The Islamic world · c. 801–873
Al-Kindī
Baghdad polymath called “the philosopher of the Arabs”
Truth should be welcomed whatever its source, even foreign nations; philosophy and prophecy agree, and the world was created in time by the One, the true cause.
Life and thought
Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī was born around 800, probably in Kufa, into the noble Arab tribe of Kinda, and worked in Baghdad at the height of the translation movement that brought Greek science into Arabic. He tutored a son of the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim, to whom he dedicated his best-known treatise, and oversaw a circle of translators that produced Arabic versions of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and the paraphrase of Plotinus known as the Theology of Aristotle. He fell from favour under a later caliph and died after 866, probably in the early 870s.
He was the first to write philosophy in Arabic in his own name, and he had to argue that it was legitimate: truth, he wrote, should be welcomed even when it comes from distant peoples. On First Philosophy argues that an actual infinite is impossible, so the world cannot be eternal and must have been created; its cause is the True One, beyond every multiplicity. Unlike later falāsifa, he saw no conflict with the Qur’an.
Works
Shaped by
384–322 BCEAristotlePlato’s student, Alexander’s tutor, founder of the Lyceumc. 204–270PlotinusThe Arabic paraphrase of Plotinus known as the Theology of Aristotle was produced in al-Kindī’s circle.Meanwhile, in other traditions
fl. c. 800 (estimates range from 725 to 840)Jayarāśi BhaṭṭaRadical sceptic who attacked every theory of valid knowledgeOn the record
On First Philosophy dates from about 840.
The treatise is dedicated to the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim (reigned 833–842), under whom al-Kindī’s career peaked, so it can only be placed in those years; 840 is a convenient point within them. Only its first part survives. Al-Kindī was born about 800 and died after 866, probably in the early 870s.