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Subtle Insights Concerning Knowledge and Practice (Kalimāt wajīza mushtamila ‘alā nukat laṭīfa fī al-‘ilm wa-l-‘amal)

Sa‘d ibn Mansur Ibn Kammūna al-Baghdādī; Translated by Y. Tzvi Langermann

Summary

Written in the mid-thirteenth century for the newly appointed governor of Isfahan, this compact treatise and philosophical guidebook includes a wide-ranging and accessible set of essays on ethics, psychology, political philosophy, and the unity of God. Ibn Kammuna,a Jewish scholar writing in Baghdad during a time of Mongol occupation, was a controversial figure whose writings sometimes incited riots. He argued, among other things, the commonality of all monotheisms, both prophetic and philosophical. Here, for the first time in English, is a surprisingly modern work on the unity of all monotheistic regimes from a key medieval philosopher.

Publication Information

Synopsis and Commentary (PART I. On Knowledge, First Gate)

Chapter One: Preface (PART I. On Knowledge, First Gate)

Chapter Two: On establishing the existence of the Governor of the cosmos, He whose existence is necessary for its own sake; and showing that He is powerful, knowing, willful, and wise; and that He [exercises] providential care over His creatures (PART I. On Knowledge, First Gate)

Chapter Three: On clearly establishing a cluster of [attributes] that must be established of the Necessary, and the negation of a cluster [of attributes] that must be denied of Him (PART I. On Knowledge, First Gate)

Chapter Four: That the Governor of the Cosmos is one and has no partner (PART I. On Knowledge, First Gate)

Chapter Five: On how the Governing Necessary [Being] acts; the emanation of the contingent beings from Him; and establishing the existence of the angels (PART I. On Knowledge, First Gate)

Synopsis and Commentary (PART I. On Knowledge, Second Gate)

Chapter One: On how the soul is linked to the body and joined to it, her bonding to it, and her control over (taṣarruf) its faculties (PART I. On Knowledge, Second Gate)

Chapter Two: That the soul is neither a body, nor is she a state within one; that she is simple, with no external complexity; and that she is a self-standing substance (PART I. On Knowledge, Second Gate)

Chapter Three: That the soul does not die with the death of the body, nor will she ever cease to exist (PART I. On Knowledge, Second Gate)

Chapter Four: On the perfection of the soul, and her falling short; and the manner of her coming into contact with the highest world and acquiring items of knowledge from it; and a note on a group of her special properties and effects (PART I. On Knowledge, Second Gate)

Chapter Five: On pleasure and pain, showing that the intellectual [varieties] of both are more powerful than the sensual ones (PART I. On Knowledge, Second Gate)

Synopsis and Commentary (PART II. On Practice, First Gate)

Chapter One: On repentance, worship, and abstention, and what appertains to them (PART II. On Practice, First Gate)

Chapter Two: On fear of God and guarding the exterior limbs (PART II. On Practice, First Gate)

Chapter Three: On protecting the heart from the scourges that are particular to it (PART II. On Practice, First Gate)

Chapter Four: On the stations that are required of the person seeking worship and knowledge (PART II. On Practice, First Gate)

Chapter Five: On the improvement and correction (ta‘dīl) of character traits (PART II. On Practice, First Gate)

Synopsis and Commentary (PART II. On Practice, Second Gate)

Chapter One: On the utility of social grouping (ijtimā‘), the need for mutual assistance, and its rules (PART II. On Practice, Second Gate)

Chapter Two: On the way of life that the king and ruler must maintain in his very soul, so as to benefit from it in the affairs under his administration (siyāsa) (PART II. On Practice, Second Gate)

Chapter Three: On developing good assistants and the governance of the flock (PART II. On Practice, Second Gate)

Chapter Four: On the utility of justice and mercy, and an explanation of the wisdom inhering in both of them (PART II. On Practice, Second Gate)

Chapter Five: On the proper conduct of the rulers of former times, and other people, and that with which the book will end (PART II. On Practice, Second Gate)