al-Abharī | The Mantiqi

Logician, philosopher, astronomer and mathematician of the seventh/thirteenth century who wrote the Īsāghūjī, the short treatise that became the first logic book of the madrasas.

Life

His name is given as al-Mufaḍḍal b. ʿUmar b. al-Mufaḍḍal, with the honorific Athīr al-Dīn and the two nisbas al-Abharī and al-Samarqandī; he was also known as al-Munajjim, “the astronomer/astrologer”. The biographers say little about his life, and the reference works themselves note that only a few facts are certain. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi and Encyclopaedia Iranica say that his family came from Samarqand and that he was born and first educated in Mosul; other works, among them the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Third Edition) and the Dār al-Iftāʾ of Egypt, connect the nisba al-Abharī with the town of Abhar between Qazvin and Zanjan in north-western Iran and place his origin there.

In Mosul he studied with Kamāl al-Dīn Mūsā b. Yūnus (551–639/1156–1242), a Shāfiʿī scholar famous for the rational and mathematical sciences, with whom he read the Almagest; one account says he served as his assistant at the Badriyya school. Ibn Khallikān, who knew him, quotes him as saying that he left his own country and came to Mosul only to study with Kamāl al-Dīn. He is also said to have read Ibn Sīnā’s al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt with Quṭb al-Dīn Ibrāhīm al-Miṣrī. Some modern accounts make him a pupil of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī in his youth, but this is not certain. The TDV article adds that he studied in Khurasan and Baghdad as well.

Around 625/1228 he moved to Irbil; the Mongol advance is given as the reason in one account. He later travelled to Anatolia, where, according to the TDV article, Turkish rulers received him and supported his teaching, and he was in contact with the notable Muḥyī al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Saʿīd b. Nadā (d. 651/1253), to whom he sent some of his works. He died in 663/1265 (other dates given are 660 and 661), according to Sarıoğlu at Shabestar near Tabriz.

His students included the Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī (author of al-Risāla al-Shamsiyya), the jurist and logician Shams al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī (610–688/1213–1289), the biographer Ibn Khallikān (608–681/1211–1282) and, according to the Dār al-Iftāʾ biography, the cosmographer Zakariyyā al-Qazwīnī. Manuscript notes suggest that he taught his first four logic treatises to al-Kātibī in 627/1230. He is also reported to have had scholarly exchanges with Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī.

Al-Abharī wrote on , philosophy, astronomy and geometry. His logic belongs to the generation after Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī: he often criticises al-Rāzī, and the logician Afḍal al-Dīn al-Khūnajī is named as his most important influence. In geometry he attempted to prove Euclid’s parallel postulate in a revision of the Elements, and in astronomy he wrote handbooks and astronomical tables.

Uncertain or disputed

Birthplace: Mosul (TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Sarıoğlu) or Abhar in Iran (Encyclopaedia of Islam THREE, as reported; Dār al-Iftāʾ of Egypt). His reported remark that he left his country to study in Mosul fits an origin outside Mosul.
Year of birth is not recorded; some modern studies give ca. 1200 without a source.
Year of death: 663/1265 in most sources; the TDV article also records 661/1263, and other accounts allow a range from 660 to 663. Death at Shabestar is reported by Sarıoğlu.
Whether he studied with Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī is uncertain: reported in some modern accounts, doubted by Sarıoğlu.
Whether Zakariyyā al-Qazwīnī was his student rests on less authoritative biographies.
A modern claim that he came from, and is buried at, Eber near Çay (Afyon) is rejected by the TDV article as resting only on the similarity of names.

Works

Īsāghūjī (al-Risāla al-Athīriyya fī l-manṭiq) إِيسَاغُوجِي (الرِّسَالَةُ الأَثِيرِيَّةُ فِي المَنْطِقِ)A very short introduction to the whole of logic; the first logic text of the madrasas, with many commentaries and glosses and a verse version by al-Akhḍarī. Probably an early work.matn
Hidāyat al-ḥikma هِدَايَةُ الحِكْمَةِHandbook of philosophy in three parts: logic, natural philosophy, metaphysics. A long-lived madrasa textbook, read with the commentaries of Mīr Ḥusayn al-Maybudī and Mullā Ṣadrā; printed in Lucknow in 1845 with al-Maybudī’s commentary.work
Tanzīl al-afkār fī taʿdīl al-asrār تَنْزِيلُ الأَفْكَارِ فِي تَعْدِيلِ الأَسْرَارِA larger work on logic.work
Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq fī taḥrīr al-daqāʾiq كَشْفُ الحَقَائِقِ فِي تَحْرِيرِ الدَّقَائِقِLogic and philosophy, with a section on astronomy; a copy dated 663/1264 survives. Critical edition by Hüseyin Sarıoğlu (2001). Encyclopaedia Iranica gives the title as Jāmiʿ al-daqāʾiq fī kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq.work
Zubdat al-asrār زُبْدَةُ الأَسْرَارِOne of several further logic and philosophy treatises listed in the TDV article, with Talkhīṣ al-ḥaqāʾiq, Bayān al-asrār and al-Maṭāliʿ.work
Mukhtaṣar fī ʿilm al-hayʾa مُخْتَصَرٌ فِي عِلْمِ الهَيْئَةِEpitome of astronomy in 22 chapters.work
al-Zīj al-shāmil الزِّيجُ الشَّامِلُAstronomical tables; another set, al-Zīj al-ikhtiyārī, is also known as al-Zīj al-Athīrī.work
Iṣlāḥ Kitāb al-Usṭuqussāt إِصْلَاحُ كِتَابِ الأُسْطُقُسَّاتِA revision of Euclid’s Elements, including an attempted proof of the parallel postulate.work

Reception

The made his name known to every madrasa student from the Ottoman lands and Egypt to India and Indonesia; it was commented on by, among others, al-Kātī, al-Fanārī and Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī, and versified by al-Akhḍarī.

His Hidāyat al-ḥikma was studied for centuries, especially with al-Maybudī’s , and his was printed in Rome with a Latin translation as early as 1625.

Sources (7)