Intellecting The Intellected: An Examination On The Interpretation of "The Second Intelligibles" in Islamic Tradition of Logic and Its Reception During The Ottoman Period Ömer Mahir Alper

Intellecting the Intellected: An
Examination on the Interpretation of

“the Second Intelligibles” in Islamic
Tradition of Logic and its Reception
during the Ottoman Period
Ömer Mahir Alper*
Abstract: The interpretation of the “second intelligibles” (al-ma‘qūlāt al-thāniya/al-ma‘qūlāt al-thawānī), as a

term which is highly sophisticated and closely related to many philosophical disciplines, began with al-Fārābī and
continued to expand its content especially in the literature of logic until the modern times. In this process, following
al-Fārābī several philosophers such as Ibn Sīnā, ‘Umar al-§āwī, Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī, ‘Umar al-Kātibī, Shams al-dīn
al-Samarqandī, Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī and Sayyid Sharīf Jurjānī became salient figures in interpreting the second
intelligibles. The accumulated tradition including various approaches and transformations on the subject was
transmitted directly to the Ottoman period, during which the second intelligibles were widely discussed with
new concepts and issues. As it had been before, these interpretations and discussions found place in the literature
of logic during the Ottoman period. In this article, I will examine the interpretations on the second intelligibles
from al-Fārābī to Jurjānī while marking moments of change and development. Then I will examine how Ottoman
philosophers and logicians approached the second intelligibles by comparing the commentaries of Burhān al-dīn
Bulgārī, Kul Ahmed (Ahmed b. Muhammad b. Khıdr), §adr al-dīn-zāda Mehmed Emin Shirwānī and Kara Khalil b.
Hasan al-Tirawī on Mullā Fanārī’s famous book on logic, al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya.
Keywords: First intelligibles, second intelligibles, subject-matter of logic, Islamic history of logic, logic in
Ottoman period, commentaries on al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya.
* Prof., Istanbul University, Faculty of Theology, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.
Correspondence: [email protected].
DOI dx.doi.org/10.15808/Nazariyat.1.2.M0008 Atıf© Alper, Ömer Mahir, Intellecting the Intellected: An Examination on the Interpretation of “the Second Intelligibles” in
Islamic Tradition of Logic and its Reception during the Ottoman Period, Nazariyat Journal for the History of Islamic
Philosophy and Sciences 1/2 (May 2015): 35-68
NAZARİYAT Journal for the History of Islamic Philosophy and Sciences
T
he “second intelligibles” (al-ma‘qūlāt al-thāniya/al-ma‘qūlāt al-thawānī)
have various applications in works on psychology, metaphysics and logic
throughout the history of Islamic philosophy. Psychology as a philosophical
discipline approaches to the second intelligibles for their perceptibility and for their
psychic qualities whereas metaphysics looks at their modes of being and relations
with the existence. In logic, the second intelligibles are treated especially for their
usage to reach the “unknown.” The second intelligibles, which can be considered as
a kind of meta-thinking, are closely related to many philosophical disciplines, but
the examinations and interpretations on its meaning and characteristics1 usually
revolve around the question on the subject-matter of logic.
While the second intelligibles had relatively limited usages in the early Islamic
philosophy literature, it grew to be more frequently used term by later thinkers
especially after Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī. This was a result of the debates in three fields:
(i) the debates between philosophers, theologians and Sufis on whether certain con-
cepts such as existence, thingness, absence, quiddity, contingency, creation, abso-
lute etc were “mental constructs” or not; (ii) the debates on mental existence, and
the characteristics of mental existence and the connection between the mental ex-
istence and external existence; and (iii) the debates following Afdal al-dīn Khunajī’s
(d. 646/1248) alternative perspective on the subject-matter of logic.
In this article however I neither deal with the question on which general onto-
logical concepts (al-umūr al-‘āmma) fall in the category of the second intelligibles
nor the evolution of the subject-matter of logic from the “second intelligibles” to
the “knowns” (al-ma‘lūmāt al-ta~awwuriyya wa al-ta~dīqiyya).2 Even though I will
touch upon briefly these concepts, my main aim is to summarize the interpreta-
tions of the second intelligibles through certain foundational texts in the Islamic
history of logic and examine how it was received by the Ottoman logicians in the
context of Mullā Fanārī’s (d. 834/1431 or 838/1434-35) al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya and
some of its super-commentaries.
For this, I will first outline the ways of interpretation of the second intelligi-
bles existing in the literature of logic before Mullā Fanārī, then I will survey how
the subject was treated during the Ottoman period through al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya
1 As I will show below these explanations and interpretations follow certain phrases such as tafsīr, ma‘nā,
ta~wīr and tahqīq of the second intelligibles. The word “interpretation” in the title refers at the same
time to the usage of the word tafsīr in the literature.
2 For a review particular to the debates on the subject-matter of logic see Khaled el-Rouayheb, “Post-Av��-
icennan Logicians on the Subject Matter of Logic: Some Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Discus-
sions”, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 22 (2012): 69-90.
36
Ömer Mahir Alper, Intellecting the Intellected: An Examination on the Interpretation of “the Second Intelligibles”
in Islamic Tradition of Logic and its Reception during the Ottoman Period
and its super-commentaries. Therefore, I will seek to examine which processes and
stages that the accumulated literature transmitted to the Ottoman thinkers passed
through and how it was perceived and it evolved during the Ottoman period in the
framework of Mullā Fanārī’s mentioned text and its super-commentaries.
I
Al-Fārābī (d. 339/950)3 seems to be the first thinker in the history of Islamic
philosophy, and perhaps in the history of philosophy, who made a terminological
formulation and explanation on “the second intelligibles” .4 The determination and
analysis of the reasons that led al-Fārābī to initiate this can be and should be the
subject of another study. However, we can at least say that he aimed at establish-
ing a scientific foundation for the discipline of logic, (and therefore for other disci-
plines), which had been operating on “meanings” that did not reflect any reality in
the external world. He wanted to show that these intelligible meanings, no matter
how they could be extended (for example “definition”, “definition of definition” or
“definition of definition of definition” etc.), are knowable and at the same time they
make other meanings knowable too. As a matter of fact, Al-Fārābī, in his book titled
Kitāb al-hurūf, refers to the logical/epistemological suspicions of the Greek philos-
opher Antisthenes (d. c. 365 BC), known as the founder of the Cynics, and criticizes
him based on the second intelligibles.5
3 Nematsara argues that it was Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037) who first used technically the terms, first intelli��-
gibles and second intelligibles. This is however certainly not true. In addition, he also argues that Nasīr
al-dīn al-Tūsī first used the second intelligibles in the field of metaphysics/ontology, but as I will show
below (see footnote 14) this is not true either. For Nematsara’s arguments see “Secondary Intelligibles:
An Analytical and Comparative Study on First and Second Intentions in Islamic and Western Philoso-
phy” (M.A. Thesis, McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies, 1994), p. 4, 5, 10. Nematsara focuses
in this work actually on “universal/general concepts” and “meaning” with their various kinds. He cites
Ibn Sīnā and Al-Tūsī for the views of Muslim philosophers on the second intelligibles, examines the
“mental concepts” through Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191), then omits a long and productive period in post-
Ibn Sīnā period and mentions Mullā §adrā (d. 1050/1640) and Persian origin philosophers after him in
short sections.
4 Giorgio Pini states that Muslim philosophers took certain elements concerning the distinction between
the first intellibiels and second intelligibles from thinkers of the late antiquity. According to him, the
late antique thinkers discussed, on the one hand, about the first position terms like the categorical
terms referring to non-mental objects, and, on the other hand, about the second position terms, refer-
ring to first position, terms such as “noun” and “verb.” Giorgio Pini, Categories and Logic in Duns Scotus:
An Interpretation of Aristotle’s Categories in the Late Thirteenth Century (Leiden: Brill, 2002), p. 28. Con-
sidering al-Fārābī’s distinction between the first intelligibles and the second intelligibles, the “antique
distinction” seems to be primitive and simple and does not show directly any distinction indicating the
level of intellection. Probably because of this, Pini asserts that Muslim philosophers took only certain
“elements” of this distinction from the antique thinkers, not necessarily directly the whole distinction.
5 Al-Fārābī, Kitāb al-hurūf, ed. Muhsin Mahdi (Bayrūt: Dār al-Mashriq, 1990), pp. 65-66.
37
In this book, al-Fārābī clearly distinguishes the first intelligibles and the second
intelligibles. He draws a framework for later discussions on the second intelligibles
with these words:
The first intelligibles (awwal ma‘qūl) are intelligibles that are derived from sensibles. (…)
Besides, some attachments (lawahiq) accrue to these intelligibles, which are obtained
from sensibles and formed in the soul, for their being in the soul. Thus, some of these
first intelligibles become genus, some become species and some become those defined
by some others. The meaning making the first intelligibles genus or species, through
which they become predicate to many things, is an attached meaning to the intelligible
because of its being in the soul. So is similar the relations attached to the first intel-
ligibles such as some are more special or general than others. [In other words, these
relations too are attachments and meanings annexed to the first intelligibles because of
their being in the soul]. Similarly, the description of some of them by some others is also
conditions and features attached to the first intelligibles due to their being in the soul.
In addition, our statements concerning their [i.e. of the first intelligibles] “knowability”
and “intelligibility” are attachments because they are in the soul. Actually, after their be-
coming in the soul, these attachments added to them [i.e. the first intelligibles] are also
intelligibles. But [unlike the first intelligibles], these are not the kinds of intelligibles
forming in the soul, which are obtained as representations of sensibles or as based on
sensibles or from the things outside of the soul. Thus these are called the second intelli-
gibles [ma‘qūlāt al-thawānī).6
Al-Fārābī defines here the second intelligibles as attachments, meanings, con-

