Connected Stories by Mohamed Meouak

Author:Mohamed Meouak [Meouak, Mohamed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783110772562
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2022-04-28T08:52:07+00:00

The author affirms the superiority of the knowledge of language and poetry over the mathematical disciplines and places the intelligence of al-Khalīl b. AḥmadKhalīl b. Aḥmad, al- above GalenGalen, PtolemyPtolemy, EuclidesEuclides and the like. The important point here is not the primacy of letters over sciences (which can be interpreted as the primacy of the religious sciences over the rational, insofar as linguistic disciplines are included among the religious sciences, and this condition is alluded to in one of the verses) or the few and inconsistent arguments that are given by the author to justify his contention. The most important point about these verses is where they appear, namely in the introduction of a didactic poem intended to teach a vast number of students. Together with some helpful information about prosody, by memorizing these verses pupils will internalize a message that disparages the rational sciences. A secondary (though not a minor) aspect present in Ibn ʿAbd RabbihiIbn ʿAbd Rabbihi’s argumentation is the ironic use of a famous maxim of the professors of medicine of late AlexandriaAlexandria which Arabic physicians knew well: philosophyPhilosophy is the medicine of the soul in much the same way as medicine is philosophyPhilosophy of the body.48 Ibn ʿAbd RabbihiIbn ʿAbd Rabbihi may have learnt this popular maxim via any medical or doxographic source brought to al-AndalusAndalus, al- from QayrawānKairouan or Eastern Islam, but the notion had also reached the westernmost part of the Mediterranean basin during Late Antiquity, as proved by its use by IsidoreIsidore of Seville of SevilleSeville.49 It is hard to believe that Ibn ʿAbd RabbihiIbn ʿAbd Rabbihi had read IsidoreIsidore of Seville’s Etymologies. However, the physicians who were active in Cordoba“Cordoba” during the emirates of MuḥammadMuḥammad I (Emir of al-Andalus), al-MundhirMundhir, al- (Emir of al-Andalus) and ʿAbd AllāhʿAbd Allāh (Emir of al-Andalus) were mostly Christians or Christians recently converted to Islam who were probably familiar with the saying and would have been able to mention it to Ibn ʿAbd RabbihiIbn ʿAbd Rabbihi.

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