Al-Kindi defined Philosophy as 'the establishment
of what is true and right' and believed that
the pursuit of philosophy was compatible
with orthodox Islam. By Sonal Panse, 11/3/2004
The Iraq crisis and the general and hypocritical
Western perception of Islam as the harbringer
of terrorism made me think of Al-Kindi recently.
Renowned as the first great philosopher of
Arabic and Islamic origin in the world, his
full name was Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Sabbah
Al-Kindi, quite a mouthful, and he was the
scion of a very illustrious family descended
from the Royal Kindah Tribe of Southern Arabia.
He was born in 801 in Kufah, Iraq.
Kufah, in the ninth century was an important
and cospomolitan city, famous as the second
capital of the Caliphate after Medina, and
Al-Kindi's father just happened to be its
governor - his grandfather too had once been
the governor. His lineage as well as Kufah's
cultural importance made it possible for
Al-Kindi to receive the best possible education
available in that period. Afterwards he moved
to Baghdad for further studies and here,
as he had in Kufah, he soon proved his intellectual
prowess.
Baghdad was then under the rule of Caliph
al-Ma'mun, the son of the famous Haroun al-Rashid.
Haroun al-Rashid had founded a research and
educational institute called the 'bayt al-hikma'
or the House of Wisdom. His son al-Ma'mun,
who succeeded him in 813 after defeating
his brother in an armed power struggle, proved
to be an equally enlightened and capable
ruler. Shifting his capital from Merv to
Baghdad in 818, he became a patron of the
House of Wisdom and had observatories set
up which Arabic astronomers used to study
and further explore the works of earlier
researchers. Al-Ma'mun also collected rare
and valuable Byzantine manuscripts and created
a vast library that was second only to the
famed ancient one in Alexandria. The House
of Wisdom, under the Abbasid Dynasty, gained
great renown as an intellectual centre where
erudite scholars gathered to exchange and
teach their ideas.
Hearing of Al-Kindi's brilliance, al-Ma'mun
summoned him to his court and, aside from
appointing him as a tutor to his young son,
also had him inducted into the House of Wisdom.
Here, Al-Kindi had for colleagues intellectuals
like al-Khwarizm, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and the
three Banu Musa brothers, Jafar Muhammad
Ibn Musa ibn Shakir, Ahmed ibn Musa ibn Shakir,
and al-Hasan ibn Musa ibn Shakir. The main
task of these people was to research and
translate Greek scientific and philosophical
manuscripts into Arabic. Al-Kindi, however,
did not do the actual translation himself,
but reworked and corrected the translations
made by others and then, based on these,
wrote his commentaries on the Greek works.
Al-Kindi was greatly influenced by the writings
of Aristotle, Plato, Porphyry, and Proclus,
and incorporated their ideas into his own
philosophical work. He soon began to outshine
his colleagues in his work. Unlike the Banu
Musa brothers, who were mainly mathematicians,
and Abu Ma'shan, whose sphere was astrology,
Al-Kindi was a versatile genius with a wide
knowledge of Philosophy, Logic, Geometry,
Mathematics, Music, Art, Optics, Geography,
Astronomy, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Logogriphs,
Armaments, and Cooking. He wrote over 270
works on various subjects, out of which 22
were on Medical topics and 11 on Arithmethic.
Al-Kindi defined Philosophy as 'the establishment
of what is true and right' and believed that
the pursuit of philosophy was compatible
with orthodox Islam. He said - "We ought
not to be embarrassed of appreciating the
truth and of obtaining it wherever it comes
from, even if it comes from races distant
and nations different from us. Nothing should
be dearer to the seeker of truth than the
truth itself, and there is no deterioration
of the truth, nor belittling either of one
who speaks it or conveys it."
Al-Kindi's philosophical works include a
treatise on Epistemology and the logic treatise
'Risalah fi Huded al-Ashya'wa Rusumiha' (On
the Definition of Things and Their Descriptions).
Also 'Rasa'il al-Kindi al-falsafiya' (Philosophical
Treatises of Al-Kindi), 'Fi al-falsafa al-ula'
(On First Philosophy), 'Fi wahdaniyat Allah
wa tunahiy jism al-alam'
(On the oneness of God and the Limitation
of the Body of the World), 'Fi Kammiya Kutub
Aristutalis wa ma yohtaju ilaihi fi tahsil
al-falsafa' (The Quantity of Aristotle's
Books and what is required for the acquisition
of Philosophy), and 'Fi al-hila li-daf'al-ahzan'
(On the Art of Averting Sorrow).
Al-Kindi's success unfortunately didn't make
him too popular with his colleagues and they
began conniving against him. Under al-Ma'mun
and his successor, al-Mu'tasim, Al-Kindi
remained in favor. But his star began to
descend under the next two orthodox Caliphs.
He died in 873 in Baghdad.
The Following Biographical Article
is by:
J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Al-Kindi was born and brought up in Kufah,
which was a centre for Arab culture and learning
in the 9th century. This was certainly the right place
for al-Kindi to get the best education possible
at this time. Although quite a few details
(and legends) of al-Kindi's life are given
in various sources, these are not all consistent.
We shall try to give below details which
are fairly well substantiated.
According to [3], al-Kindi's father was the
governor of Kufah, as his grandfather had
been before him. Certainly all agree that
al-Kindi was descended from the Royal Kindah
tribe which had originated in southern Arabia.
This tribe had united a number of tribes
and reached a position of prominence in the
5th and 6th centuries but then lost power from the middle
of the 6th century. However, descendants of the Royal
Kindah continued to hold prominent court
positions in Muslim times.