ditions or features accrued to the first intelligibles and mentions as example for
the second intelligibles some “relations” such as “more special” and “more general”
in addition to “genus” and “species.” As can be seen, these examples, in accordance
with al-Fārābī’s objective, are related primarily to logic and they are not ontological
concepts which would be discussed by the later literature. Besides, it is worth noting
that, unlike the later literature, al-Fārābī who does not mention “judgments” as a
second intelligible considers “definitions” within the scope of second intelligibles.
In addition, al-Fārābī implies that the second intelligibles do not have real forms in
the external world by claiming that the second intelligibles “ [unlike the first intelli-
gibles], are not the kinds of intelligibles forming in the soul, which are obtained as
representations of sensibles or as based on sensibles or from the things outside of
6 Al-Fārābī, Kitāb al-hurūf, p. 64. Following these statements, al-Fārābī asserts that “the second intelligi�-
bles, if they become intelligible, may receive attachments like the first intelligibles; they may go through
the process of categorization like genus, species and being defined by each other etc.” This assertion of
his, as I will discuss below, can be considered as a source of inspiration for “the third and higher-order
intelligibles” that emerged later. However, it is important to note that al-Fārābī does not mention “the
third intelligibles” or “the fourth intelligibles”, which began circulating in later periods. Besides, al-
Fārābī holds that the states attached to the second intelligibles are the states attached to the first intel-
ligibles whereas the logicians of the later periods treat the states attached to the second intelligibles as
new states and distinguish them from the states attached to the first intelligibles.
38
the soul.”.As I will show below, this explicit statement is brought into focus by those
following al-Fārābī.
Ibn Sīnā who generally follows al-Fārābī discusses the term “second intelligi-
bles”7 in al-Shifā’s section on al-Ilāhiyyāt while he defines the subject matter of log-
ic8:
The subject matter of logic, as you know, is second intelligible meanings (al-ma‘āni al-
ma‘qūlāt al-thāniya) which are based on first intelligible meaningss. Logic examines them
[i.e. the second intelligible notions] not for their being intelligible and unrelated to any
matter or related to a metaphysical matter, but for their nature of leading from the
known to the unknown through themselves.9
Ibn Sīnā does not explain the second intelligibles further in these statements
that would be frequently discussed by later logicians and philosophers; he just as-
serts, like al-Fārābī, that they are “meanings.” However, he refers to one of his ear-
lier books by the phrase “as you know” and this is most probably al-Madkhal of
al-Shifā’s Mantiq. In his discussion of the subject matter of logic, without using the
term “second intelligibles” he expalines its meaning and its connection with logic
by saying:
Mental things (umūr) are either the things imagined in the mind by being taken from
outside or the things that are accrued to these things in the mind [i.e. imagined things
coming from outside] and these [accrued] things do not have anything which can cor-
respond to them in the external world. Therefore, the knowledge on these two things
7 Ibn Sīnā, in some of his books, defines “the first intelligibles” as badīhī intelligibles or awwaliyyāt that do
not need acquisition such as “The whole is greater than piece” or “The things equal to the samething are
equals to each other” and calls “the second intelligibles” as the new knowledge obtained by acquisition
from these. (See Ibn Sīnā, Kitab al-Najāt, ed. Muhammad Takī Dānishpajūh. Tehran: Dānishgāh-ı Teh-
ran, 1379, pp. 334-335.) But these are not related to the second intelligibles, the subject of this article,
or to Ibn Sīnā’s rendering of the subject-matter of logic as “second intelligible notions.” Therefore, Dim-
itri Gutas’ view on that the subject-matter of logic is the second intelligibles that have been obtained
from the first intelligibles as awwaliyyāt and badīhī knowledge is wrong. (See Dimitri Gutas, Avicenna
and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna’s Philosophical Works, Leiden and Boston:
Brill, 2014, p. 5, fn. 1. “al-Ma‘qūlāt al-badīhiyya… These are the primary intelligible concepts, the awwali-
yyāt, upon which depend the secondary intelligibles that form the subject matter of logic.”) Similarly,
although Amos Bertolacci accurately interprets second intelligible notions as the subject-matter of logic
according to Ibn Sīnā’s perspective, he seems to mistake the first intelligibles as “categories.” (See Amos
Bertolacci, The Reception of Aristotle’s Metaphysics in Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifā’: A Milestone of Western
Metaphysical Thought, Leiden ve Boston: Brill, 2006, p. 273. “They [the secondary intelligible notions]
are based on the ‘first intelligible notions’, namely the categories.”)
8 For the influence of Ibn Sīnā’s distinction between first intelligibles and second intelligibles and his view
taking the second intellibles as the subject-matter of logic on Latin philosophers and logicians, see Pini,
Categories and Logic in Duns Scotus, p. 28, 32ff.; Dag Nikolaus Hasse, “Influence of Arabic and Islamic
Philosophy on the Latin West”, <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/arabic-islamic-in-
fluence/>.
9 Ibn Sīnā, al-Shifā’, al-Ilāhiyyāt, ed. G. C. Anawati and Sa‘īd Zāyid (al-Qāhira: al-Hay’a al-Āmma li-Shu’ūn
al-Matābi‘ al-Amīriyya, 1960), pp. 10-11.
39
belong to one art. Then, one of the two becomes the subject of the art of logic for an
accident affected to it. As for the question of which one is the subject of the art of logic,
it [i.e. the subject-matter of the art of logic] is the second one. As for the identity of the
accident accrued to it, this [i.e. the aspect that makes the second thing the subject of the
art of logic] is its being transmitter to another intellectual form that have not existed
in the soul and its obtaining benefit at the point of transmitting or its inhibition of this
transmitting.10
In the same book, Ibn Sīnā renders another explanation including examples for
the things imagined in the mind:
The quiddities of things sometimes exist in the external world, sometimes in the mind.
Therefore, there are three conceptions concerning them [i.e. quiddities]: Firstly, the
quiddity is regarded for its being this quiddity, so [in this conception] the quiddity can-
not be accrued to any of the two beings and, because of this, to those accrued to quid-
dities. Furthermore, the quiddity is regarded for its being in the external world. In this
conception, accidents particular to its being are accrued. Lastly, the quiddity is regarded
for its being in mind. In this conception too, certain accidents particular to its being [i.e.
its being in the mind] are attached. For example, “being subject (wad‘) –among those to
be learned–, “being predicate (haml)”, “universality”, “particularity”,“ being intrinsic”,
“being accidental” etc. at being predicate. [These must be in mind], because the things
in the external world as being predicate do not have the qualities of being intrinsic or
accidental. Similarly, just like anything does not exists as “subject” or “predicate” in the
external world, “premise”, “syllogism” etc do not exist either.11
10 Ibn Sīnā, al-Shifā’ al-Mantiq, al-Madkhal, eds. G. C. Anawati et al. (al-Qāhira: al-Hay’a al-Mısriyya al-Ām-
ma, 1959), pp. 23-24.
11 Ibn Sīnā, al-Madkhal, p. 15. The famous physician and philosopher, Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 687/1288) makes
verification (tahqīq) of the second intelligibles as he discusses the subject-matter of logic in his com-
mentary, Sharh al-Wurayqāt, on his own book of logic, al-Wurayqāt. Ibn al-Nafīs, who follows Ibn Sīnā’s
view that the subject-matter of logic is the second intelligibles, like Ibn Sīnā’s al-Madkhal, explains the
second intelligibles in regards to three aspects quiddity/reality. Besides, as Ibn al-Nafīs’s mathematical
examples explaining the second intelligibles are quite different, his perspective is also different. He
states in his aforementioned book that: “The verification of the second intelligibles is this: every reality
has [certain] necessities in regards to ‘itself’ [bi-i‘tibār nafsihā]; such as every triangle needs that ‘its
three angles are equal to two right angles.’ Similarly, every reality has [certain] necessities in regard to
its external existence; such as every triangle in outside world (a‘yān) needs ‘to be in one direction.’ In
addition, every reality has [certain] necessities in regards to its mental existence; for example, when
intellected, the triangle needs to ‘be universal, to have a kind of isosceles and be a kind of plane. Thus,
these examples are exactly the subject-matter of logic. Undoubtedly, following the existence of quid-
dities, their mental existence is to be second intelligible. We have stated that it is the subject-matter
of logic, as logic deals (yanÛuru) with the things with definitions, syllogism and the thing with both of
these. Both of these [i.e. definition and syllogism] are composed things and every composed thing are
known after its individual things are known in regard to the composition. The individual elements of
definition are things like genus and differentia. The syllogism is composed of premises, which are com-
posed of individual elements. Logicians take these [i.e. individuals] in regards to their being subject or
predicate whereas do the premises in regards to their being universal, particular or other aspects. These
are the second intelligibles.” Ibn al-Nafīs, Sharh al-Wurayqāt fī al-mantiq, ed. Ammār Tālibī et al. (Tunus:
Dār al-Garbi al-Islāmī, 2009), pp. 7-8.
40
As clearly seen, Ibn Sīnā does not differ significantly from al-Fārābī concerning
his views on the second intelligibles. However, it is worth noting his additional as-
sertion, which is also implicitly shared by al-Fārābī, that no correspondence exists
for the second intelligibles in the external world. Ibn Sīnā’s addition would be influ-
ential to the later literature as I will show below and it became a matter of discus-
sion in debates on the second intelligibles.
We see a more detailed definition for “the first intelligibles” and “the second in-
telligibles” by Ibn Sīnā in his al-Ta‘līqāt. Ibn Sīnā, who states that the subject matter
of logic is the second intelligibles which are based on the first intelligibles, explains
the second intelligibles as such (sharhu dhālika):
One thing, or some of the things, has first intellibles like “body”, “live” etc. and second
intelligibles which are based on these [i.e. the first intelligibles]. The second intelligibles
are things’ being of universal, particular and individual. The investigation on proof of [the
existence of] these second intelligibles is the subject of metaphysics. The second intelli-
gibles that are taken into consideration in absolute terms without particular attention
to the aspects of existence become the subject-matter of logic, because their absolute
modes of existence such as whether they exists in the external world or in the soul can
only be proved by metaphysics. [As for logic] they are treated for another aspect, which
is to reach the unknown things from the known ones. (…) Therefore, the second intelligi-
bles exists in logic. What I mean by the second intelligibles are universals such as genus,
species, differentia and proprium, which are used in conception. The necessary, contingent
etc are used in assent. But these universal terms become the subject-matter of logic
when they are taken with this aspect, in other words, when they are used to reach the
unknown things from the known ones.12
Ibn Sīnā, who distinguishes the metaphysical from the logical aspects of the
second intelligibles, probably for the first time, emphasizes that they are universal
concepts. He renders as example the concepts of “universal”, “particular” and “in-
dividual” and the Porphyrian tree and “necessary,” “contingent” etc.; and he under-
lines how these are used in logic.
Considering the examples, Ibn Sīnā seems to have developed the examples giv-
en by al-Fārābī. It is particularly important that he adds certain concepts like “nec-
essary” and “contingent” to the category of second intelligibles.13 This means that
12 Ibn Sīnā, Kitāb al-Ta‘līqāt, ed. Hasan Majīd al-‘Ubaydī (Damascus: al-Takwīn li al-Ta’līf wa al-Tarcama wa
al-Nashr, 2008), p. 43-45.
13 Adud al-dīn al-Ījī, in his book al-Mawāqif fī ‘ilm al-kalām (Beirut: Ālem al-kutub, n.d.), argues that Ibn
Sīnā states in his al-Shifā’ that existence is second intelligible therefore nothing exists in the external
world as “existence” or “thing” and the thing existing in the external world is (things like) “darkness”
or “human being.” But we do not find such a statement of Ibn Sīnā. Although Ibn Sīnā, in al-Maqūlāt,
states that “As you know, the existence has ‘ayns existing in the external world and they are all concrete,”
this does not mean that Ibn Sīnā considers the existence among the second intelligibles. For these
41
since the second intelligibles do not have correspondance in the external world,
they are only pure intellectual notions, which would be an important subject of
discussion in later literature.14
II
In the post-Avicennian period, an important attempt to define the second in-
telligibles appears in al-Ba~ā’ir al-Na~īriyya fī ‘ilm al-mantiq of ‘Umar b. Sahlān al-
§āwī (d. 540/1145?) who also influenced later philosophers such as Suhrawardī and
Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī. Al-§āwī who follows Ibn Sīnā on the “second intelligibles” as
being the subject-matter of logic states the following on the second intelligibles:
statements see Ibn Sīnā, al-Shifā’ al-Mantiq, al-Maqūlāt, ed. G. C. Anawati et al. (al-Qāhirah: al-Hay’a
al-Mi~riyya al-‘Āmma, 1959), p. 33.
14 Following Ibn Sīnā, we see that his student Bahmanyār b. Marzubān (d. 458/1066) uses the term “sec-
ond intelligibles” in the section on metaphysics of his work al-Tah~īl. Bahmanyār mentions the second
intelligibles while examining the relationship between “existence” and “thing” although he does not
explain the characteristics of the term in his book. He says the following: “The ‘thing’ is a second in-
telligible depending on the first intelligibles, and its judgment is like universal, particular, genus and
species. There is no existent ‘thing’ among existents. On the contrary, the existent (mawjūd) is either
human being or heaven. Then, its intelligibility (ma‘qūliyya) requires its being ‘thing’. The ‘essence’ is
also similar. Likewise, the ‘existence’ is as such in respect to its parts. Bahmanyār, al-Tah~īl, ed. Murtaza
Mutahharī (Tehran: Intishārāt-i Dānishgāh-i Tehran, 1375/1996), p. 286. The important thing here
is that while al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā use the term second intelligibles especially in the context of logic,
Bahmanyār applies it to the metaphysics. More importantly, Bahmanyār examines as the second in-
telligibles certain logical concepts like “universal”, “particular”, “genus”, and “species” and also general
ontological concepts like “thing” and “existence.” This means for Bahmanyār that thing and existence
do not have external realities. It is also important to note that Bahmanyār considers “existence” as
second intelligible in respect to its parts. Al-Suhrawardī, though does not directly uses the term second
intelligible in his book Hikmat al-ishrāq, he applies various synonimous ontological concepts like “men-
tal notions”, “mental adjectives”, “mental attributes”, “mental considerations” and “mental things” etc.
According to this, certain concepts and attributes such as existence, thingness, absolute quiddity, abso-
lute reality and essence, oneness, contingency, imposible and absence are pure mental and they do not
have external correspondance or there are no external existent to represent them; they only exists in
the mind; see al-Suhrawardī, Kitāb Hikmat al-ishrāq, ed. Henry Corbin (Tehran: Pejūhashgāh-i Ulūm-i
Insānī wa Mutālaāt-i Farhangī, 1373/1993), p. 64ff. Also see al-Suhrawardī, Kitāb al-Talwīhāt (al-‘ilm al-
thālith), ed. Henry Corbin (Tehran: Pejūhashgāh-i Ulūm-i Insānī wa Mutālaāt-i Farhangī, 1372/1993), p.
4 ff. Ibn Rushd (d. 595/1198) also examines the term “second intelligibles” in the context of logic in his
book Tafsīr Mā ba‘de’t-tabî‘a although it does not render a definition. “He [Aristotle] means by this the
following: the name existent is called for the first intelligibles and the second intelligibles. The second
intelligibles are logical things (al-umūr al- mantiqiyya)”. Ibn Rushd, Tafsīr Mā ba‘de’t-tabî‘a, I, ed. Maurice
Bouyges (Beirut: Dār al-Mashriq, 1973), p. 306. Similar to these statements of Bahmanyār, Ibn Kammū-
na (d. 683/1284), without defining the second intelligibles, also states that existence and thing are from
the second intelligibles depending on the first intelligibles. According to him, the existent things do not
include “existence” or “thing”. On the contrary, the existent things are beings like human being, heaven
etc. besides, according to him, their intelligibility should also be exixtent and thing. See Ibn Kammūna,
al-Jadīd fī al-hikma, ed. Hāmid Nājī Isfahānī (Tehran: Iranian Institute of Philosophy-Institute of Islamic
Studies, Free University of Berlin, 1387/2008), p. 80 ff.
42
The meaning of our word second intelligibles is this: the forms and quiddities of the things
that exist in the external world are formed in the human mind. Then the mind operates
on them by judging some of them with others, by attaching some accidents to them
and by substracting some affections from them. The operations of the mind like making
some of them judgement and some others the object of judgement (mahkūman ‘alayh),
and substracting or attaching, are accidental states to these mental quiddities. There-
fore, these quiddities are first intelligibles. The conditions that become accidentals after
their formation in the mind are second intelligibles. These are knowable things like the
quiddities’ aspects of predication, subject, universal, particular etc.15
As seen above, al-§āwī exemplifies the second intelligibles as being of quiddi-

