Allah Transcendent: Studies in the Structure and Semiotics of Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Cosmology [1 ed.] 0700702873, 9780700702879

Table of contents :
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
Preface and Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. AI-Kindī: The Watcher at the Gate
3. Al-Fārābī: The Search for Order
4. Ibn Sīnā’s Necessary and Beloved Deity
5. The God of Medieval Isma‘īlism: Cosmological Variations on a Neoplatonic Theme
6. Ishrāq and Wahda: The Mystical Cosmos of Al-Suhrawardī and Ibn al-ʻArabī
7. Conclusion: The Vocabulary of Transcendence: Towards a Theory of Semiotics for Isiamic Theology
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

ALLAH TRANSCENDENT

ALLAH TRANSCeNDeNT STUDIES IN THE STRUCTURE AND SEMIOTICS OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY AND COSMOLOGY

IAN RICHARD NErrON

~l

~~

Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

LONDON AND NEW YORK

Paperbackedition First publishedin 1994 by Routledge 2 Park Square,Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferredto Digital Printing 2006

ISBN 0 7007 0287 3

© 1989 Ian Richard Netton The moral right of the authorhas beenasserted

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this title is available on request from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmittedin any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior written permissionof the publisher.

Publisher'sNote The publisherhas gone to greatlengthsto ensurethe quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfectionsin the original may be apparent

I dedicatethis book with affection and gratitude to all my colleagues in the Departmentof Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter

Quotationsare reprintedwith permissionof: Macmillan PublishingCompanyfrom The Koran Interpretedby Arthur J. Arberry, translator. Copyright 1955 by GeorgeAllen & Unwin Ltd.; HarperCollins PublishersLtd. from The Koran Interpretedby Arthur J. Arberry; PaulistPressfrom Ibn al-'Arabi: The Bezelsof Wisdomby R.W.J. Austin © 1980 The Missionary Societyof St Paul the Apostle in the Stateof New York; PaulistPress from Meister Eckhart: The EssentialSermons,Commentaries, Treatises,and Defenseby E. Colledgeand B. McGinn © 1981 The Missionary Societyof St Paul the Apostle in the Stateof New York. Quotationsare usedby permissionof the publishers,SPCK, from Ibn al-'Arabi: The Bezelsof Wisom (1980) by R.W.J. Austin and from Meister Eckhart: The EssentialSermons,Commentaries,Treatises and Defense(1981) by E. Colledgeand B. McGinn.

Contents

List of Figures Prefaceand Acknowledgements Abbreviations l.

Introduction The Facesof God Alexandria Gondeshapur I:Iarran The Qur'linic Creator Paradigm and the Structure of Islamic Thought

2. AI-Kindi: The Watcherat the Gate

The Four Facesof al-Kindi The Qur'anicKindi and God The Aristotelian Kindi and God The Mu'tazilite Kindi and God The NeoplatonicKindi and God AI-Kindi's Proof for the Existenceof God The Universe of Kindian Theology: Structure and Semiotics

3. Al-Farabi: The Searchfor Order

The Roadto Ascalon: The Man and his Search AI-Farabi and the Attributes of God Essenceand Existence Emanation AI-Farabi'sProof for the Existenceof God The Universe of Alfarabism: The Emanationof Structureand the Structureof Emanation

4. Ibn Sina'sNecessaryand BelovedDeity

PreliminaryAssessments and Definitions Necessityand Unity

ix x xiii

1 1 7

13

15

17 45 45 47 51 55 58 65 70 99 99 102 109 114 123 125 149 149 150 vii

CONTENTS

Other Attributes of the AvicennanDeity Emanation:The Cosmologyand Angelology of Ibn Sina Ibn Sina'sProofsfor the Existenceof God The Mystical Dimensionof the AvicennanDeity The Structureof AvicennanTheology: The Allegory as Mirror

153 162 172 174 178

5. The God of Medieval Isma'ilism: Cosmological

Variationson a NeoplatonicTheme 203 Early Doctrine 203 Al-Nasafi and the Infiltration of Neoplatonism 210 Al-Sijistani and the Flowering of Isma'ili Neoplatonism 214 AI-Kirmani and the Multiplication of Hypostases 222 Al-J:I8midi and the Apotheosisof the Neoplatonic Myth 229 The Structureof Isma'ili Myth and Theology 234

6. Ishraq and Wa~:

The Mystical Cosmosof Al-Suhrawardiand Ibn al-'Arabi Al-Suhrawardiand the Grammarof Ishraq The God of Light SuhrawardianEmanation,Angelology and Cosmology The Longitudinal Order of Angelic Lights (Tabaqatal-1Ul) The Latitudinal Order of Angelic Lights (Tabaqatal-'Ar4) The RegentLights (AI-Anwar al-Mudabbira) The Paradoxof Ibn al-'Arabi Ibn al-'Arabi's View of God Emanationand Ibn al-'Arabi ~ufism, 'Union' with God and Ibn al-'Arabi SuhrawardianSemiosisand the Structureof Reality According to Ibn al-'Arabi

256 256 257 260

260 263 266 268 269 280 284 288

7. Conclusion:The Vocabularyof Transcendence:

Towardsa Theoryof Semioticsfor Isiamic Theology 321

Bibliography

336

Index

373

viii

List of Figures

Creationand al-Kindi

64

2. Emanationand al-Farabi

116

3. Emanationand Ibn Sina

165

4. An Early Isma'iIi Cosmology

206

5. AI-Nasafi's NeoplatonicHierarchy

213

6. AI-Sijistani's NeoplatonicHierarchy

221

7. AI-Kirmani's NeoplatonicHierarchy

228

8. AI-Suhrawardi'sHierarchyof Lights

267

1.

9. The Manifestationsof the One Reality in Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmos

284

ix

Preface and Acknowledgements

WhetherA. N. Whitehead(1861-1947)was right to claim that the whole history of philosophywas a mere seriesof footnotes to Plato1 may be debated,at least as far as the development of Westernphilosophyis concerned.However, this book is an attemptto show that the sameshould not be said incautiously of Islamic philosophy.This provedmore thancapableof constituting a systemof thought in its own right: indeed,we should perhapsbetter speakof severalsystems.The book is also an attempt to survey and analysethe conceptof God within the fields of Islamic philosophyand theology in a fresh light: it is, to the best of my knowledge, the first attempt to utilize the insights of structuralism,post-structuralism,and semioticsand apply them to these twin fields. Now I devoutly hope that I will not be regardedas having sold my intellectual birthright for a superficial mess of structuralistpottage! I have been at pains throughoutto emphasizethat such tools as structuralism are the methods,not the ends,of analysis.But they are useful methods.One of the most distinguishedcommentatorswriting on Islam today, ProfessorMohammedArkoun, has called for a radical rethinking of Islam. 'It is necessary,'he says, 'to clear away the obstaclesfound in Islamic as well as Orientalist literature on Islam and to devotemore attentionin our universities to teaching and studying history as an anthropologyof the past and not only as a narrative accountof facts.... My method is one of deconstruction.'2Arkoun stressesthe vital need'to integrate,as Shafi'i and Ghazali did, new disciplines, new knowledge, and new historical insights into Islam as a spiritual and historical vision of humanexistence.'3The reader will note that I, too, havegenuflectedin the direction of deconstruction and cited several works dealing with that mode of 'enquiry,' but I have by no meansembarkedon a full journey down the rough and frequently unlit via Derrida. However, I hope that I have gone someway towards answeringProfessor x

PREFACEAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Arkoun's call, at least in the treatmentof medieval Islamic philosophyand theology. For what I havetried to do is take a numberof thinkers,studythesesynchronically,andrelatethem internally and externally to what I have termed the 'Qur'anic CreatorParadigm.'The choiceof thinkersdiscussedis deliberately selective since this book is not intended to be a full diachronic study of the whole field like, for example,Majid Fakbry'sHistory of Islamic Philosophy.(I havefelt free, therefore, to omit al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd.) It does, however, reveal a progressivetemporal alienation from the Qur'anic paradigm. Finally, if I may borrow the terminology of semiotics,this work of mine is intendedto constitutea sign: it is a sign that someof us are preparedto respondto ProfessorArkoun's call. It is also a call in itself for a general revival in the study of Islamic philosophy, a field where a huge amount of work remains to be done. That work should - indeed, must - be done in the light of the human scienceslike anthropology, sociology, and sub-disciplineslike the study of the history of discursiveformations. We may build on the groundwork laid by what I will call the 'North American School of Islamic Philosophy,'whosenumerousexcellentscholarsarecited in my footnotes. (I am proud to have been electeda Fellow of the Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science in 1984). The situation, alas, is rather bleaker in the United Kingdom where, despite much valuable work, those of us actively engagedin researchon Islamic philosophyarefar fewer and the heirs of WalzerandStemare thus infrequentlyencountered. It is my hope that this book will signal to other Islamicists, Arabists, philosophers,and intellectual historiansin the United Kingdom the delights inherent in the study of Islamic philosophy,and provide someindication of what remainsto be done. Umberto Eco observeda few years ago that 'The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.'4 While this is clearly a counselof perfection (!), his remarkdoesstressthe primacy of the text, and the independenceof that text from its author, once completed. Every text can be read in a variety of ways. I will be content if my own text which follows is seento have brokenfree from a certaintraditionaliststyle of writing aboutIslamic philosophy. In its production I have incurred many debts,intellectual and xi

PREFACEAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

otherwise.Firstly my very special thanks, love, and gratitude go to my wife Sue and my family, who have uncomplainingly borne the heavy demandsmadeby the writing of this book on their time as well as mine. Next I must mention what lowe to my dear colleague and friend, ProfessorAziz al-Azmeh, Professorof Islamic Studies in the University of Exeter. As one of the most brilliant, erudite, and innovative scholars writing today on the intellectual history of Arabic and Islamic thought, he has been a constant mentor and stimulus throughout the production of this volume (as well as an unquenchable source of suggestions for further reading material!). My indebtednessto his own works will be clear in partsof my text, and it is acknowledgedin my footnotes.(The mistakes,of course,are mine alone.)To him, to Dr. Rasheed EI-Enany and all my Arabic colleaguesin Exeter, I dedicate this volume. I must also thank the excellentinter-library loans departmentof the University of ExeterLibrary, and its director Miss Heather Eva, for unrivalled service and efficiency; Mr Paul Auchterlonie, the Arabic specialistlibrarian in the same library, for valuable help given over the years; and Mrs Sheila Westcott,who typed partsof this manuscriptand in a multitude of otherways easedits production. My final thanksare dueto the following publishersfor permission to quote in a variety of placesin my book from the works cited in brackets: Macmillan PublishingCompany,New York and Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., London (A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted); PaulistPress,Mahwah,N.J., and SPCK,London and Reading (E. Colledge and B. McGinn, Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries,Treatises, and Defense; and R.W.J. Austin, Ibn al- 'Arabi: The BezelsofWisdom).

Ian Richard Netton University of Exeter

April 1988

NOTES 1. SeeA. R. Lacey, Modern Philosophy:An Introduction, p. 10. 2. MohammedArkoun, RethinkingIslam Today, p. 3 (my italics).

3. Ibid., p. 4. 4. UmbertoEco, Postscriptto 'The Nameof the Rose',p. 7.

xii

Abbreviations

EP EP Supp. EIS JMIAS JRAS

Q.

THES TLS

Encyclopaediaof Islam, new edn Encyclopaediaof Islam Supplement Shorter Encyclopaediaof Islam Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Qur'iin (Flugel edn) Times Higher Education Supplement Times Literary Supplement

xiii

1 Introduction

THE FACES OF GOD

How many faces has God? Egyptologistshave wrestled with the problemover many yearsin an effort to determinewhether the ancientEgyptianpantheonwas ultimately reducibleto one supremeBeing. Did Egypt, or at leastsomeof its initiates and priests, believe that Isis, Osiris, Horus, Anubis, and a whole host of lesserknown deities were really all aspectsor 'faces' of the one almighty God? Many scholars,particularly in the nineteenthcentury, maintainedthat this was the case.Others later reactedagainsta purely monotheisticconceptionof deity, while Karl Beth in the early part of the twentieth century held that both monotheismand polytheism could be found in Egyptianthought. He also warnedthat neitherlabel was really very helpful in highlighting the individual nature of Egyptian religion.! The debatehas continuedinto the present. The theologies of ancient Greek religion and Hinduism presentsimilar problems. From early times, conceptsof one supremeGod, and of many godslike Zeus, Apollo, and Hera, filled and intriguedthe Greekmind. Thusthe poetXenophanes (ft. circa Be 57~70) observed:'God is one, greatestamong gods and men, in no way like mortals either in body or in mind.'2 Furthermore,he particularly objectedto the anthropomorphismof Homerand Hesiodin their portrayalof the gods.3 Plato spoke of one God and severalgods.4 As for Hinduism, LawrenceA. Babb has stressedthat: Ultimately, as the most casualstudentof Hinduism knows, all the gods and goddessesare 'one'. This is a doctrine of

1

INTRODUCTION

genuine significance, and not merely an extravaganceof bookish philosophers. It is a doctrine that is reiterated frequently in the texts, but illiterate villagers are equally fluent in maintaining that although there are many deities, and although they have different and sometimescontradictory characteristics,in the end all are the sameand all are one. In a sense,the very lack of surfacestructurepermits a deeperstructureof anotherkind.s Put another way, the multifarious forms of the one God Rama and others- may be comparedto 'the Krishna, Vi~Qu, samepersonappearingin cinemasor picture showsas different personsat one and the sametime.'6 Islam, however, except in its most hereticalforms, has not had to deal with such a problem. The tension between an intrinsic monotheismand an everydaypolytheism,with a host of major and minor gods looking after each and every one of man'sactivities in a variety of guises,has not occurred.There has been hardly any attemptto presentMul)ammad, 'Ali, the other early caliphs, or even the proto-prophetsof Islam like Abraham, as manifestationsof the Deity.' On the contrary, the utter humanity of Mul)ammad, a humanity unmagnifiedpace the hadith literature to the contrary - even by miracles save that of being the mouthpiecefor the Qur'an, has usually 8 been emphasized. God is unequivocallyone in orthodoxIslam and the doctrine of His absoluteunity (tawl}id) is a major and constantleitmotiv in the Qur'an, as well as in a huge corpus of Islamic writing. Polytheism(shirk) is roundly condemnedas the most heinous and unforgivableof sins9 in an all-embracingcensurethat does not spare those heretical Christianswho professthe doctrine of tritheism.1o Yet Islam too hashad a problemof divine 'faces':not in the senseof a single deity divided up among, or representedby, many gods but simply in the fact that Muslims over the ages have regardedtheir one God in severalwidely differing ways. In this Islam is by no meansunique. Christianity, for example, from its early days was forced to confront the problems of anthropomorphismand allegorization,to analysewhat kind of God it was who was being worshipped,and decide how man could bestspeakaboutHim, and to work out exegeticalnorms for scripturethat steereda happymediumbetweenpure allego2

INTRODucnON

rization and gross literalism. What did the Bible really mean when it talked about God? Some,like the great Biblical exegeteOrigen (circa AD 185 to circa AD 254) viewed scripture as 'a patchwork of symbolism'll and exalted the method of allegorical exegesis above all others. Origen's native city of Alexandria becamea centrefor this particular approachto the sacredtext. But the pendulum also swung the other way: the Antiochene theologiansin the fourth and fifth centuries,like Diodore of Tarsus (circa AD 330 to circa AD 390), later reacted,believing allegory to be, in Kelly's words, 'an unreliable,indeedillegitimate, instrument for interpreting Scripture.'12 There was also much speculationabout the exact nature of the Deity: many of the early Fathersadheredto a doctrine of a totally transcendent God, beyondthe imaginationand comprehensionof man. Thus Clementof Alexandria (circa AD 150 to circa AD 215) denied that God could feel emotions such as grief or joy and maintained that anthropomorphiclanguagewas only used because of man'sweak intellect.ll Origen agreedthat somedescription could be used 'to guide the hearer' but saw human language as basically quite inadequateto show the reality and attributes of God.l4 Islam was confrontedwith similar problems: Muslims, like Christians,realized that they neededguidancein interpreting their scripture. For what did the Qur'an meanexactly when it statedthat God had a hand,1sor a face,16and,in someway, was on a throne(thumma'stawa 'ala '1-'arsh)?17Was the solution an unmindful anthropomorphismin which God was comparedto His creation(tashbih), with perhapssomeallegoricalinterpretation (ta'wi/) of the grosseranthropomorphisms,or was it a rigorous stripping of God by the theologiansof all human attributes (ta'tfl)?18 This difficulty becamea major fixation of the medieval Islamic scholastics,together with the equally 9 And, as M. thorny problem of free will and predestination.l S. Sealehas so clearly demonstrated,much of the thinking of theseearly Islamic theologians,or at leastits development,may well havebeeninfluencedby that of their patristicpredecessors. Sealebelieves,for example,that the God of the PersianJahm ibn Safwan(died AD 745) was 'derived ... throughthe media of the Church Fathers'and 'was closer to the Greek Absolute than to the God of the Qur'an.' Jahm'swhole theology was,

3

INTRODUCTION

indeed, profoundly influenced in Seale'sview by the Greek Christian theology of the AlexandrianChurch Fathers.20 If we examine the multifarious debatesand discussionsof the theologiansand the philosophersaboutthe natureof God, we can identify at least four major ways in which He was perceivedin medieval Islam.21 There was, firstly, what might be described as the QUR'ANIC model or 'face' of a God aboutwhom very literal and anthropomorphicstatementswere sometimesmade in scripture that were to be acceptedas realities without further enquiry into their modality (bila kayf).22It was sufficient to realizethat the exactnatureof such features as God's hand or eyes would be quite unlike any earthly handsor eyes.This was the classicstanceof suchtheologiansas AQrnad b. I;Ianbal (AD 780--855)and al-Ash'ari(AD 873/4-935/6).Both were concernedto stressthe reality of the anthropomorphicdescriptionsfound in the Qur'an. But logically, their attitudeof bila kay!, or refusalto examinethe mode of these descriptions,resulted in an intellectual cul-de-sacin which acceptancetriumphed over analysis and incomprehension over reason.23 The age old problem of the attributesof God cannotbe said to have beensolved by either theologian. Today it is no longer a live issuethough, speakingvery generally, we may note that it is the Ash'arite position that has prevailedin the Islamic world. There was, secondly, an ALLEGORICAL model or 'face' of God. The extremely physical anthropomorphicstatements in the Qur'anwere to be consideredas metaphorsor allegories. This was the position held by manyof the thinkerswho became characterized by, or grouped under, the umbrella term 'Mu'tazilite': . . . this movementnever produceda synthetic schemeof thought, nor even an eclectic system. Its raison d'~tre was not, in fact, the creation of a unified body of belief, but rather the interpretation of certain inherited doctrines in favour of a particular view of divine nature and human destiny, to which end the Mu'tazilites madeuse of a heterogeneouslot of ideas borrowed for the most part from the various schools of Greek thought which they had come to know.24 But despitetheir severaldisagreementson points of doctrinal 4

INTRODUcnON

detail, most of the Mu'tazilites were agreedon a non-literal mode of interpretationof much of the anthropomorphicdata aboutGod in the Our'an.Thus the Mu'tazilite theologian'Abd al-Jabbaribn Alpnad (AD 936-1025) interpreted God's eye ('ayn) in O.XX:40 as God's knowledge('ilm) and God's face (wajh) in O.XXV111:88 as His essence(dhdt).25 Such exegesis can only have made God more unknowablerather than less, and dug a wider gulf between manand his Creator. A dry hermeneutic intellectualism restricted the former's mental image of his Deity and certainly must have helped in paving the way for the mystical approachto God in Islam. It is this MYSTICAL approachthat embodiesour third main model or 'face' of the Islamic God. As is well known, its and they probably gained their practitionerswere called ~l1fis namefrom the garmentsof wool (~af) which the early devotees wore. Their fundamental way of looking at God was quite different from that of the Ash'ariteandMu'tazilite theologians. No longerwasthe emphasison attributes,whetherreal, linked, developedinstead a basic separateor allegorical. The ~l1fis thesis of a God of love or, perhapsbetter put, a God who is loved by His creationas a sweetheartis loved by her lover.Impatient of the aridities of scholastictheology and philosophy with their dreary speculationson the nature of divinity, the ~l1fis endeavouredto strive towards, and even obtain, some kind of direct communion with their Creator. At first their motive power was fear: fear of eternal damnation and the sufferingsso graphicallyportrayedin the Our'anicdescriptions of Hell. 26 Later that fear gave way to love27 so that we find, and are not surprisedby, suchclassicalenunciationsof mystical love asthat of Rabi'aal-'Adawiyya (circa AD 717-801),Islam's counterpartof the great St Teresaof Avila: Oh my Lord, if I worship Thee from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise,exclude me thence,but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, then withhold not from me Thine Eternal Beauty.28 It is, perhaps,in the unquenchableyearning of the ~iifi that the Islamic conceptof God comesclosestto the New Testament paradigm in Christianity where the vengeful Yahweh of the Old Testamenthas been replacedby a God of love who is to be addressedas 'Father.'

