Ibn Miskawayh
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| Persian scholar |
|
|---|---|
| Name: | Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Miskawayh Razi |
| Title: | Ibn Miskawayh |
| Birth: | 932CE |
| Death: | 1030CE |
| Ethnicity: | Persian |
| Region: | Iran |
| Main interests: | History, ethics and philosophy |
| Works: | Tadhib al-akhlaq (Ethical Instruction) and Al-Fawz al-Asghar |
Abu 'Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ya'qub Ibn Miskawayh, (Persian: ابن مسكوويه) also known as Ibn Miskawayh (932-1030) was a prominent Persian philosopher, scientist, poet and historian from Ray, Iran. He was active politically during the Buwayhid era.
His effect on Islamic philosophy is mainly concerned with ethical issues. He was the author of the first major Islamic work on philosophical ethics, entitled Tadhib al-akhlaq (Ethical Instruction), focusing on practical ethics, conduct, and refinement of character. He separated personal ethics from the public realm, and contrasted the liberating nature of reason with the deception and temptation of nature.
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[edit] Evolution
Ibn Miskawayh was one of the first to clearly describe the idea of evolution. Muhammad Hamidullah describes the evolutionary ideas found in Ibn Miskawayh's al-Fawz al-Asghar as follows:
"[These books] state that God first created matter and invested it with energy for development. Matter, therefore, adopted the form of vapour which assumed the shape of water in due time. The next stage of development was mineral life. Different kinds of stones developed in course of time. Their highest form being mirjan (coral). It is a stone which has in it branches like those of a tree. After mineral life evolves vegetation. The evolution of vegetation culminates with a tree which bears the qualities of an animal. This is the date-palm. It has male and female genders. It does not wither if all its branches are chopped but it dies when the head is cut off. The date-palm is therefore considered the highest among the trees and resembles the lowest among animals. Then is born the lowest of animals. It evolves into an ape. This is not the statement of Darwin. This is what Ibn Maskawayh states and this is precisely what is written in the Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa. The Muslim thinkers state that ape then evolved into a lower kind of a barbarian man. He then became a superior human being. Man becomes a saint, a prophet. He evolves into a higher stage and becomes an angel. The one higher to angels is indeed none but God. Everything begins from Him and everything returns to Him."[1]
Arabic manuscripts of the al-Fawz al-Asghar were available in European universities by the 19th century. This work is believed to have been studied by Charles Darwin, who was a student of Arabic, and it is thought to have had an influence on his inception of Darwinism.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Muhammad Hamidullah and Afzal Iqbal (1993), The Emergence of Islam: Lectures on the Development of Islamic World-view, Intellectual Tradition and Polity, p. 143-144. Islamic Research Institute, Islamabad.
