Al-Kindi

Abu Yusef Yaqoub ibn Ishaq Al-Kindi ( (185-256 AH / 805-873 AD) ) is the father of Islamic Philosophy. He was also a scientist of high caliber a gifted Mathematician, astronomer, physician and a geographer as well as a talented musician. He is said to have uttered the following quote:

We ought not to be embarrassed of appreciating the truth and of obtaining it wherever it comes from, even if it comes from races distant and nations different from us. Nothing should be dearer to the seeker of truth than the truth itself, and there is no deterioration of the truth, nor belittling either of one who speaks it or  conveys it.

Biography:

Original Source Biography:

al-Kindi from Ibn abi-Usiba’s Ṭabaqat al-āṭbiāʾ (Arabic html)

Supplementary Material:

  1. al-Kindi by Ahmed Fouad El-Ehwany. from History of Muslim Philosophy. (E-text) in PDF format only.   
  2. al-kindi by K. KENNEDY-DAY
  3. al-Kindi from the Mathematics site at University of Saint Andrews, Scotland.(link)

His Works:

Works on al-Kindi:

  • Books
    • Kindi, Peter Adamson, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
    • The Philosophical Works of al-Kindi (Studies in Islamic Philosophy) edited and translated by Peter E. Pormann and Peter Adamson. Lahore: Oxford University Press, 2012, 500pp.
    • Al-Kindi: The philosopher of the Arabs. G N Atiyeh (Karachi, 1966).
    • Al-Kindi’s Metaphysics.  Albany: State University of New York Press, 1974.
    • Scientific weather forecasting in the middle ages : the writings of Al-Kindi: studies, editions, and translations / by Gerrit Bos and Charles Burnett. London ; New York : Kegan Paul International ; New York (1997). ISBN: 0710305761.
    • Oeuvres Philosophiques Et Scientifiques D’Al-Kindi: L’Optique Et LA Catoptrique (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, Vol 29) by R. Rashed (Editor), Jean Jolivet (Editor), Brill Academic Publishers; (1997) ISBN: 9004097813.
    • Medical Formulary of Aqrabadhin of Al-Kindi (Medieval Science Pubns, No 7) by  Martin Levy. University of Wisconsin Press; (1999) ASIN: 0299036006.
  • Articles:

Related Philosophers & Muslim Scholars:

  • Al-Farabi The second teacher after Aristotle.
  • Ibn Sina the Muslim philosopher who made philosophy famous.
  • Al-Ghazali the Muslim theologian who refuted al-Farabi and Ibn Sina.
  • Ibn Rushd, one of the Muslim philosophers that tried to return Islamic Philosophy to pure Aristotlianism.
  • Ibn Taymiyah, he had interesting opinions on philosophy. Site

Al-Kindi in popular culture:

  • al-kindi square in Saudi Arabia. (link)
  • al-Kindi Hospital in Iraq. (link) Warning! Graphic picture of wounded!!
  • al-Kindi Arabic music group. (link)