5

INTRODUCTION

The fourth major way of looking at Allah was the NEOPLATONIC. I haveseparatedthe transcendentnatureof this model or 'face' from that of the allegorical one mentionedearlier becausethe two are clearly quite distinct althoughthe one may have influenced the other.29 The transcendentDeity of the Mu'tazilites, whoseseveralQur'anicattributeswere metamorphosedby allegory,was not boundup with ideasof emanation, nor with hypostasessuchas the UniversalIntellect (al-'Aql aiKullt) and the Universal Soul (al-Nafs al-Kulliyya). But the unknowableGod of medievalNeoplatonicIslam was. The end result was the developmentof a transcendentaltheology in Islam, with the Isma'ili sectas its political andspiritual apotheosis, which was far more complex than anything of which the Mu'tazila could have dreamed.30 It is with this fourth kind of Islamic way of viewing the Deity, with this unknown, utterly transcendentNeoplatonic aspect of Allah, as describedin the writings of some of the Islamic philosophers,that this book will deal in the main. The other aspectswill not, however,be ignored. Considerableattention will also be paid to the conceptof emanationas well as to the Universal Intellect and Universal Soul. But to see how Neoplatonismdevelopedwithin Islam it is useful first to return briefly to the foundationsof later Greekthoughtin the Middle East in pre-Islamicand early Islamic times. It shouldbe stressedherenow, right at the beginning,andthe point will be developedandelaboratedlater, that the history of Islamic philosophyis not purely a history of 'influences,'of a total legacyfrom Greeceto the Eastand its intellectualmilieu undiluted by any home-grownthought at all. 'Influence' there undoubtedlywas as in every arenathat has the potential for cross-culturalfertilization. The argumentof this book is that it was by no means total, that original thinkers arose in the Middle Eastaselsewhere,and that, in any case,an intertextual perspectivein the study of intellectual thought is often more rewarding than one that seeksonly to identify, and pin down like a butterfly collector, the 'influence' of one thinker or culture upon another.A stresson intertextualitywill thus be a recurring motif throughoutthis book. Here, however,we will surveysomeof the influences. This is perhapsa suitablepoint at which to try and identify some of the wellsprings of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism in the Middle East. Among the principal oneswere the various 6

INTRODUcnON

academiesof learning, medicine, and culture which were to be found at Alexandria in Egypt and Gondeshapur(Arabic: Jundaysabfu)near Baghdad.Some of theseinstitutions have been characterizedas 'universities.'31Then there was I:Iarran in Northern Syria, home of the astral loving Sabaeanswith their transcendenttheology,32and later, in the ninth century AD, refuge of scholars from the Alexandrian school.33 A triangle drawn betweenthe threepointsof Alexandria,Gondeshapfu,34 and I:Iarran providesa graphicillustration of the very wide sphereof later Greek thought in and aroundthe Fertile Crescentprior to, and after, the rise of Islam. They were joined by Baghdadin AD 830. And thesewere not the only centres of Greek learningby any means.Other notableonesincluded Antioch, Edessa,Qinnesrin in Northern Syria, and Nisibis and Ras'ainain Iraq.35 The Mosque-Universityof al-Azhar, inauguratedin AD 972 by the conqueringFatimids, was their logical intellectual heir, at least in its early days, until Isma'ili teachingand thought were squashedby the Sunni Ayyubids.36 Alexandria

By the time the victorious Arabs marchedinto Alexandria in AD 642, the city had for centuriesacted as a friend, refuge and,sometimes,catalystto a whole hostof religions,doctrines, theologies and philosophies: Platonism, middle Platonism, Neoplatonism,Aristotelianism, Gnosticism,Judaism,Christianity - all had found a ready niche. The sheer intellectual eclecticismandcosmopolitanauraof the city from late antiquity up to this period puts one in mind of the Arab city of Basraa few centurieslater.37 Literature and thought flourished with equivalent ease: thus, the Alexandrian chief librarian Apollonius (later, of Rhodes,circa BC 295-215) wrote his epic on the searchfor the Golden Fleeceentitled The Argonauticain a mannerthat has beendescribedas 'utterly Alexandrianin its romanticism.'38 Here Philo (circa BC 25 to circa AD 50) attempteda synthesisof Judaicand Hellenistic thought.39 As we have seen,Biblical scholarslike Origen agonizedover the exegesisof sacredscripturefrom Alexandria. Gnosticslike the secondcentury AD Basilides and Valentinusfound the city a fertile one in which to operate. And, of course, the great inaugurator of Neoplatonism himself, Plotinus (AD 7

INTRODUCTION

204/5-270),studiedunderAmmonius Saccasin Alexandriafor eleven years.40 Here, too, lived the NeoplatonistHieroclesin the fourth-fifth centuriesAD with his curious, but original, intellectualcult of order, honour, and dignity, and his belief in a demiurgic nous as supremeGod, who mayor may not have createdthe world ex nihilo. He is yet anotherindication of both the vitality and eclecticismof Alexandrianthoughtin the pre-Islamicera.41 In the light of all this we can safely say that later Ba~ran belletrists such as Ibn al-Muqaffa' (circa AD 720-756) and al-Jal.1i? (circa AD 77~868/9), not to mention thinkers and (fl. circa 10th-11th philosophers like the Ikhwan al-~afa' centuriesAD), would have found the intellectual atmosphere of Alexandria both congenial and stimulating, despite the proclivities of a fire-raising mob which sometimessawthe Alexandrian Library and Serapeumas legitimate targets!42 The beaconof the city's scholarshiphad achievedan equalprestige to that won by its more material,and fabled, lighthouse. The eclecticismof the city naturally infectedand infusedthe philosophers'syllabusand, indeed,provideda powerful motor in the developmentof Islamic philosophy. Later Arab and Islamic thinkers were certainly awareof their debt to Alexandria, whose syllabusmay be describedin terms of a substrate of Neoplatonismwith a liberal coating of Aristotelianism.43 And though Gnosticism may have borne only a superficial resemblanceto Neoplatonism,44 nonethelessboth flourishedin Alexandria and were later to draw closer in an astral synthesis producedby the Sabaeansof I;Iarran and, later still, reappear in a syncreticIslamic combinationthat constitutedthe theology of the Isma'ilis.45 The Alexandrian dons in the three centuriesleading up to the Arab conquestconducteda lengthy love affair with the works of Aristotle upon whom they commentedwith devotion. 46 Many of their commentarieshave, regrettably,disappeared. It was an affair, moreover, conductedwith much more than just a cursoryawarenessof Neoplatonism.As Peterspointsout, the latter doctrine did not so much infiltrate Aristotelianismas provide a vehicle for the preservationof some of Aristotle's own doctrine!47The responsibilityfor this must be laid, in very large part, at the doorsof suchmajor NeoplatonistsasPorphyry of Tyre (AD 234-circa 305), with his renownedIntroduction (£isagoge)to Aristotle's Categoriesand other commentaries, 8

INTRODUCTION

and Proclus(AD 410-485),whoseworks includedthe influential Elementsof Theology (StoixeiosisTheologike).Both men were deeplyconversantwith peripateticdoctrine.48The former authorlater generateda flourishing Eisagogeindustryin Islamic philosophyand bearsa final responsibilityfor the shapetaken by the medieval Arab philosophicalsyllabus.49 The latter was the fellow student at Athens of such future Alexandrian scholarsas Hermias,as well as being the teacher ofHermias' son, the greatAlexandrianprofessorof philosophyAmmonius (circa AD 450 to circa 520).50 Not only were Porphyry and Proclus carefully studied in Alexandriabut the two philosophersmay be said to have been 'Arabized'later in a strangefashion by two works that became associatedwith them: the notorious Theology of Aristotle (TheologiaAristotelis), and The Bookofthe Pure Good,known in Latin as the Liber de Causis and in Arabic as the Kitab alida" fi 'l-Khayr al-MalJ.4. Both may be describedas, at least, indirect productsof the Alexandrianphilosophicalmilieu. The first has nothing to do with Aristotle but summarizes,with some external padding, Plotinus' Enneads,Books IV-VI; the second, also attributed to Aristotle, is based upon Proclus' Elementsof Theology.The exactauthorshipof thesetwo works and actuallink, if any, with Porphyryand Proclus,is unclear.51 52 Their impact, however,was considerable. If, therefore,we sought to isolate four major philosophical strands in the rise and developmentof Aristotelianism and Neoplatonismin the Near and Middle East we might consider (1) Porphyry's Eisagoge; (2) Proclus Diadochus'Elementsof Theology; (3) the so-called Theologia Aristotelis; and (4) the Liber de Causis. This list is, of course, arbitrary and by no meansexclusive.It is, however,also a useful way of examining the Alexandrianintellectual milieu itself. (1) Porphyry'sEisagoge,as has beenemphasized,53 functioned as an importantlife-jacket for Aristotelian thought. It was part of a greattradition of introductorycommentaryon Aristotelian texts and also, perhaps,the most famous of them all. Islamic logicians later cherishedit as much as the Alexandrian and Syriac thinkers before them.54 In it Porphyry set out to introduce and explain the Categories.That he should have deemed such an introduction necessarycomesas no surprise: it is not only our own generationthat has noticed the number and

9

INTRODUcnON

difficulty of the philosophical problems that result from any study of the Categories. Thus the text was a major source book of philosophy and philosophicalenquiry in ancient and medievaltimes.ss The Categories divides neatly into three partsS6: an initial three chaptersdealing with preliminariess7 are followed by a secondmajor portion that dealswith the ten categoriesproper, ChaptersFour to Nine with ChapterFive providing important s8 The subject definitions of primary and secondarysubstances. matterof the final five chapters,Ten to Fifteen, is more varied and includes discussionof contrariesand types of change.s9 Porphyry'sEisagoge,composedaround AD 270, also follows a fairly obvious plan that does not, however, directly correspondto that of Aristotle's Categories.Porphyry'ssole object was to discussfive principal terms ('quinque voces') that he believedwere neededfor a full comprehensionof the Categories.60 So we can distinguish five principal sections in Porphyry's work covering the five 'predicables' of genus, species,difference,property,and accident.Eachis definedand then comparedwith its fellows. Later commentatorslike Ibn Rushd (AD 1126-1198)'saw no need to add to this obvious division or even to make it explicit.'61 The importanceof the Eisagogefor both Western and Easternmedieval philosophy cannotbe exaggerated,particularlyin view of the debateabout universalsengenderedby it in the West.62 (2) Proclus Diadochus'Elementsof Theology representsa major and continued complication in the development of Neoplatonicmetaphysics.He believed that in his writings he was propagating'the true though hidden meaning of Plato,' a meaning stemming in turn from Pythagoreanand Orphic doctrine.63 Proclus' real intellectual master, of course, was Plotinus but, by comparisonwith Proclan metaphysics,those of Plotinus have an endearingsimplicity! The emanationist structureof the Enneadsis built upon a single triad of hypostases:The One, the Intellect, and the Soul. But with Proclus, and later Neoplatonism in general, there is an astonishing division and diversity of hypostases.Proclus introduced or, at least, employed64the terms 'henad' and 'monad': the first indicated 'a class of participated forms of the One which proceedfrom it and are presentprimarily in Intellect but also in each hypostasisbelow the One and all the processionsof each hypostasis';the secondterm 'was normally reservedfor

10

INfRODUcnON

the defining term or "leader" and so normally the "imparticipable" of any order or series.'65Thus four major typesof henad derive from The One: Intelligible, Intellectual, Supercosmic, and Intracosmic.Thesecorrespondto various types of Being and Life. 66 Despite the plethora and complexity of hypostasesin the Elementsof Theology, the framework, at least, of the work is both orderly and systematic.67 Proclus gives us a body of metaphysical doctrine laid out in 211 propositions. Each successiveproposition is designedto result logically from its predecessorlike the theoremsof Euclidean geometry.68 The Elements begin, to quote Dodds' translation (in which he employs a transitive use of the verb 'to participate')with the following three propositions, which are each expandedand 'proved' before the next is given: Prop. 1 Every manifold in someway participatesunity .. . Prop. 2 All that participatesunity is both one and not-one .. . Prop. 3 All that becomesone does so by participation of unity ... 69 The work concludeswith the lengthier Prop. 211 Every particularsoul, when it descendsinto temporal process,descendsentire: thereis not a part of it which remains 70 aboveand a part which descends. In betweenthesepropositionsProclushasgiven, inter alia, the Plotinian doctrine of emanation,71and discussedthe natureof the henads,Being, Intellect, and Soul.72 The languageand subjectmatter, as will be obvious from the abovebrief examples, are highly abstract,complex, analytical and not always immediately coherent.What is important for us, however, is not so much the tiny detail of works such as the Elements,as the fact that such works functioned as prime vehicles,directly or indirectly,73 for the major Neoplatonictechnicalterms and doctrines in the medieval Middle East like emanation,hierarchy, Intellect, Soul, and an unknowable God or One. Furthermore,the multiplication of hypostasesin Proclus, as transmittedin some Arabic texts,74 makeshim an interesting intellectual ancestorof later Islamic Neoplatonicthinkers like al-Farabi (AD 870-950) and Ibn Sina (AD 979-1037). For 11

INTRODUcnON

thesethinkersalso relisheda tastefor multiplication and multiplicity when they came to formulate their own hierarchiesof emanation.7s (3) The so-called Theologia Aristotelis is one of the outstandingproblemsin any study of medievalIslamic philosophy: why did the Arabs fail to recognizethe TheologiaAristotelis as a Neoplatonicforgery andwhy, with all their knowledge of the Stagirite gleaned from the flourishing translation industry, did they acceptit as part of theAristotelian corpus?76 For, right from the start, it appearsself-evident that it is a Neoplatonicstagewhich is being built ratherthan an Aristotelian one. The author of the Theologia emphasizesthat the object of his book is to talk about 'the Divine Sovereignty'77 (or 'the divine nature' as another translator puts it.78 The Arabic word usedis al-Rubitbiyya79). It is the causeof all things and time is subject to It. Its power travels via Reasonto the UniversalSoul andthenceto Natureand the corruptibleworld: 'This action arisesfrom it without motion; the motion of all things comes from it and is causedby it, and things move towardsit by a kind of longing and desire.'soHere is the classic languageof the doctrineof emanation,that 'paradoxof Neoplatonism.'81 It is this doctrine,which functionsas a direct replacement for all creationistdoctrines,82which should have roused the Arabs to the true nature of the document(s)of the Theologia which they had before them. The rest of the volume is replete, as Fakhry emphasizes,with nearly all the key componentsof Islamic Neoplatonism.83 The work divides into ten chapters.ChapterOne beginsby expressinga wish to study the mannerof the Soul's departure from the world of the mind and its descentinto the world of 84 Indeed, throughout the whole of the Theologia, the senses. there is an overwhelmingemphasison the role and activity of the Soul: the nature of its memory is described;8sits faculties are discussed;86and its nobility and power are lauded and admired.87 The Soul is, of course,immortal and ChapterNine is devotedto this importantthemewhile maintainingthe dualist metaphysicsof the Theologia, which sees man as a classical compound of body and soul.88 Coupled with all this is the ubiquitousdoctrine of emanation,a key featureof which is the production outside the confines of time of such hypostasesas Universal Intellect or Mind and Universal Soul.89 The Absolute One is describedas the primary origin and

12

INTRODUcnON

causeof all things which 'gushforth' from 1t;90 elsewhereHellt is 'the first Creator... the perfect of excellence'and 'the one who first pours forth life and excellenceon all things that are beneathhim . . . '91 ChapterTen concludesthat God is reflection itself and that reflection cannotitself reflect.92 There are other themesas well: the beauty of the world of Mind is surveyed,93the Aristotelian conceptsof potentiality and actuality are discussed,94and the impact of the starson the 9s In all, the Theologia Aristotelis is a world is acknowledged. striking and extraordinarycollection of Platonic, Aristotelian and Neoplatonic notions of which the last predominate:the doctrine of emanationholds sway over all. And the fact that the greatfather of Arab philosophyhimself, Abu YusufYa'qub ibn Isl:}.iiq al-Kindi (died after AD 866), is associatedwith one of the recensionsof this seminal work96 provides us with anothermajor bridge - if one were needed- in any attemptto trace the infiltration of Neoplatonisminto Islamic thought. (4) The Liber de Causis' real impact on Islamic philosophy was later rather than sooner,97and it was studied more by Europethan by the East.98 Nonetheless,becauseof the way in which the work is shot throughwith the doctrineof emanation, and becauseProcluswas studiedin pre-IslamicAlexandriaand the Liber de Causismay be reckonedto be a 'Proclan'compilation, a brief mention of the work is included here.99 The Arabic text reducesProclus' 211 propositionsin the Elements of Theology to thirty-one,loo but it is still basedquite closely upon that work. 10l Thesepropositionsdeal with such Neoplatonic topics as the natureof Proclus'four principal hypostases of The One, Existence,Intellect and Soul. Thus the Liber de Causis supportsProclus' elaborationof the Plotinian triad by the insertionof an extra, and superior,hypostasisbetweenThe One and the Intellect called Being or Existence(al-Anniyya).l02 In the courseof the last dozenor so propositionsthe attributes of The One are surveyedandtheseconcludewith the statement that the final sourceand creatorof all unity is The One.103 Gondeshipur When the geographerand traveller Yiiqut (AD 1179-1228/9) visited Gondeshapur,he found only a few ruined tracesof the once great city.l04 In its heydayit had rivalled Alexandria as a 13

INTRODUcnON

centre for Greek learning and medicine. Indeed, it had been Byzantine through and through: the language of Aramaic rather than Persianseemsto have dominated,and it is highly likely that many of the Christian citizens, who were in the majority, spokeGreek as well. Their medicalsciencewas also Greek. The city was clearly a clone or outpost of Byzantine culture rather than a reflection of the Persianof which it was nominally a part.lOS The philosophycurriculumof the Academy had much in common with Alexandria and Gondeshapiir played a significant role in the transmissionof Greek learning by its encouragementof the translationindustry in the course of which many of the great Greek scientific and philosophical classicswere renderedinto Pahlavi and Syriac.106 Built by Shapiir1 (reg. AD 241-271),107the city had attracted many of the best minds in the Near and Middle East in both the pre-Islamicand the Islamic periods.For example,Proclus' disciple Damascius (died AD 553), who had headed the Athenian Academy, lived in Gondeshapiir from AD 531-533;108and the great doyen of the translationmovement, l:Iunayn ibn IsJ:l8q (AD 809-873or 877), also studiedthere.l09 Medieval Islamic philosophymay be viewed, in part, as the intellectualproduct of physical migrationsof scholarsescaping from persecutionor interdict. Thus the movementof groups like the Nestorians,who fled first to Edessaandthento Gondeshapiir after the anathemapronouncedagainst them at the Council of Ephesus(AD 431),110is comparablein importance for Islamic intellectual history to the gentle and gradual migrationof Byzantinescholarsfrom Constantinopleto Europe so many centurieslater. We should not, of course,arbitrarily date this migration from AD 1453, as if the Ottomanconquest of Constantinoplewere its sole cause and thus the causeof the Renaissancein Europe. This myth has been attackedand squashedby many scholars.l ll What we can say is that, just as Byzantinescholarstravelling to Italy and elsewhereduring the fifteenth century, provided a boost for the EuropeanRenaissance,ll2 so the earlier Nestoriansbecamemajor vehicles of Greek thought, through the medium of Syriac, into Arabic. They were familiar with Aristotle but they knew Porphyry's work as well, and there had already been a developmentof Neoplatonicthought in Antioch in Nestoriancircles.ll3 It is, perhaps,faintly ironical that a sectwhoseraison d'~tre was the defenceof a particular Christologicalposition, should 14

INTRODUcnON

have been a major transmitterof paganphilosophy to a new faith, Islam, which caredlittle aboutthe naturesof Christ and, indeed,positively rejectedhis divinity. But sucha development was inevitable. Scholars,both paganand Christian, employed the philosophyof the day and eachwas thus 'to someextent a propagandistof Greekphilosophy,'114whateverhis theological and Christological positions. Furthermore,Aristotelian logic provideda mighty weaponin polemic and gavesectarianChristianity a clearframeworkwithin which to developthe individual metaphysics which underlay the various theological controversies .11S Gondeshapiirwas, therefore,much more than just a centre of excellencein the medical field. 116 It was a centreof Greek learning, both Aristotelian and Neoplatonic, and a centre of Nestorianculture. Its proximity to what later becameknown as Baghdadmadeit uniquely placedat that later date to infiltrateIslam with Greekandotherelements,aswell asto provide the 'Abbasid caliphate with a powerful source of physicians and scholars.ltwas also well-placed earlier to receive, itself, influences from another, non-Nestoriandirection. Again the causewas migration from persecution:in AD 529 the Emperor Justinianclosedthe School of Philosophyin Athens and some of its Neoplatonic philosopherstook refuge in Iran.117 The academicinterestsof somelike DamasciusandSimplicius (died AD 533) who taught in Gondeshapiirincluded the works of Plato, Aristotle, Proclus, and Euclid, as well as astrology and Neoplatonism.118 Brehier's'grandsilence'in Neoplatonismand philosophygenerallyover the sixth and seventhcenturiesAD was thus a temporaryphenomenon.That silencewas resoundingly broken in the East.119

In assessingbriefly the contribution of I:Iarran to the medieval philosophical milieu in the Near and Middle East, there are two importantareasto consider:in the first place,the theology of the Sabaeans; in the second,the teachingof the Alexandrian schoolof philosopherswhich arrivedtherein the ninth century. The Sabaeanswere a pagansect who, accordingto some, had cleverly identified themselveswith the $tihi'un of the Qur'anl20 to avoid persecution.They thus became'Peopleof

15

INTRODUCTION

the Book' (Ahl 'l-Kitiib) and therefore acceptableon certain conditions, mainly tax related, to the Muslim rulers.121 Their theology had much in common with Neoplatonism,emphasizing as it did the transcendenceof God,122 and the Sabaeans later provided the Islamic world with a variety of notable scholarslike Thabit b. Qurra (died AD 901), who translated into Arabic someof Archimedes'works as well as Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic; Thabit's physician son Sinan (died AD 943), who was court doctor to the 'Abbasid Caliphs alMuqtadir (reg. AD 908-932) and al-Qahir (reg. AD 932-934) and who also fancied himself as an historian; and Sinan'sown sonThabit (died AD 975), who followed the historical tradition pursuedby the great historian al-1'aban(AD 839-923). This family of I:Iarranian scholars provides an interesting parallel to the well-known NestorianBukhtishii' line of Gondeshapiir which fostered the development of both medicine and astronomythrough sevengenerationsin the Islamic period.123 The Alexandrian philosophersarrived in I:Iarran some time in the middle of the ninth century AD, a fact noted by several medievalscholarsincluding al-Mas'iidi (circa AD 890-5 to AD 956).124 And from I:Iarran they moved to Baghdadright at the beginning of the tenth century. Thus a city which already housed the prestigious philosophy and translation studium called 'The House of Wisdom' (Bayt al-lJikma), founded by the Caliph al-Ma'miin (reg. AD 813-833)in AD 832, was now further enrichedby the last philosophicaloffspring of Alexandria. 'AbbasidBaghdadwas the climax of a long journeywhich had taken thesescholars,peripateticin more sensesthan one, severalcenturiesto make, and which had includedin its course both Antioch and Sabaean I:Iarran. The migration was complete;the diffusion of Aristotelian and Neoplatonicthought was well under way and would continue.125Theology, as well as philosophy,was a beneficiary- or victim! And in the process, the simple monotheistic model or 'face' of the QUR'ANIC God was remouldedto an imageand likenessof which Plotinus might only sometimeshaveapproved,andof which Mul}ammad would have assuredlydespaired,even if he had understoodit.

16

INTRODUCTION

THE QUR'ANICCREATORPARADIGMAND THE STRUCTURE OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT

The theoretical approachused in this book is basedupon a seriesof insights derived from the twin disciplinesof structuralism and semiotics. Of course, I am aware that fashions in literary criticism, and often in the multifarious fields on which such criticism has a major impact, developand changeswiftly. Structuralismitself has been overtakenby post-structuralism and deconstructiontheory.126 It may thus be argued that to employ any kind of structuralistapproach,or evenstructuralist derived insights, in this book is already to apply a mode of discoursewhich some will regard as archaic or having been superseded by other modes.But it may be retorted,with equal justification, that the scholarshouldbe free to use,ratherthan be temporally subservientto, all styles and tools of literary criticism and analysis, whatever their relative antiquity or modernity, provided that they are helpful in illuminating in someway the subject under discussion.And it has beenwell statedthat the initial principles of structuralism'have not yet been shown to be invalid' .127 This is as true today as it was in the early 1970s. Furthermore,a structuralist approachto medieval Islamic philosophy and theology has not been employedbefore, to the best of the author'sknowledge,128in the way to be undertakenhere.Thirdly, and finally, in defence of the approachadopted,it must be stressedthat structuralist discourseencouragedand openedthe floodgatesto semiotics, a discipline which has garnereda range of disciples from a variety of fields.129 The structuralistinsights employedin this book are designed(a) to highlight a basicthemeof alienation, which will be elaborateda little later in this chapter;and (b) to lead ultimately to a theory of semioticsin the concluding chapter which is entitled The Vocabulary of Transcendence: Towards a Theory of Semioticsfor Islamic Theology. Above all, however, it must be rememberedthat structuralism in essenceis a methodrather than a doctrine.13o Its real merits have beenneatly encapsulatedby Todorov: 'By its original research,by its explorationof fresh ways, by its unceasing rejuvenation, structuralism bears witness... to an enviable vitality and fruitfulness.'131 The principal focus of comparisonin all the chapterswhich follow is what I proposeto term the Qur'anic Creator Para17

INTRODUCTION

digm. This is, as it were, the fully fledged articulation of the QUR'ANIC model or 'face' of God which was briefly sketched earlier. And I have tried throughout to avoid two common pitfalls which can constitute a sometimeshidden, frequently visible, substrate to much modern writing about Islam in general, and medieval Islamic theology and philosophy in particular: the idea that there is an easily definable orthodox Islam, and the insistenceon seeingall things Islamic purely and totally in termsof outsideinfluences.It is worth pausingbriefly here to considerboth thesemisconceptions. The useof suchrigid, single, and emotivetermsas 'orthodox' and 'unorthodox'producesan erroneousassumption,with its concomitant false historicity, that Islam is fundamentally a monolith. It leads to, or is the product of, a frame of mind which considersthat religion is capableof scant variation or development;for its articulation may be categorizedon the moral level, arbitrarily, once and for all, as right or wrong, true or false, legal or illegal, authentic or inauthentic. Of course, Islam does have its full share of moral and ethical categories:we think immediately of the classical division of behaviourby Islamic law into 'the five qualifications'(al-a!}kdm al-khamsa) , i.e. into that which is obligatory (wdjib) , recommended(mandub), indifferent (mubtl!} or murakhkh~), reprehensible(makruh) and forbidden (I}ardm).132 But this is by no meansits only dimension, and even this dimension is open to severalinterpretations. There are many 'orthodoxies'and each is culturally infused by, and intellectually propagated according to, its age.133 Furthermore, it has been neatly observed that Islam 'is a religion of jurists ... and mystics, and many have been both at the same time. Any qualified lawyer can declare whether something is against Islamic law, so there can be as many versions of "orthopraxy" as there are jurists.'134There were always traditionists, fuqahd' and 'ulamd' who were actually enthusiasticabout popular devotion to the Islamic saints, for example.135 Ashraf Ghani puts it in a nutshell: The problem of orthodoxy and heterodoxy,therefore, is a problem within the same universe of discourse. As de Morgan observeda universe is 'a range of ideas which is either expressedor understood as containing the whole matterunderconsideration.In such universes.contrariesare 18

INTRODUcnON

very common: that is, terms each of which excludesevery caseof the other,while both togethercontainthe whole' ... The core feature of the question, therefore, is that of proceedingfrom the samepremisein different ways rather than from the different premisesin the sameway. It involves an attemptat underplayingthe areasof agreementand overl36 emphasizingthe areasof disagreement. The point behindall this for our presentdiscussionis that, just as the Islamic faith was, and is, able to embracea variety of legal schools and legal interpretations,and not only come to terms with but actually adopt the manifestationsof a mystical impulse,so it shouldalsobe allowedits philosophicaldimension without the latter automatically being labelled 'heretical'137 accordingto somenaive touchstoneof 'orthodoxy.'The casual and simplistic mannerin which such a word as 'orthodox' has been used by some scholarsin the study of religion is indeed both futile and misleading,138if only becausethe word is so utterly intangible.139 Al-Azmeh's remarks provide a muchneededcorrectivefor this and other similar mistakes: Like Christianity and Buddhism, the other world-religions, [Islam] has proved capable of assimilating a bewildering variety of forms, some of which might well appear antithetical, and has, like theseother equally catholic religions, shown an omnivorous capacity for acquiring and ratifying popular practices,political requirements,social exigencies, cultural modes,mythologicalmotifs, andothermatterswhich were not presentin the original writ of the religion and in its pristine condition.l40 In this book a touchstonewill certainly be used but it will, I hope, be found to be preciser in focus, more useful and certainly less ambiguousthan the term 'orthodox.'It is what I havealreadyreferredto as the Our'anicCreatorParadigm:the full meaningof this phrasewill be elaboratedshortly. However, it shouldbe stressedfirmly herethat the useof sucha paradigm is not intended in any way to imply a wilful orientalist or retrogradeconceptionof the Our'anas the solefount andorigin of everything Islamic or even 'their explanatoryprinciple.'141 Its function here is not that of somekind of originating oracle, but simply that of a convenientparameter- articulatedsynch-

19

INTRODUCTION

ronically - againstwhich future Arabic and Islamic thought, emergingdiachronicallyin the Islamic era, might be measured and compared.It is a parameter,I repeat, whose substance emergedat a certainpoint, or certainpoints, in historical time and which was culturally conditionedby the milieu in which it appeared.Such facets have to be acknowledged.What we should not do is then proceedby attachingto that parameter value judgementslike 'purely Islamic,' 'right' and 'authentic' and measuringall else which differs from it in terms of 'unIslamic,' 'wrong' and 'inauthentic.'142The Our'linic Creator Paradigm adumbratedin this Introduction is certainly not intendedto constituteeitherthe 'explanatoryprinciple' of Islam or its totality. Thus the later Islamic philospherswho differed, or were alienated,from the paradigm will not be judged as 'inauthentic' or 'un-Islamic' but simply as 'different'; while thosewho, at certain points or times, happenedto agreewith it will not thereby be consideredas 'explained' by it. Their agreementwill simply be recorded.The paradigmis intended basically to provide a framework or reference point for discussion,not an exclusive and fully-fledged theology in its own right; and it is within the context of the Our'linic Creator Paradigm,ratherthan that of somemythical 'orthodox' Islam, that comparisonswill be made in theology when a survey is undertakenof the different ideas of the Islamic philosophers about the natureof God. The secondpitfall that may be alludedto hereis the tendency of some scholars of medieval Islamic philosophy to see the entire corpusin terms of influencesand borrowingsfrom preIslamic Europeanandextra-Islamicsources.Therehas,indeed, beena regrettabletrend amongthosewho should have known better to searchfor a Greek antecedentto accountfor every facet of the Islamic philosophicaltradition.143 Of coursethere were somesuchantecedents - manyof major value andimportance to the tradition;l44 we have already alluded to some of these.Otherswill be notedin due course.The impactof Greek and other thought was acknowledgedby the Islamic philos14s Morewedge stressesthat 'there is no ophers themselves. doubt that Islamic intellectual thought grew through the rich nourishmentit receivedfrom the Neoplatonicspirit in the same sensethat Aristotle's philosophyflourishedon a Platonicbasis; in both cases, however, the similarity does not warrant a total reductionalism'.146 Islamic philosophyand theology, like every

20

INTRODUCTION

other, grew to some degreeaccordingto the intellectual and cultural milieu of which they were a part, or as a considered reactionto that milieu. Their ultimate productwas the creation in Islam of a deity approached,but hardly encountered,by a via negativaof cultural and linguistic alienation whose ishraqi epitome,perhapsparadoxically,was light itself. Associatedwith the problemof influences,and perhapseven symptomaticof it, is that of nomenclatureand classification.147 It has beenwell pointedout that terms such as 'Arabic philosophy' (which are commonly used in those classicaltextbooks of philosophy whose underlying assumptionis that the whole discourse 'began with al-Kindi, reached its height with alFarabi and Avicenna, suffered the disastrousshock of the criticism of al-Ghazzali,and madea heroic effort to rise again with Averroes'148)are quite inadequate:they allow little room, for example,for the great non-Arab ishraqi philosophersand mystics like al-Suhrawardi (AD 1153-1191);149indeed, the majority of the philosophersitemized in the quotation above were non-Arab, though all could write in Arabic. If the term 'Arabic philosophy' will not serve, others like 'Islamic philosophy'or 'Muslim philosophy'may not appearat first sight to be much better,commonthough they are. Corbin describesthe latter term as a 'sectariandenomination'which 'prejudgesan extremelyserious question:can one speakof a Muslim philosophyin the sensein which one speaksof "Christian philosophy"? In other words, has the operation accomplishedby the Scholasticsin the West its counterpartin Islam? Were the falasifa ever "integrated" into Islam? The thesis would be difficult to maintain.'150 Corbin choosesto speakthereforeof 'philosophyin Islam,' but what he has just said seemsto verge dangerouslyon the old monolithic concept of Islam: we stressedearlier that it was in the intrinsic nature of Islam to function as a multifacetedvehiclecapableof bearing a rich variety that was inclusive of philosophy. In view of this I propose,in what follows, to stick to the term 'Islamic philosophy': it is both convenientand accurate. The wide diversity in Muslim belief and practice certainly posesproblemswhen it comes to any attempt at articulating that diversity in conceptualterms.l51 It also posesproblemsif one tries to formulate in a book like this, whose predecessors have frequently beenwritten within the framework of 'heresy' and 'orthodoxy,'somekind of 'Islamic' yardstick for purposes 21

INTRODUCTION

of comparisonwhich has a widespread- if not universal applicability. It is hoped, therefore,that the very narrowness of the proposedQur'anic Creator Paradigm,basedas it is on only four main points, will go someway towardsresolving this problem. The God portrayedin the Qur'an has both a transcendent and an immanentaspect.On the one hand 'like Him there is naught';lS2on the other, God announcesin His revelation: 'We indeed created man; and We know what his soul whispers within him, and We are nearerto him than the jugular vein.'lS3 This chapterdoes not proposeto ignore the first transcendent aspect and, as it were, 'de-transcendentalize'the Qur'anic Deity. What it does proposeto do is stresshere the second immanentaspectin terms of a fourfold paradigm;the rest of the book will show how medieval Islamic philosophy became progressivelyalienatedfrom this aspect. The Qur'anic Creator Paradigm embracesa God who (1) createsex nihilo; (2) acts definitively in historical time; (3) guides His people in such time; and (4) can in some way be known indirectly by His creation, (though there is never, in non-~fifi circles, any questionof direct apprehensionon earth of the Deity). It is perhapsnot too much of a wild analogyto say that the Qur'anicGod sometimesappearsto have features in common with the God of the modem Processtheologians, especially where 'they reject both the immutability and the impassibility of God' and maintain that 'the God of Process theology is not outside of time; His existenceis inextricably involved in the processof time.'ls4 It is, however, an analogy which cannot,and should not, be pressedtoo far. The Process theologiansof today, in their rejectionof divine transcendence, denial of God's independenceof the world, and undermining of the doctrineof creationex nihilo, astraditionally understood, in favour of a God who is 'not so much the controller of the world as He is its director . . . and an interdependentpartner with the world,'lsS show the very real gulf that yawns between their theology and that of the Qur'an. For while 'the God of Processtheology is not the sovereignLord of the universe,'lS6 that of the Qur'an emphaticallyis: the Qur'anic Deity is 'the Lord of the Worlds' (Rabb al-'A.lamin), or 'the Lord of all Being' as Arberry alternativelytranslates.1S7 Of course,every jot and every tittle of every scriptural text is potential material for the exegete;and that exegesismay be

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historical and philological, as with the greatinterpretersof the Our'an in the Middle Ages like ai-laban (AD 839-923), alZamakhshan(died AD 1144), and al-Bay 'to want to dress'),296'threat'(> 'terrorizedvictim'),297 and 'murder'(> 'murderof the hero').298 The elementsin bracketsare designedby Barthesto extend and provide greaterspecificity to the first term.299 Extrapolatingfrom this, we can easily apply the samekind of procedureto lfayy b. Yaq+an: the desire of the narrator right at the beginning to talk with the sageand his approach with his companionsto him (fa-miltu bi-rufaqa'i ilayhi) might be characterizedunderthe proaireticcodeas: 'to travel' (> 'to seek enlightenment');300while the action of the pilgrim who arrives at the spring nearthe Spring of Living Creatures('Ayn al-lfayawan),drinks from it (shariba minfuratiha),andis massively strengthened,could appearas: 'to drink' (>' to be supernaturally strengthened').301The action of the traveller who bravesthe great darkness(man kharlaha)and emergesinto a land of water and light, might fit neatly under Barthes'proairetic rubric of: 'to enter' (> 'to bravedangerin a supernatural quest').302A final, perhapsslightly extreme, exampleof this type of possiblecharacterizationis the following, derivedfrom the referenceat the end of lfayy b. Yaq+an to the plenitude of God's generosity: 'He is generousand liberal' (wa innahu sam" fayy(4). The word fayyafj meansnot only 'liberal' and 'generous'but also 'overflowing,' being formed from the verb faria, 'to emanate.'This could producea particularly apposite examplefor any emanationistschemeto which the proairetic code is applied: 'to overflow' (> 'to be and producebeing').303 The mystical dimension- or 'Oriental orientation' as Corbin might prefer304 - of the extensionsin bracketsof the initial terms will be clear at once, and it providesa neat, inter-codic link with someof the other Barthesiancodeslike the symbolic and, for example,the connotativesignifier 'supernature'in the

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semanticcode. Indeed,mysticism may also be said to provide a kind of metalanguewhich binds the raw material on which the codesare basedtogetherstructurallyin Ifayy b. Yaq~an. (5) Cultural: this fifth and final codeof the Barthesianpentad is for Barthesthe 'Voice of Science.'By it he designatesand draws together referencesto the various sciences,types of wisdom, and bodies of knowledgethat exist and have existed without, however,attemptinga reconstructionof their culture. And since thesecultural codes'afford the discoursea basisin scientific or moral authority,' Barthesalso calls them reference codes and designateseach in the text of Sarrasine by the abbreviationREF.305 Thus the cultural or referencecode that forms lexia 3 ('which overtakeeven the shallowestof men, in the midst of the most tumultuousparties')is called the gnomic code because'the statementis madein a collective and anonymous voice originating in traditional human experience.'306 Lexia 34 ('Here and there, one came acrosssome Germans who acceptedas fact thesecleverwitticisms of Parisianscandalmongering') constitutes the code of ethnic psychology, accordingto which the Germanis paradigmaticallynaive and the Parisian paradigmaticallywitty. This code embraces,in 307 Finally, the other words, the code of cultural stereotypes. statementin lexia 110 that 'the picture was of Adonis lying on a lion's skin' comesclearly under the code of mythology and painting.308 We may usefully contrastthe gnomic code in Sarrasinewith the gnosticcodein Ifayy b. Yaq~an. For the knowledgegleaned by the sagefrom his father is clearly of the latter order.309 With I:Iayy b. Yaq~an we are dealingwith knowledgethat originates in supernaturalillumination or intuition. In other words, the voice of the gnosticcodederivesfrom experienceof the divine. The same gnostic code is encounteredat work again in the referencestowards the end of the Recital to the extreme pleasurederived by certain men from some contact with the divine.310 There are other cultural-referencecodes in the Recital as well, though perhapsthe gnostic is one of the most powerful. The discussionbetweenthe narratorand the sageof the science of physiognomy('Urn al-firiisa) may be neatly placed under a codeof the samename.311 The referenceto an effortlessascent of Mount Qaf (lam yak'adhujabal Qaf)312 is formed from the cosmic code, for this is the range of mountains in Islamic

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cosmologywhich rings the entire earth,313Finally, the passage mentioning jinn and Qinn314 may be in Ifayy b. Yaq~an describedas belongingto an Arab code analogousto Barthes' West Europeanfairy tales code: the latter term is used by Barthesto characterizea lexia in Sarrasinewhich refers to a 'family genie,' 'fairies of bygonedays,' and 'flying dragons.'31S It is, I think, clear, even from this brief survey of possible that the cultural codes to be discoveredin Ifayy b. Yaq~an, over-riding emphasisonceagain, as in aspectsof the proairetic code, is on the mystical and other-worldly at the expenseof the worldly and the material. (6) Narrative: It is not obvious how Roland Bartheswould have deployed the narrative code, whose omission was lamentedby Felperin.316 One possibility is that he might have used such a code to separateout different speakers.Another is that he might have focussedit upon the two registers of narration in Sarrasine: for the principal narration of Balzac's short story is told within the framework of another,slighter one.317The conceptof a frame story (or stories)is by no means a new one: it hasnoble Easternantecedents in works as diverse as the Arabic Thousandand One Nights (AI! Layla wa Layla) and Kalila and Dimna (Kalila wa Dimna) and the Sanskrit Panchatantra.Indeed, the whole literary device of the frame story seemsto have originatedin India.31s What is particularly interesting for our purposes here, where we have made considerablecomparisonsbetweenBalzac'sSarrasineand Ibn Sina's Ifayy b. Yaq~an through the medium of Barthes'five codes,is the fact that Ifayy b. Yaq~an also has a frame story and thus a double registerof narration: the main narrationby the wise sageis told within the framework of the initial and, indeed,continuingencounterwith the narrator.Balzac'sshort story and Ibn Sina's Recital are certainly extraordinarily different works in their content. But structurally and from an intertextualperspective,they both shareclosely in that broad web of literature which chosethe frame story as the principal vehicle by which to convey its messageand entertainment. It was claimedat the beginningof this sectionthat the structure

of Ifayy b. Yaq~an mirrored the structure of Avicennan theologyitself. This will now be mademore explicit. The structure of the former has beenexaminedthrough the medium of the five classicalBarthesiancodesplus an additional one. The

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codesshow very clearly and neatly both the above mirroring and the fact that the stucture of Avicennan theology also representsa genuinedevelopmentfrom the universeof Alfarabism, although the universe of Avicennism holds much in commonwith that of its predecessorand probably cannotlay claim to the sameamountof originality. revealsan internal An analysisof the RecitalJf.ayy b. Yaq~an structurepatternedas follows: the Ten Intellects, epitomized collectively by the various groups of angels in the narrative, and in particular the Tenth Intellect, playa vital mediaterole betweenearthboundman and transcendentGod. This is also true of the whole of Avicennantheology. At the end of Jf.ayy stands the unknowable, incomprehensibleGod of Neoplatonism. But the descriptionis not totally negative:the Deity is portrayedin terms of both negativeand positive theologemes. This is true of Farabiantheology and the samedouble register of theologemesis a feature of the generality of Avicennism. Semiotically,as was notedbefore,the entireRecitalis a symbol or, better,a sign of man'sneedfor guidancetowardsthe divine. Furthermore,as use of the Barthesiancodeshas highlighted, is massivelyinfused the internal structureof Jf.ayy b. Yaq~an with the mystical, symbolic, gnostic, and cosmic. The same features are true of Avicennan theology, especially in its emanationscheme(seeFigure 3) whosevarious rungsreveal a kind of triadic semiosis: intellect, angel and heavenly body unite to signal, stageby stage,the eternal outpouring of the generosityof The One as well as its ultimate dilution into, and 'production'of, the World of Generationand Corruption. Much of the external structuring of A vicennism will be relates apparentfrom what has preceded.Ifayy b. Yaq~an backwardsandforwardsin time to a variety of framestoriesand ~ufi texts, and forwards to ishraqi philosophyitself. Avicennan theology as a whole builds upon Alfarabism and also, as we have seen,has much in commonwith ~ufism and ishraq. As with al-Farabi's thought, that of Ibn Sina derives its wholenessfrom a complicated emanationistparadigm. The mirrors the distancetravelled by journey in Jf.ayy b. Yaq~an God'soutpouringof Himself in emanationdown the Intellects to man and matter in Avicennanthought. In both Recital and the entire corpus of Ibn Sina's theology there is, at times, a massiveemphasison the gulf betweenDeity and man. As with al-Farabi also, the structureboth of the Recital in particular 188

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and Avicennantheologyin generalis susceptibleto transformation: in the former the narrator actively seeksout the sage and desiresto be transformedby the knowledgeand wholeness of that splendidbeing, He even begsto follow the samepath that the sagehimself is following but that is deniedthe narrator for the present.319 In a similar fashion,the theologyof Ibn Sina has within itself the capacity and potential to be transformed from an initial implicit Alfarabism into a fully-blown Ishraqism at a later date by al-Suhrawardi. Finally, the capacity for self-regulation in al-Farabi's theology was identified with his passionatesearchfor order. Avicennan thought representsan advanceupon, or development of, his predecessor'sthought becausehis systemis less constrainedby this idea than by the philosophicaland mystical pursuit of the Unknown but Necessaryand BelovedDeity. This is not to say that the mystical impulse, and the conceptof love of God, is entirely absentin al-Farabi'sthought. It is simply that it is articulated in a much more vivid and less abstract fashion throughout the work of Ibn Sina. The paradox of Avicennan theology is that it both recognizesthat God is unknowableand yearnsto know Him. Hencethe desirefor a guide to Love Himself, a guide epitomizedin the figure of the wise and beautiful sage,l:Iayy b. Yaq~an. Ibn Sina'stheology is thus regulatedaccordingto a paradoxicalmystical impulse akin to that apparent in the theology of The Cloud of Unknowing. As in Alfarabism, so in Ifayy b. Yaq~an in particularand Avicennism in general:the end of knowing - or unknowing- is God. The alienationfrom the Qur'anicCreator Paradigmis thus total or partial accordingto which aspectof the paradoxone emphasizes.

NOTES

1. See,for example,Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 128; Badawi (Histoire, vol. 2, p. 695), while maintaining that Ibn Sinii does not lack originality 'dansles details de raisonnement,'acknowledgeswith most other commentatorshis debt to Aristotle and alFiiriibi's Neoplatonism. 2. 'Some Aspectsof Avicenna'sWork,' in G. M. Wickens (ed.), Avicenna: Scientistand Philosopher: A Millenary Symposium,p. 51. 3. Ibid., pp. 53-4. 4. Review of Wickens (ed.), Avicenna:Scientistand Philosopherin

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Bulletin of the Schoolof Oriental and African Studies,vol. 16 (1954), p. 401. 5. For the life of Ibn Sinii seeSoheil M. Afnan, Avicenna:His Life and Works,pp. 57-82; A. J. Arberry, 'Avicenna: His Life andTimes,' in Wickens (ed.), Avicenna: Scientist and Philosopher, pp. 9-28; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 595-602; BernardCarra de Vaux, Les Grands Philosophes:AvicenneA. H. 370-428/ A.D. 980-1037(Ibn Sina), pp. 127-56; Osman Chahine, Ontologie et Theologie chez A vicenne, pp. 27-32; Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy, pp. 129-30;SeyyedHosseinNasr, ThreeMuslim Sages:Avicenna- Suhrawardi - Ibn Arabi, pp. 20-2; see also Ibn Sinii's autobiographyin Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina. 6. AI-Shifii': AI-Iliihiyyiit, vol. 1, pp. 5-7. [This work is hereafter referredto as Iliihiyyiit, vol. 1]. 7. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 1, p. 13. See Majid Fakhry'suseful article, 'The Subject-Matterof Metaphysics:Aristotle and Ibn Sina (Avicenna),' in Michael E. Marmura (ed.), Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studiesin Honor of GeorgeF. Hourani, especiallypp. 138-9, 147. 8. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 1, p. 15. 9. Fakhry, 'The Subject-Matterof Metaphysics,'pp. 147, 143-4. 10. E. g. see Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy, pp. 152-4; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 631-6. 11. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages,p. 23. The Book of Instructions is also a highly elitist work in intellectualinspiration,style, and intended audience: see the remarks of Shams ConstantineInati, Ibn Stnii: Remarksand Admonitions:Part One: Logic, pp. 3-4. 12. Seebelow pp. 172ff. 13. See Sorabji, Time, Creation and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages,pp. 202-3. 14. Kitiib al-Ishiiriit wa 'I-Tanbihiit, vol. 3, pp. 26-7. See also A. M. Goichon, 'Le Philosophede I'Etre,' Revuede l'Institut des Belles LettresArabes(Tunis), vol. 15 (1952), p. 53; idem., 'The Philosopher of Being,' in V. Courtois (Ed.), AvicennaCommemorationVolume, p. 111. 15. See George F. Hourani, 'Ibn Sinii on Necessaryand Possible Existence,'PhilosophicalForum, vol. 4 no. 1 (1972), p. 74. 16. Ibid. 17. Ishiiriit, vol. 3, p. 19; seealso Q. 111:1,Q. XX:110. SeeBadawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 631-2. 18. J. G. Flynn, 'St. Thomasand Avicennaon the Natureof God,' Abr-Nahrain, vol. 14 (1973-1974),p. 54. SeeAI-Shifii' : AI-Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 367. [This work is hereafterreferredto as Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2.] 19. Despite the caveat of P. Morewedge (The "Metaphysica" of Avicenna(ibn Sinii), pp. 232-3), I havefelt free to assumethat Wiijib al-wujud refers to God and I have renderedit as suchwhere required in this volume. Morewedge (Ibid., p. 233) does acknowledgethat 'Horton's and Madkour's religious interpretation of the Necessary Existentin the Shifii' is supportedby many passagesin the work.' 20. Hourani emphasizes('Ibn Sinii on Necessaryand Possible

