by; Ibrahim Madkour
We cannot find any example of a full and
complete study of Islamic philosophy either in the East or in the West before
the middle of the nineteenth century. This is so because whenever the Western
scholar turned his attention to the study of matters relating to the East, it
was mostly with the economic or political aspects that he was concerned, not
with the cultural aspect. If we encounter any instances of such cultural
studies in the eighteenth century or the early part of the nineteenth century,
it is mostly based on Latin sources. As for the Easterners, they were so lost
in economic and political difficulties during this period that they had no
interest in keepimg alive their ancient culture or revitalizing their Islamic
heritage.
(a) The Movement of Orientalism:
In the second half of the nineteenth century the European Orientalists became interested
m Islamic subjects and became vanguards of a movement that rapidly developed
and reached its zenith during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Some
of these European scholars even travailed to the East and studied in its
schools in order to better understand the spiritual and intellectual life of
the Orient. Europe and America Paris Rome London Berlin
Periodically, seminars were held by
Orientalists, where valuable presentations and discussions occured. At the same
time, learned and scholarly journals and publications were devoted to the study
of Oriental subjects. These debates, discussions and exchanges of views, caused
the cloud of ignorance and confusion to be scattered and the facts of the
matter to be more cleady perceived.
This Orientalist movement had
welcome results. Texts unknown up to the time were discovered. Precious
manuscripts of texts were published. The new techniques of publication of books
accompanied with notes and indices came into widespread usage, and a number of
the most important works in the libraries of the Muslim world were translated
into living European languages such as Italian, French, English and Gemman. The
publishing of such translated works in turn stimulated interest and discussion
in various aspects of Islamic civilization such as politics, economics,
history, literature, Quranic interpretation and exegesis, science and
philosophy all of which received brief treatment in articles published in
scholarly journals and were dealt with extensively in books.
Research and study increased in
proportion to the level of knowledge and information that became available.
Scholars and investigators fell into the habit of spending years in scholarly
research in order to clarify hidden or poorly understood points. Such intensive
researches led various groups of scholars to specialize in different aspects of
the Islamic civilization. Some became experts in the Arabic language and
Islamic literature while others became specialists in Islamic theology and
jurisprudence. Still a third group concentrated on Muslim mysticism, while a
fourth group delved deep into the field of Islamic science and philosophy. The
fruit of this expansion and specialization in the field of Islamic studies was
the Encyclopedia of Islam which was published in French, German and English
languages. This book is itself the clear proof of the extensive knowledge of
Islam gathered by the Orientalists and their intense interest in Islamic
culture and civilization. The Encyclopedia of Islam is indeed a rich and
important source of information indispensable for every researcher of Islamic
subjects.
The East was also influenced by the
work of the Western Orientalists. The scholars of the East adopted many of
their views, translated many of their texts, and following the path paved by
them, became their partners in reviving the glory and brilliance of Eastern
culture They also finished what had been left incomplete by the Western Orientalists
or filled in gaps left in their treatment of various subjects. These
contributions, although small in each instance, were spread over a wide range,
so that none of the aspects of Islamic culture were ignored. Still what has
been done is only the beginning of an effort that must grow and expand.
(b) The Orientalists And
Philosophy: Philosophy was not left out of the general trend described
above. Texts written by Muslim philosophers, which had remained in their
original manuscript form, were published and the original Arabic versions were
compared with the Hebrew and Latin translations of them which were extant. The
study of their notes and commentaries helped a great deal in solving any
problems which may have existed in regard to their meaning. Without the efforts
of the Orientalists, these books would have remained in some corner of a
library, unread, gathering dust. And if it were not for the fact that they
understood a number of ancient and modern languages and possessed a correct
methodology, the works published by them would not have been characterized by
such care and authenticity.
The work of the European Orientalists was
not limited to the printing and publication of books; they tried to discover
and explore the whole horizon of intellectual life in Islam and to write about
it. For instance, they wrote about the history of Islamic philosophy and
philosophers, theology and the theologians, Sufism and the Sufies and described
the various sects and schools of thought found in Islam. Sometimes they
investigated the life, opinions and views of one individual. At other times
they wrote books about scientific terms and definitions, so that their names
were inseparably linked with the subject of their specialization. Who, for
example, on hearing the name of Nicholson is not reminded of tasawwuf?
It would be outside of the scope of this work to mention all the Orientalists
alongside the subjects of their specialization which made them famous. It would
suffice to say that Orientalism possessed a unique vigour and vitality during
the first quarter of the present century which also included the study and
investigation of speculative subjects. In spite of all this, the history of
Islamic philosophy and the views of its most eminent thinkers are as yet
insufficiently understood and it is the missing link in the chain of human
intellectual history. We still do not know exactly how this philosophy came
into existence, what was the manner of its development, what factors caused its
flourishing and flowering, and what were the causes of its decay. Nor has the
work of the Islamic philosophers ever been scrutinized one by one so as to show
how much each one of them borrowed or inherited from his predecessors and how
much of his philosophy was the result of his own original thought. The sad
truth of the matter is that the shining stars of Islamic philosophy are
strangers in their own lands and to their own people. What better proof of this
than the fact that many of us Easterners know more about Rousseau and Spencer
than about AlKindi and AlFarabi? And if God had not so decreed that a group
of Orientalists should make a study of them, today we would have known nothing
useful about these great figures.
