ABSTRACT
The Ārāʾ al-falāsifa of Pseudo-Ammonius is a doxographical text paraphrased from one or several Greek sources, directly or via Syriac, to Arabic, sometime in the middle of the ninth century CE by someone who was probably associated with al-Kindī’s circle. It was one of the major sources on Greek thought used by early Ismāʿīlī thinkers of the tenth century CE, in particular Nasafī, Rāzī, and Sijistānī. The chapter investigates the possibility that this text shaped the Ismāʿīlī treatment of three major theological and philosophical themes: the creatio ex nihilo (ibdāʿ) and its relation to procession; God’s will and action; and the return or reversion.