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Existence,'p. 84 n. 4) that mumkinin such extractsshould be taken as meaning'logically possible'and 'contingent.' 21. Ishiiriit, vol. 3, p. 19; see Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 631-2. The above few paragraphs,which are only intendedto give a flavour of a voluminous and much treatedsubjectin the Avicennancorpus, may be comparedwith Hourani, 'Ibn Sina on Necessaryand Possible Existence,'passim,and Iliihiyyiit, vol. 1, pp. 37-9. Seealsothe Persian Book of Science[or Knowledge]Dedicatedto 'Alii' al-Dawla (DiinishNiima-i 'Alii'i) translatedinto English in Morewedge, Metaphysica, pp.47ff. 22. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 1, pp. 43ff; compareIshiiriit, vol. 3, pp. 42-3. 23. Morewedge,Metaphysica,pp. 48-9, 223. 24. Ibid., p. 49. 25. Ibid., pp. 53-4. 26. SeeIshiiriit, vol. 3, pp. 44-5. 27. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, pp. 344-6. 28. Morewedge, Metaphysica,pp. 55-6; compareIshiiriit, vol. 3, pp.36-41. 29. Seeabovep. 59. 30. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 221. But comparewith al-Farabi's remarkson the subjectof privation, above p. 105. The difference in emphasisbetweenal-Farabi and Ibn Sina will be readily apparent. 31. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 58 (my italics); compareIliihiyyiit, vol. 2, pp. 367-8. 32. Morewedge,Metaphysica,pp. 58-9. 33. Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 154. 34. E. g. Chahine,Ontologie, p. 81. 35. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 1, p. 3. 36. Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 637-41. 37. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 356; seeChahine,Ontologie, p. 89. 38. Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 637-8 citing Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 356; see Chahine,Ontologie, pp. 88-9. 39. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 356. 40. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 61; see Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 638; Chahine,Ontologie, p. 82. 41. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 61. Morewedge(Ibid., p. 127 n. 2) stressesthe ~iifi connotationsof the term ma1J.jub.Seealso Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 638; Chahine,Ontologie, p. 82. 42. Morewedge, Metaphysica,p. 61; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 639. 43. SeeBadawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 639; Chahine,Ontologie,p. 83; Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,pp. 117,154-5;seealso above p. 106 and Morewedge'scomprehensivenote in Metaphysica, pp. 127-8 n. 3. 44. Seeabovepp. 106, 108. 45. Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 639. 46. IshiJriJt, vol. 4, p. 42; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 639; Chahine, Ontologie, pp. 87-8. 47. See some of the, admittedly exaggerated,definitions of 'ishq given by a group of theologiansand academicsat a majlis held by the

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BarmakidY~ya b. Khalid: al-Mas'udi, Muraj al-Dhahab, vol. 3, pp. 370-2. See also "Ishq: love' in Morewedge'sGlossary,Metaphysica, p.306. 48. Seeabovep. 108. 49. Morewedge,Metaphysica,pp. 70-1; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p.640. 50. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 71; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 640. CompareIsharat, vol. 3, pp. 125-7. 51. Chahine,Ontologie, pp. 90-4, especiallyp. 92 n. 4. 52. Isharat, vol. 3, pp. 118-21; Chahine,Ontologie, pp. 90-1. 53. Isharat, vol. 3, p. 124; Chahine,Ontologie, pp. 90-1. 54. SharlJ. Kitab Uthatajiya in A. R. Badawi (ed.), Aris!a 'inda al'Arab, pp. 56-7 (Arabic text): cited in Chahine,Ontologie, p. 92. 55. Seen. 54. 56. Comparethe imagery at the beginningof the Gospelof John, especiallyJohn 1:10, and in the Nicene Creed(lumen de lumine). 57. Translatedby Arberry, The Koran Interpreted,vol. 2, pp. 50-1. 58. Seeabove p. 107. 59. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 48. 60. Ibid., p. 53. 61. Ibid., p. 55. 62. Ibid., p. 57. 63. Ibid., pp. 56-7. Comparethis list of negativeswith al-Kindi's: seeabovepp. 59-60. 64. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 125 n. 2. But see ibid., p. 232 where Morewedge cites the curious definition of the Necessary Existentin the Shifa' as a substance.Morewedgestresses:'[Ibn Sina] construesthis assertionto mean that the NecessaryExistent is not restrictedto a subject.'Seealso ibid., pp. 221ff. 65. For the terms 'mu9af and 'i9afa,' see Michael E. Marmura, 'Avicenna'sChapter, "On the Relative", in the Metaphysicsof the Shifa',' in Hourani, Essayson Islamic Philosophy and Science,pp. 83-99. 66. Ilahiyyat, vol. 1, p. 37. 67. Isharat, vol. 3, pp. 44-5. 68. Ibid., p. 50. 69. Ibid., pp. 51-2; see Goichon,.'The Philosopherof Being,' p. 112 and idem., 'Le Philosophede I'Etre,' pp. 55-6. For a definitive, magisterial and comprehensiveanalysis of Ibn Sina and being, see Morewedge, Metaphysica, pp. 156-77. See also the excellent summariesin the Glossary to the Metaphysicaunder the headings 'Hasti: being' (pp. 300-2 especially p. 302 no. (10» and 'Wujad: existence,concretion, actuality' (p. 325). 70. Isharat, vol. 3, p. 52; seeShehadi,Metaphysicsin Islamic Philosophy, pp. 83-5. 71. See SeyyedHosseinNasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines: Conceptionsof Nature and Methods used for its Studyby the Ikhwan al-$afif, al-BI-rani, and Ibn Sfna, p. 212. 72. Seeibid., p. 197.

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73. Nasr, ThreeMuslim Sages,p. 25; seealsoidem., Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, p. 197. 74. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 238; seealso pp. 161, 134-5 n. 3. 75. Berruin, 'The Concept of Substance,' pp. 157-8; see Morewedge,Metaphysica,pp. 237-8. 76. Berruin, 'The Conceptof Substance,'p. 160; Morewedge,Metaphysica,pp. 238, 240. 77. See Berruin, 'The Conceptof Substance,'pp. 182-3, 190. See above p. 53. 78. Berruin, 'The Conceptof Substance,'p. 160. 79. Shehadi,Metaphysicsin Islamic Philosophy,p. 85. SO. SeeMorewedge,Metaphysica,p. 233 quoting I. Madkour. 81. EnneadsV. 5. 6. CompareIbn Sinii's remarkson multiplicity abovep. 152. 82. EnneadsV. 5. 6, VI. 9. 5; see Armstrong, 'Plotinus,' p. 237; seealso Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 238. 83. EnneadsVI. 9. 5. 84. Armstrong, 'Plotinus,'p. 238. 85. Metaphysica,pp. 165, 240-1. 86. SeeFakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 154. 87. Morewedge,Metaphysica,pp. 61-2. Seethe wide-rangingand erudite article by Michael E. Marmura, 'SomeAspectsof Avicenna's Theory of God's Knowledge of Particulars,'Journal of the American Oriental Society,vol. 82 (1962), p. 301. 88. Leaman, An Introduction to Medieval Islamic Philosophy, p. 110. 89. Isharat, vol. 3, p. 278; see Marmura, 'Some Aspects of Avicenna'sTheory,' p. 302. 90. Morewedge, Metaphysica, pp. 64-6; see Marmura, 'Some Aspectsof Avicenna'sTheory,' p. 301. 91. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 128 n. 1. 92. Ibid., p. 66 (my italics). 93. Ibid., p. 65; seealso p. 129 n. 2. 94. Seeibid., pp. 215-6, 225-6. 95. Marmura, 'Some Aspects of Avicenna's Theory,' p. 299; Leaman, Medieval Islamic Philosophy, p. 112; see F. Rahman,'Ibn Sina,' in Sharif, History of Muslim Philosophy, vol. 1, p. 502 and Louis Gardet,La PenseeReligieused'Avicenne(Ibn Si"na), pp. 77-85. 96. Isharat, vol. 3, p. 295; Leaman,Medieval Islamic Philosophy, p. 112; Rahman,'Ibn Sina,' p. 502. 97. Marmura, 'SomeAspectsof Avicenna'sTheory,' p. 299. 98. Ibid., p. 300. 99. Ibid., pp. 303-4; Leaman,MedievalIslamic Philosophy,p. 112. 100. Marmura, 'SomeAspectsof Avicenna'sTheory,' p. 304. 101. Ibid., p. 307. 102. Ibid., p. 309. 103. Isharat, vol. 3, p. 286; Marmura,'SomeAspectsof Avicenna's Theory,' p. 311. 104. Marmura, 'SomeAspectsof Avicenna'sTheory,' p. 311. 105. Ibid.

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106. Ibid. 107. Ibid., p. 312. 108. Leaman,Medieval Islamic Philosophy,pp. 116-18. 109. 'Almost all the major themesof [Ibn Sina's] metaphysicsand cosmologyare implicit in al-Farabi' (Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 132). Seealso Corbin, Histoire de la PhilosophieIslamique, vol. 1, p. 240. 110. Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 132. 111. The Avicennan emanationistschemehas been sketchedand surveyedin a large number of primary and secondarysourceswith greateror lesserdetail. For primary sourcessee:Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, pp. 401, 402-14; Ishiiriit, vol. 3, pp. 213-40; Kitiib al-Najiit, pp. 273-8 especiallyp. 277. For secondarysourcessee especiallyNasr, Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, pp. 202-14 and also, inter alia: Afnan, A vicenna, pp. 132-5; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 655--6; Carra de Vaux, A vicenne, pp. 246-7; Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, pp. 46-101; idem., Histoire de la PhilosophieIslamique, vol. 1, pp. 239-41;Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 156; Gardet, La PenseeReligieused'Avicenne,pp. 51-2; Leaman,MedievalIslamic Philosophy,p. 34; P. Lee, 'St. Thomasand Avicenna on the Agent Intellect,' Thomist,vol. 45 (1981), pp. 45--6; Marmura,'SomeAspects of Avicenna'sTheory,' p. 305; Morewedge,Metaphysica,pp. 142-3 n. 3; Nasr, Three Muslim Sages,pp. 29-30; Rahman,'Ibn Sina,' pp. 481-2; M. SaeedSheikh, Studiesin Muslim Philosophy,pp. 106-7. 112. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 402. Seealso La Metaphysiquedu Shifii', Livres VI ax, translatedby GeorgesC. Anawati, pp. 137, 227 nn. 402(8) and 402 (13); and Kitiib al-Najiit, p. 251. 113. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 403. 114. EnneadsV. 1. 6, translatedby Armstrong, Enneads,vol. 5, pp.31-3. 115. See Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 392; Nasr, Three Muslim Sages,pp. 28-9; Afnan, Avicenna,p. 133. 116. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 406. 117. E. g. Ishiiriit, vol. 3, p. 214; Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, pp. 404-5; Kitiib al-Najiit, p. 275. 118. See Ibn Sina's Risiila fi 'I-Malii'ika: the relevant Arabic passageis reproducedfrom a numberof unpublishedmanuscriptsby Henry Corbin, Avicenneet Ie Recit Visionnaire, vol. 1, p. 72, and (in transliteration)in idem., Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 62-3 n. 33 (see also pp. 58-61). See also Ibn Sina's /fayy b. Yaq~iin in /fayy b. Yaq~iin Ii Ibn Sinii wa Ibn TUfayl wa 'I-Suhrawardi, ed. Al,unad Amin, pp. 51-3; Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, p. 29; idem., Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, pp. 268-73. 119. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 404; Kitiib al-Najiit, p. 275. 120. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 404; Ishiiriit, vol. 3, p. 214. 121. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, pp. 402-3. 122. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages,p. 29; Afnan, Avicenna, p. 133; Corbin, Histoire de la PhilosophieIslamique,vol. 1, pp. 239-40. 123. Ishiiriit, vol. 3, p. 214; see Marmura, 'Some Aspects of

194

IBN SiNA's NECESSARYAND BELOVED DEITY

Avicenna'sTheory,' p. 305 and Dodds, The UnchangingGod of Love, pp. 107-8. 124. Nasr, Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, p. 203. 125. SeeFigure 3 and, especially,llahiyyat,vol. 2, pp. 406-7; Kitab al-Najiit, p. 277. See also Marmura, 'Some Aspects of Avicenna's Theory,' p. 305; Afnan, Avicenna,pp. 133-4; Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, p. 61; Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 156; Nasr, Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, p. 203. 126. Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, p. 62. 127. E. g. seeCarrade Vaux, Avicenne,pp. 245-6. 128. See above p. 159. See Morewedge'scaveatabout the use of the word 'beyond'(Metaphysica,pp. 134-5 n. 3). 129. SeeNasr, Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, p. 212. 130. Morewedge,Metaphysica,especiallypp. 264-5. 131. Ibid., p. 268. 132. Ibid., p. 266. 133. Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, pp. 213ft. 134. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 271. 135. Nasr, Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, p. 214; Morewedge, Metaphysica,p. 268. 136. Morewedge, Metaphysica,p. 272, see also pp. 273ft. (Since Morewedgeis commentingon the PersianDanish-Nama,he useshere the Persianpadid amadanfor 'emanation'ratherthan the Arabic fayq; seethe Glossaryof the Metaphysica,p. 318. 137. SeeNasr, Three Muslim Sages,p. 29. 138. SeeFakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 156 and above p. 163 for Arabic references. 139. Seeabovepp. 163-4. 140. Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 156; seealso above pp. 163-4 for Arabic references. 141. Nasr, Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, p. 212. 142. Seeibid. 143. Seeibid., pp. 202-3. 144. Seeabovep. 159. 145. Seen. 128. 146. Nasr, Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, p. 203. 147. EnneadsV. 5. 5, translatedby Armstrong, Enneads,vol. 5, p.169. 148. EnneadsV. 5. 12, translatedby Armstrong, Enneads,vol. 5, p.193. 149. A. H. Armstrong, The Architectureof the Intelligible Universe in the Philosophyof Plotinus, p. 5. 150. Ibid., p. 49. 151. Ibid., p. 119 (my italics) 152. SeeFigure 3 n. 3. 153. Ilahiyyat, vol. 2, pp. 401, 407, 413; seeespeciallyp. 413 where we encounterthe Wahib al-Suwar namedas such. See also Kitab alNajat, pp. 192-3; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 689-92; Davidson, 'Active Intellect,' pp. 154-78; Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 157; Leaman, Medieval Islamic Philosophy, pp. 92-3; Lee, 'St.

195

IBN siNA's NECESSARYAND BELOVED DEITY

Thomasand Avicennaon the Agent Intellect,' pp. 41-61; Nasr, Three Muslim Sages,p. 30. 154. Davidson,'Active Intellect,' p. 178. 155. See, for example, Nasr's statements,Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, pp. 201, 213. 156. Kitab al-Najat, p. 278. 157. SeeNasr, Three Muslim Sages,p. 29. 158. Leaman,Medieval Islamic Philosophy,p. 93. 159. See A.-M. Goichon, art. 'Ibn Sinii,' EP, vol. 3, p. 943; Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 151-64,especiallypp. 151-3; for a brief summaryof the lfayy b. Yaq~an Recital, seeNasr, Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, pp. 268-73. 160. Translated(somewhatloosely) by Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 137-8; for the Arabic text, see lfayy b. Yaq~an ... ed. Amin, p. 43. 161. But seeMorewedge'scritical commentson this idea (Metaphysica, especiallyp. 240). 162. Gardet, La PenseeReligieused'Avicenne,pp. 54, 115, 116; Nasr, Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, p. 203 n. 20. 163. E. g. EnneadsV. 2. 1. SeeArmstrong, 'Plotinus,'pp. 25Off. 164. Avicenna'sDe Anima (Arabic Text), p. 200. 165. Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 139. 166. A useful summaryof someof Ibn Sinii's views is to be found 'A Treatiseon the Soul in his Risalafi 'I-Nafs: seeS. H. al-Ma'~iimi, Ascribed to Ibn Sinii,' in S. M. Abdullah(ed.),ProfessorMuhammad Shaft' PresentationVolume, pp. 139-44(Arabic text). However, for a full understandingof Ibn Sinii's views about the soul, the De Anima cited above(n. 164) is essentialreading.Seealso the important'Introduction' in F. Rahman,Avicenna'sPsychology:An English Translation of "Kitab al-Najat", Book ii, Chapter VI. 167. Kitab al-Najat, pp. 185-9. 168. Ibid., p. 189. 169. Gardet, La PenseeReligieused'Avicenne,p. 116. 170. Seen. 231 below. 171. Gardet,La PenseeReligieused'Avicenne,pp. 115-6citing Ibn Sinii, Tis' Rasa'iI, pp. 124, 81. 172. Gardet, La PenseeReligieused'Avicenne,p. 116. 173. We would normally consider this as the fifth letter of the Arabic alphabettoday, but here Ibn Sinii usesthe Abjad systemi.e. that which follows an order beginning alif, btl', jim, dal. See Nasr, Three Muslim Sages,p. 141 n. 58. 174. Nasr, Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, pp. 209-10 citing alRisala al-Nayruziyyain Ibn Sinii, Tis' Rasa'i/, pp. 138-40. 175. SeeFigure 3. 176. See,for example,Booth, Aristotelian Aporetic Ontology, pp. 95, 164-5 and Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 276. 177. See the remarks of S. H. Nasr, 'A ComparativeStudy of the Cosmologiesof Aristotle and Ibn Sid and the Significance of Cosmologyin the Islamic Tradition,' in his Islamic Studies:Essayson Law and Society,the Sciences,and Philosophyand Sufism,pp. 47, 51.

196

mN SINA's NECESSARYAND BELOVED DEITY

By an Aristotelian cosmosI do not, of course,meanhere the full 55 or 56 spheresbut only the majority of thoseoutlinedon Figure 3. The principal modifying influenceis that of Ptolemywhosesystem,as A. M. Goichon puts it, 'becomesthe framework of creativeemanation' ('Ibn Sina,' p. 943). However, see Corbin's important chapter'The Number of the CelestialSpheres,'in his Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 93-101, where Corbin shows that Ibn Sina leavesus in some doubt as to the exact numberof his intelligencesand spheres. Seealso Nasr, Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, p. 236 n. 2. 178. E. g. see Badawi, HistoireA vol. 2, pp. 641-8; GhassanFinianos, Les GrandesDivisions de l'Etre "Mawjad" selon Ibn Sfnd, pp. 239--64. 179. Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 641; seeabovep. 124. 180. Hourani, 'Ibn Sina on Necessaryand PossibleExistence,'p. 74. 181. Kitab al-Najat, p. 235: cited and translatedby Hourani, 'Ibn Sina on Necessaryand PossibleExistence,'pp. 81-2. 182. Kitab aI-Najat, p. 224: cited and translatedby Hourani, 'Ibn Sina on Necessaryand PossibleExistence,'p. 79. 183. Ibid. 184. Ilahiyyat, vol. 1, p. 38: cited and translatedby Hourani, 'Ibn Sina on Necessaryand PossibleExistence,'p. 83. 185. Seeal-Risalaal-'Arshiyyain Majma' RasiJ'ilal-Shaylchal-Ra'is, pp. 2-3: cited and translatedby Hourani, 'Ibn Sina on Necessaryand PossibleExistence,'p. 77; Kitab al-Najat, p. 235: cited and translated by Hourani, 'Ibn Sina on Necessaryand PossibleExistence,'p. 82. 186. E. g. seeIlahiyyiJt, vol. 2, pp. 344-6. 187. SeeIsh/JriJt, vol. 3, pp. 20-4. For a much fuller survey of the proof basedon possibility and necessity,see Finianos, Les Grandes Divisions, pp. 251-8, and HerbertA. Davidson,'Avicenna'sProof of the Existence of God as a NecessarilyExistent Being,' in Parviz Morewedge (ed.), Islamic Philosophical Theology, pp. 165-87, especially 179-80; see also the valuable article by Michael E. Marmura, 'Avicenna'sProof from Contingencyfor God's Existence in the Metaphysicsof the Shi/iJ',' Mediaeval Studies,vol. 42 (1980), pp.337-52. 188. Compare Aquinas' similar ideas in G. J. Shute, 'The Five Ways of ThomasAquinas,' pp. 394-9. 189. IlahiyyiJt, vol. 2, p. 373; Finianos, Les Grandes Divisions, p. 242; Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 643. 190. Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 643. 191. IshiJrat, vol. 3, pp. 26-7; see Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 643-6; Finianos,Les GrandesDivisions, pp. 243-50. 192. Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 647-8. 193. Ibid., citing A. -M. Goichon,Livre desDirectiveset Remarques (KitiJb al-'IlariJt wa I-TanbihiJt), pp. 371-2; see IshiJriJt, vol. 3, pp. 54-5. (Goichon'sFrenchtranslationof the IshiJrat, referredto above under the title of Livre des Directives et Remarquesshould, incidentally, be used with care: see Inati (Ibn Sfna: Remarksand Admonitions, p. 2) who statesthat 'even though this Frenchtranslationwas

197

IBN siNA's NECESSARYAND BELOVED DEITY

an important step towards understandingal-Ishiiriit wat-Tanbfhiit, it, nevertheless,distortsits contentsat many points.') 194. Badawi, Histoire, vol. 2, pp. 647-8; see also Finianos, Les Grandes Divisions, pp. 259-64 and Davidson, 'Avicenna'sProof of the Existenceof God,' especially p. 170. For an erudite and wideranging survey and discussionof the whole field of ontological arguments, see Parviz Morewedge,'A Third Version of the Ontological Argument in the Ibn Sinian Metaphysics,'in Morewedge, Islamic PhilosophicalTheology,pp. 188-222.Seealso FaruqAbdullah (Steve A. Johnson),'A Fourth Ontological Argument in Ibn Sina's Metaphysics,'Hamdard Islamicus, vol. 7. no. 4 (1984), pp. 3-16. 195. For a useful survey of Aquinas' 'ways,' someof which derive from Ibn Sinaand Maimonides,seeShute,'The Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas,' pp. 390-414. For the general influence of Ibn Sina on Aquinas, with particular reference to the latter's Summa contra Gentiles, see Albert Judy's three part article 'Avicenna's "Metaphysics" in the SummaContra Gentiles,'Angelicum,vol. 52 (1975), pp. 340-84, 541-86,vol. 53 (1976), pp. 185-226.For the Neoplatonic backgroundto AquinasseeW. J. Hankey, God in Himself: Aquinas' Doctrine of God as Expoundedin the Summa Theologiae. Hankey suggeststhat 'Avicennamay be oneof Thomas'sourcesofthe Porphyrian tradition' (p. 6, seealso pp. 67-8). However, with regardto the five proofs of God's existenceHankey holds that 'St. Thomasis not dependenton Avicennain the third way. Apparentlyfollowing Averroes, he rejectsAvicenna'sdefinition of necessity'(p. 164). 196. Morewedge,'Third Version of the OntologicalArgument,'p. 193. For a surveyof the five ways in the light of modernphilosophy, seeShute,'The Five Ways of ThomasAquinas.'Anthony Kenny has arguedthat Aquinas'five waysfail 'principally becauseit is muchmore difficult than at first appearsto separatethemfrom their backgroundin medievalcosmology.'(The Five Ways: St. ThomasAquinas'Proofs of God's Existence,p. 3 and passim.) 197. ImmanuelKant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, pp. 519-20: translated by F. Max Muller, Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, pt. 2, pp. 449-450. Seealso Sadik J. AI-Azm, The Origins of Kant's Argumentsin the Antinomies,especiallypp. 1-45; but compareShute, 'The Five Ways of ThomasAquinas,' especiallypp. 433ft, 456, 466, who holds to the impossibility of an infinite regressof movers. 198. Iliihiyyiit, vol. 2, p. 381. 199. Ibid., p. 266. 200. Ibid., p. 403. 201. SeeBadawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 665. 202. Ibid., p. 664; Gardet,La PenseeReligieused'Avicenne,p. 193. 203. See,for example,P. Morewedge,'The Logic of Emanationism in the Philosophyof Ibn Sina (Avicenna),Part 1,' Journal and ~ufism of the AmericanOriental Society,vol. 91 (1971), pp. 467-76and ibid., 'Part ii,' Journal of the AmericanOriental Society,vol. 92 (1972), pp. 1-18. 204. SeeNasr, Three Muslim Sages,pp. 43-5; Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 157.

