A Post-Ghazālian Critic of Avicenna: Ibn Ghaylān al-Balkhī on the Materia Medica of the Canon of Medicine

Shihadeh, Ayman

Abstract

This article sheds new light on the sixth/twelfth-century anti-Avicennan current, which took its cue primarily from al-Ghazālī’s Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahāfut al-falāsifa). A key representative of this current, Ibn Ghaylān al-Balkhī (d. ca. 590/1194), veers away from the usual points of conflict in metaphysics and natural philosophy, directing his attention instead to descriptions of the properties of simple drugs in Avicenna's Canon of Medicine and Heart Remedies (al-Adwiya al-qalbiyya) and Ismāʿīl al-Jurjānī's (d. 531/1136) medical encyclopaedia The Khwārazmshāhī Treasure (Dhakhīra-yi Khwārazmshāhī). In a dedicated text, he highlights various inconsistencies in these sources, with a view to demonstrating that Avicenna's works are unreliable and exposing a culture of uncritical imitation among contemporary Avicennists. The article includes an edition and translation of the text.

Citation

Shihadeh, A. (2013). A Post-Ghazālian Critic of Avicenna: Ibn Ghaylān al-Balkhī on the Materia Medica of the Canon of Medicine. Journal of Islamic Studies, 24(2), 135-174. https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/ett017

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: May 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jan 3, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 24, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Islamic Studies
• Print ISSN: 0955-2340
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-6917
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 135-174
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/ett017
• Related Public URLs: http://jis.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/2/135.abstract