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Islamic Political Philosophy

Andrew F. March

Last updated on April 15, 2016

Introduction

By “political philosophy” we mean not all political thought or theory in the Islamic tradition, but the specific tradition formed by the translation of classical Greek philosophy into Arabic. The boundaries should not be drawn too sharply here (since philosophical methods and themes were also integrated into “orthodox” theology and law, and because many philosophers did see themselves as providing philosophical account of certain creedal commitments from Islamic and Jewish theology), but this entry focuses primarily on works recognizably within the “falsafa” tradition as understood in classical Islamic learning.

General Surveys of Islamic Political Philosophy

Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), particularly the chapter by Charles Butterworth, “Ethical and Political Philosophy.” Link: Google Books.

Brague, Rémi. The Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). Link: Google Books.

Butterworth, Charles, ed., The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992) [see references to specific chapters below]. Link: Google Books.

E. Gannagé et al. (eds), The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought, special issue of Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 62 (2004). Link: Google Books.

Butterworth, Charles E. “Philosophy of Law in Medieval Judaism and Islam,” in Fred D. Miller Jr., ed., A History of the Philosophy of Law from the Ancient Greeks to the Scholastics (vol. 6 of A Treatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence; Dordrecht: Springer, 2007). Link: Google Books.

Crone, Patricia, God’s Rule: Six Centuries of Medieval Islamic Political Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), Ch. 14, “The Greek Tradition and ‘Political Science.” Link: Google Books.

Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 3rd ed., 2004). Link: Google Books.

History of Islamic Philosophy, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman, eds., (London: Routledge, 1996). Link: Google Books.

Daiber, Hans. “Political Philosophy,” in History of Islamic Philosophy, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman, eds., (London: Routledge, 1996). Link: Google Books.

Kraemer, Joel L. “The Jihād of the Falāsifa,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam”, 10 (1987).

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History of Greek Philosophy and the Translation Movement

Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ʿAbbāsid society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries) (New York: Routledge, 1998). Link: Google Books.

________. “The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: An Essay on the Historiography of Arabic Philosophy,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (2002).

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Readers and Anthologies of Primary Texts in Translation

John McGinnis and David C. Reisman, Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007) Link: Google Books.

Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, 1st, Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi, eds., (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1972). Link: Google Books.

Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, 2nd, Joshua Parens and Joseph C. Macfarland, eds. (Cornell University Press, 2011). Link: Google Books.

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Farabi

Primary Texts in Translation:

Alfarabi, Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, Muhsin Mahdi trans., (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001) Link: Google Books.

Alfarabi, the political writings: selected aphorisms and other texts, Charles E. Butterworth trans. and ed. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), including:

• Al-Farabi, “Selected Aphorisms” in Alfarabi, the political writings: selected aphorisms and other texts. Ithaca: Cornell University Press (2001). Link: Google Books.
• ________. “Enumeration of the Sciences” in Alfarabi, the political writings: selected aphorisms and other texts. Ithaca: Cornell University Press (2001). Link: Google Books.
• ________. “Book of Religion” in Alfarabi, the political writings: selected aphorisms and other texts. Ithaca: Cornell University Press (2001). Link: Google Books.
• ________. “The Harmonization of the Two Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato the Divine and Aristotle” in in Alfarabi, the political writings: selected aphorisms and other texts. Ithaca: Cornell University Press (2001). Link: Google Books.

Al-Farabi, On the Perfect State (Mabadiʾ araʾ al-madina al-fadila), Richard Walzer ed. and trans., (Chicago, IL: Kazi Publications, 1988).

Secondary Literature:

David C. Reisman, “Al-Fārābī and the Philosophical Curriculum,” in Adamson and Taylor, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.

Patricia Crone, “Al-Fārābī’s Imperfect Constitutions,” in Gannagé et al. (eds), The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought.

Dimitri Gutas, “The Meaning of madanī in al-Fārābī’s ‘Political’ Philosophy,” in Gannagé et al. (eds), The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought.

Gutas, “Galen’s Synopsis of Plato’s Laws and Farabi's Talkhis,” in The ancient tradition in Christian and Islamic Hellenism : studies on the transmission of Greek philosophy and sciences dedicated to H. J. Drossaart Lulofs on his ninetieth birthday.

Nelly Lahoud, “Al-Fārābī: On Religion and Philosophy,” in Gannagé et al. (eds), The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought).

Fauzi M. Najjar, “al-Fārābī and Political Science,” The Muslim World 48.2 (1958) pp. 94-103.

Fauzi M. Najjar, “Fārābī's Political Philosophy and Shīʿism,” Studia Islamica (1961)

Ulrich Rudolph, “Reflections on al-Fārābī’s, Mabādiʾ ārāʾ ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila,” in Peter Adamson, ed., In The Age of Al-Fārābī: Arabic Philosophy in The Fourth-Tenth Century (London : Warburg Institute, 2008).

Leo Strauss, “How Fārābī read Plato’s Laws,” in What is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988) and Persecution and the Art of Writing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).

Muhsin Mahdi, Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001)

Miriam Galston, Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990).

Hans Daiber, The Ruler as Philosopher: A New Interpretation of al-Fārābī’s View (Amsterdam: North-Holland Pub. Co., 1986).

