A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad

A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad
Author: Reza Pourjavadi
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2006-09-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9047409639

For a long time, the study of the life and work of the Jewish thinker ʿIzz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284) remained limited to a very small number of texts. Interest in Ibn Kammūna in the Western Christian world dates back to the 17th century, when Barthélemy d’Herbelot (1624-1695) included information on two of Ibn Kammūna's works – his examination of the three faiths (Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth li-l-milal al-thalāt), i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and his commentary on Avicenna’s al-Ishārāt wa l-tanbīhāt – in his Bibliothèque orientale. Subsequent generations of Western scholars were focused on Ibn Kammūna’s Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth , whereas his fame in the Eastern lands of Islam was based exclusively on his philosophical writings. These include a commentary on the Kitāb al-Talwīḥāt by the founder of Illumationist philosophy, Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191) and numerous independent works on philosophy and logic. Since most of the manuscripts of Ibn Kammūna’s philosophical writings are located in the public and private libraries of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, they were (and are) out of reach for the majority of Western scholars. The volume gives a detailed account of the available data of Ibn Kammūna’s biography, provides an outline of his philosophcial thought and studies in detail the reception of his thought and his writings among later Muslim and Jewish philosophers. An inventory of his entire œuvre provides detailed information on the extant manuscripts. The volume furthermore includes editions of nine of his writings.

A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad

A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad
Author: Reza Pourjavadi
Publisher: Brill
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2006-08-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789047409632

The volume gives a detailed account of the available data of the biography of the Jewish philosopher ʿIzz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284), provides an outline of his philosophcial thought, and analyzes in detail the reception of his thought and his writings among later Muslim and Jewish philosophers. An inventory of his entire œuvre provides detailed information on all extant manuscripts. The volume furthermore includes editions of nine of his writings.

Philosophy in Early Safavid Iran

Philosophy in Early Safavid Iran
Author: Reza Pourjavady
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2011
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004191739

This book is about a Muslim Shi’i philosopher of the early 16th century, Najm al-Din Mahmud al-Nayrizi. Educated in Shiraz, he became interested in Avicennan and Suhrawardian philosophy. Apart from Nayrizi, the present study introduces his contemporary philosophers and provides an outlines of the main philosophical challenges of the time.

Maimonides in His World

Maimonides in His World
Author: Sarah Stroumsa
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2009
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0691152527

While the great medieval philosopher, theologian, and physician Maimonides is acknowledged as a leading Jewish thinker, his intellectual contacts with his surrounding world are often described as related primarily to Islamic philosophy. Maimonides in His World challenges this view by revealing him to have wholeheartedly lived, breathed, and espoused the rich Mediterranean culture of his time. Sarah Stroumsa argues that Maimonides is most accurately viewed as a Mediterranean thinker who consistently interpreted his own Jewish tradition in contemporary multicultural terms. Maimonides spent his entire life in the Mediterranean region, and the religious and philosophical traditions that fed his thought were those of the wider world in which he lived. Stroumsa demonstrates that he was deeply influenced not only by Islamic philosophy but by Islamic culture as a whole, evidence of which she finds in his philosophy as well as his correspondence and legal and scientific writings. She begins with a concise biography of Maimonides, then carefully examines key aspects of his thought, including his approach to religion and the complex world of theology and religious ideas he encountered among Jews, Christians, Muslims, and even heretics; his views about science; the immense and unacknowledged impact of the Almohads on his thought; and his vision of human perfection. This insightful cultural biography restores Maimonides to his rightful place among medieval philosophers and affirms his central relevance to the study of medieval Islam.

Subtle Insights Concerning Knowledge and Practice

Subtle Insights Concerning Knowledge and Practice
Author: Sa'd ibn Mansur Ibn Kammuna al-Baghdadi
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2019-01-01
Genre: God
ISBN: 0300203691

Surprisingly modern essays on the unity of all monotheistic regimens by a medieval philosopher Written in the mid-thirteenth century for the newly appointed governor of Isfahan, this compact treatise and philosophical guidebook includes a wide-ranging and accessible set of essays on ethics, psychology, political philosophy, and the unity of God. Ibn Kammūna, a Jewish scholar writing in Baghdad during a time of Mongol occupation, was a controversial figure whose writings sometimes incited riots. He argued, among other things, the commonality of all monotheisms, both prophetic and philosophical. Here, for the first time in English, is a surprisingly modern work on the unity of all monotheistic regimes from a key medieval philosopher.

From the Alleys of Baghdad

From the Alleys of Baghdad
Author: Edmond Cohen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 65
Release: 2020-10-18
Genre:
ISBN:

Edmond Cohen was born to a poor family in Baghdad in 1935. His memoir gives a rare glimpse of that city when it was still home to the oldest Jewish community in the world. In the alleys of the Jewish quarter, he learned a unique skillset for survival, facing more challenges during World War II (1935-1945) and the pogrom known as the Farhud (1941). His ability to survive led him to thrive after Iraq's Jews were deported to Israel (1951-1952). He went on to become a successful businessman in Toronto, Canada and Los Angeles, USA, where he started Dynamic Industries and lives today. In 1980, he was inspired by his new environment to become an artist and philosopher.

Maimonides

Maimonides
Author: Abraham Joshua Heschel
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 290
Release: 1982
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0374198748

This classic biography of the medieval Jewish philosopher, in its first English translation, recounts the events of Maimonides's life and provides an illuminating analysis of his thought, including his greatest work The Guide for the Perplexed..

The House of Wisdom

The House of Wisdom
Author: Jim Al-Khalili
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2011-03-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1101476230

A myth-shattering view of the Islamic world's myriad scientific innovations and the role they played in sparking the European Renaissance. Many of the innovations that we think of as hallmarks of Western science had their roots in the Arab world of the middle ages, a period when much of Western Christendom lay in intellectual darkness. Jim al- Khalili, a leading British-Iraqi physicist, resurrects this lost chapter of history, and given current East-West tensions, his book could not be timelier. With transporting detail, al-Khalili places readers in the hothouses of the Arabic Enlightenment, shows how they led to Europe's cultural awakening, and poses the question: Why did the Islamic world enter its own dark age after such a dazzling flowering?