Ikhwān al-Ṣafā (Brethren of Purity) (Author)
Ragep, F. Jamil (Editor)
Mimura, Taro (Editor)
El-Bizri, Nader (Editor)
The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity' is an encyclopedic compendium, probably composed in tenth-century Iraq by a society of adepts with Platonic, Pythagorean, and Shi'i tendencies. Its 52 sections ('epistles') are divided into four parts (Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Sciences of the Soul and Intellect, and Theology). The current volume provides an edition, translation, and notes to Epistle 3 ('On Astronomia'), which forms one of the 14 sections on Mathematics. The content is a mixture of elementary astronomy and astrology, but it is not a beginner's textbook. Rather, the purpose is to use examples from those disciplines to provide spiritual, moral, and soteriological guidance. Thus the Epistle uses the argument from design to show the necessity for a Creator who made the harmonious universe; this wondrous design is then employed by the authors as a model, providing humans with a paradigm for proper ethical, political, and even economic conduct; and the study of Astronomia helps the soul achieve ultimate happiness as it seeks to throw off the shackles of this mundane world and oppressive body in favour of the purity of the celestial realm.0Although by no means typical of Islamic astronomical literature, Epistle 3 of the Brethren of Purity gives a window into a fascinating and intriguing group operating during the early period of Islam who sought to continue and adopt one of the esoteric strands of Hellenistic philosophy within an Islamic context, meshing astronomy, astrology, Platonic-Pythagorean philosophy, Quranic and Biblical quotations, and anecdotes from the lives of the Abrahamic prophets
...MoreReview B. R. Goldstein (2017) Review of "On Astronomia: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistle 3". Suhayl: Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation (pp. 362-366).
Review Petra G. Schmidl (2016) Review of "On Astronomia: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistle 3". Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 357-359).
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S. Mohammad Mozaffari;
(2017)
Holding or Breaking with Ptolemy's Generalization: Considerations about the Motion of the Planetary Apsidal Lines in Medieval Islamic Astronomy
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Baffioni, Carmela;
(2008)
Cosmologia e ismā`īlismo negli Ikhwān al-Ṣafā'
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Sally P. Ragep;
(2017)
Fifteenth-Century Astronomy in the Islamic World
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Chapter
Godefroid de Callataÿ;
(2016)
Who were the Readers of the Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā'?
(/isis/citation/CBB914122588/)
Chapter
Baffioni, Carmela;
(2010)
La science des pierres précieuses dans l'Épître des Ikhwān al Ṣafā': entre les catalogues encyclopédiques et le commentaire philosophique
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Taro Mimura;
(2015)
A Glimpse of Non-Ptolemaic Astronomy in Early Hay’a Work – Planetary models in ps. Mashā’allāh’s Liber de orbe
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Amir Mohammad Gamini;
(2013)
Diversity and Variety of Hayʾa Books in Islamic Civilization
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Iraj Nikseresht;
Sadegh Shahriar;
(2018)
Problem of Simplicity of Muḥaddid al-Jihāt Sphere and Qūshchī’s Challenge in it
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Chapter
Netton, Ian Richard;
(2009)
Private Caves and Public Islands: Islam, Plato, and the Ikhwan Al-Safa'
(/isis/citation/CBB001035950/)
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Amir-Mohammad Gamini;
(2017)
Quṭb al-Dīn Al-Shīrāzī and the Development of Non-Ptolemaic Planetary Modeling in the 13th Century
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Book
Sally P. Ragep;
(2017)
Jaghmīnī’s Mulakhkhaṣ: An Islamic Introduction to Ptolemaic Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB914200704/)
Article
Ghalandari, Hanif;
(2011)
The Physical Nature of Heaven: A Survey of the Concept of Falak in Hay'a Works
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Book
Kaveh Niazi;
(2014)
Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī and the Configuration of the Heavens
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Book
Joseph ibn Nahmias;
(2016)
The Light of the World: Astronomy in al-Andalus
(/isis/citation/CBB554686510/)
Article
Hanif Ghalandari;
(2015-2016)
Third Chpater of Kūshyār's Zīj and Farghānī's Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūm: a Comparison between Two Predecessors of Hayʾa Works and Their Importance in Hayʾa Books
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Chapter
F. Jamil Ragep;
(2017)
From Tūn to Toruń: The Twists and Turns of the Ṭūsī-Couple
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Article
Amir Mohammad Gamini;
Fatemeh Keyghobadi;
(2018)
Ghīyāth al-Dīn Manṣūr Dashtakī’s Al-Safīr fī al-Hayʾa: an Abridged Treatise in “Hayʾa” of Safavid Period
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Chapter
Sébastien Moureau;
(2014)
Note on a Passage of the Arabic Translation of Ptolemy’s Planetary Hypotheses
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Book
Damien Janos;
(2012)
Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fārābī’s Cosmology
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Article
S. Mohammad Mozaffari;
(2018)
An Analysis of Medieval Solar Theories
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