ties, which are first intelligibles in the mind, “predication”, “subject”, “universal”
and “particular” and etc. These have been seen in the thoughts of previous philoso-
phers, principally of Ibn Sīnā. However, the most important thing here is al-§āwī’s
association of the mind’s operation on the first intelligibles by judging, attaching
and subtracting with the second intelligibles and also his conception of the second
intelligibles as meanings and conditions formed through this operation. Yet, the
question how the judgment becomes a second intelligible still remains obscure.
This issue, as I will show below, is clarified by Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī and more specif-
ically by Ali b. ‘Umar al-Kātibī (d. 675/1277).
Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī, who considers the second intelligibles as the subject mat-
ter of logic like Ibn Sīnā and al-§āwī, renders in al-Mulakhkha~ the following expla-
nation on the second intelligibles, which influences the later literature of Islamic
philosophy and logic:
The subject of a science is the accidents attached to the subject of the science only be-
cause of being itself. The subject-matter of logic is the second intelligibles, as they enable
one to reach to an unknown from the known thing. The interpretation (tafsīr) of the
second intelligibles is this: the human being first conceives the things’ realities (haqā’iq
al-ashyā’), then makes judgements on some [of these concepts] by some of them with
a restrictive or predicative judgement. In this manner, a quiddity’s becoming “mahkūm
alayh” [in other words, the subject of a restrictive or predicative judgement] is, if and
only if, an attachment after this [quiddity] turns to be known. Therefore, it is a thing at
the second degree (fī al-daraja al-thāniya).. When these conceptions are treated not for
absolute terms but on the contrary for their quality of leading validly from the known to
the unknown, the science [making this treatment] is logic. Thus, there is no doubt that
the subject-matter of logic is these second intelligibles. 16
15 ‘Umar b. Sahlān al-§āwī, al-Ba~ā’ir al-Na~īriyya fī ‘ilm al-Mantiq, ed. Muhammad Abduh (al-Qāhirah: Ma-
tbaat al-Kubrā, 1316/1898), p. 6.
16 Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī, Mantiq al-Mulakhkha~, ed. Ahad Farāmarz Karamalakī-Ādīnah Asgarīnazād
(Tehran: Intishārāt-i Dānishgāh-i İmām-ı Sādiq, 1381), pp. 9-10. For Ibn Wāsil (ö. 697/1298)’s similar
explanation in his book Nukhbet al-fikar, see el-Rouayheb, “Post-Avicennan Logicians…”, p. 75.
43
Al-Kātibī in his Sharh Kashf al-asrār, the commentary on al-Hūnajī’s book on

logic, quotes verbatim this passage. He agrees with Ibn Sīnā’s view on the subject
matter of logic in al-Shifā although he highlights that al-Rāzī detailed Ibn Sīnā’s
words (wa al-imām aydan dhahaba ilā hādhā fī al-Mulakhkha~ illā annahū fa~~ala hādhā
al-kalām),17 which seems to be true. He examines in detail both the subject matter of
logic and the second intelligibles and brings new dimensions.18
17 Ali b. ‘Umar al-Kātibī, Sharh Kashf al-asrār ‘an ghawāmid al-afkār, Süleymaniye Library, Carullah, n.
1417, 7a.
18 Al-Rāzī, in his Sharh al-Ishārāt, examines the second intelligibles in the context of the subject-matter
of logic and makes the following statement: “Beware, people disagree on whether logic is a science or
not. Actually this disagreement is nominal, because if what is meant by science is an image representing
something existing in the external world, logic is not of this sort of science. The subject-matter of logic
is the second intelligibles, which help us find the unknown. The second intelligibles are accidents at-
tached to the quiddities when they exist in the mind. As widely known, they do not exists in the external
world. Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī, Sharh al-Ishārāt wa al-tanbīhāt, I, ed. Ali Rıza Necefzâde (Tehran: SACWD,
1384/2005), p. 5. Parallel to al-Rāzī, al-Tūsī, in his Sharh al-Ishārāt, mentions the second intelligibles
in the discussion on the question of whether logic is a science and asserts that the second intelligibles
are “accidents attached to the first intelligibles.” Al-Tūsī, who prefers to use “first intelligibles” to what
al-Rāzī uses as quiddities in the mind, describes the first intelligibles as “intelligible realities and judg-
ments of the existing beings.” See al-Tūsī, Nasīr al-dīn, Sharh al-Ishārāt wa al-tanbīhāt, I, ed. Sulaymān
Dunyā (al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Ma‘ārif, 1960), p. 168. Al-Tūsī, in his Ta‘dīl al-mi‘yār, a critical text to Athīr
al-dīn al-Abharī’s Tanzīl al-afkār, states that the subject-matter of logic is the second intelligibles, then
argues that certain concepts such as imagination”, “assent” “definition”, “syllogism” and the parts of syl-
logism (“universal”, “particular”, “subject”, “predicate”, “proposition”, “premise” and “result”) are second
intelligibles. See Nasīr al-dīn al-Tūsī, Ta‘dīl al-mi‘yār fī nakdi Tanzīl al-afkār, in M. Muhaqqiq-T. Izutsu
(ed.), Collected Texts and Papers on Logic and Language (Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1974), pp. 145-
156. Al-Tūsī, in Tajrīd, uses the second intelligibles in the ontological context. He says the following on
“thingness”: “The thingness is second intelligible and it does not have stability (mutaassil) in existence.
The thing is not stable absolutely. On the contrary, it is attached to particularized quiddities.” Nasīr al-
dīn al-Tūsī, Tajrīd al-aqā’id, ed. Abbas Muhammad Hasan Suleyman (Egypt: Dār al-Ma‘rifa al-Jāmi‘iyya,
1996), p. 65. Allāma al-Hillī (d. 726/1325) writes a commentary on Tajrīd al-aqā’id of al-Tūsī who views
the second intelligibles as the things lacking external correspondance and being attached to the quiddi-
ties existing in the mind. In his commentary, al-Hillī states the following: “Ibn Sīnā said this: ‘Existence
is either mental or external. The thing common between these two is thingness.’ If he meant by this
that the thingness is categorized as a common phenomenon and the usage of thingness is correct and
valid, this is true. Otherwise, this is avoided. If you have understood this, let us say this: Thingness,
essentiality, particularity etc are second intelligibles attached to the first intelligibles, because they can
be intellected only when they are attached to quiddities beyond themselves. They don’t have stability
–like animalness or humanity have existential stability. On the contrary, they follow others in existence.
The thingness cannot have absolute existence. There is noting an absolutely stable thing, because being
stable is only attached personalized and privatized quiddities.” Al-Hillī, Allāma, Kashf al-murād fī sharh
Tajrīd a’l-i‘tiqād (Qom: Matbaat Qom, n.d.), p. 17. I~fahānī (d. 749/1349), who also writes a commentary
on al-Tūsī’s text, examines the second intelligibles in a similar way. Besides, he renders the reason why
the second intelligibles are called in that way: “The second intelligibles are accidents attached to the
first intelligibles in the mind. There is no image in the external world appropriate to them. Since they
are intellected at the second level, they are called as second intelligibles. They do not have stability in
the external world like human being and other animate beings have. On the contrary, they depend on
others standing as “affected things.” Mahmūd al-I~fahānī, Kitāb Sharh al-Tajrīd, Süleymaniye Library,
Halet Efendi, n. 436, 20a.
44
We need to emphasize some aspects of al-Rāzī’s explanation. First, he calls the

second intelligibles “mental constructs” as this is the preferred conceptualization by
Suhrawardī (footnote above). Second, he emphasizes that these mental constructs,
i.e. the second intelligibles, exists in the second degree of intellection. This empha-
sis that would appear more frequently in the literature after al-Rāzī can be seen as
the reason why the second intelligibles are called second intelligibles. Thus does
al-Kātibī think so.19 Third, another critical point concerning the second intelligi-
bles is al-Rāzī’s characterization of the quiddities, which are first intelligibles, with
their becoming subject of a restrictive or predicative judgement, or in other words
his conceptualization of restrictive or predicative judgments as second intelligibles.
According to al-Rāzī, the judgements of this sort are formed in the second degree of
intellection after the quiddities as first intelligibles are known or intellected.
It was al-Kātibī who detailed al-Rāzī’s explanations quoted above and devel-
oped the concept of the second intelligibles by depending on al-§āwī. In his com-
mentary on al-Rāzī’s al-Mulakhkha~, al-Kātibī first discusses al-Rāzī’s ideas on the
meanings of restrictive judgments and predicative judgments. According to this,
the “restrictive” judgment is a compound in which the first conception conditions
the second imagination like in the example of “thinking animal” which is frequently
used/judged for “human being.” The “predicative” judgment20 is to determine about
a quiddity for its being “universal, particular, essential, accidental, genus, differen-
tia, species, subject, predication etc.” or to attach something that does not exist in
it or abstract some accidents that fell outside of its reality.
Therefore, this judgment, attachment and abstraction are attached to these quiddities
after they have existed in the mind. Thus, these quiddities are first intelligibles. To have
above-mentioned two judgments, restrictive and predicative judgments, to attach some-
thing that does not exists in themselves and to abstract something from them are, if and
only if, the things that are attached after they have existed in the mind. Therefore, they
occur in the second degree of intellection. So they are second intelligibles.21
Shams al-dīn al-Shahrazūrī (d. after 687/1288), a philosopher from the illumi-
nationist school of Islamic philosophy, examines the meaning of second intelligibles
in his comphrehensive book (Rasā’il al-Shajara al-ilāhiyya)’s chapter on the subject
matter of logic. Before asserting his view, he states that Ibn Sīnā and Fakhr al-dīn
al-Rāzī thought (za‘ama) that the subject matter of logic is second intelligibles. Then
he states the following on the “meaning of their concept of second intelligibles”:
19 Al-Kātibī, Sharh Kashf al-asrār, 7a. (fa-lidhālika summiyāt al-ma‘qūlāt al-thāniya).