198

IBN siNA's NECESSARYAND BELOVED DEITY

205. SeeCorbin'sremarkson allegory, myth and symbol,Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, pp. 135-6,259. 206. E. g. Corbin,Avicennaand the Visionary Recital; Nasr,Islamic CosmologicalDoctrines, p. 263. 207. lfayy b. Yaq~an, pp. 52-3; Corbin,Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 149-50. 208. lfayy b. Yaq~an, p. 53. 209. Ibid. 210. Ibid. 211. Translated(againsomewhatloosely) by Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, p. 149; seelfayy b. Yaq~an, p. 52. 212. Seelfayy b. Yaq~an, p. 52 n. 4 wherethe editor calls this First Intellect al-'Aql al-Fa"al al-Awwal and al-Mubda' al-Awwal. 213. Risalat !ll-fayr in Traites Mystiquesd'Abou Ali al-Hosain b. Abdallah b. sma ou d'Avicenne, pp. 46-7 (Arabic text); Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 191-2. 214. Translatedby Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, p. 191; Risalat al-fayr, p. 47. 215. SeeMorewedge,Metaphysica,p. 100, seealso pp. 250, 306. 216. The Arabic text of al-RisalaIi '1-'Ishq may be studiedin Traites Mystiques,ed. Mehren, pp. 1-27. 217. AI-Risalafi 'I-'Ishq, p. 5; Emil L. Fackenheim,'A Treatiseon Love by Ibn Sina,' MediaevalStudies,vol. 7 (1945), p. 214. 218. Ibid. (AI-MaIJ4 is addedin the B. M. manuscriptof this text). 219. AI-Risalafi 'I-'Ishq, p. 18; Fackenheim,'A Treatiseon Love,' p.223. 220. AI-RisalaIi 'I-'Ishq, p. 22; Fackenheim,'A Treatiseon Love,' p.225. 221. AI-Risalafi 'I-'Ishq, p. 26; Fackenheim,'A Treatiseon Love,' p.228. 222. AI-Risala fi 'I-'Ishq, pp. 26-7; Fackenheim,'A Treatise on Love,' p. 228. 223 SeeJ. Houben,'Avicennaand Mysticism,' Indo-Iranica, vol. 6 no. 3 (1952-1953),p. 12; an almost identical version of this article appearsin Courtois (ed.), Avicenna CommemorationVolume, pp. 205-21; see also Louis Gardet, La ConnaissanceMystique chez Ibn Sina et sesPresupposesPhilosophiques,pp. 37-8. 224. Translated(loosely) by Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary p. 53. Recital, p. 150; seelfayy b. Yaq~an, 225. Risalat al-fayr, pp. 46-7; Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, p. 191. 226. lfayy b. Yaq~an, pp. 46-7; Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, p. 142. 227. SeeAvicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 46-122. 228. See lfayy b. Yaq~an, pp. 43ff; Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, pp. 137ff. 229. lfayy b. Yaq~an, pp. 51ff; Corbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 148ff, 164. 230. Risalat al-fayr, p. 47; Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, pp. 191, 194.

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IBN siNA's NECESSARYAND BELOVED DEITY

231. AI-Risalafi 'l-'Ishq, p. 23; Fackenheim,'A Treatiseon Love,' p.226. 232. See Booth, Aristotelian Aporetic Ontology, p. 95. A useful illustration of the fact that Ibn Sinii is not simply an Aristotelian lies in his treatmentof time: he operateshere with two distinct registers. On the one handhe follows andcommentsupon Aristotle'stheoriesof time; on the other, he then elaborateshis own. SeeYeganeShayegan, 'Avicennaon Time,' especiallypp. 12, 15. 233. See Morewedge, Metaphysica, pp. 164-5, 190, 236-41 and especially the following comment on p. 276: 'Despite the fact that ibn Sinii follows Neo-Platonictendenciesin his general position on emanation, the significant differences between him and the NeoPlatonists,specifically Plotinusand Proclus,forbid us to considerhim as a follower of Neo-Platonism'; see idem., 'The Logic of Emanationism... Part ii,' pp. 10-11 n. 71. 234 SeeLouis Gardet,'La Connaissance Supr~me de Dieu (Ma'rifat Allah) selon Avicenne,' Revuede l'Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes (Tunis), vol. 14 (1951), p. 394. 235. SeeChahine,Ontologie, p. 146; see also Morewedge'sexcellent two-part article 'The Logic of Emanationism. . .' cited aboven. 203. 236. SeeBadawi, Histoire, vol. 2, p. 665. 237. Man!iq al-Mashriqiyyin, p. 4 (Ibn Sinii's 'Introduction'). 238. Morewedge,Metaphysica,p. 234 citing Isharat, vol. 3, p. 53. 239. Elementsof Semiology,p. 57. 240. S/Z, p. 13. 241. Ibid., pp. 18-21; see Felperin, Beyond Deconstruction,pp. 97-8 for some criticisms of, and an addition to, the five Barthesian codes. 242. S/Z, p. 13. 243. Ibid., pp. 19-21. 244. Felperin, BeyondDeconstruction,p. 97. 245. S/Z, p. 19. 246. Seeibid., p. 20. 247. SeeCuller, Barthes,pp. 82-3. 248. Seen. 242 above. 249. S/Z, pp. 19, 21. 250. Ibid., p. 17 (my italics). 251. Seeibid. pp. 17 (no. 1),90-1 (no. 153). 252. Ibid., pp. 41-3 (nos. 28-37). 253. Ibid., p. 184 (nos. 467,469),185(no. 470), 195 (no. 509), 196 (no. 512), 209 (no. 548). 254. See1!ayy b. Yaq~an, pp. 43ff. 255. SeeAfnan, Avicenna,p. 140; Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy,p. 142; Rahman'Ibn Sina,' pp. 496-7. 256. CompareMarkus, 'St. Augustineon Signs,' pp. 84-5, 71. 257. 1!ayy b. Yaq~an, pp. 45, 47. 258. Ibid., pp. 47ff. 259. Ibid., p. 51.

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IBN SiNks NECESSARYAND BELOVED DEITY

260. p.85. 261. 262. 263. 264. 265.

See ibid., p. 53; compareMarkus, 'St. Augustine on Signs,'

lfayy b. Yaq?iin, pp. 52-3. Ibid., p. 43. S/Z, p. 19. Ibid., pp. 17,21. Ibid., p. 17. 266. Ibid. 267. Ibid., p. 159 (no. 397). 268. Ibid., p. 56 (no. 75). 269. Ibid., p. 64 (no. 92). 270. Ibid., p. 67 (no. 104). 271. Ibid., p. 93 (no. 160). 272. lfayy b. Yaq?iin, p. 48. 273. Ibid., pp. 46-7. 274. Ibid., p. 51. 275. Ibid., p. 43. 276. Ibid., p. 46. 277. SeeS/Z, p. 21. 278. Ibid., pp. 19,21. 279. Ibid., pp. 112-13. 280. Ibid., p. 175. 281. Ibid., p. 156. 282. Ibid., p. 93. 283. Maurice Hussey, 'The Humanismof John Bunyan,' in Boris Ford (ed.), From Donne to Marvell (Volume 3 of the Pelican Guide to English Literature), p. 220. 284. Ibid., p. 219. 285. PaceCorbin, Avicennaand the Visionary Recital, pp. 135,151. 286. S/Z, p. 71. 287. Eco, Semioticsand the Philosophyof Language,p. 103. 288. SeeQ. XVIII:59-81 and A. J. Wensinck,art. 'AI-KhaThe SecondSphere

I> + The Fifth Intellect I> + The Sixth Intellect I> + The SeventhIntellect I> + The Eighth Intellect I> + The Ninth Intellect I> + The Tenth Intellect I> The Fourth Intellect

inba'atha

The Third Intellect/Second Emanation=[Prime] Matter+ Fonn[> Sphereof Saturn Sphereof Jtiter Sphereof Mars Sphereof the Sun Sphereof Venus Sphereof Mercury Sphereof the Moon SublunarySphere(i.e. Earth)·

[> indicatesrule of sphereby intellect

Notes

1. This includes the four elementsof fire, air, water, and earth from which derive the three mineral, plant and animal kingdoms: see Raqat al-'Aql, pp. 333, 401ff.

228

THE GOD OF MEDIEVAL ISMA'iuSM

must surely lie in envisaging an ontological rather than a temporalorder and appreciatingthe total lack of chronological time that characterizesso much that is to do with emanation.225 To conclude,it is easyto seewhy, in view of its complexity, al-Kirmani's schememay not have been adoptedby the principal Isma'ill da'wa of the period which was that of the Fatimid dynasty.226This complexity may well have resulted from a study of, and attemptto learn from, his principal predecessors like al-Nasafi and al-Sijistani.227 It represents a considerabledevelopmentin a Farabiandirection both in its concentrationon, and elaboration of, the Intellects and its linking of thoseIntellectsto the spheresof ancientandmedieval cosmology. (In al-Sijistani's cosmology, for example, the spheresemergedat a lower point on the hierarchicalladder.) And although al-Kirmani's theology, as we have seen, embracedsome Plotinian features, it was at variance with Plotinus, for example,on the relationshipbetweenindividual and Universal Soul: unlike al-Nasafi and al-Sijistani, alKirmani did not believe that individual soulswere parts(ajzd') of that great Universal Soul but chose to characterizethem instead as a secondaryemanation(inbi'dth thdn).228 He thus providesa clear illustration of the truism that Neoplatonismin a Middle Easternor Islamic guise rarely meant just a simple repetition of the doctrinesof Plotinus. AL-i;lAMIDi AND THE APOTHEOSISOF THE NEOPLATONIC

MYTH

Ibrahim b. al-l:Iusayn al-I:Iamidi (died AD 1162), who held the high rank of second dd'f mut/aq among the Tayyibi community of Isma'ills in the Yemen,229 constitutes a sufficiently significant yet 'different' figure with which to end this survey of key Isma'ill writers from AD 900-1162. With AI-I:Iamidi the impact of Gnostic-typeprimordial myths, such as dominated the early developmentof Isma'ill doctrine, is felt again but in an interesting new form: Tayyibi Isma'ill doctrine took up where al-Kirmani left off and the doctrines of the Tayyibi communities,which flourished historically in the Yemen and India,230 were describedat length by al-I:Iamidi in his magnum opus The Book of the Youth's Treasure (Kitdb Kanz al-Walad).231 Here some of the Intellects assume,as it 229

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were, a more 'human'face, with 'human'aspirationsand jealousies,which contrastsvividly with the somewhatabstractand impersonaltreatmentof the Intellects in al-Kirmani's works. God, it is true, is conceivedby al-I:Iamidi in accordancewith established the familiar paradigmof profoundunknowableness, and enunciatedin the usual negaby his Isma'nt predecessors tive terminology.ThusGod is uncreated,inconceivable,imperceptible, devoid of all namesand attributes,and quite unlike every other denizen of the heavensand the earth; He has neither opposite nor peer (Iii tfjdd lahu wa Iii nidd).232 Most importantly, God is not a cause of anything ('ilia Ii-shay') though He is, of course, the Creator of the First Intellect,233 which functions as the veil of God (ipjiib al-Ghayb).234Jtis this First Intellect (al-'Aql al-Awwal), also variously termed the First Reasonor First Ground(al-Sababal-Awwal) andthe First Originated Being (al-Mubda' al-Awwal), who is the causeor source of all created things ('ilIat al-mawjudiit, ~l almawjudiit)235 but is, in its relation to God, itself 'the First to Exist' (al-Mawjud al-Awwal).236 As in al-Kirmani's theology also, the First Intellect is to be identified with the ibdii'.237 There is nothing unusual here, from the Isma'nt point of view, in the negativeterminologyusedof God and the sameis true of the more positive epithets applied to the Deity like 'Director of [all] things' (Mudabbir al-umur), 'Light of Light' (Nur al-Nur),238with its evocationof both Qur'anicand Suhrawardian terminology, and 'The Starting Point of Existence' (Mabda' al-wujud)239,as well as the emphasison His unity.240 The distinctive nature of al-lJamidi's theology becomes apparentat the level of the Intellects where al-Kirmani's basic model is now clothed in the garb of cosmic myth. The First Intellect, having been createdby God, emanatesthe Second and Third Intellects which are designated, in the usual Kirmanian way, as the First Emanation (al-Munba'ith alAwwal) and the Second Emanation (al-Munba'ith al-Thiint) respectively.These two further Intellects competewith each otherfor precedence'like two racehorses'andthe SecondIntellect gains precedenceover the Third Intellect, which the latter refusesto acknowledge,therebyprecipitatingits downfall. AlIJamidi stressesthat the beginning of this whole primordial sagatakesplacemore quickly than the glanceof an eye.241 The Third Intellect is relegatedto tenth rank242 and becomesa repentant TenthIntellect243 responsiblefor directing the world

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of nature (al-mudabbir Ii 'alam al-tabi'a)244 with the new title of Spiritual Adam (Adam al-RulJ,tint).24S The world itself is a by-product of the rebellion of the Thirdffenth Intellect, resulting from those other fallen entities - al-I;Iamidi characterizesthem as 'stragglers'(al-mutakhallifUn)246 - who likewise refused to accept the precedence of the First Emanation/Second Intellect despitethe calls of a now-reformed Tenth Intellect.247 It is from fallen entities such as thesethat evil came into the world becausethe First Intellect or Ibda' could neverbe a sourceof evil. 248 And at the endof his chapter on matter and form, al-I;Iamidi once again underlines the instantaneous natureof emanationby reiteratingthat the whole cosmic myth that has just been outlined took place in a moment, that momentwhich was filled by the Creator'sgreat word of creation,'Be' (kun) ,249 which createdthe First Intellect and resultedin the emanationof all else from that first originated being. AI-I;Iamidi's cosmologicalframework has much in common with that of al-Kirmiini: the seven remaining 'uqul after the Third Intellect all emanate from the First Emanation,2S0 (though, of course, as we have seen, there is a modification with al-I;Iamidi in the identification or merging of the Third and Tenth Intellects),and the Intellectsare associatedwith the 2S1 But the whole schemeof al-I;Iamidi takes classicalspheres. on an extra, and massive,cosmic dimension:it acts as a backdrop against which the Tenth Intellect, now repentantand acknowledging the superiority and precedenceof the First Emanation(who is mystically describedin variousplacesas the veil, (lJ,ijab), of the Mubda' al-Awwa[2S2), attemptsto work out a speciesof salvationhistory by calling otherswho have sinned and fallen to repentance.The intertextualechoesof all this, in a variety of different scriptures- Old Testament,Qur'iinic, Gnostic- in diverseforms hardly needto be stressedhere. What is of special interest is the way in which the Tayyibi Ismii'fiis, in commonwith other groups,2S3used and modified the figure of Adam and incorporatedit in a peculiarly tendentious fashion into their doctrine, in this case endowing the Tenth Intellect with the title 'Spiritual Adam.' This figure is, of course,to be clearly distinguishedfrom the more 'historical' Adam of Ismii'fii doctrine, who ranks as the first of the seven nutaqa' who each inaugurate one of the seven epochs of Ismii'fii cyclical history.2S4And a useful parallelismto the dual

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application of the name Adam which we find here might be invokedfrom the field of Gnosticism(from which parallelswere drawn earlier in this chapter in the discussionof the early Isma'fli cosmologyand its creation myth). Here, too, we find a groupwherethe nameAdam hasboth a spiritual and physical dimension,and thoughthesedimensionsare of a different kind from our Isma'fli author's,they are much more closely related and linked in Gnostic writings than they are in al-I:Iamidi's Book of the Youth's Treasure. In oneversionof the Gnosticmyth, TheApocalypseofAdam (the dating of this documentis still in dispute but it probably originated around the first or secondcenturiesAD2SS),Adam and Eve initially held a spiritual rank akin to that of the great angels,indeedgreaterthan that of their CreatorGod Himself. But this God nonethelesshad the power to bring about their downfall to a lower state, and Adam and Eve became two aeons,thereby inauguratingin this cosmic dramaa peculiarly Gnostictype of salvationhistory.2S6 In anotherGnosticsource,entitled The ApocryphonofJohn (to be datedprobably to the secondcenturyAD2S7), there is a much clearer stressthan in The Apocalypseof Adam on the different spiritual and physical aspectsof Adam. And on the spiritual plane,the term Adam is usedto refer to two different creations.First, there is the primary creation by a variety of spiritual entities of a divine prototype of man who is called Adam and set in chargeof the first aeon.2S8Later in the same text a psychicAdam is createdby the sevenplanetarypowers, fashioned out of themselves.2S9Finally this psychic Adam is reducedto the realmsof deathand matterby the now jealous sevenplanetarypowers and tied to a physical body, resulting in what might be describedas a 'Physical'or 'Carnal'Adam.260 The processis dramatically describedby the author of the Apocryphon: They saw the man. He had exaltedhimself far abovethem. They madea resolvewith the whole angeliccompanyof the archonsand the rest of their powers.Then they mingled fire and earth with water and flame. They bound them together with the four winds, breathing in fire, uniting with one another,and causing[a great] confusion.[They broughthim] into the shadowof death.They madeagainanothercreature; but out of earth and water, fire and wind, that is, out of

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matter,darkness,desireand the antagonistspirit - this is the fetter, this is the tomb of the creation of the body, which was put upon man as a fetter of matter.261 Isma'ill Islamic theology presentsa paradigmthat appearsto have differing facets according to the thinker or theologian under discussion.And just as the term 'Mu'tazila' is usedas a useful portmanteauword or umbrella to denote what were often geographicallyseparategroups of disparatethinkers in the Islamic Middle Ages, who nonethelessheld someprincipal doctrines in common, so the general name 'Isma'iliyya' is usually used to denominatethose heterodox groups which nonethelessmaintainedin their observanceof Islam an adherence to a few distinctive beliefs: the most obvious and frequentlycited includedthe emphasison a transcendent Deity, unknown and unknowablewho was not Himself the causeof things, a tendency to elaboratehierarchizationand a welldevelopedcyclical accountof history bound up with a list of The view of prophetic speakersor spokesmen(al-n~taqa'). God, however, remainedconstant, whatever variations may have occurredfrom one theologianto anotherin his account of the cosmos.But this chapterhas also indicatedthat other, less frequently stressed,facets of Isma'ilism had an almost equal importance:the use of creationex nihilo and emanation as dual motorsin the samecosmology;the dominantrole of the kalimalibda', which hasa significanceakin to that of emanation itself; and the use of philosophical myth as a vehicle for religious doctrine. It is these factors, as much as the earlier ones,which must have given Isma'ilism its intellectual appeal but alsocontributedto its increasingcomplexity. And it is these factors that ensurethat, when we speak of Isma'z1i Neoplatonism, we speakof a universeor corpusof doctrinein its own right. By usingsucha term we are not simply giving expression to, or defining, a set of influencesand antecedentsgarnered from the past. Such influencesand antecedentsmay well exist to a greateror lesser degree,but that is not the point here. Isma'ilism representedthe Islamization of Neoplatonismpar excellence,and not just a far-flung outpostof the doctrinesof Plotinus.

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THE STRUCTUREOF ISMA. 'iLl MYTH AND THEOLOGY

The word 'myth' has been interpreted and defined in many ways.262Indeed, it may be primarily defined very simply as 'a word' or, to use Annette Laver'sbettertranslationof Barthes' phrase,'a type of speech.'263 The conceptitself hashad to bear a plethoraof functions as well with which the Isma'ms,among others,would certainly havebeenfamiliar: myth could prop up a 'faltering ideology' and provide a 'cultural glue.' It could give an aura of familiarity in the midst of that which was confusing or threatening.Above all, the myth could lend more or less meaningto action and contributeto the stability of society.264 'Myth' can thus be said to have a wide semanticand functional variation, applicability and content.265 However, the use of the word in what follows, either alone or in suchphrasesas 'religious myth' and 'philosophical myth' will certainly not imply a value judgementas to the actual truth of the content of myth.266 This sectionof this chapter,like, indeed,the entire book, is not concernedwith assessingand decidingthe truth of the theology it discusses:its primary concernis the structure of that theology. The word 'myth' will thereforebe used in a strictly technical senseto designatea narrative vehicle for a primal event,or seriesof events,which may function as essential dogma,paradigmor key referentin the future development of any culture, religion or philosophy.267From the semiotic point of view suchmythic discoursesconstituteblocks of archetypal signs268 which not only give their respectivefields future direction but also imbue them with presentmeaning.We can easily seehow this is the casein theology, one of our primary concernsin this book, if we examineeven cursorily the significanceof, for example,the creationmyths espousedby diverse religions, or the myth of the great flood, whetherin the Book of Genesisor the Epic of Gilgamesh.269 Finally, however myth is defined, its inter-relatednessmust always be stressed.As Levi-Straussputs it in a classicpassage, myth is: . . . a matrix of meaningswhich are arrangedin lines or columns,but in which eachlevel alwaysrefersto someother level, whicheverway the myth is read.Similarly, eachmatrix of meaningsrefers to another matrix, each myth to other myths.

