Why Did Fourteenth-Century Jews Turn to Alghazali's Account of Natural Science?
The "Maqāṣid al-falāsifah" (Intentions of the Philosophers) by the Sufi theologian Alghazali seems to have been, in Hebrew translation, one of the most popular Hebrew scientific texts in the 14th century. By around 1340, it had been translated into Hebrew three times in the space of half a...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Penn Press
2001
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| In: |
The Jewish quarterly review
Year: 2001, Volume: 91, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 359-376 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The "Maqāṣid al-falāsifah" (Intentions of the Philosophers) by the Sufi theologian Alghazali seems to have been, in Hebrew translation, one of the most popular Hebrew scientific texts in the 14th century. By around 1340, it had been translated into Hebrew three times in the space of half a century, and today it is extant in its various Hebrew versions in over 70 manuscripts. Significantly, it also caught the attention of Moses Narboni, an Averroist and one of the most competent philosophic minds among 14th-century Jewry. Narboni wrote a commentary on it, which survives in over 50 manuscripts and apparently became Narboni's most widely read work. The immense popularity of the "Maqāṣid," a work recommended by neither Maimonides nor Averroes, the two philosophic authorities among the Jews of the time, is both surprising and baffling. Why did Jews, who had accurate translations of Averroes' commentaries on Aristotle's scientific writings, bother with Alghazali's reworked summary of Avicennian science? In this paper I explore the reasons why 14th-century Jews turned to Alghazali's account of natural science in the "Maqāṣid." I do so by considering the evaluations of the text expressed or intimated by those 14th-century thinkers who made the greatest use of it. I also suggest why leading Jewish scientists of the century did not bother with it, for I believe that the "Maqāṣid" was not nearly as popular in the 14th century as has been previously thought. I conclude that the book's real popularity can be dated to the 15th century, when it was studied as an important scientific text in its own right. |
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| ISSN: | 1553-0604 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Jewish quarterly review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1455551 |