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Ibn Tufail

Ibn Tufail (c. 1105, Guadix, Spain – 1185) (full Arabic name: '''Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Tufail al-Qaisi al-Andalusi'''; List of Latinised names|Latinized form: '''Abubacer Aben Tofail'''; Anglicisation|Anglicized form: '''Abubekar''' or '''Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail''') was an Al-Andalus|Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath:Avempace, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007. an Arabic literature|Arabic writer, novelist, Early Islamic philosophy|Islamic philosopher, Islamic theology|Islamic theologian, Medicine in medieval Islam|physician, vizier, and court official. As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the first philosophical novel, ''Hayy ibn Yaqdhan'', also known as ''Philosophus Autodidactus'' in the Western world. As a physician, he was an early supporter of dissection and autopsy, which was expressed in his novel.Jon Mcginnis, ''Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources'', p. 284, Hackett Publishing Company, ISBN 0872208710.

Life

Born in Guadix near Granada, he was educated by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace). He served as a secretary for the ruler of Granada, and later as vizier and physician for Abu Yaqub Yusuf, the Almohad ruler of Al-Andalus, to whom he recommended Averroes|Ibn Rushd (Averroës) as his own future successor in 1169. Ibn Rushd later reports this event and describes how Ibn Tufayl then inspired him to write his famous Aristotle|Aristotelian commentaries: Ibn Rushd became Ibn Tufayl's successor after he retired in 1182; Ibn Tufayl died several years later in Morocco in 1185. The astronomer Nur Ed-Din Al Betrugi was also a disciple of Ibn Tufayl.

''Hayy ibn Yaqzan''