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There is a processof almost infinite mutual signification.270 It was shown above that the totality of Isma'ili theology presentsa paradigm of considerablestructural complexity. Indeed,perhapsit might be betteror more accurateto talk of severalrelated Isma'ili paradigmsrather than a single model. But in the theology of most, if not all, of the Isma'ili thinkers whom we have surveyed,it is clear that both cosmologyand myth played a dominant and vital role. The former has been coveredin somedetail in the earlier part of this chapter;271the function of the latter will now be discussedin what remains. Here the initial intention will be to discover if there is a common 'deep structure' to the Isma'ili myth272 and, by analyzing and itemizing the basic internal structuresof that myth as it appearsin the individual theologiesof the various Isma'ili intellectuals just surveyed, highlight some of their principal structural resemblancesand dissimilarities. This searchfor such' "deep-level" universals'273will then proceed to a brief examinationof the ways in which the Isma'ili myth, which is the prime vehicle and reflector of Isma'ilism and Isma'ili theology itself, may be articulatedin terms of Piaget's triad of structuralistterms:wholeness,transformation,andselfregulation. After this, we will turn to Isma'ili semiotics: JonathanCuller maintainsthat: ... the task of structuralists,whatevertheir field, is not to describea corpusof data or to constructtaxonomiesbut to examinethe set of underlying relations through which things can function as signs.The goal is to makeexplicit the implicit knowledgeusedin the recognitionand readingof signs.274 His statementprovidesan interestingspotlight on our present school of thought, Isma'ilism, which itself is wedded to an esoteric/exoteric(btilin/+tihir) mode of exegesis. Isma'ilism may be characterizedas an entire - but not necessarilylogical or totally harmonious- sign system and the examinationof Isma'ili semioticswill survey both positive and negativetheologemes.Furthermore,as was stressedbefore, eachindividual Isma'ili myth is a sign, or collection of signs, in itself. Finally, referencewill be made to the externalstructureand intertextuality of Isma'ilism and the degree to which this school of thought may be said to have becomealienatedfrom the basic 235

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Qur'anic Creator Paradigmproposedat the beginningof this book. The starting point for the study of the Isma'ntmyth and its internal structure will not be chosen at random though it remainstrue, of course,that we can never know the entirety of the system.27S The startingpoint for Isma'ilism must be what has been termed 'the Early Myth.' Its basic structure is as follows: an indescribableandeternalsupremeDeity, characterized principally in negative terms, createsa first hypostasis which in turn producesanother. A number of other tiers in the hierarchy are then producedin the supernaturalworld. However, one of the six /:ludud who emanatefrom the first hypostasisturns rebel. The physicalworld is the creationof the first hypostasisand thereis a completeparallelismbetweenthe supernaturaland the lower world. Certain key features,which we will see to be 'universals'in the diverse variations of this myth, standout: (a) divine transcendence and 'unknowability'; (b) the executiverole of the first hypostasis;(c) the themeof one who rebels out of pride againstthe divine fiat;276 and (d) the stressthroughout on hierarchy and the multiplication of hierarchies.277 It is worth reiterating that a Neoplatonic universe,becauseof its greatinsistenceon orderand hierarchy, constitutesa structuralist'sdream.Now Isma'ilism, evenin the early form seenhere, is such a universepar excellence.The final aspect (e) of the basic structure of the Isma'nt myth, which again bears reiteration, is the astonishingcombination of two modes of divine production and discoursein the one 278 myth: creationismand emanationism. If we now turn to the elaboration of the myth in the theologies of al-Nasafi, al-Sijistani, al-Kirmani, and alI:Iamidi we find that, while there are naturally individual variations,the featuressuggestedaboveas 'universals'for the myth remain constant.They constitutetogether,in other words, the basic mythic paradigm of Ismii'nt theology. And while not every aspectof the basic paradigmmay be apparentin every variation of the myth, it will be shown that most aspectsare. Thus al-Nasafi'stranscendentDeity createsa first hypostasis from which is generatedthe Soul from which result matter, form, and the world. The membersof the supernaturalhierarchy are certainly far fewer than in the Early Myth but no less apparentfor all that. There is the samestresson the executive responsibilityof the Intellect with the Soul 'sharing'in someof

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the latter responsibility, and there is the samecombinationof creationismand emanationism.And while the earlier story of a rebellious memberof the lJ.udud may not be a pivotal point in al-Nasafi'sversion of the myth, perhapsthe Soul's restless search(albeit for perfection), resulting in the creation of the world, is a milder aspectof the dilution of perfectionof which the IJ.add, Iblis, representsthe ultimate example:indeed,he is the evil oppositeof perfection. Finally, the principal variation in the whole structure of al-Nasafi's version of the myth, as against the basic mythic paradigm outlined above, is the inclusion of an 'intermediary'betweenGod and Intellect which is 'co-substantial,'or has a unity of existence, with that Intellect.279 We stressedearlier the lack of a systematiccosmology or theology in al-Sijistani'swritings, but that doesnot preventus from applyingthe basicparadigmto it andexaminingthe extent to which those writings agree and conflict. He too postulates an unknowableGod, though the picture is slightly modifed by the prospect he holds out of learning something about the UnknowableOne, and thereis a deploymentof positive as well as negative theologemes.The role of the Intellect increases mightily: this is the real 'Causeof Causes'and, as with alNasafi, there appearsan intermediary betweenIntellect and God called the Word of God with which the Intellect is united. Creationismandemanationagainmingle in the samestructure, which is one of hierarchicalorder and descentfrom the supernatural world into the material, with a greatermultiplication of terms taking place in the lower world than the higher.280 The theologicalstructureof al-Kirmani's thought represents a considerablecomplication of, and developmentupon, alSijistani's from one point of view, but preservesmuch of the basic paradigm from another. To treat the latter first: alKirmani's God is indeedelaboratedin the usualnegativestyle; the first hypostasisagain has a massiverole to playas First Causein the structure;and creationand emanationfeature as before as twin modes of production. What is different is the elaborationof the hierarchyala Farabiinto ten intellectswith associatedastral counterparts.The complexity here is akin to that which prevails in the Early Myth itself. There are further structuralistdifferencesas well: al-Kirmani refusesthe possibility of any intermediaryat all, whether'co-substantial'or not,

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betweenGod and the First Intellect; and he maintainsa double processionof intellectsfrom the First Intellect.281 In al-I:Iamidi's theology there is a return to highlighting the motif of rebellion, prominent in the basic mythic paradigm above, together with an attempt at anthropomorphizingthe Intellects. God is the usual negatively portrayed Unknown TranscendentBeing and al-I:Iamidi's structure incorporates againboth creationand emanation;but al-I:Iamidi's First Intellect follows the model of al-Kirmani in emanatingtwo intellects.282 The materialworld is the ultimate productof the initial power struggle betweenSecondand Third Intellect, the rebellion of the latter and the demotion of the latter to the tenth rank in the intellectual hierarchy.283 It is clearfrom this brief re-focussingon the structuresof the major Isma'ili thinkers, which we have now consideredin the light of the basic mythic paradigmconstructedfrom the Early Myth, that certain 'deep-level''universals'do exist for all the myths. They may not, as we stressedbefore, all be presentat anyone time in any single myth but they are present in sufficient numbersto enable us to portray the Isma'ili myth in terms of a commonearly structure,an Ur-Structure,whose principal (but not sole) components have been itemized above.284 How then can the myth be describedin terms of wholeness, transformation,and self-regulation?Some of the answerswill have become apparentalready. The myth provides its own wholenessin that in eachcaseit is infusedwith, or constructed upon, the conceptof mutual hypostaticdependencewithin the chain of being becauseof eternal emanation,as well as the Neoplatonicenthusiasmfor order and hierarchy.Though part of the story in somecases,and most of it in others,is atemporal (in accordancewith the dictates of classical Neoplatonism), there is a recognizablechain of 'events.'If it is not too much of a contradictionin terms,one can loosely talk of 'beginnings' and 'ends' in this chain since God is a kind of beginning and the Tenth Intellect is the spiritual 'end' of emanation.28s There are, in other words, identifiable 'closures'in the mythic system which fence it into a type of whole. And the Isma'ili myth is not only possessed of qualitiesof wholenessin itself: it provides an aura of wholeness,or 'cultural glue' (to use Schneidau's term) to the entire arenaof Isma'ili thought andtheology.286 The 'wholeness'of the latter is only underlinedby the constant

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leitmotiv of a cyclical history in humantime of seveneraseach introducedby a nii{iq287. (None of this, of course,contradicts the very real intertextual nature of the myth either here or generally.) The natural applicability of the conceptof transformationto the Isma'nt myth is almost self-evident.Levi-Straussputs it in a nutshell. The processhe describesis just as applicableto the variationsin the forms of the myth put forward by the various Isma'nt theologians, the structures of whose theologies we have been surveying, as it is to the Indian myths and their variantsthat he studiesfrom North and South America: Mythic thought operatesessentially through a processof transformation.A myth no soonercomesinto being than it is modified through a changeof narrator, either within the tribal group or as it passesfrom one community to another; some elements drop out and are replaced by others, sequenceschangeplaces,and the modified structuremoves througha seriesof states,the variationsof which nevertheless still belongto the sameset.288 This is preciselywhat happenedto the Isma'nt myth ov, - the period of time that has been the focus of attention in this chapter,i.e. the period betweenAD 900 and 1162. Transformations in the myth did take place but certain 'universals' remained. The Isma'nt myth, and thus Isma'nt theology, regulated itself accordingto a number of conventionsor styles: eternal emanationprovided a fundamentalrhythm; the replication of what was in the supernaturalworld by a parallel form in the lower world constitutedanother.A third internalmodeof theological regulation, confined to and defined by the imams and the 'ulamii' of Isma'nism,was interpretation,especiallyof the Qur'an,in termsof the exotericand the esoteric,the +iihir and the biilin. Such a dual mode of exegesishad immense and profound implications for Isma'ntsemiotics.It was one of the factors behind my earlier statementthat Isma'nism was an entire sign system.This statementwill shortly be justified more fully. Meanwhile we may recognizeit as a truism that in any universe where all things signify something else which is hidden,289then semiosisin that universebecomesvirtually infinite. And the semiotic implications are hardly less dramatic

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when they are derived simply from, or restrictedto, the major text of a religion where this text is subjectedto a dual mode of interpretation.The Qur'anwith sucha +tlhir/btl/in exegetical tradition was a vital and centralfeatureof the Isma'ili system: it constitutedin microcosm a mirror of the way in which the entire corpus of Isma'ili theology as a macrocosmwas essentially a completeand self-containedcodeof signs.2OO It is to this major area of Isma'ili semiotics that we will now turn. For the structure of Isma'ili theology may be said to have regulateditself accordingto a strictly and clearly articulatedvocabulary of signsdrawn from the Qur'anand elsewhere.The Piagetian structuralist concept of self-regulation as applied to Isma'nism thus leads naturally to a study of Isma'ili semiosis itself. In the survey of Isma'nismand the Isma'ili myth thus far, Culler's advice has been heeded: an examination has been undertakenof 'the set of underlying relations through which things can function as signs.'291 Somedescriptiveand taxonomic work, pace Culler, was necessaryin the first parts of this chapter. The latter part, however, has concentratedon the 'underlying relations' and structures.Now we turn finally to the 'things' themselvesas they perform a semioticfunction. For Barthesthe relationshipbetweenthe myth and semiosis was obvious: Comme etude d'une parole, la mythologie n'est en effet qu'unfragmentde cettevastesciencedessignesqueSaussure a postuleeil y a une quarantained'anneessous Ie nom de semiologie.292 The relationshipwas equally obvious in an earlier age to the Isma'ilis, who may be describedas having 'signalled'or 'signified' theologically in two ways: covertly, by meansof a text whose interpretationrequired a skilled exegeteto draw the btl/in from beneaththe +tlhir; and overtly, by meansof theologemes, negative and positive, which were more explicitly acknowledged. God's absolutetranscendencewas signalledin the usual way by a negativevocabularyaccordingto which he was neither a number nor numbered,and had no oppositenor equal.293 He was not even a cause,294a being, non-being, substance,or accident.29sHis glory was signalled, by contrast,in a positive

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way using the vocabularyof light; He was veiled in light,296 His unity emanatedlight;297 He was, in fact, 'the Light of Light. '298 None of this is unusual:the last few chaptershaveconcentrated on a description of God in terms of negative and positive theologemes. What is, perhaps,more unusualis the attempt,with al-Sijistani, to describethe Intellect as well in negativeand positive terms,andsecondly,to deploysomeof the latter positiveterms with a Our'anic provenancein a clear effort to legitimate the entire Neoplatonicstructure.Isma'ili semiosis,in other words, becomeshere an agent of legitimation. So, negatively, for example,the Intellect is said to lack unevenness,perishibility, and mobility.299 But positively the Intellect is termed by such Our'anic namesas 'the Chair,' 'the Pen,' 'the Divine Eternal Decree,' and 'the Sun.'300 (Similarly, the Universal Soul receivesthe Qur'anicdesignationsof 'the Throne,' 'theTablet,' 'the Divine Decree,'and 'the Moon,'301) And such vocabulary is not rigid in its signification. The Pen can, for example,elsewhere be a sign for the SecondIntellect.302 Moreover,it might be stressedhere that much of the positive aspectof the First Intellect that is displayedonly servesto signalevenmoredeeply the utter transcendenceof God Himself.303 This primacy of beingwith which the First Intellect is endowedappearsagainin anotherof his titles 'The Antecedent,'304while the ontological subordinationof the Universal Soul to all that hasgonebefore is signified in its title 'The Follower.'305 So much for someof the individual elementsin the Isma'ili myth. The questionfinally arisesfrom a semiotic perspective: disregardingfor a momentits numerousvariationsin the works of different authors,what doesthe myth as a whole signify? It will be clear from what hasgonebefore that many answersare possible. But perhapsone useful and obvious way of looking at the Isma'ili myth is to see it as man's primary attempt to make some senseof his universeby bringing the supernatural elementsand agentsin that universecloser to him. Oral and written narrative- and so the myth itself - 'imprisons'in word and on paper, albeit fleetingly and always superficially but in someway, the Unknowableand the Unthinkable.Divine transcendencefor the Isma'ili meant, however, that that 'imprisoning'could neverbe more than a faint echoor a faint jotting of the Ultimate Reality in which he believed.Isma'ili semiosis, like that of severalotherphilosophies,may be saidin onesense

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to have placed the name 'God' and its articulation under a virtual interdict: the writers of the Old Testamentknew the sameproblem. Isma'ilism, therefore,spoke negatively of His transcendence and positively of His glory. It becamean entire systemof signs in what was in fact a vain attempt,the attempt to articulate the Unknowable Reality at the heart of the universe of Isma'ilism. One of the classicways of viewing any body of doctrine or myth has been to examineit and dissectit in terms of 'influences.'For a long time Islam was treated in this fashion by Western Orientalism with the Our'an being frequently and rudely cast aside as a heretical, misguided,or misunderstood 306 Now the compilationof datafrom Old and New Testaments. dangersinherentin approachingthe externalrelationshipsand structureof Isma'ili thought and myth in terms of 'influences' have already been alluded to. The Isma'ili myth is not just the totality of the Gnostic myths writ large, though no one would deny that there may have been some influencesfrom this and other areas and that, moreover, they may share a common pool of imagery and motifs, not to mention theologemes.There is indeed a 'deep-structure'to all mythology as Levi-Strausshas consistentlytaught.307 And there is often no single version of eachmyth: it may have severalvalid versions or dimensions.308 But what should really persuadeus to move away from the conceptof a later model being merely a sum total of 'influences'from an earlier, in the examinationof such modesof discourseas myth, is the ideathat myths are basically anonymous:'From the moment they are seenas myths, and whatever their real origins, they exist only as elements embodied in a tradition.'309 Each myth, in other words, is mouldedaccordingto, or within, its ageand it is this synchronic aspectthat here gives myth its essentialwholeness. So, while no one will desputethat some things and some ideasare influencedby others,a more fruitful perspectivefrom which to examine the Isma'ili myth is the intertextual. Certainly, it is easyfrom this point of view to relatethe Isma'ili myth to thoseof Platonism,Neoplatonismand Gnosticism.In doing this we genuinely fulfill the conditions of real intertextuality as defined by Julia Kristeva, and reiterated here by Goldhill: 'Intertextuality' involves changesin the social conditionsof

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literary production and a different framework with which a speakeridentifies himself - not merely a literary reference between two works. As such, 'intertextuality' betokensa wide senseboth of the appropriationof onework by another and of a systemof differencesbetweenworks.310 It is from the perspectiveof this latter 'systemof differences'

that onemay preferto talk of intertextualitybetweenthe major texts and myths of Platonism,Neoplatonism,Gnosticism,and Isma'ilism, and suchdiscourseis at leastfresherthan the hoary old tradition that elaboratedand interpretedthe doctrinesand lore of one school of thought purely in terms of a set of 'influences'from a prior. I arguedearlier that myth was primarily an enabling agent in Isma'ilism: it shouldnot be regardedas an alienatingfeature though themes of alienation did, on occasion,figure prominently within the Isma'ili myth itself: both Iblis in the Early Myth and the Third Intellect in al-I:Iamidi's versionwere examplesof self-alienatedspiritual beings.311 The doctrineof Neoplatonism can fairly be viewed as a portrayalof alienationbecause of the separationand gulf betweenman and his real divine home.312But as a whole the Isma'ili myth, in whicheverof its diverseforms, operatedin a universeof transcendentGod and earthboundman in which it not only tried to explain to the latter his condition but, in its cyclical unfolding, provided a bridge between the two. Furthermore,the structure of the Isma'ili myth, and thus of Isma'ili theology itself, had one vitally significantfactor which did not, for example,form a part of al-Farabi's structure. The Isma'ili structure was basically Neoplatonicand should, therefore,have appearedde facto to be far removedfrom the Qur'anic CreatorParadigm.But the distancewas considerablylessenedby that factor to which we have already referred, namely the capacityof the structureto tolerateandembodyboth creationismandemanationismwithin the samemodel. It is perhapsthis feature of Isma'ilism, more than any other, which distinguishesit from both predecessors and successorsand signalsto both a paradoxicalstriving at one and the sametime after the 'enclosed'universeof the Qur'anic Creator Paradigmand the infinite wildernessof The One of Neoplatonism.

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NOTES 1. The most important bibliographiesare those by W. Ivanow, A Guide to Ismaili Literature; idem., Ismaili Literature : A Bibliographical Survey,A SecondAmplified Edition of "A Guide to Ismaili Literature"; and Ismail K. Poonawala,Biobibliography of Ismd'z1i Literature. Seealso A. A. A. Fyzee,'The Study of the Literature of the Fatimid Da'wa,' in George Makdisi (ed.), Arabic and Islamic Studiesin Honor of Hamilton A. R. Gibb. pp. 232-49. 2. Paul E. Walker, 'Cosmic Hierarchiesin Early Ismi'ili Thought: The View of Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistini,' Mwlim World, vol. 66 (1976), pp.14-15. in this chapteris a deliberate 3. The omissionof the Ikhwin al-~afi' lacuna: I have already treatedtheseBrethrenin anotherwork (see my Mwlim Neoplatonists)where I arguedthat they were not, in any case,fundamentallyIsmi'ilis but only inftuenced- albeit profoundly - by Ismi'ili doctrines(see Mwlim Neoplatonists,pp. 95-104). I am aware, of course,of the deep venerationby Ismi'ilis of the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-$afa': see, for example, A. A. A. Fyzee, The Book of Faith: From the "Da'a' im ai-Islam" (Pillars of Islam) of al-Qdf!.i alNU'mdn b. Mul}ammad al- Tamimi, p. lX, and Wilfred Madelung, 'Aspects of Ismi'ili Theology: the Prophetic Chain and the God Beyond Being,' in SeyyedHosseinNasr (ed.), Isma'z1iContributions to Islamic Culture, p. 53. The great and prolific Filimid author and jurist, al-Oi~i al-Nu'min (died AD 974), hasalso beenomitted from discussionin this chapterbecausehe is much more important for the developmentof fiqh, and the recordingof the history of Filimid rule, than for any major developmentsin the Ismi'ili view of God and relatedcosmologicaltheory and doctrine. SeeWilfred Madelung,art. 'Ismi'niyya,' E12 , vol. 4, p. 204; Poonawala,Biobibliography, pp. 48-68; and, of course,al-Nu'min'sown magisterialDa'a'im ai-Islam, 4. S. M. Stem, 'The Earliest Cosmological Doctrines of Ismi'nism,' in his Studiesin Early Isma'11ism,p. 3. 5. It will be noted that the early doctrine describedin this section is by an author who died severaldecadesafter the Ismi'ili Neoplatonist al-Nasafi. But that did not affect its intrinsically pre-Neoplatonist nature.SeeStem, 'CosmologicalDoctrines,'p. 5. 6. Madelung, art. 'Ismi'niyya,' p. 203. 7. See Stem, 'Cosmological Doctrines,' pp. 3-29 (Arabic text pp.7-16). 8. Ibid., p. 5. 9. Ibid., p. 7 (Arabic text). 10. Ibid., pp. 7-8 (Arabic text). 11. Ibid., p. 10 (Arabic text). 12. Ibid., p. 25. 13. Ibid., pp. 12-14 (Arabic text). 14. Ibid., p. 25; p. 13 (Arabic text). The text here cites 0.11:32. 15. Ibid., p. 9 (Arabic text). 16. Ibid., pp. 20-1. 17. Ibid., pp. 9, 15 (Arabic text).

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18. Ibid., pp. 21-2; see also Madelung, art. 'Isma'myya,'p. 203. 19. Stem, 'CosmologicalDoctrines,'p. 9 (Arabic text). 20. Ibid., p. 9 (Arabic text). The verb kharaqa means,of course, more 'to tear' or 'to bore' than simply 'to dig.' 21. Ibid., p. 9 (Arabic text). The terminology is made even more complex by the further designationin the text of Kiini (= al-Siibiq) as 'The First' (al-Awwal) and Qadar(= al-Tiill) as 'The Second'(alThiint). SeeStem, 'CosmologicalDoctrines,'pp. 9, 14 (Arabic text). 22. Ibid., p. 14 (Arabic text). 23. Ibid.; seealso p. 9 (Arabic text). 24. E.g. ibid., pp. 7, 9 (Arabic text). 25. Ibid., p. 12 (Arabic text). 26. Ibid., p. 13 (Arabic text). 27. Ibid., p. 12 (Arabic text). 28. Seeaboven. 26. 29. Stem, 'CosmologicalDoctrines,'pp. 14-15 (Arabic text). 30. To take one simple example,we note al-Mas'iidi's references in the same breath to Marqiyiin (the Gnostic - or quasi-GnosticMarcion who died circa AD 160) and the Iranian GnosticMani (circa AD 216-276/7): Muraj al-Dhahab, vol. 4, p. 224. Regarding the Gnosticstatusof Marcion, seeWernerFoerster,Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts,vol. 1, p. 44, who questionswhetherMarcion should really be called a Gnostic, and Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion, pp. 137-8, who believesthat he should. 31. Sword of Honour, p. 395. (I am indebtedto my colleagueMr Brian Pridhamfor finding this referencefor me.) 32. SeeSeale,Muslim Theology,pp. 8-9. 33. G. W. MacRae believes that we should talk of a Gnostic 'cosmogony'rather than 'cosmology','becausetheir speculationmost often took the form of a mythologicalexplanationof the origin of the universeratherthan a philosophicalconsiderationof its composition.' (Art. 'Gnosticism,'in New Catholic Encyclopaedia,vol. 6, p. 525. 34. Jonas,GnosticReligion, p. 32. 35. This is drawn from Irenaeus'accountof the Gnosticsystemof Valentinus' pupil, Ptolemaeus,and is translatedby Foersterin his Gnosis, vol. 1, p. 127. (Valentinus, along with Basilides,was one of the great AlexandrianGnostic leadersof the secondcenturyAD.) 36. Foerster,Gnosis,vol. 1, pp. 136-7. 37. Ibid., pp. 127-8. 38. Lit. it belongsto the boundaryof the First (~add al-Awwal): Stem, 'CosmologicalDoctrines,'p. 9 (Arabic text). 39. Ibid. 40. Foerster,Gnosis,vol. 1, pp. 129 ff. This is, of course,only one version of the Gnostic creation myth. Gnosticism, like Isma'msm after it, elaborateda variety of cosmologicalschemesand creation myths with considerabledifferencesin detail. 41. David R. W. Bryer, 'Preface,' in Stem, Studies in Early Ismii'11ism, p. XU; S. M. Stem, 'The Early !sma'ill Missionariesin North-WestPersiaand in KhurasanandTransoxania,'in his Studiesin Early Ismii'11ism, pp. 219-20; Madelung,art. 'Isma'myya,'pp. 203-4;

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Paul Ernest Walker, 'AbU Ya'qub al-Sijistini and the Development of Ismaili Neoplatonism,'p. 80; J. T. P. de Bruijn, art. 'Al-Kirmiini,' EP, vol. 5, p. 167; Ismail K. Poonawala,'AI-Sijistini and His Kitab al-Maqalid', in Donald P. Little (ed.), Essayson Islamic Civilisation Presentedto Niyazi Berkes, p. 278; idem., Biobibliography, pp. 40, 42. For al-Nasafi's life see Stern, 'Early Ismii'fli Missionaries,' pp. 219-20and Poonawala,Biobibliography, pp. 40-1. 42. Walker, 'AbU Ya'qub al-Sijistini.' pp. 70-1. 43. S. M. Stern, 'Abu I:Jitim al-Riizi on PersianReligion,' in his Studiesin Early Isma',1ism,p. 31. 44. Poonawala,Biobibliography, pp. 36-9; De Bruijn, art. 'AIKirmini,' p. 167. 45. Poonawala,Biobibliography,p. 38; idem., 'AI-Sijistini and His Kitab al-Maqalid,' p. 278. 46. For a discussionof the Kitab al-MalMal and the debatethat it provoked,seeW. Ivanow, 'An Early Controversyin Ismailism' in his Studiesin Early Persian Ismailism, pp. 115-159,and Walker's excellent thesis, 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistini,' pp. 68-107. 47. Poonawala,'AI-Sijistini and His Kitab al-Maqalid,' pp. 278-9; De Bruijn, art. 'AI-Kirmiini,' p. 167. 48. Poonawala,Biobibliography, pp. 42-3. 49. Ibid., p. 38. 50. S. M. Stern, art. 'AbU Ya'taib Is~ii~ B. A~mad al-S~zi,' EP, vol. 1, p. 160. 51. Kitab al-Riyaq., ed. 'Arif Tiimir, Its full title which appearson Tiimir's title page is Kitab al-Riyaq. /i 'l-Ifikam bayn (al-$tidayn) $al}ibay al-I#iil} wa 'I-NWjra, but Poonawala('AI-Sijistini and His Kitiib al-Maqiilid,' p. 279 n. 21) corrects part of this to read /i-'Ilfukm. 52. Kitab al-Riyaq., p. 214. 53. Paul Ernest Walker, 'The Ismaili Vocabulary of Creation,' Studia Islamica, vol. 40 (1974), p. 82. 54. Seeibid., p. 83. 55. Kitab al-Riyaq., pp. 214-15; see Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy,' p. 149. 56. Kitab al-Riyaq., p. 217; see Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy,' p.149. 57. Kitab al-Riyaq., p. 220; see Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy,' p.150. 58. Seebelow pp. 212ff. 59. SeeWalker, 'AbU Ya'qub al-Sijistini,' p. 79. 60. Kitdb al-Riyaq., pp. 221, 226; see Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy,' p. 150. 61. Kitab al-Riyiiq., p. 225; see Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy,' p. 151. 62. Seeabove pp. 167--8. 63. The same was true in al-Sijistiini's theology; for this concept see Madeiung, art. 'Ismii'iliyya,' p. 203; idem., 'Aspectsof Ismii'Di Theology,'p. 56; Walker, 'CosmicHierarchies,'p. 19. 64. Kitiib al-Riytlq., pp. 224-6; Walker, 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistini,'

