The following is the first attempt which has been made, since
the appearance of Munk’s excellent sketch , to present
in connected form a History of Philosophy in Islam. This work of
mine may therefore be regarded as a fresh initiation,—not a
completion of such a task. I could not know of all that had been
done by others, in the way of preliminary study in this field; and
when I did know of the existence of such material, it was not
always accessible to me. As for manuscript assistance, it was only
in exceptional cases that this was at my disposal.
Conforming to the conditions which I had to meet, I have in
the following account refrained from stating my authorities. But
anything which I may have taken over, nearly word for word or
without testing it, I have marked in foot-references. For the rest,
I deeply regret that I cannot duly indicate at present how much I
owe, as regards appreciation of the sources, to men like Dieterici,
de Goeje, Goldziher, Houtsma, Aug. Müller, Munk, Nöldeke, Renan,
Snouck Hurgronje, van Vloten, and many, many others.
Since the completion of this volume an interesting monograph
on Ibn Sina has appeared, which farther extends
[VIII] its survey over the earlier history of
Philosophy in Islam. It gives rise to no occasion, however, to
alter substantially my conception of the subject.
For all bibliographical details I refer the reader to “die
Orientalische Bibliographie”, Brockelmann’s “Geschichte der
Arabischen Litteratur”, and Ueberweg—Heinze’s “Grundriss der
Geschichte der Philosophie” II 3 , p.
213 sqq. In the transcription of
Arabic names I have been more heedful of tradition and German
pronunciation, than of consistency. Be it noted only that
z is to be pronounced as a soft
s , and th
like the corresponding English sound . In the
Index of Personal Names, accents signify length.
As far as possible I have confined myself to Islam. On that
ground Ibn Gebirol and Maimonides have received only a passing
notice, while other Jewish thinkers have been entirely omitted,
although, philosophically considered, they belong to the Muslim
school. This, however, entails no great loss, for much has been
written already about the Jewish philosophers, whereas Muslim
thinkers have hitherto been sadly neglected.
Groningen (Netherlands).
T. J. de Boer. [IX]
1 S. Munk, “ Mélanges de
Philosophie juive et arabe ”, Paris 1859.
↑
2 Carra de Vaux, “
Avicenne ”, Paris 1900.
↑
3 [ Translator’s
Note : In this version the transliteration has
been adapted as far as possible to English sounds.]
↑