Following the Steps of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ in the Ottoman World. II: ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī and His tashjīr Diagrams of Science
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Abstract
In various places of his extensive production the fifteenth-century littérateur and occultist ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī (d. 858/1454) presents a classification of the sciences in the form of a tree. In this paper we discuss four variants of this ‘tashjīr’ representation from four different works of al-Bisṭāmī as they have come down to us in manuscripts. We compare these diagrams with one another, discuss their respective textual environments, and bring al-Bisṭāmī’s arboreal representations in line with the classification of the sciences of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’, their obvious source. By putting this tashjīr representation side by side with other examples of tree-shaped science classifications inside and outside the Islamic world, we seek to better assess al-Bisṭāmī’s original contribution in turning the Ikhwān’s system of organizing knowledge into a tree-shaped diagram.
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References
Manuscripts
Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, MS 364.
Istanbul, Topkapı Sarayı Library, MS 2768, Ahmet III Collection.
Istanbul, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Kütüphanesi, MS 1597.
Istanbul, Süleymaniye Nuruosmaniye Library MS 4905.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France MS Arabe 2689.
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