Christopher A. Colmo, Breaking with Athens: Alfarabi as Founder (Lexington Books, 2005).

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Ibn Sina (Avicenna):

Primary Texts in Translation:

Avicenna, The Metaphysics of The Healing, trans. Michael E. Marmura (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2005.

Secondary Literature:

McGinnis, Jon. Avicenna (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Miriam Galston, “Realism and Idealism in Avicenna’s Political Philosophy,” The Review of Politics, 41:4 (1979), pp. 561-577

James W. Morris, “The Philosopher-Prophet in Avicenna’s Political Philosophy,” in Butterworth, ed., The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy

Charles E. Butterworth, “The Political Teaching of Avicenna,” Topoi 19 (2000), pp. 35-44.

M. Cüneyt Kaya, “In the Shadow of ‘Prophetic Legislation’: The Venture of Practical Philosophy after Avicenna,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 24: 2 (September 2014), pp. 269-296.

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Ibn Bajja (Avempace):

Primary Texts in Translation:

Ibn Bajja. “Governance of the Solitary,” trans. Berman in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, eds. Joshua Parens and Joseph C. Macfarland. Cornell University Press (2011).

_______. “Risalat al-wadaʿ.” In Rasaʾil Ibn Bajja al-ilahiyya. Ed. Majid Fakhry. Beirut: Dar al-Nahar, 1968.

_______. “Risalat ittisal al-ʿaql bi’l-insan.” In Rasaʾil Ibn Bajja al-ilahiyya. Ed. Majid Fakhry. Beirut: Dar al-Nahar, 1968.

Secondary Literature:

D.M. Dunlop, “Remarks on the Life and Works of Ibn Bājjah (Avempace),” Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Congress of Orientalists (Leiden: Brill, 1957), pp. 188-196.

Erwin I.J. Rosenthal, “The Place of Politics in the Philosophy of Ibn Bājja,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 15:2 (1953), pp. 246-278.

Goodman, Lenn E. “Ibn Bajjah,” in History of Islamic Philosophy, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman, eds., (London: Routledge, 1996).

Steven Harvey, “The Place of the Philosopher in the City According to Ibn Bājjah,” in Butterworth, ed., The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy, pp. 199-233.

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Ibn Tufayl:

Primary Texts in Translation:

Lenn E. Goodman, Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).

Secondary Literature:

Carra de Vaux, B. “Ibn Tufayl,” in Encyclopedia of Islam 2.

Lawrence I. Conrad, “An Andalusian Physician at the Court of the Muwahhids: Some Notes on the Public Career of Ibn Tufayl,” Al-Qantara: Revista de estudios árabes, 16:1 (1995), pp. 3-14.

Lenn E. Goodman, Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), introduction.

Hillel Fradkin, “The Political Thought of Ibn Ṭufayl,” in Butterworth, ed., The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy, pp. 234-261.

Michael S. Kochin, “Weeds: Cultivating the Imagination in Medieval Arabic Political Philosophy,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 60.3 (1999), pp. 399-416.

Murad Idris, “Ibn Ṭufayl’s Critique of Politics,” Journal of Islamic Philosophy, 7 (2011), pp. 67-101.

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Ibn Rushd (Averroës):

Primary Texts in Translation:

Averroës, Tahafut al-tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence), trans. Simon van den Bergh (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

________. Decisive Treatise and Epistle Dedicatory, trans. Charles E. Butterworth (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2002).

________. Bidayat al-mujtahid/ The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer trans. Nyazee.

________. Commentaire moyen à la Rhétorique d’Aristote/Averroès (Ibn Rus̆d), trans. and ed. Maroun Aouad (Paris: Vrin, 2002.).

________. Averroes on Plato’s Republic, trans. Ralph Lerner (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1974).

________. Commentaire moyen à la Rhétorique d’Aristote, trans. Aouad.

Secondary Literature:

Erwin I. J. Rosenthal, “The Place of Politics in the Philosophy of Ibn Rushd,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 15:2 (1953), pp. 246-278.

George F. Hourani, “Averroes on Good and Evil,” Studia Islamica (1962), pp. 13-40.

Charles E. Butterworth, “Averroës: Politics and Opinion,” American Political Science Review, 66:3 (1972), pp. 894-901.

Butterworth, “The Political Teaching of Averroes,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 2:2 (1992), pp. 187-202.

Oliver Leaman, “Ibn Rushd on Happiness and Philosophy,” Studia Islamica (1980), pp. 167-181

Michael Blaustein, “The Scope and Methods of Rhetoric in Averroes’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric,” in Butterworth, ed., The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy, pp. 262-303.

Maroun Aouad, “Does Averroes Have a Philosophy of History?” in E. Gannagé et al. (eds), The Greek Strand in Islamic Political Thought.

Feldman, Noah. “War and Reason in Maimonides & Averroes,” Journal of Islamic Law & Culture, vol. 9 (2004).

Heller‐Roazen, Daniel. “Philosophy before the Law: Averroës’s Decisive Treatise,” Critical Inquiry 32.3 (2006).

Frank Griffel, “The Relationship between Averroes and al-Ghazālī,” in John Inglis, ed., Medieval Philosophy and the Classical Tradition: In Islam, Judaism and Christianity (London: Curzon, 2002), pp. 51-63.

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