The Creation of Philosophical Tradition

Biography and the Reception of Avicenna's Philosophy from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century A.D.

by Ahmed H. al-Rahim

Book cover: The Creation of Philosophical Tradition

Extent: 218 pages

Publisher: Harrassowitz Verlag

Subjects: Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, Medieval Studies

Series: Diskurse der Arabistik

Series volume number: 21

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(November 2018)

ISBN: 9783447103336

6.65 x 9.45 inches

Price: $59.00

In stock

How is a philosophical tradition created? What role does literary biography play in the formation of intellectual reception history? Through a detailed analysis of the lives and works of post-Avicennan philosophers, this monograph traces the intellectual history and development of the Avicennan tradition from the fifth/eleventh to the eighth/fourteenth century.


How is a philosophical tradition created? What role does literary biography play in the formation of intellectual reception history? Through a detailed analysis of the lives and works of post-Avicennan philosophers, this monograph traces the intellectual history and development of the Avicennan tradition from the fifth/eleventh to the eighth/fourteenth century. Section 1 investigates the genres of Arabo-Islamic biobibliographical and prosopographical writings as a source for the history of Arabic philosophy, delineating their literary topoi, the construction of philosophical authority, and the relationship of Sunnī and Twelver-Šīʿī Islam to Aristotelian logic and philosophy. Section 2 presents fourteen discrete biobibliographical studies with a critical inventory of the works, including those written in the neglected exegetical genres of commentary, supercommentary, gloss, and supergloss, of Avicenna’s immediate disciples and the following generations of philosophers who created the Avicennan philosophical heritage in the Islamicate world.

  • By (author) Ahmed H al-Rahim