Reconsidering the Influence of the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa’ on Ibn al-Sid al-Batalyawsi’s Kitab al-dawa’ir
Book Chapter in "S. Schmidtke – O. Michaelis (ed.), Religious and Intellectual Diversity in the Islamicate"
“In an article recently appeared in Al-Qantara, Ayala Eliyahu reached some important conclusions about the Andalusi Muslim scholar Ibn al-Sid al-Batalyawsi (d. 521/1127) and what is to be considered his main and most influential philosophical treatise. First, Eliyahu clearly demonstrated that this work was mistakenly named Kitab al-hada’iq ('the Book of Gardens') in scholarship, but that it should be renamed Kitab al-dawa’ir (‘the Book of Circles’), possibly also Kitab al-dawa’ir al-wahmiyya (‘the Book of Imaginary Circles’), in accordance with the way it was referred to in Jewish medieval sources. Secondly, she convincingly argued that this Kitab al-dawa’ir was not a stand-alone work but part of a larger whole, the so-called anthological Kitab al-masa’il wa-l-awjiba ('the Book of Questions and Answers'). In the third place, by examining similarities, in both the content and the form, between our treatise and other works by Batalyawsi, she confirmed that the Kitab al-dawa’ir should undisputedly be ascribed to him. In addition to these three conclusions, Eliyahu's article also provides evidence for the influence exerted by the encyclopaedia of the Ikhwan al-Safa’ on the composition of the Kitab al-dawa’ir.
It is on this latter issue that the present contribution will focus exclusively. After briefly recalling what Eliyahu and other scholars before her have written on this subject, we will revisit the sources at hand and try to make a more complete and systematic assessment than has been realized so far.” (Godefroid de Callatay)
Author: Dr. Godefroid de Callatay
Link to Chapter: Academia.edu
Link to Volume: Brill