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pp. 76, 79; Madelung, art. 'Ismii'fliyya,' p. 203; Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy,'p. 151. 65. Lit. 'the act of creation' or 'the creating' : Kitab al-Riyat!, p.228. 66. Ibid.; seeIvanow, 'An Early Controversy,'p. 152. 67. Walker, 'AbU Ya'qub al-Sijistiini', p. 79 n. 1. 68. Kitab al-Riyat!, p. 226; see Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy', p.152. 69. In view of the unpublishednatureof this work, and its general will be cited at secondhand inaccessibility, referencesto the I~/a~ via Walker's 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistiini'. (Walker was able to use the manuscriptcopy in the private library of ProfessorAbbas Hamdani.) 70. AI-I~/a~, f. 13a cited by Walker, 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistiini,' p.76. 71. AI-I#a~, ff. 13a, lOb cited by Walker, 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistiini,' pp. 76-7. 72. AI-I#a~, ff. lOb, 15b, 18a cited by Walker, 'Abu Ya'qub alSijistiini,' pp. 77-9. 73. Ibid. 74. Seeabove p. 209. 75. See Walker, 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistiini,' pp. 80, 194. 76. Ibid., pp. SO, 86. 77. SeeStern, art.'Abu Ya'I.cub Isl).iiI.c B. Al).mad al-S!Qjzi,' p. 160; Poonawala,Biobibliography, p. 82; Ivanow, Ismaili Literature, 2nd amp. edn, p. 27. 78. No one knows the exactdateof his deathbut scholarsfluctuate between a little after AD 971 (Walker, 'Ismaili Vocabulary of Creation,' p. 77) to circa AD 996-100213 (Poonawala,Biobibliography, p. 83). 79. Madelung, 'Aspectsof Ismii'fli Theology,' p. 57. SO. Walker, 'Ismaili Vocabularyof Creation,'p. 77. Seealso Stern, art, 'Abu Ya'~ub Isl).ii~ B. Al).mad al-S!Qjzi,' p. 160. However, Ivanow would clearly have disputedthis verdict for he describedhim as 'a prolific author, but not of high theological attainments'who 'specialisedon popular treatises,evidently intended for beginners' (Ismaili Literature, 2nd amp. edn, p. 27). 81. See Walker, 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistiini,' p. 80. 82. Ibid., p. 110. For his (unpublished)Kitab al-Maqalid, seePoonawala, 'AI-Sijistiini and His Kitab al-Maqalid,' pp. 274-83. The Kitab al-Yanabr is, however,in print. Seebelow n. 86. 83. Ismaili Literature, 2nd amp. edn., p. 27; Poonawala,Biobibliography, p. 86. 84. Ismaili Literature, 2nd amp. edn., p. 28. 85. This remainsin manuscript(see Poonawala,Biobibliography, p. 86) but has beenthe subject of a recent Ph. D. thesiscomprising both a study,which concentrateson an analysisof al-Sijistiini's terminology, and a critical edition of Sullam al-Najat : see Alibhai, 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistiini and Kitab Sullam al-Najat: A Study in Islamic Neoplatonism,'[Hereafterreferredto simply as Sullam al-Najat.] 86. Henry Corbin, 'Le Livre desSources(Kitdb al-Yanabi') d'AbQ

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Ya'qdb Sejest4ni : 1 Pr6liminaires,' in Trilogie Ismaelienne, p. 5 (French text). 87. Sullam al-Najat, p. 139 (English study). 88. Ibid., p. iii (English study). 89. Kitab al-Yanabf p. 2 (Arabic text); Kitab Ithbat al-NuM'at, p. 1. See Paul Ernest Walker, 'An Ismii'ill Answer to the Problem of Worshipping the Unknowable, Neoplatonic God,' American Journal of Arabic Studies,vol. 2 (1974), p. 15:(B). 90. Kitab al-Maqalid, (Manuscript in library of ProfessorAbbas Hamdani), pp. 66-7 cited in Walker, 'An Ismii'ill Answer,' p. 14. 91. Walker, 'An Ismii'ill Answer,' p. 15. 92. See,for example,the negativedescriptionat the beginningof the Ithbat al-NuM'at, p. 1. 93. Walker, 'An Ismii'fli Answer,' pp. 12-13. 94. Kitab al-Maqalid, p. 47 cited in Walker, 'An Ismii'fli Answer,' p.13. 95. Seen. 89 above. 96. See Walker's remarkson this problem, 'An Ismii'ill Answer,' p.18. 97. Kitab Ithbat al-NuM'at, p. 30. 98. Ibid., p. 1. 99. E,g. ibid., pp. 30, 123; Kitab al-Yanabf,p. 15 (Arabic text). 100 E.g. Kitab Ithbat al-Nubu'at, p. 49. 101. Sullam al-Najat, p. 192 (Arabic text). 102. My italics. 103. Kitab Ithbat al-Nubu'at, p. 30. 104. Kitab al-Maqalid, pp.31-6 cited by Walker, 'An Ismii'fli Answer,' p. 16. See Sami N. Makarem, 'Isma'ili and Druze Cosmogony in Relation to Plotinus and Aristotle,' in Marmura, Islamic Theologyand Philosophy,pp. 81-2. 105. Kitab al-Yanabf,p. 19 n. 19 (FrenchIntroduction). 106. See Madelung, 'Aspectsof Ismii'ill Theology,' p. 57. 107. Kitab Ithbat al-NuM'at, p. 47. 108. E.g. Kitab al-Yanabf, p.24 (Arabic text); Kitab Ithbat alNubu'at, p. 47. 109. E.g. Kitab al-Yanabf,pp. 21,22(Arabic text). Sinceit is held that God is not a cause,it is perhapsbetter here andhenceforthto translateal-Mubda' al-Awwal as 'The First Instigated'or 'The First Originated' rather than 'The First Caused'or 'The First Created.' There is, of course,a real dangerthat the conceptof God as Mubdi' andthe conceptof God asnot beinga causewill seemto be in conflict. And in some sensesat least, the terminology must be accounted contradictory. Some resolution of the problem, however, is perhaps provided by Makarem ('Isma'ili and Druze Cosmogony',pp. 89-91) who (after citing the Druze Hamza ibn 'Ali's equationof the terms Mu'ill and Mubdi' as synonymsfor God in His capacityof producer of the Intellect) continues: Ibda' ... is an act of divine Will, as the Isma'ili da'i al-Suri affirms: "Our saying ibda' meansan act of Will whose essencewe do not

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know." God's act involves free volition, and consequently,is not causalin the sensethat its result is not necessaryand inevitable. God, then, cannotbe the first cause.He is the initiator (mubdi'), the originator (mubdi') of the first cause.As for the first cause,it is the nous (al-'aql al-awwal) ... [God] is treatedas an author, an originator, and not as a cause. . . SeealsoWalker'sdiscussionof relatedproblemsin 'Ismaili Vocabulary of Creation,'especiallypp. 82-5. 110. E.g. Kitab al-Yanabr, p. 2 (Arabic text); Kitab Ithbiit alNuba'at, p. 46. 111. Sullam al-Najat, p. 131 (English study). 112. Kitab al-Yanabr, p. 25 (Arabic text). It is difficult to catch herethe exactsenseof shay'iyyain translationthough'quiddity' probably comes closest. Afnan prefers to render the word much more literally as 'thingness'or 'l'idee de chose': See Soheil M. Afnan, A PhilosophicalLexicon in Persian and Arabic, p. 147. 113. Kitab Ithbat al-Nubil'at, pp. 46-7. 114. Kitab al-Yanabr,p. 17 (Arabic text); seealsopp. 17-19,90-4, and Alibhai's remarks,Sullam al-Najat, p. 9 (English study). 115. Kitab al-Yanabr, p. 16 (Arabic text). 116. Seeabovep. 207. 117. Kitab al-Yanabr, p. 2 (Arabic text). 118. Ibid.; Kitab Ithbiit al-Nuba'at, pp. 3, 20. 119. Kitab Ithbat al-Nubil'at, p. 3. 120. SeeNasr, Three Muslim Sages,p. 60. 121. SeeSullam al-Najat, pp. 63--64 (English study). 122. Kitab Ithbiit al-Nuba'at, p. 47. For a discussionand explanation of this conceptseeWalker, 'CosmicHierarchies,'pp. 15-16. 123. Kitab al-Yanabr, pp. 2~7 (Arabic text). 124. Ibid., pp. 27-8. 125. Ibid; seealso p. 25. 126. SeeQ. 11: 256. 127. SeeQ. XCVl:4. 128. SeeQ.xL: 70; for the various possiblemeaningsof qa4a' and qadar seeGy. KAldy Nagy, art. '~Qa", EF, vol. 4, pp. 364-5 and L. Gardet,art. 'Al-~Qa' wa 'l-~dar,' EF, vol. 4, pp. 365-7. 129. SeeQ.XL1:37. Seealso Kitab Ithbat al-Nubil'at, p. 48. 130. Walker, 'CosmicHierarchies,'p. 19 n. 31. 131. See Sullam al-Najat, pp. 203-4, 213 (Arabic text). See also Kitab al-Iftikhiir, (Manuscript,Great Mosque,~an'a'), f. 20a cited in Walker, 'CosmicHierarchies,'p. 19. (This latter work hasbeenedited GhaIib. See especially pp. 38-42). See also Madelung, by Mu~tafa 'Aspects of Isma'm Theology,' p. 56. 132. Seemy Muslim Neoplatonists,pp. 78-89. 133. E.g. KitiJb IthbiJt al-Nubil'at, p. 19; Kitab al-YaniJbr, pp. 21, 44, 46 (Arabic text). 134. E.g. KitiJb al-YaniJbr, p. 2 (Arabic text). 135. AI-Sijistam, here and elsewhere,eschewsthe use of the word fay4. SeeSullam al-NajiJt, pp. 66, 131-2 (English study).

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136. Kilab Ithbat al-Nubu'tlt, pp. 44, 46. 137. For fuller detailsseeWalker, 'CosmicHierarchies,'pp. 20-2. 138. See,for example,EnneadsV. 2. 1. 139. Kilab Ithbat al-Nubu'tlt, p. 18. 140. Kitab al-Yanabr, p. 32 (Arabic text). 141. SeeWalker, 'CosmicHierarchies,'p. 22. 142. Kitab al-Yanabr, p. 32 (Arabic text). 143. Ibid., p. 33. 144. Seeaboven. 138. 145. See,for example,EnneadsIV. 3. 5. 146. Kitab al-Yamibr, pp. 44-5 (Arabic text). 147. Ibid., pp. 46-7. 148. Ibid., pp. 87-90. Rasa'il, vol. 2, pp. 45&-79, vol. 3, 149. CompareIkhwan al-~afii', pp.212-30. 150. Kitab al-Yanabr, pp. 44-5 (Arabic text). 151. See Sullam al-Najat, pp. 20~ (Arabic text); see also Kitab al-Iftikhar, f. 19b cited in Walker, 'CosmicHierarchies,'p. 21; Kitab al-Iftikhar, ed. Ghiilib, pp. 38-42. 152. SeeQ. X: 3. 153. SeeQ. LXXXV: 22. 154. See Q. XXX1l1: 38; Gardet, art. 'AI-~c;tii' wa 'l-~dar,' p.365. 155. SeeQ. XLI: 37; seealso Kitab Ithbat al-Nubu'at, p. 48. 156. Seeabovep. 218. 157. Compareabovep. 213. 158. Kitab Ithbat al-Nuba'at, p.44; see Walker, 'Cosmic Hierarchies,'p. 22; seeSullam al-Najat, p. 203 (Arabic text). 159. For referencesin the manuscriptsof the Kitab al-Iftikhar and the Kitab al-Maqalid, and discussion, see Walker, 'Cosmic Hierarchies,' pp. ~. The lower parts of al-Sijistiini's cosmology may also be assembledby referenceto different parts of the Kitab alYanabr, e.g. pp. 35,40,56(Arabic text). In Figure 6 the 3 kingdoms are shown in the ascendantfrom the 4 elementssince the former derive from the latter (see al-Azmeh, Arabic Thought and Islamic Societies,p. 1). It is a tentativesteptowardswhat will later in Ibn al'Arabi becomea completecircle of reality (seeFigure 9). 160. Sullam al-Najat, pp. 9, 67 (English study), p. 203 (Arabic text). 161. See Alibhai's remarks, Sullam al-Najat, pp. 135-6 (English study). 162. See Walker's detailed survey in 'Cosmic Hierarchies,' pp.24--8. 163. Sullamal-Najat, p. 77 (Englishstudy);seemy Muslim Neoplatonists, pp. 3~. 164. Walker, 'Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistiini.' p. 198. 165. De Bruijn, art. 'Al-Kirmani,' pp. 16&-7. For further details of al-Kirmiini's life and writings, see Ivanow, Ismaili Literature, 2nd amp. edn, pp. 40-5 and Poonawala,Biobibliography, pp. 94-102.

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166. Ivanow, Ismaili Literature, 2nd amp. edn, p. 40; De Bruijn, art. 'Al-Kirmini,' p. 166. 167. Ivanow, Ismaili Literature, 2nd amp. edn, p. 40. 168. See SeyyedHosseinNasr, 'English Introduction,' p. 1. in alKirmiini, AI-Aqwal al-Dhahabiyyah(Golden Sayings). 169. Ibid. 170. RalJatal-'Aql. 171. See, for example, the remarks on the Ral}at al-'Aql of De Bruijn in his art. 'Al-Kirmiini,' p. 167 ('a summaof Ismii'ffi philosophy written for adepts')and Nasr, 'English Introduction,'p. 1 in AIAqwal al-Dhahabiyyah('in many ways his masterpieceand the most systematicexposition of Fiilimid and Ismii'ffi philosophy... which matchesthe Najat or Shifa' of Ibn Sinii in its rigor and intellectual clarity.') 172. SeeWallis, Neoplatonism,especiallypp. 126-7, 151-2. 173. E.g. seehis Risalat Usba' Dawr al-Sitr in Arba' Rasa'illsma'i_ liyya, ed. 'ArifTiimir, p. 62. (However,Poonawala,Biobibliography, p. 102, believesthat this work may not be authentic).SeeMakarem's preferred translation of Mu'ill: 'Isma'ili and Druze Cosmogony', pp.81-2. 174. For an early string of negativestatementsin RalJatal-'Aql, see al-Kirmiini's 'Introduction', p. 81. For other negativestatementssee below. 175. RalJatal-'Aql, pp. 129-30. 176. Ibid., pp. 131-4. 177. Ibid., p. 132. 178. Ibid., pp. 135--8. 179. Ibid. 180. Ibid., pp. 139-40. 181. Ibid., pp. 141-3. 182. Ibid., pp. 144-6. 183. Seeaboven. 173. 184. Makarem,'Isma'ili and Druze Cosmogony,'p. 82. 185. See,for example,Ral}at al-'Aql, pp. 157, 198,200-1. 186. Ibid., p. 202. 187. Ibid., pp. 197, 199,201. 188. Ibid., pp. 158, 163, 167. 189. E.g. ibid., pp. 199,202. 190. E.g. ibid., pp. 158, 173. 191. E.g. ibid., pp. 155, 157, 158, 199. 192. E.g. ibid., p. 158. 193. E.g. ibid., pp. 87, 155. Other epithetsused of the Intellect include 'The Antecedentin Existence'(AI-Sabiq If 'l-Wujad), 'The Perfectin Existence'(AI-TammIf 'l-Wujad), and 'The First Border' (Al-/ladd al-Awwal): seeibid., p. 163. 194. Kitab al-Yanabr, p. 16 (Arabic text). 195. E.g. see Rallat al-'Aql, pp. 174-7, 199, 200; Kitab al-Riyafj, pp. 221-2,224-5,seealsopp. 125-6;Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy,' pp. 15~1.

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1%. Kitlib al-Riyaq., pp. 221-2; Ivanow, 'An Early Controversy,' pp. 150-1. 197. E.g. Ral}at al-'Aql, p. 212. 198. Ibid. 199. Kitab al-Riyaq., p. 70. 200. Madelung, art. 'Ismii'iliyya,' p. 204. 201. Ral}at al-'Aql, pp. 213-4, 221; Kitab al-Riyaq., p. 69. 202. Ral}at al-'Aql, pp. 213-4. 203. Kitab al-Riyaq.. p. 69. 204. Ral}at al-'Aql, p. 208; compareEnneadsV. 1. 6. 205. Ral}at al-'Aql, p. 209. 206. Ibid., p. 208; compareEnneadsV. 1. 3. 207. Ral}at al-'Aql, p. 212; compareEnneads111. 2. 1 - 111. 2. 2. 208. Ral}at al-'Aql, pp. 212-20, 207. 209. Madelung'stranslation: art. 'Ismii'iliyya,' p. 204; see Ral}at al-'Aql, p. 221. 210. E.g. Ral}at ai-'Aql, pp. 221-2; see Madelung, art. 'Ismii'L liyya,' p. 204. 211. SeeRal}at al-'Aql, p. 254. 212. Seeaboven. 193. 213. E.g. seeRal}at ai-'Aql, p. 212. 214. E.g. seeibid., pp. 221, 222-3, 228. 215. Ibid., p. 222. 216. E.g. ibid., pp. 257, 264. Elsewhere,however, the phrase is enlargedto 'alam al-ibda' wa 'l-inbi'ath (e.g. ibid., pp. 257, 259) and dar al-ibda' wa 'l-inbi'ath (e.g. p. 259). 217. Ibid., pp. 254-6. 218. Ibid., pp. 255-7; Madelung, art. 'Ismii'iliyya,' p. 204. 219. Ral}at al-'Aql, p. 257. 220. Ibid., p. 254. 221. Ibid., pp. 255-7. 222. Kitab al-Riyaq., pp. 69, 70; Ral}at al-'Aql, pp. 168, 226. 223. SeeRal}at al-'Aql, p. 255. 224. Ibid., pp. 254-6. 225. See al-Kirmiini's remarkson time and its absence:Rahat al'Aql, pp. 258 ft. Comparealso Enneads11. 9. 3, 11.4.5, 111. i. 11. 226. Madelung, art. 'Ismii'iliyya,' p. 204. 227. Walker, 'AbU Ya'qiib al-Sijistiini,' pp. 102-3. 228. Ibid., pp. 104-5; see Kitab al-Riyaq., pp. 124-5 cited in Walker, 'Abii Ya 'qiib al-Sijistiini,' p. 104. 229. W. Madelung, art. 'AI-l:iimidi,' EF, vol. 3, p. 134; see also Ivanow, Ismaili Literature, 2nd amp. edn, pp. 52-4; and Poonawala, Biobibliography, pp. 141-3. 230. Madelung, art. 'Ismii'iliyya,' p. 204; De Bruijn, art. 'AIKirmiini,' p. 166. 231. Kitab Kanz al-Walad, ed. Mu~tafii Ghiilib. 232. Ibid., p. 1. seealso pp. 8-31. 233. Ibid., pp. 29-30. 234. Ibid., p. 79. 235. Ibid., pp. 29-30.

252

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236. E.g. seeibid., pp. 63, 64. 237. E.g. seeibid., pp. 32,53,58. 238. Ibid., p. 1; seeQ.XX1V:35 and the sectionof the next chapter which deals with al-Suhrawardi. 239. Kitab Kanz al-Walad, p. 1. 240. Ibid., pp. 8-31. 241. Ibid., pp. 65-8, 78. 242. Ibid., p. 258. 243. Ibid., pp. 69,99, 108, 258. 244. Ibid., pp. 85, 258. 245. Ibid., pp. 69, 109, seealso p. 297. This title is not, of course, unique to al-I:fimidi. It occurs,for example,in the Kitab al-JrlafJ wa 'I-Bayan 'an Masa'U al-ImtifJan by the thirteenthcentury da', I:Iusayn b. 'Ali b. MuI:tammad b. al-Walid. See Bernard Lewis, 'An Ismaili Interpretationof the Fall of Adam,' Bulletin of the Schoolof Oriental Studies,vol. 9. (1938), p. 702 (Arabic text), pp. 694,697. 246. Kitab Kanz al-Walad, p. 108. 247. Ibid., pp. 97-133 especiallypp. 97-8, 108-9, 127, 132-3, and pp.29&-7. 248. Ibid., p. 100. 249. Ibid., p. 133. 250. Ibid., p. 79. 251. E.g. seeibid., pp. 81,95, 168-9. 252. E.g. ibid., pp. 79,234, 257. 253. SeeJ. Pederson,art. 'Adam,' EP, vol. 1, p. 178. 254. See Kitab Kanz al-Walad, pp.204, 240-1, 254-5, 268 and Madelung, art. 'Ismii'i1iyya,' p. 203. 255. WernerFoerster,Gnosis: A Selectionof Gnostic Texts,vol.2, pp. 10, 15. 256. TheApocalypseofAdamin Foerster,Gnosis,vol. 2, pp. 15-16 ff. 257. Foerster, Gnosis, vol. 1, p. 103; W. C. van Unnik, Newly Discovered Gnostic Writings : A Preliminary Survey of the NagHammadiFind, p. 71. 258. The Apocryphonof John in Foerster,Gnosis,vol. 1, p. 110. 259. Ibid., pp. 113-14; see R. van den Broek, 'The Creation of Adam's Psychic Body in the Apocryphon of John,' in R. van den Broek & M. J. Vermaseren(eds).Studiesin Gnosticismand Hellenistic Religions, Presentedto Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, pp. 38-57. 260. Seevan den Broek, 'The Creationof Adam's PsychicBody,' p.57. 261. The Apocryphonof John in Foerster,Gnosis,vol. 1, p. 115. 262. See Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism, p. 341; see also Roland Barthes,Mythologies,pp. 193-247and EdmundLeach, LeviStrauss,p. 54. 263. 'Le mythe est une parole' : Barthes, Mythologies, p. 193; idem., translatedby Annette Lavers, p. 109. 264. Herbert N. Schneidau.Sacred Discontent: The Bible and

253

THE GOD OF MEDIEVAL ISMA'iLiSM

Western Tradition, pp. 7-8; see also Bernard Lewis, The Assassins, pp.29-30. 265. Other definitions include the following from Northrop Frye: 'In terms of narrative,myth is the imitation of actionsnearor at the conceivablelimits of desire' (Anatomy of Criticism, p. 136), and 'In literary criticism myth meansultimately mythos,a structuralorganizing principle of literary form' (Ibid., p. 341). For the developmentof a 'Theoryof Myths' seeibid., pp. 131-239.For the sameauthor'sextensive examinationof Biblical myth, seeThe Great Code: The Bible and Literature, pp. 31-52, 169-98. 266. SeeLeach, Levi-Strauss,p. 54; Frye, The Great Code, p. 32. 267. CompareSchneidau(SacredDiscontent,pp. 272-3) who notes: 'Myth eitheris simply a story, or in Uvi-Strauss'sevenmore reductive view, the story is merely a vehicle throughwhich the repeatedthemes make themselvesheard. By taking this stand, Levi-Strausscan say that the variants of a myth are all one.' Comparealso Leach (LeviStrauss,p. 54) for the following definition of theologicalusage:'Myth is a formulation of religious mystery- "the expressionof unobservable realities in terms of observablephenomena".' 268. SeeBarthes,Mythologies,pp. 195 ff. 269. For myths as inaugural events and their use as legitimizing agents, see al-Azmeh, Arabic Thought and Islamic Societies, pp. 268-73,for a brilliant and succinctanalysis.Although ritual is not my primary concern here, I am also indebted to al-Azmeh for remindingme that myth implies ritual and is often articulatedas such. Seeabovep. 96 nn. 242,243.Seealso ClaudeLevi-Strauss,The Naked Man, pp. 671, 679 ff, 684; and Frye, (Anatomyof Criticism, p. 106), who notes : 'The union of ritual and dream in a form of verbal communication is myth. .. the myth accounts for, and makes communicable,the ritual and the dream'; see also idem., The Great Code, p. 48. 270. ClaudeLevi-Strauss,The Raw and the Cooked,pp. 34a-1;see also idem., The NakedMan, pp. 628--9. 271. Seeabovepp. 203ff. 272. CompareNoam Chomsky,SyntacticStructures,pp. 106-7who writes:

We can greatly simplify the descriptionof English and gain new and important insight into its formal structure if we limit the direct descriptionin termsof phrasestructureto a kernelof basicsentances (simple, declarative,active, with no complexverb or noun phrases), deriving all other sentencesfrom these (more properly, from the stringsthat underlie them) by transformation,possibly repeated. 273. SeeEdmundLeach,'Structuralismin Social Anthropology,'in Robey,Structuralism,p. 40; ClaudeLevi-Strauss,Myth and Meaning, p.8. 274. JonathanCuller, 'The Linguistic Basis of Structuralism,'in Robey, Structuralism,p. 25 (my italics). 275. SeeUvi-Strauss,The Raw and the Cooked,p. 3.

