Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 2nd Edition (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, Texts and Studies) pdf

The year 1370 after the Hijra (1950AD) corresponded to the lunar millenaryanniversary of Avicenna’s traditional date of birth. The international schol-ar1y community celebrated this felicitous event with due pomp and circum-stance: almost countless congresses, conferences, and meetings were held,memorial volumes, articles, and editorials published, new editions of theMaster’s works launched, and radio and television programs broadcast. Theenthusiasm and vigor that went into the production ofthese activities werehardly misplaced: few individuals ever influenced and graced intellectualhistory to the same breadth and extent.These activities also brought to a head the scholarly production on Avi-cenna, which had been gathering momentum for approximately a century.By the mid-Fifties, the cascade of scholarship on Avicenna, as if in protestagainst the excesses ofwhat had immediately preceded, was reduced to theroutine trickle. Today, close to four decades later, the waters have been con-siderably stilled, reflecting more clearly the deficiencies and omissions of