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Al Kindi Wikipedia
Al Kindi Wikipedia
Portrait of al-Kindi
Born c. 801
Kufa, Abbasid
Caliphate (now in Iraq)
Influences
Ancient Greek philosophy
Influenced
Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-
Sarakhsi, Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, Abu
Ma'shar al-Balkhi, Miskawayh,[1] Robert
Grosseteste, Roger Bacon
Al-Kindi was born in Kufa and educated
in Baghdad.[12] He became a prominent
figure in the House of Wisdom, and a
number of Abbasid Caliphs appointed
him to oversee the translation of Greek
scientific and philosophical texts into the
Arabic language. This contact with "the
philosophy of the ancients" (as Greek
philosophy was often referred to by
Muslim scholars) had a profound effect
on his intellectual development, and led
him to write hundreds of original treatises
of his own on a range of subjects ranging
from metaphysics, ethics, logic and
psychology, to medicine,
pharmacology,[13] mathematics,
astronomy, astrology and optics, and
further afield to more practical topics like
perfumes, swords, jewels, glass, dyes,
zoology, tides, mirrors, meteorology and
earthquakes.[14][15]
Life
Al-Kindi was born in Kufa to an
aristocratic family of the Kinda tribe,
descended from the chieftain al-Ash'ath
ibn Qays, a contemporary of
Muhammad.[24] The family belonged to
the most prominent families of the tribal
nobility of Kufa in the early Islamic period,
until it lost much of its power following
the revolt of Abd al-Rahman ibn
Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath.[25] His father
Ishaq was the governor of Kufa, and al-
Kindi received his preliminary education
there. He later went to complete his
studies in Baghdad, where he was
patronized by the Abbasid caliphs al-
Ma'mun (ruled 813–833) and al-Mu'tasim
(r. 833–842). On account of his learning
and aptitude for study, al-Ma'mun
appointed him to the House of Wisdom, a
recently established centre for the
translation of Greek philosophical and
scientific texts, in Baghdad. He was also
well known for his beautiful calligraphy,
and at one point was employed as a
calligrapher by al-Mutawakkil.[26]
When al-Ma'mun died, his brother, al-
Mu'tasim became Caliph. Al-Kindi's
position would be enhanced under al-
Mu'tasim, who appointed him as a tutor
to his son. But on the accession of al-
Wāthiq (r. 842–847), and especially of al-
Mutawakkil (r. 847–861), al-Kindi's star
waned. There are various theories
concerning this: some attribute al-Kindi's
downfall to scholarly rivalries at the
House of Wisdom; others refer to al-
Mutawakkil’s often violent persecution of
unorthodox Muslims (as well as of non-
Muslims); at one point al-Kindi was
beaten and his library temporarily
confiscated. Henry Corbin, an authority
on Islamic studies, says that in 873, al-
Kindi died "a lonely man", in Baghdad
during the reign of al-Mu'tamid (r. 870–
892).[26]
Accomplishments
According to Ibn al-Nadim, al-Kindi wrote
at least two hundred and sixty books,
contributing heavily to geometry (thirty-
two books), medicine and philosophy
(twenty-two books each), logic (nine
books), and physics (twelve books).[28]
Although most of his books have been
lost over the centuries, a few have
survived in the form of Latin translations
by Gerard of Cremona, and others have
been rediscovered in Arabic manuscripts;
most importantly, twenty-four of his lost
works were located in the mid-twentieth
century in a Turkish library.[29]
Philosophy
Astronomy
Al-Kindi took his view of the solar system
from Ptolemy, who placed the Earth at
the centre of a series of concentric
spheres, in which the known heavenly
bodies (the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the
Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and the stars) are
embedded. In one of his treatises on the
subject, he says that these bodies are
rational entities, whose circular motion is
in obedience to and worship of God.
