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Ibn al-Khammar

Abu al-Khayr al-Hasan ibn Suwar ibn al-Khammar (Philosopher and physician), Arab Christian , pupil of the Jacobite Jacobite Yahia b. 'Adi (d. 974)

Biography

Al-Khammar, also known as Ibn Suwar, (A.D. 942-1017) was born in Baghdad as a Christian under Arab cultural and religious influence. Iraq at that time was under the religious reign of the 'Abbasid Caliphate and the secular rule of the 'Buyids who were the ruling authority. Al-Khammar became a student of the theological and philosophical school of Yahia b. 'Adi, a monophysite Jacobite. Al-Khammar himself was a Nestorian. Under the dualistic administration of Baghdad, the Jacobites and Nestorians enriched the Islamic State by providing Arabic translations of important Greek texts on the Sciences and Philosophy. Al-Khammar's writing style has been described as having definite influences from the Alexandrian school of Neoplatonism. He has been identified as a Humanist and his works are accepted as being superior to his teacher. His translations of lectures by Yahia bin 'Adi were written so as to permit readers to judge for themselves the meanings of 'Adi's words whithout influencing or modifying the original intent thereby setting a distinctive mark to his subsequent works. Al-Khammar reportedly suffered regular bouts of epilepsy. Near the end of his life, he converted to Islam

Influenced and influences

Al-Khammar was influenced by 'Adi's attraction to Aristotelian logic, a view that was shared with reservation by Miskawayh regarding Aristotle, who himself was influenced by al-Khammar. This interest in early philosophy was also shared by notable Muslims such as the vizier Ibn Sa'dan who welcomed al-Khammar to his court. He influenced several prominent Muslim scholars such as Ibn Miskawayh and Ibn al-Nadim who were also students of 'Adi and wrote for influencial individuals such as the emir Khwarizmshah Abu l-'Abbas Ma'mun bin Ma'mun who greatly respected his medical knowledge and subsequently enticed him to Khwarizm. Following the victory of Mahmud b. Sebuktegin over the city of Khwarizm he was brought to Ghazna.

The legacy of al-Khammar

Al-Khammar is known primarily for his translations of texts from Syriac to Arabic as well as being an author in his own right. Much of these works are on philosophy but also address medicine and social behavior. His main translations are the Book of Allinus, Meteorologica, Questions and On Ethics from Theophrastus, Inter Alia, Aristotle' Categories, a version of Analytica Priora by Clodius Albinus, Porphyry's Isagoge and Hermeneutica. These texts had previously been translated from Greek and Latin into Syriac, then finally translated into Arabic. In addition to translating existing works, al-Khammar wrote several books on medicine entitled On Diabetes, On Epilepsy and On Testing Physicians. He wrote a commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge and a number of treatise bearing on various philosophical aspects of life such as On Beatitude, Ethics, Friendship, Philosophical Life, Agreement between the Opinions of the Philosophers and the Christians, Exposition of the Opinions of the Ancient Philosophers on God Almighty and on the Holy Laws and their Transmitters and Creation of Man and his Anatomical Make-up.

Bibliography

Julian Baldick, Mystical Islam, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd., London, 1989

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, Mackays of Chatham plc, 2005

Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach, Routledge, 2006

Nicholas Rescher and Fadlou Shehadi, Yahya Ibn 'Adi's Treatise "On the Four Scientific Questions Regarding the Art of Logic",Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1964), pp. 572-578,University of Pennsylvania Press

Edward Grant, A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2007

References

Aziz Suryal Atiya, A History of eastern Christianity, Methuen, London, 1968

Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy, Columbia University Press, 1970

History of Islamic Philosophy Part I, edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman, Routledge, Clays Ltd., 1996

Fehmi Jadaane, Studia Islamica, No. 38 (1973), pp. 5-60

Joel L. Kraemer, Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam: The Cultural Revival During the Buyid Age, Brill Archive, 1986

Max Meyerhof, 'Ali al-Bayhaqi's Tatimmat Siwan al-Hikma: A Biographical Work on Learned Men of the Islam, Osiris, Vol. 8, (1948), pp. 122-217

Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, The Univeristy of North Carolina Press, 1978 The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1990

Richard Walzer, New Light on the Arabic Translations of Aristotle, Oriens, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jun. 30, 1953), pp. 91-142