20 While giving al-Rāzī’s statements quoted above al-Kātibī, in his Sharh Kashf al-asrār, gives the example
of “human being thinks.” See al-Kātibī, Sharh Kashf al-asrār, 7a.
21 Ali b. ‘Umar al-Kātibī, al-Muna~~a~ fī Sharh al-Mulakhkha~, Süleymaniye Library, Şehid Ali Paşa, n. 1680,
5b-6a. Besides, for similar statements see Ali b. ‘Umar al-Kātibī, Jāmi‘ al-daqā’iq, Süleymaniye Library,
Hacı Beşir Ağa, n. 418, 4b.
45
Initially you can imagine the realities of things like humanness and animateness. Then
you judge about them on their being of universal, particular, essential, accidental, genus,
differentia, species, subject and predication. What we first imagine as realities like being
of human, animate, horse and body are first intelligibles. The judgments that we attach
them are second intelligibles. The reason for this [i.e. the reason for naming them by
this] is because they occur in the second degree of intellection.22
These statement of Shahrazūrī, on which the influences of Ibn Sīnā, al-Rāzī and
al-Kātibī are clearly seen, shows that the perspective, starting with al-§āwī devel-
oping with al-Kātibī, on the second intelligibles as “judgments” on the first intelli-
gibles, has grown to be a transmitted tradition. It is important to note that Shah-
razūrī uses the term second intelligibles with ease not only in sphere of logic but
also in that of ontology. As a matter of fact, like Ibn Kammūna, he asserts that the
existence and thingness are second intelligibles based on the first intelligibles and
that nothing as “thing” or “existent” exists in the external world but these are the
concepts based on mental construct.23
An important mathematician, astronomer, theologian and logician, Shams
al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (d. 702/1303), in his commentary, Sharh al-Qistās fī ‘ilm al-
miqyās, on his own book on logic, Qistās al-afkār fī tahqīq al-asrār, first adopts the
subject-matter of logic as the second intelligibles and then he raises the under-
standing of the second intelligibles to a more sophisticated level as he states the
following on their meaning and characteristics:
The second intelligibles mean this: when quiddities and realities in themselves are im-
agined without any judgments, these become first intelligibles. When we judge upon
them with restrictive or predicative judgments such as “this is universal”, “this is essen-
tial” and “this is accidental”; to become as such is second intelligible. If we judge upon
the second intelligibles with restrictive or predicative judgments, to become as such is
third order intelligible. Similarly, if we judge upon the third intelligibles, to become as
such is the fourth order intelligible and so on and so forth. Logical investigation (bahth)
occurs in third-and-higher order intelligibles, because logic examines intrinsic accidents
of the second intelligibles. Logic studies the second intelligibles’ being of genus, dif-
ferentia, proprium, general accident, definition or description as well as their being of
proposition, converted proposition, opposite proposition, syllogism, analogy etc. (…)
This is what earlier and later scholars agreed.24
22 Shams al-dīn Shahrazūrī, Rasā’il al-Shajarat al-ilāhiyya, I, ed. Necip Görgün (Istanbul: Elif Yayınları,
2004), p. 41.
23 See Shahrazūrī, Rasā’il al-Shajarat al-ilāhiyya, III, p. 27.
24 Shams al-dīn al-Samarqandī, Sharh al-Qistās fī ‘ilm al-miqyās, Staatsbibliothek (Berlin), Landberg, n.
1035, 8a.
46
As we see here the influence of Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī on al-Samarqandī through

al-Kātibī, it is worth noting that al-Samarqandī distinguishes the first intelligibles
from the second intelligibles as while the former does not have any judgment the
latter does have restrictive or predicative judgments. He also gives many examples
for what he calls as the intrinsic accidents of the second intelligibles. However, the
more important thing is that al-Samarqandī includes third-and-higher order intel-
ligibles to his discussion. By this, al-Samarqandī intends to differentiate the subject
matter of logic and problems of logic clearly.
According to al-Samarqandī, who argues that the subject matter of logic is the
second intelligibles at the position of “principles” and that its scope of research is
the third-and-higher order intelligibles attached to the second intelligibles,25 some
logicians have lately argued that the second intelligibles such as “universal”, “par-
ticular”, “essential” and “accidental” are not the subject matter of logic but rather
its research sphere. However, according to him, the second intelligibles constitute
the subject matter of logic. Thus, logic studies certain accidents attached to them by
considering them accepted so these accidents are the problems of logic. This is the
reason why al-Samarqandī argues in the quotation above as that “Logical research
(bahth) occurs in third-and-higher order intelligibles” and also his reference to the
“third intelligibles” which we are not sure whether he invented the term or not.
III
Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī al-Tahtānī (d. 766/1365) who receives directly the influ-
ence of al-Samarqandī, in his comprehensive commentary, Lawāmi‘ al-asrār fī sharh
Matāli‘ al-anwār, on Sirāj al-dīn al-‘Urmawī’s (d. 682/1283) book on logic, Matā-
li‘ al-anwār, gives the following description on the second intelligibles (ta~wīr al-
ma‘qūlāt al-thāniya) in his discussion of the subject-matter of logic:
Logicians think that the subject-matter of logic is the second intelligibles. (…) The de-
scriptin of the second intelligibles is this: Existence (wujūd) stands in two ways as exter-
nal and mental. Just as when the things exist in the external world some accidents such
as blackness, whiteness, movement, stagnation etc are attached to their external beings,
when the things are imagined in the mind, certain accidents, such as universality and
particularity, are attached to them just because of the imagination, although nothing
(amr) that corresponds to them in the external world. These are called second intelligi-
bles, because they are intellected in the second order (li-annahā fī al-martaba al-thāniya
min al-ta‘aqqul). The reason for their being subject is this: logic studies essential and acci-
dental states, species, genus, differentia, proprium, general accident, definition, descrip-
25 al-Samarqandī, Sharh al-Qistās, 8b.
47
tion, categorical and conditional proposition, syllogism, induction and analogy for their
mentioning. No doubt that they are second intelligibles. Thus, they are the subject-mat-
ter of logic. The sphere of research for logic is the third-and-higher order intelligibles (wa
bahthuhu ‘an al-ma‘qūlāt al-thālitha wa mā ba‘dahā).26
Sayyid Sharīf Jurjānī (d. 816/1413), in his glosses on Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī’s text
quoted above, quotes some explanations on the second intelligibles from the “draft”
of the commentator, which are important for our subject.
In the text of the commentary that is not extant today, Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī clas-
sifies the second intelligibles in a certain way. According to this, the second intelli-
gibles are principally in two groups. (i) Some of these do not function as leading us
reach to the unknown. For example, some intelligibles like “necessity”, “contingen-
cy” and “impossibility” are of this kind. When certain meanings (al-hay’āt) comes
to mind in relation to the external existence, some accidents are attached to these
meanings, but these accidents do not have external correspondences. These, i.e. the
accidents, are second intelligibles. When we make judgments such as “the necessary
is this” or “the contingent is that” these judgments do not lead us to reach the un-
known. This condition does not change even if they can be extended or transited to
the first intelligibles. (ii) Some second intelligibles can lead us reach the unknown.
These are too divided into two. (ii.a) Some of them are the sort of second intelligible
that do not contain the first intelligibls and that their judgments are not applied to
the first intelligibles. The descriptions of necessity, contingency and impossibility
are of this sort. Although they are from second intelligibles and can lead us to the
unknown, they do not contain and transit into the first intelligibles. (ii.b) Some oth-
er kinds of second intelligibles do contain the first intelligibles and their judgments
can be applied to the first intelligibles. For al-Rāzī, logic studies these second intel-
ligibles. According to him, when the fact that “the universal” is restricted to five
sections is known, so is known that “the animate” is one of them. When we make
judgments on “genus” and “differentia”, we would include “animate” and “thinking”
to these situations. Therefore, according to al-Rāzī, these are the judgments given
on the second intelligibles that are applied to the first intelligibles and these judg-
ments constitute the scope of logic.27
Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī’s these statements and his passage quoted above concur
previous views on the second intelligible. It is easily understood that his conception
26 Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī al-Tahtānī, Sharh al-Matāli‘ ma‘a al-ta‘līqāt al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī wa ba‘d al-
ta‘âlīq al-ukhrā, I, ed. Usāma al-Sā‘idī (Qom: Manshūrāt-i Dhaw al-Qurbā, 1391/1433), pp. 75-76.
27 Jurjānī, Sharh al-Matāli‘ ma‘a al-ta‘līqāt al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī wa ba‘d al-ta‘ālīq al-ukhrā, I, ed.
Usāma al-Sā‘idī (Qum: Manshūrāt-ı Zaw al-Kurbā, 1391/1433), p. 82.
48
of “third intelligibles” and “higher order intelligibles” and distinction between the
subject-matter of logic and scope of logic are directly inspired from al-Samarqandī.
Like al-Samarqandī, the reason why Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī needed to make these expla-
nations is the growing debate on the subject-matter of logic and scope of logic. Both
al-Samarqandī and Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī argue that most of the later logicians (akthar
al-muta’akhkhirīn) held that the second intelligibles are not the subject-matter of
logic but rather its problems. However, such an appraisal cannot be maintained.28
Another important aspect concerning the relationship between the second in-
telligibles and the subject-matter of logic is the detailed and vigorous response giv-
en to the question how the second intelligibles become the subject-matter of logic.
Even though early texts repeat that they “lead to the unknown,” Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī
seems to have developed this statement. According to his perspective that would
influence later logicians through Jurjānī, the second intelligibles whose conditions
and characteristics are examined should possess two qualities: (i) they should ac-
tively lead to the unknown and (ii) they should contain the first intelligibles and
apply their judgments on the first intelligibles.
Jurjānī who argues that the second intelligibles are attached to the first intelli-
gibles for their existence in the mind and that there is no correspondence or reflec-
tion to them in the external world,29 , in his super-commentary on Qutb al-dīn al-
Rāzī’s abovementioned commentary, explains further the intelligibles’ “conception”
of and order of intellections.
According to Jurjānī’s important exposition on the second intelligibles and
third intelligibles, when the concept of “universal” among the second intelligibles
exist in the mind and when it is compared to particulars that stand beneath it, the
“essentiality” is accrued to a quiddity regarding the aspects of universals that are
also included in the quiddities of these particulars; the “accidentality” is accrued be-
cause of their exclusion from them ; the “species” are accrued because of their being
themselves. The thing on which the essentiality is accrued becomes “genus” regard-
ing the variety of its individuals and becomes “differentia” regarding another aspect.
Similarly, the thing on which accidentality is affected becomes either “proprium” or
“general accident” regarding various reasons. When the essential and the accident
28 Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī, Sharh al-Matāli‘, v. I, p. 77. Khojazāda, Muslihuddīn (d. 893/1488), a famous Ot-
toman philosopher and scholar, similar to al-Samarqandī and Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī, argues that the sub-
ject-matter of logic is “the second intelligibles that have no external correspondance” and the problems
of logic is the states of the second intelligibles. (fa-innahū bāhith ‘an ahwāl al-ma‘qūlāt al-thāniyat allatī
lā-wujūda lahā fī al-khārij). Khocajāda, Hāshiya ‘alā Sharh Hidāyat al-hikma li-Mawlānazāda, Marmara
University Faculty of Theology Library, Manuscripts, n. 394, 1b.
29 For example, see Jurjānī Sharh al-Mawāqif, I, Istanbul: Dār al-Tibā‘at al-‘Āmira, 1311.
49
are composed individually or mixed (mukhtalit), the qualities of “definition” and

“description” are attached to this composition. According to Jurjānī, “these mean-
ings”, i.e. the universal’s being a particular of the quiddity and being external to the
quiddity or being the quiddity itself or similar to the quiddity, cannot stand among
the external existences. On the contrary, these are accidental things attached to the
universal natures that exist in the mind. The same rule is true for a proposition’s
being “categorical” or “conditional” and for a proof’s being “syllogism”, “induction”
or “analogy”. Therefore, all these notions are attached to the predicative judgments
in the mind –either individually or while being together with others.30
Jurjānī develops further his ideas on the relations between the second intel-
ligibles, third-and-higher order intelligibles through his example of “proposition.”
According to him, the proposition is a second intelligible, the thing that is being in-
vestigated is its “division” (inqisām), “contradiction” (tanāqud), “reflection” (in‘ikās)
and “result” (intāj). Therefore, “division”, “contradiction”, “reflection” and “result”
occur in the third-order inteligible. For example, in logical research, when we make
a judgment on one of the “sections” or one of the “contradictory” things, this judg-
ment occurs in the fourth-order intellection. In this context, Jurjānī puts forward
a possible rejection by saying “Just as the concept of proposition is attached to the
nature of predicative relations without existing in the external world, “the division”
and others too are attached them there, so in what respect could they be third in-
telligible without this concept?” Then he responds to this by saying “This is because
the mind conceives first this concept’s attachment on the mentioned relations, then
these conditions’ attachment to them. This rule is also true for other orders. If the
mind could conceive the attachment of some of them to the nature in the second
order, they could become second intelligibles.” 31 Therefore, Jurjānī empahsizes that
the concepts of second intelligible and third intelligibles vary according to their lev-
el of intellection and when they are conceived for intellection.
Jurjānī, in this super-commentary, discusses Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī’s statements
with particular focus on his examples for the second intelligibles and third intelligi-
bles. Acording to Jurjānī, al-Rāzī considers “essential”, “accidental” and “species” as
the second intelligible. However, they are parts of a second intelligible “universal.”
Besides, al-Rāzī counted “genus”, “differentia”, “proprium” and “general accident” as
second intelligible though the first two are parts of “essential” and the latter two are
parts of “accidental.” Therefore, these should be considered as third intelligibles. Ac-
cording to Jurjānī, al-Rāzī mentions them elsewhere as third intelligible. Then, why
30 Jurjānī, Sharh al-Matāli‘, v. I, p. 76.

31 Jurjānī, Sharh al-Matāli‘, v. I, pp. 76-77.
50
does al-Rāzī do this? How can we understand his inconsistent views? For Jurjānī,
the reason for al-Rāzī’s views is the presence of people “who think that all intelli-
gibles higher than the first order are ‘second intelligibles’ no matter whether their
intellection occur at the second or third order.” Therefore, because of some thinkers
considering all intelligibles higher than first order as second intelligible, al-Rāzī too
explained his statement above further. Thus, according to Jurjānī, al-Rāzī agrees
with those thinkers in this mentioned texts.32
Jurjānī, in his super-commentary (Hāshiya al-Tajrīd, Hāshiya ‘alā Sharh al-Ta-
jrīd or Hāshiya ‘alā Tashyīd al-qawā’id fī sharh Tajrīd al-aqā’id) to the commentary
of Shams al-dīn I~fahānī’s commentary (Tashyīd al-qawā’id fī sarh Tajrīd al-aqā’id)
on al-Tūsī’s Tajrīd al-aqā’id, explains clearly the first and second intelligibles. It is
important to note that Jurjānī’s explanations parallel to his views outlined above
are especially quoted, referred and sometimes criticized by Ottoman writers.33 He
states the following in his commentary:
The first intelligibles are the very natures (tabā’i‘) of their imagined concepts. The thing
that is attached to the first intelligibles in the mind while they are being free from an-
ything with no external correspondance such as universality, essentiality etc. is called
second intelligible. For example, universal, essential etc. are of this sort [i.e. second
intelligible]. The reason for this naming is because they are intellected at the second
order of intellection. For instance, intellecting the “universal” is possible after the in-
tellection of something in the mind to which the universal can be attached while no
external correspondance exists for the universal just as “the intellected darkness” has
no external correspondance. When the concept of universal is intellected at the second
order and when its direct application is thought to be possible, another universality is
attached to this concept of universal, which happens at the third order of intellection.
Somebody calls these as third intelligibles. Similarly, fourth-and higher order intelligi-
bles follow them. Some others call totally all intelligibiles higher than the first order as
second intelligibles. In summary, two aspects are considered for the second intelligi-
bles. First is their intellection at higher than the first order. Second is the absence of an
external correspondance for them. Therefore, everthing that is intellected at the first
level –irrespective to their being existent or non-existent or being simple or complex– is
first intelligible. Similarly, everything that has external correspondance, even if they
function as accident to others, is first intelligible. For example, “relations”34 are first
32 Jurjānī, Sharh al-Matāli‘, v. I, p. 77.

33 For example, for an Ottoman famous philosopher Kemalpashazāda (d. 940/1534)’s criticism on Jur-
jānī’s perspective on the second intelligibles, see Kemalpashazāda, Risāla fī Bayān ma‘na al-ja‘l wa tahqīq
anna nafs al-māhiyya maj‘ūla, İstanbul Müftülük Library, Manuscripts, n. 276, 47a-48b.
34 We need to note that al-Fārābī considers “relations” as second intelligibles in his work where he dis��-
cusses the second intelligibles whereas Jurjānī views them as first intelligibles provided that they have
external realities. In the text from the Ottoman period we discuss below, relations become an issue of
discussion and the authors of these texts consider relations as first intelligibles provided that that have
external correspondance.
51
intelligibles when their external correspondances are justified. The “thingness” is second
intelligible. It does not have external correspondance like “animal” which exists in the
external world. So existence, general contingency and conceptness as well as thingness
are second intelligibles. They are intellected only as accidents to the first intelligibles
in the mind. No external correspondance exists for them, because only specific things,
such as human being and horse, exist in the external world. When these specific objects
are intellected, the concept of thingness is attached to them as accident [in the mind].
Unlike external accidents, no external correspondance exists for them.35
As I have tried to outline, a significant literature accumulated from al-Fārābī

to Jurjānī on the second intelligibles. Al-Fārābī drew the general framework and
furnished a formula for “the second intellibiles”, Ibn Sīnā extended their scope
and more importantly put forward the emphasis on the absence of their external
correspondance as being just mental notions. As Bahmanyār applied the term in
metaphysics, Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī and al-Kātibī developed it by explaining their in-
tellection as “judgments” and in “the second level.” With al-Samarqandī, Qutb al-
dīn al-Rāzī and Jurjānī, the discussion on the subject-matter of logic and issues of
logic as well as the relations between the second intelligibles and “third-and-higher
order intelligibles” became prominent. Besides, Jurjānī seems to present a com-
prehensive, systematic and clear interpretation on the subject, which could be an
important reason for the references in the literature during the Ottoman period to
his works.
These debates and interpretations emphasize two basic aspects of the second
intelligibles. First, the second intelligibles are intellected at the second level while
depending on the first intelligibles. Second, they are only mental notions or rela-
tions with no external correspondance. These two aspects became standard both in
the traditions of Peripatheticand Illuminationist philosophy and in the theological
schools. The thinkers from the Ottoman period, as I will show below, inherited the
previous tradition on the second intelligibles with these two aspects through al-
Kātibī, Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī and Jurjānī.
IV
One of the founders of Ottoman tradition of thought and science, Mullā Fanārī,
like many previous logicians, discusses the second intelligibles in the context of the
subject-matter of logic in his commentary, al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya, on Athīr al-din
al-Abharī’s book on logic, Isāghūjī (al-Risāla al-Athīriyya). He makes the following
35 Jurjānī, Hashiya al-Tajrīd, Köprülü Library, Fâzıl Ahmed Paşa, n. 800, 23a-23b.
52
statement in his al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya which is taught in Ottoman madrasa and

