Al-Kindī

Abū Yūsuf Ya‘qūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī ¹ is generally held to have been the first Muslim philosopher. This does not mean, however, that the Muslims prior to al-Kindī had no cognizance at all of Greek philosophical ideas. On the contrary, some philosophical knowledge, though fragmentary, can be attributed to the early Mu‘tazilī kalām. Some of their main representatives – Abu’l-Hudhayl al-‘Allāf ² and al-Naẓẓām ³ – developed a theology built on certain Greek philosophical elements. Thus the theologian Abu’l-Ḥasan al-Ash‘arī ⁴ named Aristotle as the source of some of Abu’l-Hudhayl’s doctrines, ⁵ and al-Baghdādī ⁶ blamed al-Naẓẓām for having borrowed from Greek philosophers the idea of matter being infinitely divisible. ⁷ The impact of Greek philosophy upon early Mu‘tazilī kalām is evident and has been stated also by early Muslim theologians and heresiographers. But this impact remained rather marginal; for none of the early Mu‘tazilī theologians ever elaborated an encyclopedic system of Greek philosophy as this was out of the range of their interests. It was al-Kindī who pursued this aim and who may therefore rightly be called the first Muslim philosopher, whereas the representatives of Mu‘tazilī kalām were theologians and no philosophers. This fact alone puts al-Kindī in some opposition to the Mu‘tazilah with whom he should not be identified. ⁸