Philosophy in the Islamic World

This is a small booklet incredibly rich in content. Adamson, author of The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, who teaches Late Antique Arab Philosophy at Munich University, notes (as a troubling fact) that many important philosophers in the Islamic world had not been Muslims but Christians or, like Maimonides, Jewish. Notable as well is his insight that most of the famous Muslim philosophers, beginning with al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and ending with Averroes (Ibn Rushd) responded directly to (heathen) Aristotle. The author is of the opinion that philosophy is not just licit or encouraged but actually required for Muslims. (p. 39) In this ‘historical whirlwind tour’, Adamson in particular acknowledges India (where Islam is the second most popular religion) and Indonesia (as the nation with the highest number of Muslims). (p. 5)