on which numerous commentaries are written:
We say the following: [1] logic, for its first aspect [i.e. its essential unity], [a] studies
essential accidents of conceptions and assents for their help in reaching the unknown.
Or logic [b] studies the essential accidents of the second intelligibles, which do not have
external correspondance, for their encompassing of the first intelligibles, which have
external correspondance. [2] Logic, for its second aspect [i.e. its accidental unity], is the
law through which we distinguish the sound and unsound ideas. In the first aspect [1a
and 1b], the knowledge of the subject-matter of logic is given according to two schools
of thought (‘alā al-madhabayn) whereas in the second [2], the knowledge of the objective
of logic is given.36
Mullā Fanārī introduces here two definitions of logic in respect to its subject
and objective and he adopts the definition in respect to subject from two views (1a
and 1b) he has inherited from previous Muslim logicians as he refers this with “ac-
cording to two schools of thought” towards the end of the quotation. The word “or”
between in the middle of the first definition (between 1a and 1b), like some scholars
indicate,37 does not contain some doubt, nor does it mean the existence of two defi-
nitions for the same aspect. On the contrary, he wants to identify the definition of
logic, and so the subject-matter of logic, “as such according to one approach and as
that according to another approach.”
Fanārī, who is acquainted with the –abovementioned– discussions among Mus-
lim philosophers and logicians, does not explicitly prefer any perspective. However,
his phase of “the second intelligibles, which do not have external correspondance,”
shows that he adopts directly an Avicennan approach here. In addition, his phrase
“the second intelligibles (…) for their encompassing of the first intelligibles” in the
context of the subject-matter of logic indicates that he relies on Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī.
Burhān al-dīn b. Kamāl al-dīn Bulgarī (d. ?), in his al-Fawā’id al-Burhāniyya, one
of the first and influential commentaries on Mullā Fanārī’s text, starts discussing
the second intelligibles by examining Fanārī’s phrase of “which do not have external
correspondance.” According to Bulgarī, this phrase is an adjective identifying (~ifa
kāshifa) the “reality” of the second intelligibles and it indicates this: “The second
intelligibles such as ‘universal’, ‘essential’, ‘accidental’ are intelligibles that do not
have external correspondance because they cannot be attributed to objects in the
external world.” According to him, these cannot be applied for external beings, be-
cause everything in the external world, in other words, every external beings, is
36 Mullā Fanārī, al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya (İstanbul: Şirket-i Sahâfiyye-i Osmâniyye Matbaası, 1322), pp. 4-5.
37 For example see §adr al-dīn-zāda Mehmed Amin Shirwānī, Sharh ‘alā Jihat al-wahda li al-Fanārī (Istan-
bul: Matbaa-i Āmira, 1277), p. 18.
53
particular. Fanārī’s phrase, on the first intelligibles, of “which have external corre-
spondance” explains the reality of the first intelligibles and it indicates this: “The
first intelligibles are the intelligibles that have external correspondance because
they can be attributed to objects in the external world.” For example, “human be-
ing”, which can be attributed to Zayd, Amr and Bakr, is first intelligible. According
to Bulgarī, the difference between the first intelligibles and the second intelligibles
is the attribution of the former to external beings while the attribtion of the latter
only to mental forms. For example, “live” as a first intelligible can be attributed to
the human individuals existing in the external world. Yet, “universal and its parts”
as second intelligibles are qualities of mental forms not external beings, because all
external beings are particular.38
Bulgarī clarifies at the same time the phrase regarding the second intelligibles
as encompassing the first intelligibles. According to him, this means that the second
intelligibles can y be applied to the first intelligibles through a syllogistic synthe-
sis. For example such a syllogism can be proposed: “Animal” can be attributed to
many things with various realities. The thing that can be attributed to many things
with various realities is genus. Therefore, animal is a genus.” Being genus here is the
essential accident of the “universal” second intelligibles, so –by way of this syllo-
gism– it is attributed to “animal.” Bulgarī also reminds a possible objection but he
leaves it unanswered. He formulates the objection as such: “In this case, the concep-
tion should be obtained from assent, just as, for example, to know ‘human being’
depends on its definition as ‘the speaking animal.’ Its definition as ‘the speaking
animal’ depends on the assent of its animalness. Therefore, to know human being
depends on the assent of that animal is a genus.”39
It is interesting to note that Bulgarī asserts that the only difference between the
first intelligibles and the second intelligibles depends on whether they have exter-
nal correspondence or not. Therefore, Bulgarī adopts the definition of Ibn Sīnā and
he consciously ignores the differentiation of the “level/order of intellection” that
finds a significant place in post-Avicennan philosophy through the influence of al-
Rāzī. His disregard of the level of intellection in discussing the realities of the first
intelligibles and the second intelligibles and his interpretation of Mullā Fanārī’s
statements in this line became a point of criticism by some commentators as I will
show below. However, Bulgarī’s description of the second intelligibles as “the quali-
38 Burhān al-dīn b. Kamāl al-dīn Bulgarī, al-Fawā’id al-Burhāniyya, Marmara University Faculty of Theolo-
gy Library, Manuscripts, n. 935, 4b-5b.
39 Bulgarī, al-Fawā’id al-Burhāniyya, 5b-6a. The question that Bulgarī raises, al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya’s this
commentary has also the same statement: Mahmud Nashāba, Nesr al-darārī ‘alā Sharh al-Fanārī (Istan-
bul: Matbaatü’l-‘Ālem, 1312), p. 33.
54
ties of mental forms” and his criticism on the second intelligibles’ encompassing of
the first intelligibles seem to be important.
Ahmed b. Muhammed b. Khidr (d. c. 950/1543), known as “Kul Ahmed,” in his
important and influential commentary, Kul (Qawl) Ahmed, on al-Fawā’id al-Fanāri-
yya, examines Mullā Fanārī’s statements in the light of previous literature. In this
context, Kul Ahmed defines the first intelligibles that are affected by the second
intelligibles as “the very imagined natures (tabā’i‘) of concepts,” which concurs the
definition of Jurjānī.40 It seems that by “the very natures” he means the quiddi-
ties in the mind by disregarding any attachments.41 According to him, the second
intelligibles are those things that become accident to the first intelligibles in the
mind and that have no external correspondance or if they are of the kinds of things
by which “nothing can be qualified when they stand as external correspondance of
something.”42 For example, concepts like “universal”, “particular”, “essential” and
“accidental” are of this kind. Unlike Bulgarī, Kul Ahmed who follows rather post-al-
Rāzīan tradition and especially Jurjānī, paraphrases Jurjānī’s statements, though
without citing him, and attributes the reason for the naming “second intelligibles”
to their intellection at the second level/order. “[For example] to intellect the ‘uni-
versality’ is possible after the mental intellection of a concept to which universality
becomes accident .” Besides, no external correspondance exists for the universality.
40 An Ottoman scholar and philosopher Kara Seyyidî-i Hamīdī (d. 913/1507), in his work titled Risāla fī
al-Wujūd al-dhihnī, alludes the definition first seen in Jurjānī and then Kul Ahmed and he states that
as a result of the human soul’s mental operation on some particular objects in the external world, “the
universal natures of species and genuses” come to be ready to overflow towards it and asserts that all
of these are called “first intelligibles. He argues that the reason for such a naming is that no intellection
before them exists. Similarly, according to Hamīdī, their overflowing depends only on senses (al-ihsās
faqat) not on another intellection. However, the second intelligibles are different. They can be intlellect-
ed after the first intelligibles and they do not have external correspondance. See Mehmet Aydın, “Kara
Seyyidî-i Hamîdî ve Zihnî Varlık Risalesi: Tahkik ve Değerlendirme”, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi İlahiyat
Fakültesi Dergisi, 37 (2013), p. 85, 87. As Hamīdī examines in his work the structure of propositions
made of second intelligibles, he also discusses certain questions like how the “contingency” as prereq-
uisite of the external and mental quiddity is also considered second intelligible as only being accidents
attached to the things in the mind. See Aydın, “Kara Seyyidî-i Hamîdî”, pp. 93-94.
41 Al-Hāfiz b. Ali al-‘Imādī, Hāshiya ‘alā Kul (Qawl) Ahmed, Marmara University Faculty of Theology Li-
brary, Manuscripts, n. 975, 74a.
42 Al-‘Imādī (d. ?) makes the following statement in his commentary on Kul (Qawl) Ahmed: “We need to
make this explanation: The existence is in two kinds, external and mental. Just as when objects exists in
the external world, certain things such as blackness or whiteness become accident to their external be-
ings, similarly when they are represented (tamaththalat) in the mind, certain accidents like universality,
particularity and essentiality which have no external realities are attached to their mental representa-
tions. For example we know first that the animal is a body growing, sensing and mov ing with will’ and
so this is from the first intelligibles. Then we intellect the aspect ‘that does not inhibit commonality’
[i.e. universality], and this is from the second intelligibles. Then we intellect that it is ‘essential’ and so
this is from the third intelligible. Thus, it continues upward in this pattern. Here what is meant by the
second intelligibles is that it is not intellected at the first level. Therefore, it is not important whether it
is intellected at the second, third or fourth level.” Al-‘Imādī, Hāshiya, 74a.
55
On the other hand, “the intellected darkness” can have an external correspondance.
“In summary, two aspects are considered for the second intelligibles. Firstly, they
are not intellected in the first level of intellection and they are intellected as ac-
cidents to the another intellected thing in the mind. Secondly, no external corre-
spondance exists for them.” By emphasizing Jurjānī’s statements underlining these
two aspects, Kul Ahmed who seems to criticize Bulgarī, argues that everything in-
tellected in the first level is first intelligible and this fact does not change with its
being existent, non-existent, simple or complex. Similarly, the thing intellected as
accident to others is also first intelligible if it have an external correspondance. For
example, “relations” are of this sort for the one who supports their verification in
the external world.43
In the text mentioned above, Kul Ahmed develops the usage of “second intelligi-
bles” and tells about two kinds of its usage: (i) literal and (ii) technical. According to
this, in the literal usage, the “things intellected at the second level” are considered
whereas in the technical usage, “two aspects regarded” are considered. Therefore, in
Mullā Fanārī’s phrase of “the second intelligibles that have no external correspon-
dance” means the literal meaning of the second intelligibles. Otherwise, the phrase
of “that have no external correspondance” would become unnecessary.therefore,
the literal usage is here meant by the second intelligibles. Thus, the condition that
they “have no external correspondance” refers to all “second intelligibles” in the
technical usage of the term. Thus, it is impossible to categorize the second intelli-
gibles in terms of its technical usage and it is also impossible to think the phrase
“like someone [Bulgarī] suppose they do not have external correspondance” as a
definition rendering full reality of the second intelligibles, because this definition
can be nullified by a first intelligible “non-existent.”44 No external correspondance
exists for such a non-existent. Accoding to Kul Ahmed, the same rule applies to the
statements on the first intelligibles.45
Among famous Ottoman scientists and philosophers, §adr al-dīn-zāda Mehmed
Emin Shirwānī (d. 1036/1627) provides a relatively more comprhenesive exposi-
tion on the second intelligibles through commenting on Mullā Fanārī’s texts. He
43 Al-‘Imādī, following to his examples for relations such as “fatherhood”, “sonness”, “distance” and “prox-
imity”, states the following: “Philosophers argue that they are accidents which have external corre-
spondance. Theologians do not accept their external realities, on the contrary, they argue that they are
mental constructs.” Al-‘Imādī, Hāshiya, 74a.
44 Al-‘Imādī, asserts that this argument is questionable, because according to him such an argument de��-
pends on the necessity that the adjective giving the reality of something (al-~ifa al-kāshifa) is to identi-
cally describe the described. Yet, this is called apodictic. Even one should think seriously on the neces-
sity that the descriptor is to be equal to the described. See al-‘Imādī, Hāshiya, 74b.
45 Ahmed b. Muhammed, Kul (Qawl) Ahmed, pp. 5-6.
56
starts his commentary, Sharh ‘alā Jihat al-wahda li al-Fanārī, on al-Fawā’id al-Fanāri-
yya, with a general defitinion of the second intelligibles: “The second intelligibles are
states that become accidents to something for its mental existence.” For Shirwānī,
this means the second intelligibles’ becoming accident to something is closely con-
nected with the mental existence of the thing (ma‘rūd) that is being affected with
accident.46 He also explains this with the following statements on the second intelli-
gibles: “They are only intellected in the mind as accidents to other intellected things
and [these mental accidents] are called second intelligibles. The reason for this, as
seen in universal, they are intellected at the second level. Don’t you see that the uni-
versality can only be intellected after the intellection of a concept to which the uni-
versality is attached.” In fact, “particular” is also similar. Therefore, the origin of the
qualification of something as universal or particular is only “the mental construct.’
According to Shirwānī, particular, an essential accident, cannot be accident for an
external existent. The meaning of the statement “Everything that occurs in the ex-
ternal world is particular” means if something that exists in the external world hap-
pens to occur in the mind, it cannot be particular and common. This statement does
not mean that something existing in the external world becomes particular only for
its being in the external world.47
Shirwānī starts a new debate by arguing that it should not be seen as problem-
atic that universal and particular are both intrinsic accidents and second intelligi-
bles. According to him, the universal means that “its attribution to multiple things
is not impossible when a concept occurs in the mind whereas the particular means
that its attribution to multiple things is impossible when a concept occurs in the
mind.” According to Shirwānī, this state of “being” is accident to that concept not
in the mind but in the “thing-itself.” This state does not depend on the occurence
in the mind and not even on the contingency of happening in the mind. In this
perspective, while its occurrence in the mind is impossible, it is accepted that God’s
special essence is “real particular”.48
Shirwānī who expresses his thoughts on where the second intelligibles come
into place, supports his argument by this: The characterization of a concept with
both universal and particular takes place in the thing-in-itself, which is impera-
46 Among a logician that Shirwānī influences, Eskijizāda Ali b. Hüseyin Edirnevī (d. 1243/1827-28), in his
work Sharh Isāghūjī, without citing, paraphrases Shirwānī’s these views in his discussion on the second
intelligibles; see Eskijizāda, Sharh Isāghūjī (Edirne: Edirne Vilâyet Matbaası, 1287), p. 27 ff.
47 Shirwānī, Sharh ‘alā Jihat al-wahda, p. 18-19. As an example for the influence of Shirwānī’s these state-
ments and similar explanations on later literatura see Abdünnāfi İffet, Fenn-i Mantık: Terceme-i Burhān-ı
Gelenbevī, I, Istanbul: Matbaa-i Āmire, 1304, p. 70 ff.
48 Shirwānī, Sharh ‘alā Jihat al-wahda, p. 19.
57
tively impossible to happen in the external world and so is in the mind. The role
of the mental existence on these two things’ being accidents does not mean that
the mental existence becomes a condition in the subject by making the proposition
“attributive” (in other words, in the proposition first the subject is qualified and
then the predicate is attached to it). On the contrary, it means the mental existence
is “corrector and criterion”49 for something to be accident. Therefore, the affected
thing (ma‘rūd) is the very concept (or the concept for its being a concept) with the
condition that it is a mental existence. As Shirwānī, who distinguishes the kind of
being accident in the second intelligibles and other kinds of being accident, asserts
that movement for body, burning for fire, lightening for the sun is of the sort on
which the mental existence does not have an effect and they happen as accidents
in the external world. Therefore, these are called “the necessity of existence.” When
both mental and external existences do not affect the appearance of certain condi-
tions, these conditions are called “the necessity of quiddity.” These are accidents to
the quiddity and conditions that characterize that quiddity as long as the quiddity
exists. For example, “being even” for “four” is of this kind.50 Wherever the quiddity
of four exists, being even becomes accident to it.
Shirwānī continues his discussion by interpreting Mullā Fanārī’s phrase of “the
second intelligibles for which no external correspondance exists”. According to him,
this phrase, which argues that when something exists in the external world that
thing cannot be described by second intelligibles, asserts the reality of the second
intelligibles and it applies the technical usage of the term. It seems that Shirwānī
agrees with Bulgarī and has a position against Kul Ahmed. Therefore, Shirwānī para-
phrases Mullā Fanārī’s statements in the following way: “The second intelligibles are
the conditions by which a thing with an external correspondance cannot be de-
scribed. Besides, the second intelligibles, are accidents attached to things for their
mental existences.” According to Shirwānī, the negation in the definition (i.e. the
one in the condition that cannot be described) refers to the condition, the phrase
of “external.” Thus, such a definition, unlike Kul Ahmed’s argument, cannot be nul-
lified by a first intelligible, “non-existent.” The non-existent as first intelligible is
like hypothetical universals and is not mental accident for a thing or a concept. Hy-
pothetical universals are the kind of species that do not have hypothetical individ-
uals. Therefore, they are intrinsic universal and cannot be conditions or adjective..
Obviously, the absolute non-existence (al-‘adam al-mutlaq) can only be intellected
as accident to another thing and nothing in the external world exists for being de-
49 Eskijizāda also states the same thing; see Eskijizāda, Sharh Isāghūjī, p. 27.
50 Shirwānī, Sharh ‘alā Jihat al-wahda, p. 19.
58
scribed by absolute non-existence, as explained also in the commentaries on Sharh