The work of the Orientalists, however, is
too limited in scope to adequately deal with a subject such as Islamic
philosophy. Moreover, in some cases they contain either literal or technical
errors, or are deficient in some other manner. Sometimes these studies are so
brief that it is not possible to fathom the intent of their writers. Perhaps
the cause of all these difficulties is that some of the scholars who have
investigated Islamic philosophy do not understand the Arabic language
sufficiently and have not mastered the history of Islamic culture. Others, not
lacking in any of the aforementioned aspects are completely ignorant of the
history of Islamic philosophy. There are, of course, brilliant exceptions to
this general weakness. Two examples of such beautiful and informative works are
Van den Bergh's translation of the Metaphysics of Ibn Rushd, and De Boer's
History of Islamic Philosophy. One cannot reall Van den Bergh's book and not
feel that he is reading a philosopher commenting on philosophy.[1] And one cannot reall De
Boer's book without wishing that he had made it a much larger work.[2]
Of course, much time has passed since the
publication of the books mentioned above and the other works by the
Orientalists. They are thus in need of revision, and the conclusions reached in
them must be reexamined in the light of the far greater knowledge of Islamic
thought now available. This is especially true since the more access we have
attained to the original manuscripts, the greater was the rapidity by which our
problems have been solved and our mistakes corrected.
Although the history of the efforts
to gather the inheritance of Islamic tradition and attempts to revitalize the
Islamic civilization date back only to the beginning of the twentieth century,
a great deal of progress has been made and much material has been made
available to the researcher. Nevertheless, the need for new analysis and
discussion based on the study of these newly available facts and source
material is absolutely undeniable.
(c) The Road Ahead: We must
continue on the path that we have been following until now and fully discover
this hidden link in the chain of human intellectual history, and put it in its
proper place. Up to now, the Orientalists have made important contributions and
have made great efforts to accomplish this task. It is our duty to try to
overtake them; and if we are unable to do this, at least we should keep pace
with them. It is not enough for us to make a thinker or an inventor famous by
mentioning his ideas or his inventions, we must make an effort to revive his
works. All the nations of the world are in a race with one another in trying to
publish the works of their scientists and thinkers.
The field of our study is vast and there
are innumerable opportunities for research. Our first duty is to gather and
publish the writings of the philosophers of Islam; works which have remained as
manuscripts until this day, or have been published in an unsatisfactory form. I
say this because as long as we have not studied the works of our philosophers
and scientists in the language in which they were originally written, we cannot
understand the essence and the core of their teachings.
When we found out that treatises
written by AlKindi are to be found in the libraries of the city of Istanbul,
or that manuscripts of the works of AlFarabi are scattered among libraries of
London, Paris, and Escorial,[3] or
that from the famous work of Ibn Sina, Shifa', the publisher has printed
only the first volume, Logic, [4] then we realized the
importance and necessity of gathering the texts of our philosophers and
publishing them. It is unnecessary to mention the fact that Ibn Rushd is better
known in the Latin world than he is in the Muslim world, and that some American
Orientalists have been publishing his writings for some time now.
The publishing of these texts would take a
long time. Therefore it is necessary that a number of individuals and academies
cooperate with one another in accomplishing this important task. The Cairo University College of Alexandria
A comment about the libraries of
Istanbul must be made here. In these libraries, the heritage of more than six
centuries of Islamic culture is stored. Naturally, texts can be found there the
copies of which do not exist anywhere else in the world. For example, a German
Orientalist has recently found some precious volumes in these libraries among
which Ash'ari's Maqalat alIslamiyin can be mentioned. This book is an
important source in the field of the history of Islamic doctrines. Since the
publication of Ash'ari's book and the Nihayat alAqdam of Shahristani,
some of the views we had held regarding Islamic theology (kalam) and
theologians (mutakallimun) have changed.
I have no doubt that our Turkish brothers
are aware of the value of this priceless heritage, and if they themselves are
unable to publish these masterpieces they shall not hesitate to make them
available to those who wish to do so.
Besides the publishing of these
texts, we should also engage in investigation and discussion of the works of
Islamic philosophers and get to know them just as well as we do the nonIslamic
philosophers. We should prepare biographies of our thinkers, describe their
views in detail, explain the factors which were instrumental in formation of
their views, clearly evaluate their intellectual debt to the ancients and to
their immediate predecessors, and examine the similarities existing between
their ideas and those of their contemporaries.
I hope that the day will come when they will
write about Al-Farabi just as they are writing today about Musa ibn Maymun,
that they become as familiar with the works of Ibn Sina as they are with the
writings of Thomas Aquinas, and shall discuss AlGhazzali just as they discuss
Descartes. That would be the day when it can be justifiably said that Islamic
philosophy has been given the recognition and stature it so rightly deserves.
