The Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ on Animals
A focus on the non-narrative part of Epistle 22
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.9879Abstract
The epistle on animals by the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ has never ceased to exert a kind of fascination, but the attention of its readers, ancient and modern alike, has hitherto been focused almost exclusively on the fable which it contains and which occupies the greater part of the treatise. In this study, we shall primarily consider the other, non-narrative part of the epistle, sometimes referred to nowadays as a mere ‘prologue’ to the fable although it is in reality a genuine essay on animal biology in the wake of the Greek, especially Aristotelian, tradition. I shall argue that, even if the authors are profoundly indebted to Aristotle for the theoretical framework and a good part of the content, this part of the epistle cannot be properly understood without acknowledging at the same time the influence of the Pythagorean and Neoplatonic philosophical traditions.
Key words: Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ – animals – Aristotle – Neoplatonism – Pythagoreanism – hierarchy of beings
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