al-Tajrīd. Yet, it is from second intelligibles. Therefore, Kul Ahmed’s argument that
the phrase “the second intelligibles for which no external correspondance exists”
is not a definition rendering the true character of the second intelligibles and that
otherwise it can be nullified by a first intelligible non-existent shows his lack of
understanding the subject.51
Following these explanations, Shirwānī continues to discuss the characteristics
of the second intelligibles. According to him, “The second intelligibles are concep-
tually known things that become accident to ‘things for their mental existences’.52
This does not change with these things’ being of conceptual or assertive.” This can
be exemplified with the concept of universal as being accident to the concepts of
animal and human being; and with the concept of proposition as being accident to
the phrase “human being writes.” Shirwānī, who underlines that the second intel-
ligibles are in general “obvious necessities” (lawāzim bayyina), argues –unlike some
scholars– that like the known things, the second intelligibles cannot be separated
into two categories as conceptual and assertive.53 Shirwānī does not here cite the
scholars who categorize the second intelligibles as conceptual and assertive. How-
ever, he firmly oppose the approach, which seems to have developed as a result of
the developments after Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī, and never approves to categorize the
second intelligibles as such.
Shirwānī holds that the things to which the second intelligibles become acci-
dents (the things affected by the second intelligibles) are called “first intelligibles”
because they are intellected at the first level/order. In this context, just as the par-
ticular stands under the scope of the universal, the first intelligibles stand under
the scope of the second intelligibles. The concept of genus of the concept of animal
and the concept of species to the concept of human being can be examples for this.
In this context, like Bulgarī, but in opposition to Kul Ahmed, Shirwānī holds the
view arguing that Fanārī’s phrase for the first intelligibles as “the things that have
external correspondance” stands as the adjective describing the characteristics of
the first intelligibles. Therefore, external conditions/qualities and necessities of
quiddity are first intelligibles. Similarly, “relations” are first intelligibles when the
quiddities are described by them for their external existences. The non-existent that
is intellected at the first level is also first intelligible. If an external eality is qualified
with it, “Anka” could be an example for this. “Anka” is also accepted as a universal
51 Shirwānī, Sharh ‘alā Jihat al-wahda, p. 19-20.

52 Eskijizāda also similarly states that the second intelligibles are composed of imaginative knowables and
confirmative knowables are not included in the second intelligibles; see Eskijizāda, Sharh Isāghūjī, p. 25.
59
whose individuals are contingent. Besides, thingness, existence, contingency etc as

well as quiddity, impossible and absence are considered second intelligible. Accord-
ing to Shirwānī’s narrative, Jurjānī says the following in his Hashiya al-Tajrīd: The
thingness as a second intelligible is an absolute thingness whereas the things in the
external world are concrete (makh~ū~) things. On the other hand, we should not
think that the absolute animalness does not exist in the external world and that
concreteanimals exist in the external world, therefore that it is also second intelli-
gible, because the “animalness” is not “only the thing that is attached to others as
accident.” Shirwānī continues to his explanations:
If you say that it is a natural body and it needs matter in both forms of existence, I say
the following: The dependence on the matter in intellection does not require “necessarily
the intellection as being accident to others” [Besides] the following cannot be argued
either: How could thing, contingent, existent etc. be considered second intelligibles
whilethe existence of their individuals stand in the external world; the existent as being
divided into the categories of external existent and mental existent is also similar. [This
cannot be maintained], because we argue the following: A concept’s being of a second in-
telligible and, on behalf its assumed individuals, its being accident to things in the mind
do not contradict the existence of its external individuals and its predication to them
univocally (mutawati’). Thus, this concept becomes second intelligible for its assumed
mental individuals whereas it becomes an external existent on the other hand. Similarly,
Allāma Dawwānī too explained it as such.54
It seems that Shirwānī emphasizes certain aspects of the second intelligibles

