On the Character, Content, and Authorship of Itmām Tatimmat Siwān al-hikma and the Identity of the Author of Muntakhab Siwān al-hikma

摘要

The fourth/tenth-century Siwān al-hikma is one of the most important doxographic and gnomologic texts in Arabic and was most instrumental in the transmission of philosophical knowledge from Greek into Arabic. Despite its importance, the original text has been lost and the book is known to us only in excerpts, one of which, Muntakhab Siwān al-hikma, was so successful that it probably replaced the original. The identity of the Muntakhab's compiler, who was also the author of Itmām Tatimmat Siwān al-hikma, an anthology of Arabic poetry written by philosophers of the Islamic period, is to date unknown. Following a suggestion made by Muhammad Taqī Dānishpazhūh in 1959, this article produces strong evidence that it was Mu'īn al-Dīn Abū 1-Aclā Muhammad b. Mahmūd al-Nīsābūrī al-Ghaznawī (d. ca. 590/1194), and describes his life and works.