The Heirs of Avicenna: Philosophy in the Islamic East from the 12th to the 13th Century

• Applicant: Professor Peter Adamson, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy ; Islamic Studies, Arabian Studies, Semitic Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273594864

The proposed project focuses on the reception of Avicenna’s philosophy in the Islamic East (from Syria to central Asia) in the 12th-13th centuries CE. There has been very little research into the large number of extant philosophical works from this period, yet it is becoming increasingly clear that it was a time of complex and sophisticated philosophical activity, during which ideas of traditional Islamic theology (kalām) and mysticism were integrated into both defenses and criticisms of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d.1037). He was the dominant philosophical authority in later Islamic philosophy, much as Aristotle had been for earlier generations. To create a basis for further research and teaching on this period, we are selecting themes that are central to his logic, physics, psychology, and metaphysics. We translate and analyze passages from works of the 12th-13th centuries, in which a range of thinkers engage with Avicenna on these themes. The project already began with DFG funding in 2016, at which time support for the first three of six planned years of work was granted; we are now applying for funding to cover the remaining three years. This will make it possible for us to produce three sourcebooks of passages in English translation, which will be complemented by a free online database of the same passages in the original language (mostly Arabic, some Persian and Syriac). We are also publishing article-length case studies disseminating the fruits of our research on this remarkable but largely uncharted period of philosophy. The project will thereby make a wide range of texts available as never before, demonstrate the interest of this overlooked material for a broad philosophical audience, and lay groundwork for future research into still later periods of philosophy in the Islamic world.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants