Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the ...

Notes to Chapter 8 311
tion rather than Arabic; see Ummu’l-Kitåb, ed. and trans. P. Filippani Ronconi
(Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1966).
46. On the history and major ideas of this tradition see Corbin et al.,
History of Islamic Philosophy, pp. 74ff.; and his Cyclical Time and Ismå‘¥l¥ Gnosis,
trans. Ralph Mannheim and James Morris (London: KPI, 1983). See also Azim
Nanji, “Ismå‘¥l¥ Philosophy” in Nasr and Leaman, History of Islamic Philosophy,
pp. 144-54, where the main tenets of Ismå‘¥l¥ philosophy are summarized.
47. See S. H. Nasr, Islamic Life and Thought, “Hermes and Hermetic
Writings in the Islamic World,” pp. 102ff.
48. On Islamic alchemy and its philosophy, see H. Corbin, L’Alchimie
comme art hiératique, P. Lory (ed.) (Paris: Edition L’Herne, 1986); Corbin, Le Livre
des sept statues, ed. Pierre Lory (Paris: L’Herne, 2003); P. Lory, Alchimie et mystique
en terre d’Islam (Paris: Verdier, 1989); P. Kraus, Jåbir ibn ¡ayyån (Paris: Les
Belles Lettres, 1986); and Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam, pp. 242–82.
49. See Nasr, Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, part 1, pp. 25–104; see also
Ian R. Netton, Muslim Neoplatonists: An Introduction to the Thought of the Brethren
of Purity (London: Allen and Unwin, 1982).
50. Corbin et al., History of Islamic Philosophy, pp. 79–80; see also Wilfred
Madelung, “Aspects of Ismå‘¥l¥ Theology: The Prophetic Chain and the God
beyond Being,” in Ismå‘¥l¥ Contributions to Islamic Culture, S. H. Nasr (ed.)
(Tehran: Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1977) pp. 51–65.
51. It is important to remember that many important Ismå‘¥l¥ philosophical
and theosophical treatises were kept hidden from the public at large
and did not become publicly available until recently.
52. See Miguel Asín Palacios, Ibn Masarra y su escuela: Origenes de la
filosofía hispano-musulmana (Madrid: Imprenta Iberica, 1914); translated somewhat
imperfectly by Elmer Douglas and Howard Yoder as The Mystical Philosophy
of Ibn Masarra and His Followers (Leiden: Brill, 1978). On Islamic
philosophy in Spain, see Miguel Cruz Hernández, Historia del pensamiento en
el mundo islámico, vol. 2, pp. 9–270; see also Titus Burckhardt, Moorish Culture
in Spain, trans. Alisa Jaffe (London: Allen and Unwin, 1972) chap. 9, pp. 129–
37, which treats the spiritual significance of Islamic philosophy in Spain. See
also Lenn Goodman, “Ibn Masarrah,” in Nasr and Leaman, History, pp. 277–
93. A number of scholars such as Samuel M. Stern have criticized and refuted
Asín’s views concerning “Empedoclean cosmology,” which they relate more
to al-‘≈mir¥’s description of Empedocles without their views altering appreciably
the description of the thought of Ibn Masarrah as reconstructed by Asín
and others who have followed him.
53. The significance of these ideas in relation to prophecy becomes clear
in light of Peter Kingsley’s study of Empedocles mentioned at the beginning
of this book.