Ibn Tufayl

Living the Life of Reason

Taneli Kukkonen

• Publisher: Oneworld Academic
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781780746173
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Ibn Tufayl (d. 1185) was an Andalusian courtier, philosopher, Sufi master, and royal physician to the Almohad Caliphs. He inspired the twelfth-century Andalusian revolt against Ptolemaic astronomy and sponsored the career of the most renowned Aristotelian of medieval times, Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd (the Latin Averroes). Ibn Tufayl was an exemplar of the kind of versatile scholar early Almohad culture wanted to cultivate.In this thought provoking and concise account, Taneli Kukkonen explores the life and thought of Ibn Tufayl and assesses the influence and legacy of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, Ibn Tufayl's famous philosophical romance. Hayy Ibn Yaqzan became a popular and often-copied work in early modern Europe; it has since secured a place as one of the best read pieces in all Arabic literature, partly due to its outstanding literary qualities, in part because it provides an ideal introduction to the themes and preoccupations of classical Arabic philosophy. The study sets Hayy in its historical and philosophical context and paints a vivid portrait of the world as Ibn Tufayl saw it and as he wished for it to be seen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aristotle’s works are referred to by the standard English titles, followed by book and chapter number. In addition, I have used the following printings of historical works:

Primary sources

al-Biṭrūjī, Abū Isḥāq Nūr al-Dīn. On the Principles of Astronomy, ed. and tr. Bernard R. Goldstein, 2 vols. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1971 [Principles]

Defoe, Daniel. Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with His Vision of the Angelick World. London, W. Taylor, 1720

al-Fārābī, Abū Naṣr. Kitāb al-ḥurūf, ed. Muhsin Mahdi. Beirut, Dār al-mashriq, 1969 [Book of Letters]

al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad. al-Maqṣad al-asnā fī sharḥ ma‘ānī asmā’ Allāh al-ḥusnā, ed. F. Shehadi. Beirut, Dār al-mashriq, 1971 [Beautiful Names]

al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad.al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl, ed. J. Salība and K. ‘Ayyād. Beirut: Commission libanaise pour la traduction des chefs-d’œuvre, 2nd ed. 1969 [Deliverer]

Ibn Bājja, Ibn Sā’igh. Tadbīr al-mutawaḥḥid, in Rasā’il Ibn Bājja al-ilāhiyya, ed. M. Fakhry. Beirut, Dār al-nahār li al-nashr, 1968 [Governance of the Solitary]

Ibn Rushd, Abū al-Walīd [Averroes]. Tahāfut al-tahāfut, ed. M. Bouyges. Beirut, Imprimerie Catholique, 1930 [Incoherence]

Ibn Sīnā, Abū ‘Alī [Avicenna]. al-Ishārāt wa al-tanbīhāt, ed. J. Forget. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1892 [Pointers]

Ibn Sīnā, Abū ‘Alī [Avicenna]. The Metaphysics of the Healing, ed. and tr. Michael E. Marmura. Provo, Brigham Young University Press, 2005

Ibn Ṭufayl, Abū Bakr. Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān, ed. and French tr. R. Gauthier. 2nd ed. Beirut, Imprimerie Catholique, 1936 [Hayy]

al-Marrākushī, ‘Abd al-Wāḥid. The History of the Almohades, or Mu‘jib fī talkhīṣ akhbar al-Maghrib, ed. R. P. A. Dozy. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1847 [History]

English translations

Full translations of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan include the following:

Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan. A Philosophical Tale, tr. Lenn Evan Goodman. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2009 [reprint of the 1972 translation]

* A particularly readable translation, with Gauthier’s page numbers indicated.

Two Andalusian Philosophers, tr. Jim Colville. London, Kegan Paul, 1999

* Also includes a translation of Ibn Rushd’s Decisive Treatise.

The Improvement of Human Reason, Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan, tr. Simon Ockley. Hildesheim, Georg Olms Verlag, 1983 [reprint of the 1708 translation]

Partial translations are included in the following anthologies of Arabic philosophy: Jon McGinnis and David C. Reisman, Classical Arabic Philosophy (Indianapolis, Hackett, 2007) and Muhammad Ali Khalidi, Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Scholarly literature

The best place to begin with the scholarship on Ibn Tufayl is a 1996 collected volume of articles edited by Lawrence I. Conrad and entitled The World of Ibn Ṭufayl. Chapters in this book are referred to by the individual author’s name followed by “in Conrad 1996”: thus “Malti-Douglas in Conrad 1996,” “Kruk in Conrad 1996,” and even “Conrad in Conrad 1996.” Many articles in the collection have gone u...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• HAYY IBN YAQZAN: AN OVERVIEW
• LIFE AND TIMES
• HAYY
• ISLAND LIFE
• NATURE
• SOUL
• THREE DUTIES
• GOD
• RELIGION
• AFTERLIFE
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX