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Towards a Critical Edition of the Metaphysics of Avicenna

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Commentaries

Last update: 11 March 2023


Ms. Iran, Tehran, Kitābḫānah-i Maǧlis-i Shūrā-yi Millī (now: Kitābḫānah-i Maǧlis-i Shūrā-yi Islāmī = Parliament Library), Ṭabāṭabāʾī 865

For abbreviations, see Legenda and Bibliography

 

Attested Commentaries on the Ilāhiyyāt

 

The first known attestation of a commentary (šarḥ) on the Ilāhiyyāt, ascribed to Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606H/1210), occurs in Ṣalāḥ al-Din Ḫalīl Ibn Aybak al-Ṣafadī (d. 764H/1363), Al-Wāfī bi-l-wafayāt, ed. by Aḥmad Al-Arnāʾūṭ and Turkī Muṣṭafā, Dār iḥyāʾ al-tūrāṯ al-ʿarabī, Beirut 2000, IV, p. 180. See Bertolacci 2022.

A disciple of al-Rāzī, Šams al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Ibn ʿĪsā al-Ḫusrawšāhī (d. 652H/1254), is reported to have composed an abridgment (muḫṭasar) of the Šifāʾ (Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, d. 1270 AD, ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ, ed. A. Müller, Cairo 1882, vol. II, p. 174.5; Ṣalāḥ al-Din Ḫalīl Ibn Aybak al-Ṣafadī (d. 764H/1363), Al-Wāfī bi-l-wafayāt, vol. XVIII, p. 44 (no. 6633, lin. 8); Endress 2006, p. 407).

 

Extant Commentaries on the Ilāhiyyāt (X-XIV/XVI-XX)

 

[The commentary on the Šifāʾ in Ǧamāladdīn Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Muṭahhar al-Šīʿī al-ʿAllāma Āyatullāh (ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī) (d. 726H/1326)'s Kašf al-Ḫifāʾ min Kitāb al-Šifāʾ regards only Maqūlāt I.1-IV.5 of the Šifāʾ (see Alexander Kalbarczyk, Predication and Ontology. Studies and Texts on Avicennian and Post-Avicennian Readings of Aristotle’s Categories, De Gruyter, Berlin 2018, p. 313, and the bibliography quoted therein), although it is occasionally listed among the commentaries on the Ilāhiyyāt (see Mohaghegh 1986, p. 13, Habibi 2003, p. 9, and Naji Isfahani 2004, p. 96)]

 

 

Ġiyāṯ al-Dīn Manṣūr ibn Muḥammad Ḥusaynī Daštakī Šīrāzī (d. 948H/1541)

Šifāʾ al-qulūb (glosses on Ilāhiyyāt I.1-6)

Šifāʾ al-qulūb, ed. Amir Ahari, in Ganǧine-ye Bahārestān (A Collection of 18 Treatises in Logic, Philosophy, Theology, and Mysticism), Vol. I, cur. ʿAlī Awǧābī, Tehran 1379Hš/2000, pp. 184-276 (based on mss. Tehran, Dānišgāh 6921/9 and Tehran, Maǧlis, 611/9).

Šifāʾ al-qulūb, in Muṣannafāt-i Ġiyāṯ al-Dīn Manṣūr-i Ḥusaynī-i Daštakī-i Šīrāzī, ed. ʿA. Nūrānī, Tehran 1386Hš/2007, vol. II, pp. 375-487 (cf. vol. I, p. 110) (based on mss. Tehran, Dānišgāh 6921/9, Tehran, Maǧlis, 611/9, and a ms. of the private collection Rawḍāti in Isfahan).

Šifāʾ al-qulūb, in Šifāʾ al-qulūb wa-Taǧawhur al-aǧsām, ed. ʻAlī Awǧābī, Kitābḫāna, Mūza wa Markaz-i Asnād-i Maǧlis-i Šūrā-i Islāmī, Tehran 1390Hš/2012, pp. 1-132 (based on mss. Tehran, Dānišgāh 6921/9 and Tehran, Maǧlis, 611/9).

Excerpts in Ibn Sīnā 2004

Mss: Istanbul, Süleymaniye, Carullah 1445; Tehran, Dānišgāh 6921/9 (XI/XVII c.); Tehran, Maǧlis, 611/9 (1097H) (three other Iranian mss recorded in D, vol. VI, p. 1207).

