is an Islamic Encyclopedia consisting of fifty-two treatises on
different topics, with an additional comprehensive Treatise (Risālat
al-jāmi'a). The authors lived in Basra in Iraq and were linked to the
early Ismā'īlī da'wa (mission), which belongs to Shī'ī Islam. This
article provides an outline to help readers have a bird's eye-view of
this Encyclopedia composed by brilliant Muslim scholars who mastered
all branches of knowledge in their manifold external and internal
aspects.
1. Historical Background
One of the main obstacles preventing a proper understanding of the
Isma'ili movement is the paucity of historical material exemplified by
the fact that only Sunni sources relating Isma'ili history survived.
The early part of Isma'ili history has two important phases. It is in
this complex pre-Fatimid period that Jabir ibn Hayyan (d. C.E. 815)
wrote many treatises on alchemy and on the mystical science of
treatises. The Encyclopedia of the Ikhwan al-safa' was composed by
authors who had a vast knowledge of Hellenic literature and the
various contemporary sciences.
Isma'ilism developed a complex and rich theosophy which owed a great
deal to Neoplatonism. In the 9TH century, Greek-to-Arabic translations
proliferated, first by the intermediary of Syriac then directly. The
version of Plotinus' Enneads possessed by Muslims was modified with
changes and paraphrases; it was wrongly attributed to Aristotle and
called Theologia of Aristotle, since Plotinus (Flutinus) remained
mostly unknown to the Muslims by name. This latter work played a
significant role in the development of Isma'ilism
The Ikhwan al-Safa' remain an anonymous group of scholars, but when
Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi was asked about them, he identified some of
them: Abu Sulayman al-Busti (known as al-Muqaddasi), 'Ali b. Harun
al-Zanjani, Muhammad al-Nahrajuri (or al-Mihrajani), al-'Awfi, and
Zayd ibn Rifa'i. The complete name of the group is Ikhwan al-Safa' wa
Khullan al-Wafa' wa Ahl al-Hamd wa Abna' al-Majd. The majority of
scholars agree that the Ikhwan and their rasa'il belongs to the
Isma'ili movement. (cf. Nasr, 1978, p. 29; Marquet, 1971, p. 1071;
Poonawala, p. 93)
2. Short Description of the Work
The Encyclopedia is divided into fifty-two epistles (rasa'il) of
varying lengths, which make up four books. Each book develops
different topics:
Book 1: the mathematical sciences (14 rasa'il) include theory of
number, geometry, astronomy, geography, music, theoretical and
practical arts, ethics and logic.
Book 2: the natural sciences (17 rasa'il) comprehend matter, form,
motion, time, space, sky and universe, generation and corruption,
meteorology, minerals, plants, animals, human body, perception,
embryology, man as microcosm, development of souls in the body, limit
of knowledge, death, pleasure, and language.
Book 3: the psychological and rational sciences (10 rasa'il)
comprehend intellectual principles (Pythagoras and Ikhwan), universe
as macrocosm, intelligence and intelligible, periods and era, passion,
resurrection, species of movement, cause and effect, definitions and
descriptions.
Book 4: the theological sciences (11 rasa'il) include doctrines and
religions, way to God, doctrine of Ikhwan, essence of faith, divine
law and prophethood, appeal to God, hierarchy, spiritual beings,
politics, magic and talisman.
3. Philosophical Sciences
The incorporation of philosophical and theological doctrines in their
writings were done teleogically. They were also influenced by
neo-Pythagorean arithmetical theories, the authors based their
theosophy on this Pythagorean principle: "the beings are according to
the nature of the number." (Steigerwald, p. 82) They were inspired by
the assertion attributed to Pythagoras: "In the knowledge of the
properties of numbers and in the way they are classified and ranked in
grades resides the knowledge of the beings of God." (Steigerwald, p.
82) The Ikhwan al-safa' realized that each number depends on the one
which precedes it. We can decompose the number unit by unit till we
reach the first. But to the One "we can not withdraw anything […]
because it is the origin and the source of number."(Steigerwald, p.
82) According to them, beings are like numbers: they come from God and
return finally to Him. This is a good example of how they adapted
Pythagorean theories to their fundamental belief in a hierarchical
world.
The metaphysics of the Ikhwan al-Safa' are built upon Hellenic
philosophy. They share common terminology with the Aristotelian
scheme, but the concepts (matter and form, substance –in Greek ousia —
and accidents, potentially and actuality, and the four causes) vary
slightly. For them, learning is the reminiscence of knowledge already
contained in the soul; the soul is 'potentially knowledgeable' and
becomes 'actually knowledgeable'.
The Ikhwan hold that substance is self-existent and capable of
receiving attributes. But form is divided into two kinds: substances
and accidents. They conceive four causes: material, formal, efficient,
and final. The material cause of plants is the four elements (fire,
air, water, and earth) and their final cause is to provide food for
animals. (rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa', vol. 2 p. 79; cf. rasa'il Ikhwan
al-Safa', vol. 2 p. 115, vol. 3, p. 358) Here the Ikhwan ascribe for
material cause the raw material (i.e. bronze or silver); for the
formal cause, they give the example of an apple pip which is expected
to produce an apple; the efficient cause indicates the origin, for
example a father is the efficient cause of a child, and the final
cause shows the purpose of something.
4. Twofold in the Creation
The process of creation is divided twofold: first, God creates ex
nihilo the Intellect; immediately after the Intellect's emanation
(fayd), it proceeds gradually, giving shape to the present universe.
The order and character of emanation are described below. (rasa'il
Ikhwan al-Safa', vol. 1 p. 54; cf. rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa', vol. 3 pp.
184, 196-7; 235)
(1) Al-Bari' (Creator, or God) is the First and only Eternal Being, no
anthropomorphic attribute is to be ascribed to Him. Only the will to
originate pertains to Him. The Ikhwan present an Unknowable God (Deus
Absconditus) at the top of the hierarchy while the Qur'anic God (Deus
Revelatus), another facet of God, guides people on the right path.
(2) Al-'Aql (Intellect or Gr. Noûs) is the first being to originate
from God. It is one in number as God Himself is One. God created all
the forms of subsequent beings in the Intellect, from which emanated
the Universal soul and the first matter. It is clear, in the opinion
of the Ikhwan, that the Intellect, a counterpart of God, is the best
representative of God.
(3) Al-Nafs al-Kulliyya (The Universal Soul) is the Soul of the whole
universe, a simple essence which emanates from the Intellect. It
receives its energy from the Intellect. It manifests itself in the sun
through which is animated the whole sublunary (material) world. What
we call creation, in our physical world, pertains to the Universal
Soul.
(4) Al-Hayula al-Ula (Prime Matter, arabicized from Gr. hyle), is a
spiritual substance that is unable to emanate by itself. It is caused
by the Intellect to proceed from the Universal Soul which helps it to
emanate and accept different forms.
(5) Al-Tabi'at (Nature) is the energy diffused throughout all organic
and inorganic bodies. It is the cause of motion, life, and change. The
influence of intellect ceases at this stage of Nature. All subsequent
emanations tend to be more and more material and defective.
(6) Al-Jism al-Mutlaq (The Absolute Body) comes about when First
matter acquires physical properties, and it is the physical substance
of which our world is made.
(7) The World of the Spheres (of the fixed stars, Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon) appears in the seventh
stage of emanation. All the heavenly bodies are made up of a fifth
element (ether), and are not subject to generation and corruption.
(8) The Four Elements (fire, air, water, and earth) come immediately
under the sphere of the moon where they are subjected to generation
and corruption. The Ikhwan adopt the view of Thales (d. c. B.C.E. 545)
and the Ionians that the four "elements" change into one another,
water becomes air and fire; fire becomes air, water, earth, etc.
