Ibn Sīnā—al-Bīrūnī Correspondence—VIII

Rafik Berjak; Muzaffar Iqbal

doi:10.66207/jis.v5i1.236

Authors

Rafik Berjak Author
Muzaffar Iqbal Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.66207/jis.v5i1.236

Keywords:

Ibn Sīnā, al-Bīrūnī, Ibn Sīnā—al-Bīrūnī correspondence, Peripatetic natural philosophy, history of physics, criticism of Aristotelian physics, natural elements, schools of thought in Islamic scientific tradition

Abstract

This provisional translation of the correspondence between Ibn Sīnā and al-Bīrūnī (al-Asʾilah waʾl-ajwibah) contains the complete text of the response of Abū Saʿīd al-Maʿṣūmī to the objections of al-Bīrūnī regarding the set of eight questions posed by him to Ibn Sīnā. Al-Bīrūnī had not been satisfied with Ibn Sīnā’s initial response and had replied in short, categorical statements showing his dissatisfaction. In this eighth and final installment, Ibn Sīnā’s student and friend, al-Maʿṣūmī, responds to these objections in turn in terse language, indicating his exasperation with al-Bīrūnī.