254

THE 000 OF MEDIEVAL ISMA'iuSM

276. This feature of a primal rebellion is developedmuch more in later versionsof the myth. 277. Seeabove pp. 203-8. 278. Seeabovep. 207. 279. Seeabovep. 212. 280. SeeaboveFigure 6. 281. Seeabovepp. 225-226. 282. Seeabovepp. 23a-1. 283. Seeibid. 284. Seeabovep. 236. 285. Seeaboven. 221. 286. Seeaboven. 264. 287. Seeaboven. 6. 288. The NakedMan, p. 675. 289. SeeM. G. S. Hodgson,art. 'Batiniyya,' EP, vol. 1, p. 1099. 290. Ibid. For a sophisticatedanalysisof the themesof fahirlbd/in and microcosm/macrocosm,see al-Azmeh, Arabic Thought and Islamic Societies,pp. 125-35, 63-4. 291. Seeaboven. 274 (my italics). 292. Mythologies,p. 195. 293. Seeabovep. 216. 294. Seeabovep. 222. 295. Seeabovep. 223. 296. Seeabovep. 204. 297. Seeaboven. 117. 298. Seeaboven. 238. 299. SeeaboveDD. 122-4. 300. SeeaboveDD. 126-9. 301. Seeabovenn. 152-5. 302. Seeaboven. 213. 303. Seeabovep. 216. 304. Seeaboven. 110. 305. Seeaboven. 134. 306. SeeDaniel, Islam and the West,p. 4, seealso pp. 164-5,237. 307. SeeLeach, Uvi-Strauss,pp. 55-6. 308. See Claude Uvi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, pp. 217, 229. Comparethe progressiveinterpretationof a scriptural fable or fabula describedin Frank Kermode, The Genesisof Secrecy:On the Interpretation of Narrative, pp. 79-81. 309. Uvi-Strauss,The Raw and the Cooked,p. 18. 310. Simon Goldhill, 'ClassicalAllusions [A Review of] Odysseus Polutropos: Intertextual Readingsin the "Odyssey"and the "Iliad" by Pietro Pucci,' p. 19. 311. Petrovi~, art. 'Alienation,' p. 79. 312. Tuveson,art. 'Alienation in ChristianTheology,' p. 34.

255

6 Ishraq and Wahda:

The Mystical Cosmosof AI-Suhrawardi and Ibn al-'Arabi

AL-SUHRAWARDI AND THE GRAMMAR OF ISHRAQ

Shibabai-Din Abfi 'I-FutfiQ YaQya ibn I:Iabashibn Amirak alSuhrawardi(AD 1153-1191)is universally called Shaykh alIshrdq,1 a title which may be renderedliterally and briefly as 'Master of Illumination.' Ishrdq is, however, broaderthan its basic definition: scholarshave attemptedto encapsulatesome of that breadthin such definitions of the term as 'illuminative wisdom'2 and 'sagesseorientale - illuminative.'3 They have rendered the title of al-Suhrawardi's most famous book devotedto ishrdq, lfikmat al-Ishrdq (lit. The WisdomofIshrdq) as TheosophieOrientale.4 The essenceof the term is clearly somewhatdifficult to pin down with exactitude.So perhapsone of the quickest ways to a real understandingof what ishrdq actually meansis to treat it as an intellectual framework or field of discoursewithin which existenceitself is viewed as light. s Or, to put it anotherway, ishrdq was the grammarby meansof which a particular kind of light mysticism could be formulated and articulated. It is a type of wisdom or knowledgewhich must, ineluctably, be regardedas oriental (in a non-political sense)as Corbin reminds us: Dans ses termes d'Orient et Oriental (I§raq et I§raqi) culmine une triple vision: Ie lever ou "matin" de I'astre; I'illumination irradiant du point de son lever; enfin I'astre lui-m~me se levant. II s'agit d'une Connaissancequi est l' "Orient" de la "orientale," parce qu'elle est elle-m~me 6 Connaissance.

256

ISHRAQAND WAlfDA

AI-Suhrawardi is also called 'The Executed'(AI-Maqtal)7 by his detractorsand 'The Martyr' (Al-Shahid) by his friends: in the secondof thesedesignations,which is as commonas that of Shaykhal-Ishraq, there may lie an early attemptto endow the mystic with an almost IJallajian charisma. The circumstancesof his endwere certainlymysterious.8 It is equally true, however, that the epithet al-Maqtal has served as a useful distinguishingmark, particularly for the unwary, by which to identify the Suhrawardiof this chapter9from two other wellknown figures of the samename:(1) 'Abd al-QahirAbu Najrn al-Suhrawardi(died AD 1168), inspiration for the great ~ufi order of the Suhrawardiyya,disciple of the famous GhazaIi's brother AI:unad, and author of The Manners of the Novices (Adab al-Muridin);l0 and (2) Abu Najrn's nephew and pupil whose name was Shihiib aI-Din Abu I:Iafs 'Umar al-Suhrawardi (AD 1145-1234). He was Shaykh al-Shuyukh in the Baghdadof his age and author of the important treatise The Gifts of Mystical Knowledge('Awarif al-Ma'arif).l1 Trimingham regardsthe latter as the real founder of the Suhrawardiyya.12• THE GOD OF LIGHT

AI-Suhrawardi moved from the traditional peripatetic mode of discourseto an altogetherdifferent register.13 The key to Suhrawardiantheology is that it deals not simply with a symbolism of light but an ontology of light. 14 As we have already noted, ishraqi thought saw existenceitself as light. IS AI-Suhrawardi'swhole thought or vision may be describedas driven by an internaldynamism(contrastingstronglywith more static typologieslike that of the twelfth centurymystic 'Ayn alQuiya' aI-Din Isma'il b. Hibat Allah, Mizaj aJ-Tasnim (Ta/sir Ii '1juz' 11-20 min al-Qur'an)IIsmailitischerKoran-Kommentar,ed. R. Strothmann, 4 vols., Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (1944-55). Dodge,Bayard(ed. and trans.), The Fihrist 0/ al-Nadim, 2 vols., New York & London: Columbia University Press(1970). Endress,Gerhard,Proclus Arabus, Beiruter Texte und Studien, bd. 10, Beirut: AI-Ma'had al-Almani Ii 'l-Abl;tath al-Sharqiyya;Wiesbaden:Franz Steiner(1973). Fackenheim,Emil L. (trans.), 'A Treatise on Love By Ibn Sina,' MediaevalStudies,vol. 7 (1945). Farabi, 'The Arabic Text of Alfarabi's Against John the Grammarian,'ed. Muhsin Mahdi, seeHanna(ed.), Medievaland Middle Eastern Studies. - - Du'a' 'Azim, see Farabi, Kittlb ai-Milia. --_ AI-Farabl on the Perfect State: Aba Nrw al-Ftlrabf's Mabadi' Artl' Ahl al-Madina al-Ftl4ila, a rev. text with introd., trans., and commentaryby Richard Walzer, Oxford: ClarendonPress(1985).

337

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370

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ComparativeStudyof the Conceptof Time, Working PapersSeries, no. 7, Niigata: Institute of Middle EasternStudies,International University of Japan(1986) Young, Peter,'Betweenthe Yea and the Nay,' JMIAS, vol. 2 (1984). Zaehner,R. C., The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism,History of Religion Series,London: Weidenfeld& Nicolson (1961). --Hindu and Muslim Mysticism, New York: Schocken Books, (1969). --Hinduism, Home University Library, no. 247, London: Oxford University Press(1962). Ziai, Hosseio,'SuhrawardI'sPhilosophyof Illumination,' unpublished PhD thesis,University of Harvard (1976). Zimmermann,F. W., seeStem.

371

Index

In this index the Arabic definite article 'al-' has been omitted from propernounsat the beginningof an entry. 'B.' and 'ibn' both appear as 'b.' in the middle of a name. 'Abbisids 15, 16,55 'Abd al-Jabbarb. Al].mad 5 Abraha24 Abraham2 Abu Bakr 103 Abu 'l-Hudhayl 60 Abu 'isa al-Murshid 204 Abu Lahab 24 Abu Ma'sharJa'farb. Muhammadal-Balkhi 46 Abu Rida, M. A. H. 55 accidents10, 52, 56, 58, 60, 82, 111,114,153,158,223,240 Achamoth209,213 acquisition(kasb, iktisab) 121 actuality seepotentiality and actuality Adam 205, 231, 232 Affifi, A. E. 272,277 al}kam al-khamsa18 Ahl-i J:laqq 32 n. 7 Al].mad b. al-Mu'ta~im 56 Ahriman 106 Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd)106,

264 Albert the Great 141 n. 109 Alexandria 3, 7, 8, 9,13, 14,34 n. 33, 63, 65-6, 77, 208; Alexandrianschool7,8,9, 13,

14, 15-16,27,34n. 31,34 n. 33, 36 n. 54, 66 'Ali, 2, 32 n. 7 Alibhai, MohamedAbualy 214 alienationxi, 17,27-31,74,83, 84, 125, 126-7, 137 n. 25, 188, 189,235, 243, 305, 322, 326,332 Altizer, ThomasJ. J. 324 AmeshaSpenms263-4 Ammonius9, 66 Ammonius Saccas8 angelology162-72,174, 176-7, 180 ff, 188, 189, 205-6, 232, 260-8, 284 Fig. 9 & n. 6, 292, 301,302,303, 308 n. 37, 310 n.84; cherubim(karabiya) 205-6,207;First Light 259, 260, 266, 267 Fig. 8, 302; Latitudinal Order of Angelic Lights 262,263-6,267,302, 304; Longitudinal Order of Angelic Lights 260-3, 266, 267, 302; RegentLights (al-

Anwar al-Mudabbira) 259, 264, 267 Fig. 8, 301, 311 n. 99; seealso Gabriel; seealso Harakhsh Anselm, St 149, 173 Antioch 7, 14, 16

373

INDEX

Anubis 1 Apollo 1 Apollooius of Rhodes7 'Aql, see I1iotellect(s) 'Aql al-Fa"iil, seeIotellect, Active Aquinas, St Thomas69,109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 123, 132, 151, 172, 173,198 00. 195, 196; 321, 323, 331; On Being and Essence(De Ente et Essentia)112; Summa contra Gentiles 112, 113; SummaTheologiae112, 113 Aramaic 14 Archimedes16 Aristotle 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 20, 35 o. 52, 36 o. 60, 37 o. 82, 47,51,52,53,54,55,60, 64, ~,~,n,~,~,~,M,W,

100, 101, 102, 108, 112, 123, 127, 128, 129, 141 o. 109, 149, 150, 159,1n, 189 o. 1,200 o. 232, 305, 327; Aristotelianism6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16, 36 o. 52, 45, 46, 50, 51-5,69,76,77,79, 82, 83, 100, 101, 103,104, 108, 109, 122, 123, 125, 128,130-1, 135, 155, 160, 171,172, 177, 197 o. 177, 200 o. 232, 268, 326, 327; Categories8, 9, 10, 51; De Anima 100; Metaphysics35 o. 52, 51, 52, 53, 112; On Interpretation 51; On SophisticalRefutations51; Organon 51, 310 o. 82; Physics100; Poetics51; PosteriorAnalytics51; Prior Analytics51; Rhetoric 51; Theologyof Aristotle (TheologiaAristotelis) (attrib.) 9, 12-13, 35 o. 52, 37 o. 76, 45, 59, 101, 118, 130, 157, 258; Topics 51 Arkoun, Mohammedx, xi Armstrong, A. H. 60, 62, 160, 168 'Arsh 206, 220, 221, 222, 241, 281, 282, 2M Fig. 9, 303

374

Ascaloo W, 101 Ash'arl, Ash'arism 4, 5, 26, 28, 45, 162, 324, 325 astrology, astronomy13, 15, 16 Ate§, A. 274 Atheos9, 14, 15, 27, 34 o. 31 Atiyeh, GeorgeN. 58 Atkios, G. Douglas322, 323 atoms,atomism56, ~ Augustioe,St 78,294,295,329 AverroesseeIbo Rushd A viceooasee Ibo sioa Avignoo 298 Ayer, A. J. 332 0.9 ays (beiog) 50, 54, 223 Ayyiibids 7 Azhar Mosque University 7 Azmeh, Aziz xi-xii, 19, 26, 328 Babb, Lawreoce,A. 1 Badawi, A. R. 99, 155, 156, 165

o. 3

Badr, Battle of 23, 24, 49 Baghdad7, 15, 16,27,100,257 Bahman261,3080.42 Balzac,Hooore de 73, 178-89; Sa"asine178-89 baqii' 2M-5 Barthes,Roland 71-2, 74, 78, 79, ~, 130, 178-89, 201-2 0.299; 234, 240, 323; S/Z, 74, 178-89, 201-2 n. 299 Barzakh 262-3 Basilides7, 245 o. 35 Basra7-8 biitinl~i hir 207,235,239,240, 283, 328, 330, 335 o. 63 Bay4awi 23 Bayhaqi 101 Bayt al-lfikma 16 Berruio, MohammadM. 53,65, 159 Beth, Karl 1 Bible 3 Bisliimi, Aba Yazid (Bayazid) 86 o. 40, 293 Booth, Edward 109, 128 Brahman31 o. 6 Brehier, Emile 15 Buddhism19, 318 n. 294

INDEX

Bukhtishii' 16 Bunyan, John 183, 184 BylebyJ, Michael Edward 268 Bythos 209 Calvin, John 183 Cbahine,Osman157 Christ, Christology 14-15 Christian, Christianity 2-4,5,7, 15, 19, 21, 32 n. 10, 34 n. 33, 42 n. 160,45,76,77,79,80, 83, 104, 109, 130, 134, 151, 156,208,226,227,263,265, 293--300,318, 321, 322, 323, 329,330 Qementof Alexandria3,34 n.33 Cloud of Unknowing 189, 215, 325 Constantinople14; Constantinople,Third Council of 66 Copleston,F. C. 114 Corbin, Henry 21, 176, 185,211, 214, 216, 256, 262, 287 cosmology66, 114-23, 162-72, 186-7, 197 n. 177, 198 n. 196, 203-55, 245 nn 33, 40; 257~8, 279,280-4,286-7,303 Craig, W. L. 59, 68, 69 Culler, Jonathan133,235,240 Damascius14, 15 Damascus101, 268 Dator Formarum, seeIntellect, Active Davidson,Herbert A. 117 De Boer, T. J. 149 deconstructionx, 17,39 n. 126, 292, 324, 325, 330-1 Demiurge209, 213 De Morgan, Augustus18-19, 26-7, 77, 120, 122, 177, 273, 291, 328 Derrida, Jacquesx, 39 n. 126, 78,292,323,325 Descartes,Ren6 (Cartesian)173 difference 10, 57, 59, 60, 158, 159, 178 Diodore of Tarsus3

Dodds, E. R. 11 Druart, Th6rese-Anne120 Druzes31 n. 7 Duccio 39 n. 112 Durkheim, Emile 73 Eckhart, Meister 293-300; divine spark 293, 295, 297, 298-9 Eco, Umberto xi, 78, 133, 325; The Name of the Rose26; William of Baskerville 25~ Edessa7, 14, 27 Egypt 7; religion 1 Eisagoge,seePorphyry of Tyre emanation6, 11, 12, 13,27,37 n. 82, 60, 62, 64, 75, 80, 82, 92 n. 173,92n. 176, 102, 103, 111, 114-23, 125-35, 162-72, 174, 175, 180, 185, 188,203, 204,205,207,211,214,216, 218, 219, 220, 224,225, 226, 227,229,230,231,233,236, 237,238,239,243,260-8,269, 280-4, 288, 289, 290, 291, 304, 305, 325,326; fay4 60, 63, 103, 114, 115,167, 175,224, 280, 282, 283,311 n. 111; see also 185 (fayya4); ~udar 114, 268, 311 n. 111 Ephesus,Council of 14 essence(s)115, 119,217,226, 282; seealso God, substance Euclid 11, 15 Eve 232 existence115, 161, 164; seealso God Fackenheim,Emil L. 122 Fakhry, Majid xi, 12, 154, 163, 268, 299 Fantl' 284-5, 287 Firabi 11, 21, 47, 59, 63, 70, 84, 99-148, 138 n. 44, 141 n. 109, 149, 150, 153, 154, 155, 156, 158, 162, 163, 170, 172, 174, 178, 188, 189, 189 D. 1,214, 215,216,223,224;227, 229, 237,243,258,261,266,288, 290; Alfarabism 104, 125-35,

375

INDEX

242, 243, 245 on.30, 33, 35, 40; 138, n. 57, 188, 189; Magnificent Invocation (Du'a' 269,330 'A~iin) 102-4, 129; Political God: passim;seealso: Regime(Kitab al-Siyiisa alallegorization,allegory 2-3, Madaniyya) 111, 119, 129, 144 4,5,6,45,49,154; analogical n. 171; Treatise on the approach132, 321, 326, 331; anthropomorphism2,3,4,5, Intellect (RisalaIi '1-'Aql) 118, 119, 144 n. 171; Virtuous City 57,215,274,275;attributes3, (AI-Madina al-Fa4ila) 100, 4,5,6,22,23,26,47,48,49, 101, 102, 104 ff, 110, 111, 114 52, 53, 54, 55, 56-8, 75, 76, ff, 125, 129, 130, 131, 144 81, 102-9, 110-14, 132, 133, 153-62, 175, 204, 223, 230, n.l71 Fiitimids 7,31 n. 7, 204, 214, 258,274-7,286,296,301; 222, 223, 229, 244 n. 3 creator,creationex nihilo 22, 23,27,47,48,50,51,52,54, Felperin, Howard 78, 179, 187, 63, 64 Fig. 1, 66, 68, 69, 75, 323 76, SO, 81, 82, 83, 120, 123, Feuerbach,Ludwig 29 127, 133, 163,166,207,210, First Heaven(outermostsphere) 211, 214, 216, 220, 233,236, 115, 116, 165 237,243,282,283,289,291, Fixed Stars115, 116, 165,262, 305,326;essence57,61, 104, 284 Fig. 9, 302 105, 106, 107, 108, 109-14, Flynn, J. G. 151 132, 151-2, 153, 154, 155, 156, form, seematter, material, form 157,159,161, 163, 175,204, Foucault,Michel 128, 135, 148 223, 258,270, 272, 275, 276, n. 268, 300, 317 n. 271, 322, 277,278,279,286,298,303, 324; episteme128, 135, 148 304, 314 n. 176; seealso n. 268, 300, 317 n. 271, 324 substance;existence107, 108, four causes52 109-14, 132, 151-2, 153, 154, frame stories187 155, 156, 157, 158, 161, 175, Fravashis267; seealso Isfahbads 258,271,274,276,277,278, Frye, Northrop 321-2,331 296,303; lIaqq 47, 49, 54, 57, 59, 64, 81, 82, 108, 151, 155, 157,276,278,279,286,288, Gabriel 165, 177, ISO, 184, 303; 'Illat al-'ilal102, 216; 264-6, 267 Fig. 8, 302-3 intellectus intelligens Galileo 66 intellectum 106, 155, 224; Galston,Miriam 101-2, 104 knowledgeof particulars Gaon, Saadya57, 67 161-2; literalism 3, 4, 5, 45; Gardet,Louis 170, 171 Ma'shaq 55, 108, 156, 174, generationand corruption 52, 82 175; Mubdi' 47, 48, 81, 210, genus10, 54,57,59,60,158, 211, 213 Fig. 5, 216, 221, 159, 178 248-9 n. 109; Mu'ill al-'Ilal Ghani, Ashraf 18 223; necessaryexistenceor Ghaziili x, xi, 21, 67, 96 n. 254, Being 54, 102, 105, 113, 124, 161, 174,257,293,320n. 351, 327 132, 150-2, 153, 155, 156, Gilgamesh,Epic of 234 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, Gilson, Etienne 121 165, 166, 167, 169, 170, 172, 173, 174, 175, 189, 190 n. 19, Gnosticism7, 8, 184, 186, 188, 208-9,213,229,231,232-3, 258,269-70;negative

376

INDEX

theology21, 57-8, 59-61, 70, Henry, Paul 261 76,82,104-7,108,126,130, Hera 1 132, 133-4, 138 n. 58, 154, Hercules182 155,158-9,160,180,188,189,Hermes41 n. 145; Hermeticism 204,211,215,216,220,223-4, 34 n. 32, 212 230,233,236,237,238,240, Hermias9 241, 242,258, 270, 288, 294-5, Hesiod 1 300, 301, 305, 321 ff, 325, Hierocles8, 35 n. 41 329-30, 331, 332; NUT alHinduism 1-2, 31 n. 6, 318 Anwar 176, 257 ff, 267 Fig. 8, n.294 278, 289, 302-3; NUT al-NUT l,ainn 187, 202 n. 314 230,241;proofs for existence Homer 1 Horus 1 48,65-9,83,123-5,151-2, 172-4,198nn. 195,196;258, l,audrld 204-5,206,207,208,217, 236,237 307 n. 26; resurrectionof the body SO, 51, 75, 96-7 n. 254, I;IImayn b. Is\liq 14 329; unity, oneness2,45,48, Hilrakhsh 266, 301 5~5~5&6O,~,~,~,8O,

81, 82, 105, 132, 133, 1SO, 152-3,154,166,211,212, 224-5,230,258,259,268-88, 295-7,300;(Unmoved)First Mover 47,51,53,54,55,82, 101,108,172, 174, 224; see also movement;WiJjib alwujrld, seeabovenecessary existence Goldbill, Simon 242 Gondemaplir7, 13-15, 16,27, 45,77 Greece,264; religion 1 Guiraud, Pierre 74 gusteme79

I;Wtim 31 n. 7

Hakim aI-Tirmidhi 293 (JaIlaj 49, 257, 293, 297 Hamadhani,'Ayn al-Qu