THE REVIVAL OF SAGES: AL-KINDI
After the demise of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) the divine religion of Islam was shouldered by various personalities from Imams to Caliphs to Philosophers, everyone has played a pivotal role in the emergence and sustenance of this religion. Much progress was made in the field of learning and knowledge and Baghdad, Cairo, Samarkand, etc. remained the centers of learning and intellect. From here many sages stood and made progress in respective fields that collectively structured the Islamic Golden Age. The Islamic Golden Age refers to a period in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, during which much of the historically Islamic world was ruled by various caliphates and science, economic development, and cultural works flourished. We’ll try to discuss various sages that occurred in this period and expound their works and legacy.
Al-Kindi is considered the first philosopher in the Arabic tradition and rightly the founder of the Philosopher-scientist school. The thought of al-Kindi is defined by his engagement in Greek traditions that preceded him. Al-Kind’s full name was Abu Yusuf Ya’qub bin Ishaq Al-Kindi. He was born in Basra in the year 801 A.D. his father Ishaq bin al-Sabbah was the governor of Kufa and so he enjoyed a luxurious and noble life. He belonged to a noble tribe of Arab namely, Kindah. He initially gained his education at Basra and then shifted to Baghdad which was the leading center of learning at that time. He started studying philosophy and sciences that were available in Arabic at that time and endeavored to incorporate and integrate them into the Islamic perspective. Soon this young sage got the attention of the Abbasid Caliphs and he became a favorite and revered sage in the courts of Caliph al-Ma’mum and al-Mu’tasim, he later tutored the son of Caliph al-Mu’tasim, Ahmad. His lofty position in the courts of Abbasids could not last longer and therefore he faced opposition, hardships, and troublesome circumstances in the court of Caliph al-Mutawwakil. His sublime designation soon faced disgrace and afterwards that he died in 866 A.D. at the age of 65.
There are many obscurities in the death of this sage as according to some he was disgraced to death by some wretched opponents in the court of the Caliph, who were in jealousy with his indubitable authority as a philosopher and scientist. In the words of al-Qifti who takes this into account from al-Kindi’s associate, the astrologer Abu Ma’shar, “He had a buildup of phlegm in his knee, and to treat it he drank aged wine. Then he repented of this, and instead drank honey juice. But the mouth of his veins did not open, and nothing of its heat managed to reach deep down into his body. Thus the infection spread and made his nerves cause him extreme pain until this pain reached into his head and brain. Then the man died because the nerves are rooted in the brain.”
Al-Kindi also played his part in the translation movement that began in the reign of Caliph al-Ma’mun. He was the contemporary of the eminent translator Hunayn bin Ishaq. According to Firhist of Ibn al-Nadim al-Kindi penned almost 240 works. Out of which 40 to 50 survived. In the field of Astrology, he enjoyed an indubitable and profound authority. He worked largely on optics and gave his theories concerning various phenomena of light. Roger Bacon placed al-Kindi second after Ptolemy in the field of optics. Al-Kindi developed a theory “that everything in the world emits rays in every direction, which fill the whole world.” This theory of the active power of rays had an influence on later scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham, Robert Grosseteste, and Roger Bacon. He also worked on why the sky is blue. He contributed to geography, astronomy, and history. Particularly, in geography for him and his students, Geography of Ptolemy was specially translated. Many of his students came to be famous geographers in later years such as Abu Zaid al-Balkhi. He wrote Suwar al-aqalim ( The Figure of the Climes ) and al-Masalik wa’l-mamalik ( Roads and Kingdoms ) which are among the most important early works of Muslim geography. Talking about astrology, so al-Kindi using astrological calculations calculated and envisaged the duration of Abbasid Caliphate. Furthermore, notwithstanding his interest in occult sciences, he vehemently opposed alchemy. His book Kitab al-aqal contained important writings on intellect.
In the period of pro-Mu’tazilites caliphs he favored this school of theology and conceived of a relation between philosophy and religion. He characterized ilm (Knowledge) in two categories, one Ilm al-ilahi ( divine knowledge ) which is given to the prophets by God and Ilm al-insani ( human knowledge ), the highest form of which is philosophy. According to him the first one is superior to the second one as for it can arrive at truths that human intellect cannot reach at its accord.
Regarding the field of medicine, he particularly wrote 30 treatises, which are on applying mathematics to the field of medicine especially pharmacology. He derived a scale to weigh the strength of drugs required by the physician to give to the patient. In medicine, he was inspired by the works of Galen. Al-Kindi also manifested his intellect in the field of music where he penned around 15 treaties on theory of music.
Al-Kindi is regarded as the first philosopher-scientist and the one who paved the way for the later Muslim philosophers. He is considered as the first of the Muslim civilization to use science and philosophy concomitantly. Cardanus mentioned him among the twelve great intellectual and influential figures of the human history. His works on astrology were translated to Latin and appeared in the western civilization where they were also studied and analyzed in the European Renaissance. Al-Kindi swayed many of the upcoming figures such as al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, etc. with his enthralling intellectual works. Al-Kindi was a master of many different areas of thought and was held to be one of the greatest Islamic philosophers of his time. His influence in the fields of physics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and music were far-reaching and lasted for several centuries. Ibn al-Nadim in his al-Fihrist praised al-Kindi and his work stating, “The best man of his time, unique in his knowledge of all the ancient sciences. He is called the Philosopher of the Arabs. His books deal with different sciences, such as logic, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy etc. We have connected him with the natural philosophers because of his prominence in science.”
According to al-Kindi, the goal of metaphysics is knowledge of God. For this reason, he does not make a clear distinction between philosophy and theology, because he believes they are both concerned with the same subject. Later philosophers, particularly al-Farabi and Avicenna, would strongly disagree with him on this issue, by saying that metaphysics is actually concerned with being qua being, and as such, the nature of God is purely incidental.
It is no surprise that in section four of One First Philosophy al-Kindi goes on to argue that the various sorts of predicate are inapplicable to the true One. He sums up his conclusion as follows,
“Thus the true One possesses no matter, form, quantity, quality, or relation. And is not described by any of the other terms: it has no genus, no specific difference, no individual, no proper accident, and no common accident. It does not move, and is not described through anything that is denied to be one in truth. It is therefore only pure unity, I mean nothing other than unity. And every unity other than it is multiple.”
Though later philosophers such as al-Farabi hardly mentioned him and Avicenna who only criticized his pharmacological theory, they carried on his philhellenic project, in which the practice of philosophy is defined by an engagement with the Greek philosophical works.