(9) The Three Kingdoms are the last stage of emanation. The three
kingdoms (mineral, plant, and animal) are made of proportional
intermixture of the four elements.
The Ikhwan al-Safa' took over the theory of Democritus of Abdera (d.
c. B.C.E. 370) which considered man as a reduced model of the universe
(microcosm), and the universe as an enlarged copy of man (macrocosm).
They regard the human being as a miniature world. (Netton, pp. 14-15)
The individual souls (al-nafs al-juz'iyya), representing the infinite
powers of the Universal Soul, began to form. During a very long time,
these souls filled the world of spheres and constituted the angels,
who animated heavenly bodies. In the early stage, the angels
contemplated the Intellect and performed the worship due to God. After
a lapse of time, some of these individual souls began to forget much
about their origin and office. Their inattention caused the fall of
the souls into the physical earth. This explains the metaphysical
origin of life on earth.
5. References and Further Reading
De Callataÿ, Godefroid. "The Classification of the Sciences according
to the rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa'."
http://www.iis.ac.uk/learning/life_long_learning/rasail_ikhwan/rasail_ikhwan.htm
Corbin, Henry. History of Islamic Philosophy. Translated from French
by Liadian Sherrad and Philipp Sherrad. London: Kegan Paul
International, 1993: 133-136.
Fakhry, Majid. A history of Islamic Philosophy. Second Edition. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Farrukh, Omar A. "Ikhwan al-Safa'." In A History of Muslim Philosophy.
Edited and Introduced by M.M. Sharif. Wiesabaden: Otta Harrassowitz,
(1963): 289-310.
Available in e-text at:
http://www.al-islam.org/historyofmuslimphilosophy/title.htm
Hamdani, Abbas. "Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi and the Brethren of Purity."
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 9 (1978): 345-353.
Ikhwan al-Safa'. Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa' (Epistles of the Brethren of
Purity). Beirut: Dar Sadir, 4 vols., 1957 (The complete text of the
fifty-two epistles in the original edited by Arabic Butrus Bustani).
Ikhwan al-Safa'. Al-Risala al-Jami'a. Edited by J. Saliba. Damascus,
vol. 1, 1387/1949, vol. 2 n:d.
Maquet, Yves. "Ikhwan al-Safa'." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 3
(1971): 1071-1076.
Marquet, Yves. La philosophie des Ihwan al-Safa'. Algers: Société
Nationale d'Édition et de Diffusion, 1975.
Marquet, Yves. "Les Épîtres des Ikhwan as-Safa', œuvre ismaïlienne."
Studia Islamica. Vol. 61 (1985): 57-79.
Marquet, Yves. "Ihwan as-Safa', Ismaïliens et Qarmates." Arabica. Vol.
24 (1977): 233-257.
Marquet, Yves. "Les Ihwan as-Safa' et l'ismaïlisme." In Convegne sugli
Ikhwan as-Safa'. Rome, 1971.
Marquet, Yves. La Philosophie des alchimistes et l'alchimie des
philosophes: Jabir ibn Hayyan et les Ihwan al-Safa'. Paris:
Maisonneuve et Larose, 1988.
Poonawala, Ismail K. "Ikhwan al-safa'." Vol. 7. The Encyclopedia of
Religion. (1987): 92-95.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islamic Cosmological Doctrines. London: Thames
Hudson, 1978: 23-96.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein and Mehdi Aminrazavi (ed.). An Anthology of
Philosophy in Persia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001: 201-279.
Netton, I.R. Muslim Neoplatonists: An Introduction to the Thought of
the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Safa'). London: Allen & Unwin; 1982.
Steigerwald, Diana. "The Multiple Facets of Isma'ilism." Sacred Web: A
Journal of Tradition and Modernity. Vol. 9 (2002): 77-87.
Tamir, 'Arif. La réalité des Ihwan as-Safa' wa Hullan al Wafa'. Beirut, 1957.
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