 

Šāh Ṭāhir Ibn Raḍiyy al-Dīn al-Kāšānī al-Anǧadānī, a.k.a. Šāh Ṭāhir Ismāʿīlī Ḥusaynī Dakkanī (d. 952H/1546)

Šarḥ ʿalā Ilāhiyyāt al-Šifāʾ

Saatchian 2009-10

 

Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Dāmād Ḥusaynī Istarābādī (Mīr Dāmād) (950-1041H/1542-1631)

Glosses in Ibn Sīnā 1885 (siglum: m ḥ q) and Ibn Sīnā 2004 (excerpts).

Mss: Dublin, Chester Beatty, Ar. 3112 (foll. 1-17) (Catalogue Arberry, vol. I, p. 45); Mashhad, Āstān-i Quds-i Razavī, 5662; Qum, Markaz-i Iḥyāʾ-i Mīrāṯ-i Islāmī, 5457; Tehran, Dānišgāh, Miškāt 242; Tehran, Maǧlis 1898 (siglum: m ḥ q).

 

Ibrāhīm Ibn Ḥusayn Ḥasanī (commentary written before 1020H/1611-2)

Unmūḏaǧaʾi Ibrāhīmiyya, Taʿlīqāt ʿalā Ilāhiyyāt al-Šifāʾ wa-l-Naǧāt

Mss: Tehran, Maǧlis, 17; Tehran, Maǧlis 109 (1020H/1611-2; see D, vol. II, p. 214).

 

Aḥmad Ibn Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn Ḥusaynī ʿAlawī ʿĀmilī Isfahānī (Mīr Sayyid Aḥmad) (d. between 1054-1060H/1644-1650)

Miftāḥ al-Šifāʿ wa-l-ʿurwa al-wuṯqà fī šarḥ Ilāhiyyāt al-Šifāʾ, or Minhāǧ al-Šifāʾ fī l-ilāhiyyāt (commentary on Ilāhiyyāt I-X)

Excerpts of this commentary are printed as glosses in the margin of Ibn Sīnā 1885 (see Ashtiyani-Corbin 1975, p. 152, n. 7, of the French Introduction, and p. 12, n. b, of the Arabic text; M records commentary and glosses under two distinct entries, p. 173, nr. 3 and nr. 12). Two long excerpts of the commentary are published in Ashtiyani-Corbin 1975, pp. 12-29, 87-117 (comments on Ilāhiyyāt IX.7, p. 423.4-12, on eschatology; and on Ilāhiyyāt VIII.6, p. 358.1-2, 10-11, 14-15, and VIII.7, p. 362.18, on God’s knowledge). Exceprts of the commentary on Ilāhiyyāt I-II in Ibn Sīnā 2004. English translation, by M. Fakhry, of Ashtiyani-Corbin 1975, pp. 12-29, 87-96, in Nasr-Aminrazavi 2015, pp. 264-282.

Mss: Isfahan, Central Library of Isfahan University 889; Patna, Khudā Bakhsh, vol. I, p. 215, nr. 1923 of the Handlist, vol. XXI, 2229 of the catalogue; Tehran, Maǧlis 1787 (in the guard leaf, wrongly first attributed to Aqā Ḥusayn, and then corrected), 1788; Tehran, Millī 975. A ms. of the work is mentioned by Ashtiyani-Corbin 1975, p. 8 of the French introduction, as present in the Department of Iranology of the French-Iranian Institute of Research. Ashtiyani-Corbin, p. 12 of the Arabic text, mention a manuscript of the work copied in Isfahan in 1098H and personally owned by the editor(s).

 

Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm Šīrāzī (Mullā Ṣadrā) (979ca.-1050H/1571ca.-1640)

Commentary on Ilāhiyyāt I-VI

Al-Taʿlīqāt li-Ṣadr al-Mutaʾallihīna Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Širāzī ʿalā l-Šifāʾ, in Ibn Sīnā 1885, pp. 2-264.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī (Mullā Ṣadrā, 979-1050Hq), Šarḥ va-Taʿlīqat Ṣadr al-mutaʾallihīna bar Ilāhiyyāt-e Šifāʾ-e Šayḫ al-raʾīs Abū ʿAlī ibn Sīnā, 2 vols, ed. and annot. by Najafqulī Ḥabībī, under the direction of Muḥammad Khamane’ī, Intishārāt-e Bunyād Ḥikmat Islāmī Ṣadrā, Tehran 1382Hš/2003.