Ibn Tufail was the author of '''''''''' ( ''Alive, son of Awake''), also known as '''''Philosophus Autodidactus''''' in the West, a philosophical Romance novel|romance and allegorical novel inspired by Avicennism and Sufism, and which tells the story of an Autodidacticism|autodidactic feral child, raised by a gazelle and living alone on a desert island, who, without contact with other human beings, discovers ultimate truth through a systematic process of reasoned inquiry. Hayy ultimately comes into contact with civilization and religion when he meets a castaway named Absal. He determines that certain trappings of religion, namely imagery and dependence on material goods, are necessary for the multitude in order that they might have decent lives. However, imagery and material goods are distractions from the truth and ought to be abandoned by those whose reason recognizes that they are distractions. Ibn Tufail drew the name of the tale and most of its characters from an earlier work by Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Ibn Tufail's book was neither a commentary on nor a mere retelling of Ibn Sina's work, however, but a new and innovative work in its own right. It reflects one of the main concerns of Muslim philosophers (later also of Christian thinkers), that of reconciling philosophy with revelation. At the same time, the narrative anticipates in some ways both Robinson Crusoe and Rousseau|Rousseau's ''Emile|Émile''. It tells of a child who is nurtured by a gazelle and grows up in total isolation from humans. In seven phases of seven years each, solely by the exercise of his faculties, Hayy goes through all the gradations of knowledge. The story of ''Hayy Ibn Yaqzan'' is similar to the later story of Mowgli in Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' in that a baby is abandoned on a deserted tropical island where he is take care of and fed by a mother wolf. Ibn Tufail's ''Philosophus Autodidactus'' was written as a response to al-Ghazali's ''The Incoherence of the Philosophers''. In the 13th century, Ibn al-Nafis later wrote the ''Al-Risalah al-Kamiliyyah fil Siera al-Nabawiyyah'' (known as ''Theologus Autodidactus'' in the West) as a response to Ibn Tufail's ''Philosophus Autodidactus''. Hayy ibn Yaqdhan had a significant influence on both Arabic literature and European literature, and it went on to become an influential best-seller throughout Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.G. A. Russell (1994), ''The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England'', p. 228, Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004094598. The work also had a "profound influence" on both early Islamic philosophy|classical Islamic philosophy and Modern philosophy|modern Western philosophy.G. J. Toomer (1996), ''Eastern Wisedome and Learning: The Study of Arabic in Seventeenth-Century England'', p. 218, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198202911. It became "one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution" and Age of Enlightenment|European Enlightenment, and the thoughts expressed in the novel can be found "in different variations and to different degrees in the books of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant."Samar Attar, ''The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl's Influence on Modern Western Thought'', Lexington Books, ISBN 0739119893. A Latin translation of the work, entitled ''Philosophus Autodidactus'', first appeared in 1671, prepared by Edward Pococke the Younger. The first English translation (by Simon Ockley) was published in 1708. These translations later inspired Daniel Defoe to write ''Robinson Crusoe'', which also featured a desert island narrative and was the first novel in English.Nawal Muhammad Hassan (1980), ''Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature'', Al-Rashid House for Publication.Cyril Glasse (2001), ''New Encyclopedia of Islam'', p. 202, Rowman Altamira, ISBN 0759101906.Amber Haque (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists", ''Journal of Religion and Health'' '''43''' (4): 357-377 369. The novel also inspired the concept of "tabula rasa" developed in ''An Essay Concerning Human Understanding'' (1690) by John Locke, who was a student of Pococke.G. A. Russell (1994), ''The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England'', pp. 224-239, Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004094598. His ''Essay'' went on to become one of the principal sources of empiricism in modern Western philosophy, and influenced many enlightenment philosophers, such as David Hume and George Berkeley. Hayy's ideas on materialism in the novel also have some similarities to Karl Marx's historical materialism.Dominique Urvoy, "The Rationality of Everyday Life: The Andalusian Tradition? (Aropos of Hayy's First Experiences)", in Lawrence I. Conrad (1996), ''The World of Ibn Tufayl: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān'', pp. 38-46, Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004093001. It also foreshadowed Molyneux's Problem, proposed by William Molyneux to Locke, who included it in the second book of ''An Essay Concerning Human Understanding''.Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik Ibn Tufayl and Léon Gauthier (1981), ''Risalat Hayy ibn Yaqzan'', p. 5, Editions de la Méditerranée:http://limitedinc.blogspot.com/2007/04/things-about-arabick-influence-on-john.html Diana Lobel (2006), ''A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue: Philosophy and Mysticism in Baḥya Ibn Paqūda's Duties of the Heart'', p. 24, University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 0812239539. Other European writers influenced by ''Philosophus Autodidactus'' included Gottfried Leibniz,Martin Wainwright, Desert island scripts, ''The Guardian'', 22 March 2003. Melchisédech Thévenot, John Wallis, Christiaan Huygens,G. A. Russell (1994), ''The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England'', p. 227, Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004094598. George Keith, Robert Barclay, the Religious Society of Friends|Quakers,G. A. Russell (1994), ''The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England'', p. 247, Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004094598. Samuel Hartlib,G. J. Toomer (1996), ''Eastern Wisedome and Learning: The Study of Arabic in Seventeenth-Century England'', p. 222, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198202911. and Voltaire.Tor Eigeland, The Ripening Years, ''Saudi Aramco World'', September-October 1976.

Works

- Arabic text of ''Hayy bin Yaqzan'' from Wikisource
- Full pdf of French translation of ''Hayy bin Yaqzan'' from Google Books
- English translations of ''Hayy bin Yaqzan'' (in chronological order)
    - ''The improvement of human reason, exhibited in the life of Hai ebn Yokdhan'', written in Arabick above 500 years ago, by Abu Jaafar ebn Tophail, newly translated from the original Arabick, by Simon Ockley. With an appendix, in which the possibility of man's attaining the true knowledg of God, and things necessary to salvation, without instruction, is briefly consider'd. London: Printed and sold by E. Powell, 1708.
    - Abu Bakr Ibn Tufail, ''The history of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan'', translated from the Arabic by Simon Ockley, revised, with an introdroduction by A.S. Fulton. London: Chapman and Hall, 1929. available online (omits the introductory section)
    - ''Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzān: a philosophical tale'', translated with introduction and notes by Lenn Evan Goodman. New York: Twayne, 1972.
    - ''The journey of the soul: the story of Hai bin Yaqzan'', as told by Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Tufail, a new translation by Riad Kocache. London: Octagon, 1982.
    - ''Two Andalusian philosophers'', translated from the Arabic with an introduction and notes by Jim Colville. London: Kegan Paul, 1999.
    - ''Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings'', ed. Muhammad Ali Khalidi. Cambridge University Press, 2005. (omits the introductory section; omits the conclusion beginning with the protagonist's acquaintance with Asal; includes §§1-98 of 121 as numbered in the Ockley-Fulton version)