Description
Book SynopsisIslamic allegory is the product of a cohesive literary tradition to which few contributed as significantly as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the eleventh-century Muslim philosopher. Peter Heath here offers a detailed examination of Avicenna''s contribution, paying special attention to Avicenna''s psychology and poetics and to the ways in which they influenced strains of theological, mystical, and literary thought in subsequent Islamic—and Western—intellectual and religious history.
Heath begins by showing how Avicenna''s writings fit into the context and general history of Islamic allegory and explores the interaction among allegory, allegoresis, and philosophy in Avicenna''s thought. He then provides a brief introduction to Avicenna as an historical figure. From there, he examines the ways in which Avicenna''s cosmological, psychological, and epistemological theories find parallel, if diverse, expression in the disparate formats of philosophical and allegorical narration. In
Table of Contents
Note on Transliteration and Dates
List of Abbreviations
Journals and Reference Works
Titles of Works by Avicenna
Preface
PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. Avicenna and Islamic Allegory
2. Avicenna: Courtier, Physician, Philosopher
PART II. ALLEGORY AND PHILOSOPHY
3. The Structure and Representation of the Cosmos
4. Avicenna's Theory of the Soul
5. Avicenna's Theory of Knowledge
PART III. THE MI'R J N MA
6. Translation of the Mi'râj Nâma
7. The Translation of the Mi'râj Nâma (The Book of the Prophet
Muhammad's Ascent to Heaven)
PART IV. INTERPRETATION AND ALLEGORY
7. The Interpretation and Function of Allegory
8. Allegory and Allegoresis
APPENDICES
Appendix A On Allegory
Appendix B On the Attribution of the Mi'râj Nâma
Appendix C The Manuscripts
Appendix D The Text of Avicenna's Version of the Mi'râj (without his attendant commentary)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
