Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi

Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi (Arabic: أحمد بن الطيب السرخسي‎; died 899 CE) was a Persian traveller, historian and philosopher from the city of Sarakh. He was a pupil of al-Kindi.^[1]

Al-Sarakhsi was killed by Caliph al-Mu'tadid because, according to an anecdote preserved in Yaqut al-Hamawi's Mu'jam al-Udaba', he had urged the caliph towards apostasy. Al-Biruni reports in his Chronology that al-Sarakhsi had written books in which he denounced prophecy and ridiculed the prophets, whom he styled charlatans. However, Rosenthal has disputed the historicity of the stories that claim al-Sarakhsi was executed for heretical beliefs.^[2]

References

1. F. E., Peters (1968). Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam. New York University Press. p. 159.
2. McKinney, Robert C. (2004). The case of rhyme versus reason: Ibn al-Rūmī and his poetics in context. Leiden: Brill. p. 27. ISBN 90-04-13010-1.