Commentary on Ilāhiyyāt I-II in Ibn Sīnā 2004, pp. 1-248 (edition facing the text of the Ilāhiyyāt, based on mss Qum, Marʿašī, 1686; Tehran, Dānišgāh, Miškāt 327; Tehran, Dānišgāh, 14476; Tehran, Maǧlis, 13232; plus an uncatalogued Tehran Maǧlis ms.; and Ibn Sīnā 1885).

Other mss: Patna, Khudā Bakhsh Oriental Public Library (Bankipur), vol. XXI, 2227-8 of the catalogue, vol. XL, 3466, 3468-9; Peshawar, Dār al-ʿUlūm al-Islāmiyya, nr. 1674 in catalogue Lubāb al-Maʿārif al-ʿilmiyyat Maktabat Dār al-ʿUlūm al-islāmiyya, p. 314; Tashkent, Berunii Instituti, 3909; Tehran, Maǧlis, 919; Tehran, Millī, 1477, 9579 (38 Iranian mss in D, vol. IV, pp. 308-9).

 

Muḥammad Bāqir Ibn Muʾmin Sabzawārī Iṣfahānī (1018-1090H/1609-1680)

Glosses in Ibn Sīnā 2004 (excerpts).

Mss: Tehran, Dānišgāh, Miškāt 263; Tehran, Dānišgāh, Miškāt 1016; Qum, Masǧid Aʿẓam, 2081 (XII-XIII/XVIII-XIX c.) (5 other Iranian mss in D, vol. IV, p. 309).

 

Mīr Muḥammad Maʿṣūm Ibn Faṣīḥ al-Ḥaqq Ḥusaynī Qazwīnī (d. 1091H/1680-1)

Ms.: Qum, Marʿašī, 3716/2, foll. 21v-77r (see Nāǧī Iṣfahānī 2004, p. 99, nr. 46; D, vol. IV, p. 309).

 

Ḥusayn Ibn Muḥammad Ḫwānsārī (1016-1099H/1607-1687)

1) First series of glosses: Āqā Ḥusayn Ḫwānsārī, Ḥāšiyat ʿalà l-Šifāʾ (al-Ilāhiyyāt), ed. Ḥ. Nāǧī Iṣfahānī, Tehran 1999.

Excerpts in Ibn Sīnā 2004

Mss: Isfahan, Dānišgāh, 921; Qum, Markaz-i Iḥyāʾ-i Mīrāṯ-i Islāmī, 5457; Tehran, Maǧlis, 121, 942, 1782, 1783, 4329, 10209; Tehran, Dānišgāh, Miškāt 264; Tehran, Millī, 874, 20229 (18 other Iranian mss in D, vol. IV, p. 310).

2) Second series of glosses (super-glosses in response to al-Sabzawārī's glosses)

Mss: Tehran, Maǧlis, 10112; Qum, Marʿašī, 13454; Qum, Masǧid Aʿẓam, 2081 (XII-XIII/XVIII-XIX c.) (see D, vol. IV, p. 310).

 

ʿAlī Riḍā Ṭarzaʾī Ibn Šams al-Dīn Ḫalḫālī (before 1048H/1638-9)

Persian translation and commentary of parts of the Ilāhiyyāt.

Mss.: (1) Hyderabad, Asafiya, 431 falsafa (Kabul, 1048H/1638-9); (2) Rampur, Raza Library, 1138F (1048H/1638-9); (3) Tabriz, Ṯiqat al-Islām, 7 (1078H/1667-8, or 1087H/1676-7); (4) Tehran, Dānišgāh, Miškāt 251 (1084H/1673-4; copyist: ʿAbd al-Ẓahīr Ibn al-Maʿṣūm; cf. ʿAbd al-Ẓahīr Ibn Maʿṣūm Karahrūdī, copyist of ms. Khoy, Madrasa-i Namāzī 623 [1083H/1672], q.v.; in the cover pages, the author is portrayed as student of Āqā Ḥusayn Ibn Muḥammad al-Ḫwānsārī, 1016-1099H/1607-1687; on fol. 2v, last line, there is a reference to Mīr Damād); (5) Tehran, Dānišgāh, 9081 (1087H/1676-7); (6) Tehran, Maǧlis, 1912 (beginning of XII/XVIII c.); (7) Tehran, Maǧlis, 1840/2 (no date).

