The Sociology of Philosophies

(Wang) #1

  1. In the key to Figures 8.2 and 8.3, 196 in Afghanistan, 207 in Transoxiana, 217 in
    Anatolia, 229 in Baghdad, 232 in North Africa, 235 in Khwarazm–Oxus River
    valley, 246 and 275 in India, Rumi’s order of darvish dancers in Anatolia, 255 in
    Egypt, 276 among the Anatolian lower classes, 277 in Persia, 294 in Iran and
    central Asia. Sources on these movements (Hodgson, 1974: 2:192–234; Corbin,
    1969; Massignon, 1982: 36–51; Lapidus, 1988: 168–172).

  2. After writing the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun migrated to Egypt and finished life
    as a Malikite judge. Figure 8.3 shows that Egypt too had had no significant
    intellectual life at this point for several generations.

  3. In fact, al-Kindi’s protégé Ibn HaÀimah (60 in Figure 8.1) translated Plotinus as
    “Theology of Aristotle.” Plotinus himself was not translated by name, and was
    very seldom mentioned (Fakhry, 1983: 20).

  4. Similarly, in Christian Europe, the translations of Aristotle which were made
    directly from the Greek by James of Venice and others in the mid-1100s were
    interpreted within the Neoplatonic framework. Slightly later in the century, Gerard
    of Cremona, translating Arabic texts in Toledo, translated not only Aristotle but
    also Proclus’ Elements of Theology—the arch-Neoplatonic system—as the Liber
    de Causis, which also was attributed to Aristotle. The so-called “Theology of
    Aristotle” was also translated from the Arabic at this time. Europeans could see
    no difference between Aristotle and Plotinus, since they were apparently unaware
    of the latter until Ficino translated the Enneads in 1492 (DSB, 1981: 1:270–273;
    11:42; Weinberg, 1964: 10–11, 95, 100).

  5. Sources on Jewish philosophy generally (Sirat, 1985; Husik, 1969; Guttman, 1933;
    Wolfson, 1979; Pines, 1967, and individual articles in EP, 1967, and DSB, 1981).

  6. Only rabbinical writings were in Hebrew. Thus Maimonides produced his rabbini-
    cal code in Hebrew, but his Guide for the Perplexed, a philosophical reconciliation
    with religion, was written in Arabic but using Hebrew characters, a kind of code
    for members combining the cosmopolitan and the ethnic religious communities.
    Bahya ibn Paquda, among others, also wrote in this way, in Arabic with Hebrew
    characters (Pelaez del Rosal, 1985: 106). Even the nationalist anti-cosmopolitans
    among the Jews, such as Judah Halevi, wrote in Arabic. Arabic was the language
    of the Jewish intellectual community, and even the critics of that community used
    it. The only philosophers who wrote in Hebrew before 1200 were Bar Hiyya and
    Abraham Ibn Ezra; both were in the Christian orbit, the former in Barcelona, while
    the latter traveled in Italy, France, and England (Sirat, 1985: ix; Hodgson, 1974:
    1:357, 452, 468–469). Sources for this period generally (Husik, 1969; Sirat, 1985;
    Pelaez de Rosal, 1985; Cruz Hernandez, 1957).

  7. This is the network of Jewish poets and grammarians (beginning with 2 and 3 in
    Figure 8.4) which was prominent at Córdoba down through 1100, and which
    branched off to form the great Jewish rabbinical academy at Lucena (30 miles
    from Córdoba), connecting to Ibn Zaddik, Judah Halevi, Abraham Ibn Ezra,
    and Maimonides. The early Spanish Muslim scientists were virtually all at Cór-
    doba; we may note especially al-Majriti (9 in Figure 8.4), who apparently traveled
    in the east before 1000 and not only returned with astronomy and geometry,
    but also propagated magic and the numerology of the Pure Brethren texts, which


986 •^ Notes to Pages 425–439

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