation and a substantial range of notes. An extensive introduction highlights the unique relevance of this treatise within the framework of the Brethren's encyclopaedia itself, and to the history of science in general.

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 32 to 36 comprise the first five treatises in the third division of the Rasa'il, on the sciences of the soul and intellect. Combining Islamic revelation with Hellenistic philosophy, the Ikhwan delineate herein their metaphysical system. Epistles 32 and 33 present adaptations of the Pythagorean doctrines, and of Neo-Platonist leitmotifs, whereby a numerical analogy is applied to the unique and transcendent God, or the One, from whom all existence emanates. Epistle 34 takes up the pervasive theme of the correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm, situating the human being as the central link between the celestial and terrestrial realms. In Epistle 35, we find an explanation of the intellectual faculties of the individual human soul, whose ultimate aim is ascension to the timeless reality of pure intellect. Finally, Epistle 36 presents itself as the astrological epistle par excellence of the Rasa'il; from the coming-to-be of worms, to the emergence of religions and empires, nothing in the sub-lunar sphere escapes the determining influence of the celestial cycles.

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.

This article is a first step in a project to study the influence of the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ in the Ottoman world. We argue that, at least from the end of the fourteenth century until well into the second half of the sixteenth, the knowledge presented in the encyclopedic Rasāʾil was a conspicuous scholarly source for the Ottoman cultural milieu, especially at the dynastic court, and played a significant role in forming their epistemological perspective. This argument is developed with reference to three universal histories: (1) in Turkish, the İskendernāme (Book of Alexander) of Taceddin İbrahim İbn Hızır Ahmedi (d. 1413) written between the last quarter of the fourteenth century and the first quarter of the fifteenth; (2) in Arabic, the Naẓm al-sulūk fī musāmarat al-mulūk (The ordering of ways for the conversation of kings) by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī (d. 1454), a prominent intellectual and expert in occult sciences, protégé of Sultan Murad II (r. 1421–44, 1446–51); (3) in Persian, the first volume of Shāhnāmā-yi Āl-i ʿUsmān (Book of kings of the house of ʿUsmān) by the Sufi intellectual and litterateur Fethullah Çelebi (d. 1561/62), better known by his pen-name ʿArif. The choice of these three histories enables us to mark the time period for the influence of the Rasāʾil, stretching it (in both directions) further than is accepted in present scholarship. These histories enable us also to draw attention to the proximity to the Ottoman dynasty of the cultural milieu attuned to the Rasāʾil, and highlight the relationship between history and knowledge that is central both for the texts under study here and the Rasāʾil.

El artículo analiza la introducción de las Rasā’il ijwān al-Ṣafā’ en al-Andalus y la implicación de esta cuestión en la historia de la ciencia y la filosofía árabes. Más particularmente, se centra en el impacto de la enciclopedia de los Hermanos de la Pureza en dos obras importantes de la literatura de al-Andalus en el campo de las ciencias ocultas: la Rutbat al-ḥakīm y la Gāyat al-ḥakīm. Retoma el tema de la autoría y cronología de estas tres obras, destacando el hecho de que el corpus de las Rasā’il es el resultado final de un proceso de compilación históricamente largo y confirmando, a partir de algunos elementos nuevos, la identificación del autor de la Rutba y de la Gāya con Maslama al-Qurṭubī (m. 964). La comparación textual de estas tres obras y, en particular, el análisis de la Rutba, obra aún inédita, permite identificar a Maslama al-Qurṭubī como el transmisor genuino del corpus ijwāniano a al-Andalus.