Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. On Logic: an Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 10-14 * Edited and translated by C. BAFFIONI

Abstract

The massive collection of Epistles by the so-called ‘Brethren of Purity’ (Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ) is one of the more intriguing bodies of Islamic philosophical literature prior to Avicenna. The Epistles have been studied in the context of the history of Ismaʿilism, though it is unclear whether or not the anonymous authors in fact belonged to this tradition. The thought of the Brethren is widely recognized as an important testimony to the impact of Greek thought in the tenth century ad—the period when their Epistles are thought to have been written. And there are earlier editions of the epistles— Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, ed. Khayr al-Dīn al-Ziriklī (Cairo: al-Maṭbāʿa al-ʿArabiyya, 4 vols. in 2, 1928); Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa khullān al-wafāʾ, ed. Buṭrus al-Bustānī (Beirut, 4 vols., 1957)—along with some translations and studies. Nonetheless, it would be fair to say that the collaborative undertaking of the Ismaili Institute, in London, and Oxford University Press, to edit, translate and study the Epistles will fill one of the most obvious gaps in our knowledge of pre-Avicennan Islamic philosophy.