Work
“The Intellect is a Point and a Circle”
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| Preferred title |
“The Intellect is a Point and a Circle” English
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| Work type |
Single work
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| Work manifested | Article |
| Work genre | Textual work |
| Summary |
In his ground-breaking monograph Early Philosophical Shiism: The Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī, Paul Walker has pointed out parallels between al-Sijistānī’s Kitāb al-Maqālīd and the Longer Theology of Aristotle – an augmented version of the Theology of Aristotle preserved mainly in Judeo-Arabic manuscripts and a sixteenth-century Latin translation. This raises the question of whether it is al-Sijistānī who cites the Longer Theology, or the unknown author of the Longer Theology who cites al-Sijistānī, or whether the two rely on a common source. Walker opts for the third solution: a common source used by both al-Sijistānī and the Longer Theology. The present contribution focuses on one of the parallels between al-Sijistānī’s Kitāb al-Maqālīd and the Longer Theology, demonstrates that Walker is indeed correct in postulating such a common source, and shows that this common source contained some of the most significant ideas for al-Sijistānī’s Ismāʿīlī Neoplatonism: the idea that the Word (al-kalima) mediates between the Creator (“Originator,” al-mubdiʿ) and the Intellect, that the Intellect is united with the Word, that the Word is “non-being” (lays), and several others. The article comments on the possible nature of this common source and on how the Longer Theology sheds light on the origins of al-Sijistānī’s Ismāʿīlī Neoplatonism. |
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Diamond W 259043 Created at 28-12-2022 by Dalal Adib (IDEO) Updated at 28-12-2022 by Dalal Adib (IDEO) |
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