Ibn Kammuna

Saʿd ibn Manṣūr ibn Kammūna (* 1215 (?) In Baghdad ; † 1284 (?) In Hilla ) was a Jewish philosopher, theologian and doctor. His work includes critical writings on the work of Ibn Sina and Shihab ad-Din Yahya Suhrawardi and a comparison of the three religions of Judaism , Christianity and Islam , which was unusual for its time and which is widely received in contemporary research.

Life

Overall, very little is known about Ibn Kammūna's life. He was born at the beginning of the 13th century and lived and worked in what was then the cultural metropolis of Baghdad for a considerable period of his life . In 1284 it became known that Ibn Kammūna had criticized Islam in his "Inquiry into the Three Religions" and questioned the divine mission of Muhammad. As the Arab historian Ibn al-Fuwati reports, unrest broke out in Baghdad. Ibn Kammūna was sentenced to death at the stake in absentia, but escaped to his son in Hilla , where he presumably also died.

Works

His best-known work today is the comparison of religions "Investigation of the Three Religions" (Tanqih al-abhath li-l-milal al-thalath), which was created in 1280. Here he compares and judges, according to his own statement, the prophecy of the three great religions Judaism , Christianity and Islam only according to the standards of reason . He endeavors not to discredit a religion through polemics , but to use reason to point out contradictions that these religions contain from his point of view. The peculiarity of his work is that he takes up old and frequently used arguments and tries to free them from emotional and polemical elements. Thus his work is unique within medieval religious polemics.

Fonts

• Ibn Kammūna: Examination of the Three Faiths Translated by Moshe Perlmann, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1971
• Ibn Kammūna: Al-Tanqihat fi sharh al-Talwihat. Refinement and commentary on Suhrawardi's Intimations. A Thirteenth Century Text on Natural Philosophy and Psychology. Eds. Hossein Ziai and Ahmed Alwishah. Costa Mesa, California 2003
• Leon Nemoy (ed.): The Arabic Treatise on the Immortality of the Soul by Sa'd ibn Mansur ibn Kammuna (XIII century). Facsimile Reproduction of the Only Known Manuscript (Cod. Landberg 510, fol. 58-70) in the Yale University Library. With a Bibliographical Note. New Haven 1944

Investigations

• Reza Pourjavady & Sabine Schmidtke: A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad. 'Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammuna (d. 683/1284) and his writings, Leiden: Brill, 2006 (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science; 65)

Web links

• Tzvi Langermann:  Ibn Kammuna. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Ibn Kammuna (d.1284) (English)