Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, ed., trans.; Aminrazavi, Mehdi, ed., trans., An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia (volume 1) (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999).

Text name(s): Zad al-musafirin (Provisions for travelers); Kitab al-burhan (Paraphrase of Aristotle’s Analytica Posteriora); Kitab al-jam ‘bayn ra ‘yay al-hakimayn, Aflatun al-ilahi wa Aristu (Reconciliation of the Opinions of the two Sages, Spiritual Plato and Aristotle); Mabadi’ ara’ ahl al-madinat al-fadilah (the Perfect State); Danish-nama-yi ‘ala ‘I (Treatise on Knowledge); al-Isharat wa ‘l-tanbihat (Remarks and Admonitions); al-Shifa (The Healing: On Theodicy and Providence); Fi Mawamat al-‘arifin (On the Stations of the Knowers); Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Living Son of the Awake)

Number of pages of primary source text: 410

Medieval Author(s): Abul-`Abbas Muhammad Iranshahri Avicenna Bahmanyar b. Marzuban, Abu al-Hasan Bīrunī, Muhammad ibn Ahmad Farabī, Al- Ibn Miskawayh, Ahmad ibn Muhammad Khayyam, Omar Razī, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Al- `Amiri, Muhammad ibn Yusuf

Dates: 0 - 1150

Archival Reference:

Original Language(s): Arabic; Azestan; Pahlavi; Pazand; Persian;

Translation: English translation.

Translation Comments:

Geopolitical Region(s): Persia;

County/Region:

Apparatus: Index Glossary Bibliography Introduction

Comments:

This volume includes selections from six Zoroastrian texts and ten philosophers of the Iranian period (through the early 12th century). While some scholars have taken issue with the identification of these sources as "Persian"preferring the designation Iranian, the editors of this volume argue that a shared cultural history reaching back to Zoroastrianism unites these authors through the Middle Ages as part of the same intellectual tradition. This volume includes a variety of texts, including selections from the Zoroastrian texts on creation and eschatology, commentaries and paraphrases of Aristotle and Plato, philosophical texts about the nature of the soul, and medical texts by Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna and Rhazes, whose ideas were influential in both East and West.

Introduction Summary:

The editors’ brief (30 pp) introduction notes the relationship between Western monotheism and the earlier Persian Zoroastrian monotheism, and notes the specifically Persian character of the texts selected in this volume. The editors note the uses of various languages in the texts they present: the Zoroastrian texts are translated from Azestan, Pahlavi, and Pazand, and the later philosophic works are translated from Persian and Arabic. They also trace themes in the development of Persian philosophy, including the permeation of metaphysical speculation into other disciplines, such as medicine, science, and science, and the close interconnection between philosophy and religion.

Cataloger: MCB