and initiated new debates through some new formulations. It is necessary to un-
derline especially these four points: (i) the second intelligibles are “conceptual
knowables” and they do not include “assertive knowables”; (ii) as it is seen in the
examples of “universal” and “particular”, the characterization of a concept with sec-
ond intelligibles does not occur in the mind or in the external world, but does in
the thing-in-itself; (iii) a second intelligible’s being accident for a concept depends
on the mental existence, which plays the role of corrector and criterion; and (iv) a
second intelligible’s being of second intelligible can only be possible with “its being
accident to another intelligible.”
An Ottoman scholar and philosopher Kara Khalil b. Hasan al-Tirawī (d.
1123/1711) wrote in 1105/1693-94 a famous and comprehensive commentary
titled al-Risāla al-‘Awniyya fī īdāh al-Hāshiya al- §adriyye on Shirwānī’s text where
he examines the subject of second intelligibles and criticizes Shirwānī. Kara Khalil
mentions some of the sources that Shirwānī alludes without mentioning their
names, so Kara Khalil also brings them into the debate.
60
Kara Khalil writes this treaties that can be considered as a commentary on al-
Fawāid al-Fanāriyya where he begins the discussion with a description of the first
intelligibles. Like Jurjānī and Kul Ahmed, he defines the first intelligibles as “the
very natures (tabā’i‘) of the conceptual concepts”55 and exemplifies this with the
concept of “animal” as “a body moving by will, having senses and growing.” Accord-
ing to him, this very concept is first intelligible. To define the second intelligibles,
he reproduces Jurjānī’s a paragraph in Hāshiya al-Tajrīd quoted above, from the
sentence “the first intelligibles are the very natures (tabā’i‘) of imagined concepts”
to the sentence “‘relations’ are first intelligibles when they are considered to have
external correspondance.”56
Therefore, Kara Khalil, departing from the path of Bulgarī, Kul Ahmed and
Shirwānī, returns to the third-and-higher order intelligibles, an issue which has
been seen in the literature since Shams al-dīn al-Samarqandī –in the form Jurjānī
presents. Besides, like Kul Ahmed, he continues to emphasize two aspects concern-
ing the nature of the second intelligibles.
Kara Khalil partly elaborates the issue of what Shirwānī calls the “origin of being
accident.” According to this, the “origin” of the second intelligibles’ being accident
is the existence of an affected thing in the mind. Therefore, anything whose origin
of being accident is the existence of an affected thing in the mind cannot have ex-
ternal reality. In addition, it needs to be intellected at the second level and thereby
it becomes second intelligible. In this case, the origin of “relations” being accident
is not the existence of their affected things in the mind. Therefore, relations cannot
be in the category of second intelligibles. As a result, “what is meant by the second
intellgibiles is the thing whose ‘condition’ for being accident is only mind.”57
Kara Khalil also discusses Shirwānī’s views on the place (nafs al-amr) for univer-
sal and particular as second intelligibiles to attach a concept and criticizes him on
this issue. He first discusses the issue of place/habitat/space (mawtin).
According to Kara Khalil there are three place (mawātin): Thing-in-itself,58 ex-
55 For a later usage of the same description see Mahmud Nashāba, Nesr al-darārī, p. 31.
56 Kara Khalil, al-Risāla al-‘Awniyya fī īdāh al-Hāshiya al- §adriyya (Istanbul: Matbaa-i Āmira, 1288), p. 105.
57 Kara Khalil, al-Risāla al-‘Awniyya, p. 105-106.
58 Kara Khalil explains the “nafs al-amr” as such: “The meaning of the thing-in-itself is ‘the very itself
of something.’ What is meant by ‘amr’ is the very itself of the thing. For example, when we say ‘the
thing exists in the thing-in-itself, this sentence comes to mean this: it actually exists. The meaning of
its actual existence is that its being does not depend on the consideration of the one considers or the
assumption of the one assumes. On the contrary, it exists even without any kind of consideration and
assumption. This existence is either essential [external] or shadowy [mental]. Therefore, the thing-in-
itself includes (yatanāwalu) external and mental beings. However, the thing-in-itself is absolutely more
general than the external world. Everything in the mind does not exists in the thing-in-itself. If some-
61
ternal world and mind. In reality, they are considered in two categories as external
world and mind, because the thing-in-itself can be divided into two and it is limited
to them. The qualifying of one thing to another thing unavoidably requires a place.
We already know that universal and particular are mental accidents not external ac-
cidents. Therefore, the place for qualifying universal and particular is the mind not
the external world. When qualifying happens in the mind, the qualified should also
be in the mind even if it is shadow existence. However, the essence of God creates a
problem here, because while it is impossible for a qualified thing to exist in the mind,
His essence can be qualified with particular. According to Kara Khalil, Shirwānī tries
to solve this problem by considering it as the accidents of the thing-in-itself rather
than as the mental accidents of universal and particular. Yet, this is questionable,
because the thing-in-itself is restricted to the mind and external world. According to
him, Shirwānī’s this perspective comes from his lack of understanding the meaning
of the thing-in-itself and its being restricted to mental and external worlds. Accord-
ing to Kara Khalil, if Shirwānī questioned the essence of God’s qualifying with partic-
ularity and opposed this, he would have more appropriate view.59
Kara Khalil opposes Shirwānī and Bulgarī by saying that the phrase of “that
do not have external correspondance” does not describe the characteristics of the
second intelligibles. His point of departure as parallel to Kul Ahmed is the idea that
two aspects should be considered about the second intelligibles. While the phrase
of “that do not have external correspondance” is a necessary condition, it is not suf-
ficient condition, because in this case the true characteristics of the second intelli-
gibles, which is their intellection beyond the first level and as an accident to another
intelligible, could be neglected. As for Kara Khalil, “while the blindness [as lacking
the sight] does not exist in the external world, it is still not second intelligible. As
stated above, the origin of being accident in the second intelligibles is their being
mental existences.” At this point, Kara Khalil openly asserts the inaccuracy of Bul-
garī’s perspective and states that “the blindness etc.” nullifies this view. Besides, by
citing the commentary of Kul Ahmed whom he calls “our master”, Fanārī’s intention
by the “second intelligibles” is not its technical usage, but rather its literal usage
which emphasizes “the things intellected at the second level”60
one believes that five is even, this becomes wrong and contradicts to the thing-in-itself. However, it has
stabilty in the mind. The idea that the thing-in-itself is the Active Intellect, i.e. the Tenth Intellect, is
also questionable.” Kara Khalil, al-Risāla al-‘Awniyya, p. 93. This explanation on the thing-in-itself ap-
pears almost with the same statements in Tahāfut al-falāsifa of Alāa al-dīn Tūsī (d. 887/1482), a profes-
sor in Bursa and Istanbul. See Alāa al-din Tūsī, Tahāfut al-falāsifa (Beirut: al-Dār al-‘Ālamiyya li al-Tıbā‘a
wa al-Nashr wa al-Tawdī‘, 1403/1983), p. 246. In addition, a contemporary to Tūsī, Kara Sayyidī, in his
Risāla fī al-Wujūd al-dhihnī, explains the thing-in-itself with similar but shorter statements. See Aydın,
“Kara Seyyidî-i Hamîdî”, p. 89.
62
As seen in this survey , Kara Khalil in general positions himself along with Kul
Ahmed against Bulgarī and Shirwānī. However, on the debate where Kul Ahmed
proposed that the phrase of “that do not have external correspondance” is not a suf-
ficient definition giving the full characteristics of the second intelligibles, because
a first intelligible “non-existent” could nullify this phrase as no external correspon-
dance exists for such a non-existent” and Shirwānī criticizes Kul Ahmed, Kara Khalil
seems to support Shirwānī’s position.
According to Kara Khalil, Shirwānī’s treatment of the second intelligibles as
“mental accidents attached to things for their mental existences” prevents his men-
tioned definition from being nullified by “non-existent,”which is a first intelligible.
In other words, according to Kara Khalil, Kul Ahmed’s “argument of non-existent
as intellected at the first level” is irrelevant for Shirwānī’s statements, because
Shirwānī underlines the dimension of mental existence in his discussion on the
second intelligibles. As Kara Khalil discusses the issue in detail, his following state-
ments shows the invalidity of Kul Ahmed’s argument as well as clarifies his views on
first and second intelligibles:
When we imagine the very quiddities and realities, they are first intelligibiles. When we
consider (i‘tabarnā) accidents for these first intelligibles, -like being genus and essential
for “animal”–, or when we make certain judgments upon them, -like “It is universal” or
“It is essential”, these accidents and judgments are second intelligibles. They are intel-
lected at the second level of intellection. The verification of this is the following: The
quiddity has two existences: external and mental. Accidents particular to every kinds
of existence are attached to this quiddity. The second intelligibles are accidents that are
attached to the natures of things for their being themselves while they do not have ex-
ternal correspondance. Therefore, the second intelligibles are accidents and judgments
that exist only in the mind. Otherwise, external accidents would also become second
intelligibles. They are however not second intelligibles.61
As Kara Khalil asserts a clear definition for the second intelligibles in the pas-
sage quoted above, it is important to note that he emphasizes judgments along
with conceptions among the second intelligibles. We can consider this perspective
as a deviation from Shirwānī who prefers to view the second intelligibles only as
“conceptual knowables.”
We need to note also that Kara Khalil criticizes Shirwānī for his inclusion of the
first intelligibles under the second intelligibles. According to Kara Khalil, Shirwānī
bases the second intelligibles’ inclusion of the first intelligibles on –if we look at his
wording- the second intelligibles’ being accident to the first intelligibles. However,
63
being accident does not require the “inclusion” (al-indirāj), because, for example,
the universality becomes accident to “animal”; but animal does not stand under the
universal although it is affected by the universal. Therefore, it is not correct to build
the connection between the first intelligibles and the second intelligibles for their
being accidents.62
As seen above, Kara Khalil in his commentary on Shirwānī’s texts discusses and
analyzes the second intelligibles in detail and as a general perspective criticizes Bul-
garī and especially Shirwānī. Besides, he positions himself along with Kul Ahmed
in the debates between commentaries. Although he develops Kul Ahmed’s views
further and occasionally seems to find Shirwānī’s view more reasonable.
V
In conclusion, the term second intelligibles, which is first defined by al-Fārābī
in the history of philosophy, has been discussed and developed by certain philoso-
phers such as Ibn Sīnā, al-§āwī, Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī, al-Kātibī, al-Samarqandī, Qutb
al-dīn al-Rāzī and Sayyid Sharīf Jurjānī and it grows in time to include contents
that many disciplines become interested. To sum, following al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā’s de-
scription and emphasis on that the second intelligibles do not have external corre-
spondance has a foundational effect in later periods. Ibn Sīnā who separates clearly
the metaphysical and logical aspects of the second intelligibles adds the concepts
of “necessary” and “contingent” into the category of the second intelligibles, which
becomes important for the expansion of the scope of the term especially by the
contributions of Bahmanyār. It should be considered an important development
that Al-§āwī associates the first intelligibles with the second intelligibles through
“judging, attaching and subtracting” and he takes the second intelligibles as notions
coming into place through this operation. In this framework, he seems to have been
influential on Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī and al-Kātibī.
Al-Rāzī who discusses the second intelligibles relatively in detail developed
some new dimensions. His emphasis on the fact that the second intelligibles are in-
tellected at “the second level” became one of the important subjects of later discus-
sions on the second intelligibles. In addition, al-Rāzī’s consideration of restrictive
and predicative judgments as second intelligibles is also an important development
that has changed the direction of discussions. It was al-Kātibī who develops al-Rāzī’s
ideas by relying on al-§āwī. Sahrazūrī’s taking of the second intelligibles as “judg-
62 Kara Khalil, al-Risāla al-‘Awniyya, p. 119.
64
ments” and al-Samarqandī’s differentiation of the first intelligibles and the second
intelligibles, according to which the former does not have judgment while the latter
has restrictive or predicative judgments, were significantly critical developments.
However, more importantly, al-Samarqandī includes third, forth and higher order
intelligibles into the discussion. Jurjānī appears as an important figure and a point
of reference in analyzing, developing, systematizing and guiding the discussions
through the possibilities in Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī’s texts.
This literature on the second intelligibles developed since al-Fārābī is inherited
by the Ottoman philosophers and logicians through al-Kātibi, Qutb al-dīn al-Rāzī
and Jurjānī and the discussions continue with new debates, criticism and analyses
until the modern period. During the Ottoman period, the second intelligibles ap-
pears in the metaphysics with ontological concepts as well as in the debates on the
mind and mental existence.63 The second intelligibles sometimes constitute as the
subject of as single treatise.64 As it is the case in previous periods, it can be said that
the subject is treated in the works on logic during the Ottoman era. For this rea-
son, the commentaries on Mullā Fanārī’s work on logic, titled al-Fawāid al-Fanāri-
yya stand as representative works on the examination and analysis of the second
intelligibles.
In the texts examined above where we observe the continuation of the inher-
ited tradition with new syntheses, the mentioned Ottoman philosophers and logi-
cians seem to discuss the second intelligibles by focusing principally on three issues
among others: (i) the question of the second intelligibles’ reality, (ii) the origin of
their being accident to concepts in the mind, and (iii) the place (mawtin) of mental
concepts’ qualifying by the second intelligibles.
In this framework, Bulgarī, who focuses on the first issue, appears to put for-
ward that the reality of the second intelligibles (that he describes as “the character-
istics of mental images”) is “the absence of any external correspondance for them”
and thereby to keep an Avicennan argument and emphasis.
Kul Ahmed, who seems to rely on the school after Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī and es-
pecially Jurjānī by criticizing Bulgarī, stresses “two conditions” in which the first of
the realities of the second intelligibles is their intellection at the second level and
63 For example, see Mullā Fanārī, Mi~bāh al-uns, ed. Muhammed Khwājawī, (Tehran: Intishārāt-i Movla,
1374), p. 150, 151-152; Tashkoprīzāda, Risālat al-Shuhūd al-‘aynī fī mabāhith al-wujūdi al-dhihnī, Süley-
maniye Library, Esad Efendi, n. 3709, 149b.
64 For example See Chavushzâdah Ahmed, Risāla fī al-Ma‘qūlāt al-ūlā wa al-thāniya, Köprülü Library, Me-
hmed Asım Bey 704, 26b-28a. Although this treatiese is devoted only to the second intelligibles, it is
considerably small and its content is limited in comparison to the commentaries we examined above.
65
the second is their lacking of an external correspondance. Besides, his distinction

between the literal and technical usage of the second intelligibles brings a new di-
mension to the discussions.
Shirwānī, a scholar whose exposition is more comprehensive and initiated new
conceptualizations, agrees with Bulgarī and criticized Kul Ahmed on the reality
of the second intelligibles. As he makes an important contribution by saying that
the second intelligibles are only conceptual knowables not assertive knowables,
Shirwānī views the origin of the second intelligibles as “mental occurence.” Shirwānī
argues that the second intelligibles’ being accident to a concept depended especially
on the mental existence which plays as “corrector and criterion.” In addition, he
asserts the place of the mental concepts’ qualifying by the second intelligibles is the
thing-in-itself not the mind or the external world.
Kara Khalil who generally criticizes Bulgarī and Shirwānī positioned him-
self along with Kul Ahmed whom he called “our master.” Like Kul Ahmed, he
opposes Bulgarī and Shirwānī by emphasizing on “two conditions” on the re-
ality of the two intelligibles. Kara Khalil seems to agree with Shirwānī by elab-
orating his view on the origin of the second intelligibles’ being accident. On
the third issue (place), unlike Shirwānī, he asserts that the place is the “mind”
not the thing-in-itself. Besides, it is worth noting that Kara Khalil emphasizes that
judgments as well as certain concepts are second intelligibles.
Lastly, we also need to note for the Ottoman period that there were two dif-
ferent perspectives in the above-mentioned commentaries of al-Fawā’id al-Fanāri-
yya on the second intelligibles. The first is the perspective of Bulgarī supported by
Shirwānī; the other is the perspective of Kul Ahmed supported by Kara Khalil. Could
we also talk about these perspectives on various issues? If we talk about these per-
spectives, who else were involved in these discussions and to what extent were these
perspectives extended? We need to expect new research to answer these questions.
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Intellecting The Intellected: An Examination On The Interpretation of "The Second Intelligibles" in Islamic Tradition of Logic and Its Reception During The Ottoman Period Ömer Mahir Alper

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Intellecting The Intellected: An Examination On The Interpretation of "The Second Intelligibles" in Islamic Tradition of Logic and Its Reception During The Ottoman Period Ömer Mahir Alper

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Intellecting the Intellected: An

Examination on the Interpretation of

Ömer Mahir Alper*

Abstract: The interpretation of the “second intelligibles” (al-ma‘qūlāt al-thāniya/al-ma‘qūlāt al-thawānī), as a

Al-Fārābī defines here the second intelligibles as attachments, meanings, con-

As seen above, al-§āwī exemplifies the second intelligibles as being of quiddi-

Al-Kātibī in his Sharh Kashf al-asrār, the commentary on al-Hūnajī’s book on

We need to emphasize some aspects of al-Rāzī’s explanation. First, he calls the

19 Al-Kātibī, Sharh Kashf al-asrār, 7a. (fa-lidhālika summiyāt al-ma‘qūlāt al-thāniya).

As we see here the influence of Fakhr al-dīn al-Rāzī on al-Samarqandī through

25 al-Samarqandī, Sharh al-Qistās, 8b.

are composed individually or mixed (mukhtalit), the qualities of “definition” and

30 Jurjānī, Sharh al-Matāli‘, v. I, p. 76.

32 Jurjānī, Sharh al-Matāli‘, v. I, p. 77.

As I have tried to outline, a significant literature accumulated from al-Fārābī

statement in his al-Fawā’id al-Fanāriyya which is taught in Ottoman madrasa and

scribed by absolute non-existence, as explained also in the commentaries on Sharh

51 Shirwānī, Sharh ‘alā Jihat al-wahda, p. 19-20.

whose individuals are contingent. Besides, thingness, existence, contingency etc as

It seems that Shirwānī emphasizes certain aspects of the second intelligibles

54 Shirwānī, Sharh ‘alā Jihat al-wahda, p. 22-23.

61 Kara Khalil, al-Risāla al-‘Awniyya, p. 113-114.

62 Kara Khalil, al-Risāla al-‘Awniyya, p. 119.

the second is their lacking of an external correspondance. Besides, his distinction

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