Globalism in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age by Albrecht Classen

Author:Albrecht Classen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2023-07-13T11:47:54.644000+00:00

A Translation of “A Short Treatise on the Soul”

The Arabic text of “A Short Treatise on the Soul” is included in a collection of sixteen treatises titled Al Kindī’s Philosophical Treatises (Rasa’il al-Kindī al-Falsafeya). Published in 1950, the collection was edited by Muhammad A. Abū Rida, an Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Arts at the University of Fouad the First (now Cairo University); Abū Rida also wrote introductions for both the volume and for each specific treatise. Abū Rida mentions that he himself discovered the manuscript in the 1930’s in al-Maktaba al-Taymoureya in Dar al-Kutub al-Masreya (The National Library and Archives of Egypt). It is in the manuscript number 55, which is a collection of treatises on wisdom and is found on pages 63–76. Abū Rida states that the treatise does not have a specific date and contains a number of scribal errors. I have followed Abū Rida’s corrections without referring to them except when he replaced one word by another.

Abū Rida identifies this treatise as typical of al-Kindī’s style; for example, he notes that beginning and ending a work with a prayer is standard in al-Kindī’s works. Moreover, the treatise contains commentaries and opinions expressed by al-Kindī in other treatises, such as his treatise on sleep and visions, which makes it easy to determine that the treatise is indeed one of al-Kindī’s works.

In this translation, I have used the paragraph divisions found in Abū Rida’s version. Because of the distinctive syntactic structure of Arabic and the fact that certain stylistic moves do not translate well into English, I have broken up some of the lengthier sentences to make them shorter and more accessible to an English reading audience.

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