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Handbook · 13th century

قِسْطَاسُ الأَفْكَارِ فِي تَحْقِيقِ الأَسْرَارِ

Qisṭās al-afkār

Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī · d. 702/1303

A systematic handbook of logic built on the division into conceptions and assents, which cites al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, al-Ghazālī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Abū al-Barakāt and al-Abharī and does not hesitate to criticise them. Its distinctive feature is a closing section on the etiquette of debate (ādāb al-baḥth) and on fallacies, meant to replace the Topics and Sophistical Refutations; it largely succeeded, and the new discipline of ādāb al-baḥth was often copied with logic manuals. Al-Samarqandī wrote his own commentary on it (Sharḥ al-Qisṭās). It marks the point where debate theory entered the logic curriculum.

Draft · awaiting review by a qualified teacher

Full title
Qisṭās al-afkār fī taḥqīq al-asrār
Author
Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī
Died
702/1303
Written
13th century
Language
Arabic

Editions and translations

الطَّبَعات

  • Turkish tr. Necmettin Pehlivan, Istanbul: Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı, 2014

Sources (3)

  1. TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi: Semerkandî, Muhammed b. Eşref
  2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Language and Logic
  3. Tarık Tanrıbilir and İsmail Şık, Nazariyat 8/2 (2022), with bibliography on al-Samarqandī