Their role, al-Kindi believes, is to act as
instruments for divine providence. He
furnishes empirical evidence as proof for
this assertion; different seasons are
marked by particular arrangements of the
planets and stars (most notably the sun);
the appearance and manner of people
varies according to the arrangement of
heavenly bodies situated above their
homeland.[32]
Optics
Medicine
Chemistry
Mathematics
Al-Kindi authored works on a number of
important mathematical subjects,
including arithmetic, geometry, the Indian
numbers, the harmony of numbers, lines
and multiplication with numbers, relative
quantities, measuring proportion and
time, and numerical procedures and
cancellation.[16] He also wrote four
volumes, On the Use of the Indian
Numerals (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-
Hindi) which contributed greatly to
diffusion of the Indian system of
numeration in the Middle-East and the
West. In geometry, among other works,
he wrote on the theory of parallels. Also
related to geometry were two works on
optics. One of the ways in which he made
use of mathematics as a philosopher was
to attempt to disprove the eternity of the
world by demonstrating that actual
infinity is a mathematical and logical
absurdity.[47]
Cryptography
Music theory
Philosophical thought
Influences
Metaphysics
Epistemology
Legacy
Al-Kindi was a master of many different
areas of thought and was held to be one
of the greatest Islamic philosophers of his
time. His influence in the fields of physics,
mathematics, medicine, philosophy and
music were far-reaching and lasted for
several centuries. Ibn al-Nadim in his al-
Fihrist praised Al-Kindi and his work
stating:
References
1. Adamson 2007, p. 12–13.
2. Leaman, Oliver (16 July 2015). The
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3. Corbett, Elena (15 January 2015).
Competitive Archaeology in Jordan:
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the Hashemites . University of Texas
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4. Al-Jubouri, I. M. N. (27 March 2018).
History of Islamic Philosophy: With View
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6. Wheeler, Joseph Mazzini (1899). A
Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of
All ages and Nations . London:
Progressive Publishing.
ISBN 9781465562869 – via Google
Books. "Al-Kindi, Arab physician and
philosopher, the great grandson of one of
the companions of Muhammad, the
prophet, flourished from 814 to about
840."
7. Freely, John (30 March 2015). Light
from the East: How the Science of
Medieval Islam Helped to Shape the
Western World . I.B.Tauris.
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philosophy from its origin to the present:
philosophy in the land of prophecy. State
University of New York. pp. 137–138.
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9. Abboud, Tony (2006). Al-Kindi: the
father of Arab philosophy. Rosen.
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13. Corbin, Henry (1993). History of
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14. Adamson 2005, p. 33.
15. Adamson 2007, p. 7.
16. "Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-
Sabbah Al-Kindi" . Archived from the
original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved
12 January 2007.
17. "The man who cracked the Kama
Sutra code" . Telegraph. 4 October 2000.
ISSN 0307-1235 .
18. Borda, Monica (2011). Fundamentals
in Information Theory and Coding.
Springer. p. 122. "Al Kindi, an Arab
scientist from 9th century is considered
the father of cryptology, his book on this
subject being, at this moment, the oldest
available."
19. Broemeling, Lyle D. (2011). "An
Account of Early Statistical Inference in
Arab Cryptology". The American
Statistician. 65 (4): 255–257.
doi:10.1198/tas.2011.10191 .
20. "Al-Kindi Distinguished Statistics
Lectures" . Statistics at King Abdullah
University of Science and Technology.
"The lectures are named after Al-Kindi
(801-873 CE), a prominent figure in the
House of Wisdom, whose book entitled
"Manuscript on Deciphering
Cryptographic Messages" is believed to
be the earliest writing on statistics. In his
book, Al-Kindi gave a detailed description
on how to decipher encrypted messages
using statistics and frequency analysis.
This text arguably gave rise to the birth of
both statistics and cryptanalysis."
21. Singh, Simon (2000). The Code Book.
New York City: Anchor Books. pp. 14–20.
ISBN 9780385495325.
22. Klein-Franke 2001, p. 172.
23. Adamson 2005, p. 34.
24. Abboud, Tony (2006-01-15). Al Kindi:
The Father of Arab Philosophy . The
Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
ISBN 9781404205116.
25. Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on
Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic
Polity . Cambridge and New York:
Cambridge University Press. pp. 110–
111. ISBN 978-0-521-52940-2.
26. Corbin 1993, p. 154.
27. Klein-Franke 2001, p. 166.
28. Corbin 1993, pp. 154–155.
29. Klein-Franke 2001, pp. 172–173.
30. Adamson 2005, p. 32-33.
31. Klein-Franke 2001, pp. 166–167.
32. Adamson 2005, p. 42.
33. Adamson 2005, p. 43.
34. Dykes, Benjamin N. (2011). The Forty
Chapters of Al-Kindī: Traditional Horary
and Electional Astrology. Minneapolis:
Cazimi Press. pp. 5–6.
35. Deming, David (2012). Science and
Technology in World History, Volume 2:
Early Christianity, the Rise of Islam and
the Middle Ages. McFarland. p. 92.
36. Lindberg, David C. (1976). Theories of
Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler. Chicago:
University of Chicago. p. 19.
OCLC 463202962 .
37. Lindberg, David C. (Winter 1971).
"Alkindi's Critique of Euclid's Theory of
Vision". Isis. 62 (4): 469–489 [471].
doi:10.1086/350790 .
38. Adamson 2005, p. 45.
39. Szulakowska, Urszula (2000). The
Alchemy of Light: Geometry and Optics in
Late Renaissance Alchemical Illustration.
Brill. p. 29. "In the West, optics was
developed by fourteenth century
scholastics such as Bacon, Witelo,
Ockham and Pecham following Arabian
models, in particular, those of Alhazen's
Optics and Al-kindi's De radiis stellarum."
40. Prioreschi 2002.
41. Prioreschi 1996, p. 230.
42. Klein-Franke 2001, p. 174.
43. al-Hassan 2001, pp. 65–69.
44. "Liquid fire - The Arabs discovered
how to distil alcohol. They still do it best,
say some" . The Economist. December
18, 2003.
45. Freely, John (2015). Light from the
East: How the Science of Medieval Islam
Helped to Shape the Western World .
I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781784531386.
46. Walton, Michelle; Museum of Islamic
Art, Dawḥah, Qatar (2013). Imperfect
Perfection - Early Islamic Glass (English
ed.). A&C Black. ISBN 9789992194614.
47. Al-Allaf, M. "Al-Kindi's Mathematical
Metaphysics" (PDF). Archived (PDF)
from the original on 7 January 2007.
Retrieved 2007-01-12.
48. Cozzens, Margaret; Miller, Steven J.
(2013). The Mathematics of Encryption:
An Elementary Introduction . American
Mathematical Society. p. 5. ISBN 978-
0821883211.
49. Prioreschi 2002, p. 17.
50. Al-Jubouri, I. M. N. (2004). History of
Islamic Philosophy: With View of Greek
Philosophy and Early History of Islam .
Authors On Line Ltd.
ISBN 9780755210114.
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Ramsamy, Edward; Elliott, Carolyn M.,
eds. (2012). Cultural Sociology of the
Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An
Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications. p. 87.
ISBN 978-1412981767.
52. Shehadi, Fadlou (1995). Philosophies
of Music in Medieval Islam. Leiden: Brill.
p. 35. ISBN 978-9004101289.
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Medieval Islam: An Illustrated
Introduction (3rd pbk. print. ed.).
University of Texas Press. p. 49.
ISBN 978-0292781498.
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55. Adamson 2005, p. 36.
56. Corbin 1993, p. 155.
57. Adamson 2005, p. 35.
58. Klein-Franke 2001, p. 167.
59. Adamson 2005, p. 39.
60. Klein-Franke 2001, p. 168.
61. Adamson 2005, pp. 40–41.
62. Adamson 2005, p. 40.
63. Adamson 2005, pp. 41–42.
64. Adamson 2005, p. 46-47.
65. Corbin 1993, p. 156.
66. Adamson 2005, p. 47.
67. Leaman, Oliver (1999). A Brief
Introduction to Islamic Philosophy. Polity
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68. Black, p168
69. Black, p169
70. Black, p171
71. "Al-Kindi | Muslim Heritage" .
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72. Adamson, Peter (2018). Al-Kindi . The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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Bibliography
English translations
External links
Adamson, Peter. "Al-Kindi" . In Zalta,
Edward N. Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
Cooper, Glen M. (2007). "Kindī: Abū
Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al‐Kindī" . In
Thomas Hockey; et al. The
Biographical Encyclopedia of
Astronomers. New York: Springer.
pp. 635–6. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0.
(PDF version )
Alkindus (Bibliotheca Augustana)
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund
F., "Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-
Sabbah Al-Kindi" , MacTutor History of
Mathematics archive, University of St
Andrews.
Al-Kindi – Famous Muslims
Al-Kindi's website – Islamic
Philosophy Online
Dr. Mashhad Al-Allaf DOC – Three
texts by Al Kindi in the Islamic
Philosophy section
Benjamnin N. Dyke's translation of Al-
Kindi's Forty Chapters with PDF
extracts from the Introduction and main
text
Texts on Wikisource:
"al-Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya'ḳub ibn
Isḥak" . New International
Encyclopedia. 1905.
"Kindī" . Encyclopædia Britannica
(11th ed.). 1911.
"Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya'kub Ibn Ishak
Al-" . Encyclopedia Americana.
1920.
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