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al-'Amiri, Abu'l Hasan Muhammad ibn Yusuf (d. 992)
al-‘Amiri, Abu’l Hasan Muhammad ibn Yusuf (d.
992) Although al-‘Amiri had only a
limited long-term impact, his extant
works provide useful insights into
an extremely creative period in
Islamic philosophy in the tenth
century AD. He attempted to
reconcile philosophy with religion
by showing that the genuine
conclusions of philosophy could not
contradict the revealed truths of
Islam, and attempted to build
consensus within Islam.
He argued
for the individual immortality and
the punishment or reward of the
soul. His analysis of the soul is
largely Neoplatonic. The reward of
the afterlife is determined by the
actualization of the intellect in
this life, aided primarily by right
actions which moderate the physical
faculties and turn the intellect
toward the Divine. Abu’l Hasan
Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-‘Amiri was
born in Khurasan (in modern Iran) in
the early fourth century AH (tenth
century AD) and died in Nishapur in
AH 381/AD 992. He began his career
in Khurasan, where he studied under
Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, and moved to
Rayy and Baghdad, where he met and
was discussed by such substantial
intellectuals as al-Tawhidi and Ibn
Miskawayh. He ended his career in
Bukhara, where he had access to the
Samani library (in which Ibn Sina
studied shortly thereafter), and in
Nishapur. Al-‘Amiri’s main
concern was the rational defence of
Islam against a form of philosophy
regarded as independent of
revelation, and against competing
religious traditions. In the
tradition of al-Kindi, he attempted
to reconcile philosophy with
religion by showing that the real
conclusions of philosophy could not
contradict the revealed truths of
Islam. Unlike his contemporary al-Farabi,
however, al-‘Amiri argued that
revealed truth must be superior to
philosophy, since revelation was
necessary for the completion of the
human intellect and as the
indubitable guide to right action.
The Greeks possessed useful wisdom,
but they could not be considered
final authorities because they
lacked a prophet. In spite of his
attacks on, for example, the
Mu‘tazila and the Batiniya
esotericists, al-‘Amiri’s
approach was generally conciliatory
toward philosophy, the mutakallimun
(theologians) and a wide variety of
Islamic sects. His respected
treatise on Sufism, for example,
provided both a rational,
Aristotelian interpretation of
Sufism and a reconciliation of
Sufism with more conventional Islam.
He preferred to emphasize areas of
agreement between philosophers and
Islamic sects, perhaps because he
perceived the dangers of
sectarianism in the diverse
environment of Khurasan and perhaps
also because Islam had not fully
consolidated its position relative
to pre-Islamic traditions.
He had a
marked preference for religious,
rather than philosophical,
terminology (for example, ruh rather
than nafs for the soul), indicating
that his probable primary audience
was the Islamic religious elite. In
al-I‘lam bi manaqib al-Islam (An
Exposition on the Merits of Islam)
and Inqadh al-bashar min al jahr
wa’l-qadar (Deliverance of Mankind
from the Problem of Predestination
and Free Will), al-‘Amiri
attempted a rational justification
of the moral superiority of Islam to
other religions, especially to
Zoroastrianism and Manicheism. In
the latter work, he also attempted a
resolution of the theological
problem of free will by the
application of Aristotelian
principles, a project which he
repeated with greater philosophical
subtlety in his al-Taqrir li-awjuh
al-taqdir (The Determination of the
Various Aspects of Predestination).
His resolution of the problem of
predestination required a
distinction between necessary,
contingent and possible beings. Only
God is necessary existence (wajib
al-wujud), whose essence is
identical with his existence. Human
use of multiple terms for divine
attributes is thus figurative, since
God is essentially a unity. All
other existents are contingent and,
in so far as they require the
support of necessary existence, are
preordained.
The relations of
contingent things to each other,
however, are of a different order,
in which individual responsibility
is possible. Significantly, al-‘Amiri’s
use of the term wajib al-wujud is
one of only two extant examples (the
other is Ibn Miskawayh) of the use
of this term prior to Ibn Sina, who
adopted the term into the very heart
of his thought. Al-‘Amiri’s
interpretation of Empedocles
suggests the possible existence of apseudo-Empedoclean text or tradition
extant in his time which might have
been a significant precursor of some
important Avicennan arguments.
