Avicenna and His School

Avicenna’s works and treatises represent a turning-point in the history of philosophy not only in the Islamic world but also non-Muslim philosophers and theologians. The Avicenna Project of the Islamic Manuscripts Press of Leiden (IMPL) aims at critical editing of Avicenna’s works. The critical edition of the following books will be published in the forthcoming collections:

1.ʿUyūn al-ḥikma —Elements of Philosophy:

A summary of Avicennan philosophy, “comprising the three sciences,” namely, Logic, Physics, and Metaphysics, Elements of Philosophy was subjected to a massive commentary by Faḫrad-Dīn ar-Rāzī. The work itself appears to have been generated by splicing together two independent parts, one on Logic and the other on Physics and Metaphysics.

2.al-Hidāya , The Guidance. According to Jūzjānī’s biography, Avicenna wrote this book while imprisoned in the castle of Fardajān outside of Hamaḏān in 414/1023.

3. Al-Išārāt wa-t-tanbīhāt —Pointers and Reminders
Pointers and Reminders is Avicenna’s last philosophical summa, written sometime between 421–425/1030–1034. The knowledgeable compiler of the Longer Bibliography says that it is “his last work, which he withheld [from others].”

4. Al-Aḍḥawiyya fī l-maʿād —The Immolation Destination (i.e., On the Destination, on the Occasion of the Feast of Immolation) Avicenna himself says in the Immolation (Aḍḥawiyya) Destination that he discussed the substantiality of the soul in numerous treatises, “and especially in our commentary (šarḥ) on Aristotle’s De anima.”