ABSTRACT

A group of thinkers who lead up to Ibn Miskawayh are frequently called “Islamic humanists”, a list which generally includes Abū Hayyān al-Tawḥīdī (d. 399/1009), his teacher Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī (d. 371/981) and many other minor characters of the period. The reason why this label is applied has much to do with the character of the thought produced by these thinkers, which appears to be far more audacious and frank than much of the work of their predecessors or successors. They seem to downgrade the importance of religion, even Islam, without denying its significance, and perceive their task as consisting in the analysis of human being qua human being, as opposed to qua Muslim. There is much in their work which suggests that they give a significance to pure reason which is not found in many of the falāsifah. These thinkers worked at a time of immense self-confidence in the culture of the Islamic world, with Baghdad as the effective centre of a vast civilization comprising a variety of courts with their attendant officials and patrons of learning. The latter half of the fourth/tenth century under the control of the Būyid (Buwayhid) dynasty was perhaps the high point of what might be called “humanism”, since then there was an impressive mingling of a large variety of scholars sharing an interest in the “ancient sciences” and a common language in which to discuss it, despite the diversity of their backgrounds and religious allegiances. Some commentators on this period such as Netton (1992) have described the leading school of philosophy as “Fārābist”, and the influence of al-Fārābī is clearly of enormous significance here. He surely set the agenda of the period, and it is interesting to note the chain of transmission (one might even say isnād) which links him with the period being analysed here.