Al-‘Amiri’s list of the five
‘sages’ of Greek philosophy is
unusual, since Empedocles is first
in a line which progresses through
Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and
Aristotle. In keeping with al-‘Amiri’s
conciliatory method, each was given
a means of contact with a prophetic
tradition, even though each spoke
from the perspective of reason
alone. Empedocles was said to have
studied with Luqman in Syria, and
Pythagoras with the companions of
Solomon in Egypt. Socrates, Plato
and Aristotle then preserved and
developed the wisdom of Pythagoras.
Al-‘Amiri’s sources for
philosophical history are primarily
Neoplatonic, especially pseudo-Ammonius
(see Neoplatonism). One or more
fragmented translations of the
Phaedo were especially important for
al-‘Amiri’sKitab al-amad
‘ala’l-abad (On the Afterlife),
in which he argued for the
individual immortality and
punishment or reward of the soul.
His analysis of the soul is largely
Neoplatonic, and the reward of the
afterlife is determined by the
actualization of the intellect in
this life, aided primarily by right
actions which moderate the physical
faculties and turn the intellect
toward the Divine. Al-‘Amiri’s
work was soon eclipsed by the
philosophical revolution brought
about by Ibn Sina. Nevertheless, his
work provides a window into the
philosophical and religious debates
which formed the background of that
revolution and into the sources upon
which the participants in those
debates drew. Although partisans of
various schools may find his
interpretations problematic, his
emphasis on the importance of good
action over particulars of doctrine
and his synthesizing interpretations
represent an important attempt to
build consensus within Islam during
a turbulent, fractious, creative
period in its history. See also: Ibn
Sina; Islamic theology; Neoplatonism
in Islamic philosophy;
Predestination; Soul in Islamic
philosophy TOM GASKILL Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Version
1.0, London: Routledge
List
of works
Al-‘Amiri (before 992) al-I‘lam bi manaqib
al-Islam (An Exposition on the
Merits of Islam). (A translation of
most of Chapter 1, ‘The Quiddity
of Knowledge and the Appurtenances
of its Species’, can be found in
F. Rosenthal, The Classical Heritage
of Islam, Berkeley, CA: University
of California Press, 1973, 63-70. A
translation by F. Rosenthal of
Chapter 7, ‘The Excellences of
Islam in Relation to Royal
Authority’, appears in ‘State
and Religion According to Abu l-Hasan
al-‘Amiri’, Islamic Quarterly 3:
42-52.) Al-‘Amiri (before 992)
Inqadh al-bashar min al jahr
wa’l-qadar (Deliverance of Mankind
from the Problem of Predestination
and Free Will).(There is at present
no modern edition of this work.)
Al-‘Amiri (before 992) al-Taqrir
li-awjuh al-taqdir (The
Determination of the Various Aspects
of Predestination).(There is at
present no modern edition of this
work.) Al-‘Amiri (before 992)
Kitab al-amad ‘ala’l-abad (On
the Afterlife), ed. and trans. E.K.
Rowson, A Muslim Philosopher on the
Soul and Its Fate: Al-‘Amiri’s
Kitab al Amad ‘ala l-abad, New
Haven, CT: American Oriental
Society, 1988.(Rowson contains a
critical edition and translation
with a commentary on al-‘Amiri’s
most influential work, with thorough
background and bibliographic
material.) References and further
reading Biesterfeldt, H.H. (1977)
‘Abu’l-Hasan al-‘Amiri und die
Wissenschaften’ (Abu’l Hasan
al-‘Amiri and the Sciences),
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlنndischen
Gesellschaft, Supplement III (1),
Wiesbaden.(A useful discussion of
the division of the sciences in the
I‘lam.) Rowson, E.K. (1996)
‘Al-‘Amiri’, in S.H. Nasr and
O. Leaman (eds) History of Islamic
Philosophy, London: Routledge, ch.
14, 216-21.(Concise evaluation of
the career of this influential
thinker.) Vadet, J.C. (1974-5) ‘Une Défense philosophique de la
sunna: les Manaqib al-islam
d’al-‘Amiri’, Revue des études
islamiques 42: 245-76 and 43:
77-96.(An overview of the I‘lam.) Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Version
1.0, London: Routledge
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