After beginning his education in Kufah, al-Kindi
moved to Baghdad to complete his studies
and there he quickly achieved fame for his
scholarship. He came to the attention of
the Caliph al-Ma'mun who was at that time
setting up the "House of Wisdom"
in Baghdad. Al-Ma'mun had won an armed struggle
against his brother in 813 and became Caliph
in that year. He ruled his empire, first
from Merv then, after 818, he ruled from
Baghdad where he had to go to put down an
attempted coup.
Al-Ma'mun was a patron of learning and founded
an academy called the House of Wisdom where
Greek philosophical and scientific works
were translated. Al-Kindi was appointed by
al-Ma'mun to the House of Wisdom together
with al-Khwarizmi and the Banu Musa brothers.
The main task that al-Kindi and his colleagues
undertook in the House of Wisdom involved
the translation of Greek scientific manuscripts.
Al-Ma'mun had built up a library of manuscripts,
the first major library to be set up since
that at Alexandria, collecting important
works from Byzantium. In addition to the
House of Wisdom, al-Ma'mun set up observatories
in which Muslim astronomers could build on
the knowledge acquired by earlier peoples.
In 833 al-Ma'mun died and was succeeded by
his brother al-Mu'tasim. Al-Kindi continued
to be in favour and al-Mu'tasim employed
al-Kindi to tutor his son Ahmad. Al-Mu'tasim
died in 842 and was succeeded by al-Wathiq
who, in turn, was succeeded as Caliph in
847 by al-Mutawakkil. Under both these Caliphs
al-Kindi fared less well. It is not entirely
clear whether this was because of his religious
views or because of internal arguments and
rivalry between the scholars in the House
of Wisdom. Certainly al-Mutawakkil persecuted
all non-orthodox and non-Muslim groups while
he had synagogues and churches in Baghdad
destroyed. However, al-Kindi's [6]:-
... lack of interest in religious argument
can be seen in the topics on which he wrote.
... he appears to coexist with the world
view of orthodox Islam.
In fact most of al-Kindi's philosophical
writings seem designed to show that he believed
that the pursuit of philosophy is compatible
with orthodox Islam. This would seem to indicate
that it is more probably that al-Kindi became
[1]:-
... the victim of such rivals as the mathematicians
Banu Musa and the astrologer Abu Ma'shar.
It is claimed that the Banu Musa brothers
caused al-Kindi to lose favour with al-Mutawakkil
to the extent that he had him beaten and
gave al-Kindi's library to the Banu Musa
brothers.
Al-Kindi was best known as a philosopher
but he was also a mathematician and scientist
of importance [3]:-
To his people he became known as ... the
philosopher of the Arabs. He was the only
notable philosopher of pure Arabian blood
and the first one in Islam. Al-Kindi "was
the most leaned of his age, unique among
his contemporaries in the knowledge of the
totality of ancient scientists, embracing
logic, philosophy, geometry, mathematics,
music and astrology.
Perhaps, rather surprisingly for a man of
such learning whose was employed to translate
Greek texts, al-Kindi does not appear to
have been fluent enough in Greek to do the
translation himself. Rather he polished the
translations made by others and wrote commentaries
on many Greek works. Clearly he was most
influenced most strongly by the writings
of Aristotle but the influence of Plato,
Porphyry and Proclus can also be seen in
al-Kindi's ideas. We should certainly not
give the impression that al-Kindi merely
borrowed from these earlier writer, for he
built their ideas into an overall scheme
which was certainly his own invention.
Al-Kindi wrote many works on arithmetic which
included manuscripts on 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 on space
and time, both of which he believed were
finite, 'proving' his assertion with a paradox
of the infinite. Garro gives al-Kindi's 'proof'
that the existence of an actual infinite
body or magnitude leads to a contradiction
in [7]. In his more recent paper [8], Garro
formulates the informal axiomatics of al-Kindi's
paradox of the infinite in modern terms and
discusses the paradox both from a mathematical
and philosophical point of view.
In geometry al-Kindi wrote, among other works,
on the theory of parallels. He gave a lemma
investigating the possibility of exhibiting
pairs of lines in the plane which are simultaneously
non-parallel and non-intersecting. Also related
to geometry was the two works he wrote on
optics, although he followed the usual practice
of the time and confused the theory of light
and the theory of vision.
Perhaps al-Kindi's own words give the best
indication of what he attempted to do in
all his work. In the introduction to one
of his books he wrote (see for example [1]):-
It is good ... that we endeavour in this
book, as is our habit in all subjects, to
recall that concerning which the Ancients
have said everything in the past, that is
the easiest and shortest to adopt for those
who follow them, and to go further in those
areas where they have not said everything
...
Certainly al-Kindi tried hard to follow this
path. For example in his work on optics he
is critical of a Greek description by Anthemius
of how a mirror was used to set a ship on
fire during a battle. Al-Kindi adopts a more
scientific approach (see for example [1]):-
Anthemius should not have accepted information
without proof ... He tells us how to construct
a mirror from which twenty-four rays are
reflected on a single point, without showing
how to establish the point where the rays
unite at a given distance from the middle
of the mirror's surface. We, on the other
hand, have described this with as much evidence
as our ability permits, furnishing what was
missing, for he has not mentioned a definite
distance.
Much of al-Kindi's work remains to be studied
closely or has only recently been subjected
to scholarly research. For example al-Kindi's
commentary on Archimedes' The measurement of the circle has only received careful attention as recently
as the 1993 publication [10] by Rashed.
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