Sharh al-isharat

Sharh al-isharat (شرح الإشارات) is a philosophical commentary on Avicenna's book Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat (Remarks and Admonitions) . this commentary has been written by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi in defense of philosophy in front of Fakhr Razi.

Author

Abu Jaʿfar Moḥammad NASIR-al-DIN ṬUSI, (b. Ṭus, 17 February 1201/d. Baghdad, 25 June 1274), honored as polymath and vizier, whose significant works in literary, theological and scientific disciplines later earned him the title of Moʿallem-al-ṯāleṯ, i.e., the third teacher, following Aristotle and Farabi.^[1]

About Isharat

Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat is the last book written by Avicenna and the most prominent. the book is on logic,natural philosophy and theology and metaphysics.^[2]Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat could be considered as generally as a later works and therefore an expression of Avicenna's mature thought. Ibn sina advice that book to his disciples as a kind of work book. In this book ibn Sina try to offer suggestion by which he call for his disciples to establish in the right way the conclusions and/or the premises to reach conclusions. In other words, Avicenna doesn't intent to develope fully articulated arguments in Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat. This makes it very abstract and demanding text for any reader, a text is not easy to understand.^[3]

The book

Sharh Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat or commentary of Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat is a collection of books written by Naßìr ad-Dìn a†-ˇùsì for detailing and defending of Avicenna's work in front of fakhr Razi. according to Hosein Nasr, the influence of Fakhr al din Razi and his technical discussions of later Islamic philosophy was not recogonzed until now. Razi had important attack against peripatetic philosophy. This attack manifested on detailed in the book of sharh al Isharat which is written in the criticism of Avicenna's Al Isharat. Nasir Al Din to which book has written the responses that resuscitated Avicennian philosophy. In the fourteenth century this central debate was carried further by Qubal-Din al-Razy in his al-Muhakamهt (Trials), in which he sought to judge between the commentaries of Fakhr al-Din al-Razy and TUsi.^[4] this collection until day counted as the most commentary on the book of admonitions and remarks and later men of wisdom had explain and develop it.Avicenna’s Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat was well known in philosophical circles, and numerous commentaries, glosses, and summaries had been written on it. One of the earliest commentaries was perhaps shahrastani’s (d. 445/1153) polemical I'tiqadat 'alkalam al-isarat, to which 'Umar ibn Sahlan as-Sawi (d. ca. 549/1145) eventually wrote a reply.25 Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi (d. 606/1209) then wrote his famous ”sarh˙ al-I“isharat and an abridged version of its essential theses, titled Lubab al-I“isharat.Sa'd ibn Oasan ibn Hibat Allah (Mu˙ammad) Ibn Kammuna al-Isra'ili (d. 676/1277) wrote a sarh˙ al-I“isharat. Nasir ad-Din a†-ˇusi (672/1274) wrote a ” sarh˙ al-I“isharat, as well as hall mus“kilat al-I“isharat. Although a number of these scholars knew Persian, these works were all written in Arabic, and no Persian medieval translation of al-I“isharat has been recorded by Brockelmann.^[5] Tūsī wrote supercommentaries on Rāzī’s commentary. Their supercommentaries sought to demonstrate a critical distance from Rāzī’s Shar h, rather than a critical distancefrom Avicenna’s Ishārāt.Somewhat less aggressively,Tūsī levels accusations at Rāzī that Rāzī had earlier leveled at Masʿūdī: of offering criticisms presumptuously, of not yet havingworked hard enough to understand Avicenna’s theories and arguments fully andthereby present them fairly. In the preface to his Hall Mushkilāt al-Ishārāt, afterpraising Avicenna extravagantly and singling out the Ishārāt as an expression of Avicenna’s ideas referred to by Tusi.^[6]

content

this seminal works on Peripatetic philosophy established him beyond doubt as the greatest Avicennan philosopher after the master himself. This category of the works include his rebuttals to the criticisms of Ibn Sina by al-Shahrastan’s al-Muƒari‘ah and Raz’s earlier critical commentary upon Ibn Sina’s Al-isharat wa al-tanbihat. Known also as Sharh al-isharat, this work, which is a major philosophical masterpiece in both form and content, resuscitated Ibn Sina’s teachings once and for all in the East. Devoted to expounding the teachings of the master in this work refrained from expressing any views of his own except when it came to God’s knowledge of the world,where Nasir Al Din accepted the views of Suhraward, which he also knewwell. The work became so famous that it in turn became the subject ofmany later commentaries, the most famous by Qu†b al-Din al-Raz.^[7]

References

1. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tusi-nasir-al-din
2. http://www.cgie.org.ir/fa/publication/entryview/1592
3. Shams C. Inati, Ibn Sina's Remarks and Admonitions: Physics and Metaphysics: An Analysis and Annotated Translation, Columbia University Press, 2014, 218pp., ISBN 9780231166164,Reviewed by Jules Janssens, De Wulf-Mansion Centre, KU Leuven
4. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein,2006,p.p113-114
5. Roxanne D. Marcotte, , RESURRECTION (MA'AD)IN THE PERSIAN OAYAT AN-NUFUS OF ISMA'IL IBN MUOAMMAD RIZI:THE AVICENNAN BACKGROUND* in INTERPRETING AVICENNA: SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM.,p219. BRILLLEIDEN • BOSTON.2004
6. Robert Wisnovsky / Oriens 41 (2013) 349–378
7. Seyyed Hossein Nasr,2006.p.187