Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Encyclopedia of

Abstract

“Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’” – the “Brethren of Purity” – is the name of a philosophical brotherhood that produced in the tenth century the most complete medieval encyclopedia of sciences, at least two centuries before the best-known encyclopedias in the Latin world. It is a collection of 52 treatises or epistles in Arabic, divided into four sections – introduction, and the natural, psycho-rational, and metaphysical-theological sciences; two additional Epistles, the “Comprehensive” and the “Supercomprehensive” complete the work, which assembles all the available knowledge of the sciences, philosophy of Greek origin, and religious and gnostic Muslim doctrines. The Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ are linked to Shīʿism and often associated with an Ismāʿīlī milieu. The treatises are based on a wide variety of materials, but focus on Greek philosophy and science. The Epistles, which are addressed to disciples at an early stage of their apprenticeship, contain a core of technical teachings and a conclusion regarding their inner meaning. The first topics addressed are arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, geography, music, and logic. The overall epistemological framework is sketched in a special treatise; utilitarian activities are addressed in a complementary epistle. As a consequence of the eclectic character of the whole work, the first seven treatises of the second section, which are devoted to the natural sciences, follow Aristotle’s works on physics; but the treatise on nature introduces a Neoplatonic conception to explain the religious tenets of creationism from the philosophical point of view. The encyclopedia deals with the major Muslim religious issues, and Qurʾānic quotations often support ancient doctrines. Overall, the work represents a solution to the problem of reconciling reason and faith. The political vision developed in it may identify the authors as supporters of a strictly ‘Alid conception of the imamate.