Mss. (2), (4)-(7) have been directly inspected: they incorporate the Arabic text of the Ilāhiyyāt that is translated into Persian. Ms. (2) contains an explicit ascription to Ḫalḫālī; ms. (1) bears the same date of ms. (2); mss. (4)-(7) contain the same translation of ms. (2). For this reason – although they are currently regarded in recent scholarship as witnesses of a different translation (see below, II.2) – they are taken here as witnesses of the translation by Ḫalḫālī (see Panzeca 2017). Whether ms. (3) contains this translation or a different one remains to be assessed.

 

Sayyid ʿAlī Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Asad Allāh Imāmī Iṣfahānī (XI-XII/XVII-XVIII c.), allegedly descendant of ʿAlī ʿUrayḍī, son of Imām al-Ṣādiq

Persian translation and commentary of the Ilāhiyyāt.

Ms.: Tehran, Millī, 20348-5.

In Nāǧī Iṣfahānī 2004, pp. 59 nr. 66, 83-84, 100 nr. 66, 128, this author is named Sayyid ʿAlī al-ʿUrayḍī Darab Imāmī (XI/XVII c.) (a forthcoming edition of the translation is announced, pp. 59, 100). He also authored a Persian translation of the Išārāt.

 

Šāh Qiwām al-Dīn Ḥamza Ibn ʿAlī Nassāba Šīrāzī (fl. XI/XVII c.)

Commentary on Ilāhiyyāt I.1-II.2 (p. 65.16 of Cairo ed.)

Excerpts in Ibn Sīnā 1885 and Ibn Sīnā 2004 (cp. ms. Maǧlis 1237, p. 25, linn. 14-15, and ms. Āstān Quds 5662, p. 2, second gloss on the left, linn. 7-8, with Ibn Sīnā 1885, p. 268, interlinear text between linn. 18-19, and with Ibn Sīnā 2004, p. 12, excerpt nr. 40, linn 5-6; in Nāǧī Iṣfahānī 2004, pp. 81-2, 126, the author is identified with Muḥammad Qawwām al-Dīn al-Sayfī al-Qazwīnī, d. 1150H/1737-8)

Mss: Mashhad, Āstān Quds, 5662 (1082H/1671); Montréal, Mc Gill University, Institute of Islamic Studies, 72 (incompl. it contains the commentary on Ilāhiyyāt I.1-8, p. 51.12 of Cairo ed.; late XII/XVIII c. according to Gacek 1991, nr. 48, p. 49); Tehran, Dānišgāh, 6921, foll. 1v-61r; Maǧlis 1237, pp. 1-303 (four other mss in D, vol. IV, pp. 309-10).

 

ʿAlī Ibn Faḍlallāh Ǧīlānī (alive in the XI/XVII c.)

Tawfīq al-taṭbīq (commentary on Ilāhiyyāt X)

ʿAlī Ibn Faḍlallāh al-Ǧīlānī, Tawfīq al-taṭbīq fī iṯbāt anna l-šayḫ al-raʾīs min al-Imāmiyya al-Iṯnā ʿAšariyya, ed. M. M. Ḥilmī, Dār iḥyāʾ al-kutub al-ʿarabiyya, Cairo 1953.

 

Muḥammad Yūsuf Rāzī (Mullā Awliyāʾ) (XI-XII/XVII-XVIII c.)

Glosses in Ibn Sīnā 1885, and Ibn Sīnā 2004 (excerpts).

 

Ismāʿīl Ibn Muḥammad Bāqir Ḫātūnābādī (d. 1116H/1704)

Ilāhiyyāt V.8-

Ms.: Tehran, Ilahiyyat, 594 (see D, vol. IV, p. 311).

 

Allāma Sulaymān Māḥwazī Baḥrānī (Mullā Sulaymān) (1065-1121H/1654-1710)

Glosses in Ibn Sīnā 1885, and Ibn Sīnā 2004 (excerpts).

 

Bahāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥasan Iṣfahānī (Fāḍil Hindī) (d. 1137H/1724–5)

ʿAwn iḫwān al-ṣafāʾ ʿalà fahm Kitāb al-Šifāʾ (abridgment of the Šifāʾ )

Part regarding Ilāhiyyāt I-II in Ibn Sīnā 2004, pp. 261-296, 471-485.

 

Āqā Muḥammad Bīdābādī (d. 1198H/1783-4)

Glosses in Ibn Sīnā 2004 (excerpts).

Mss: Mashhad, Āstān Quds, 5662 (1082H/1671).

 

Mullā Muḥammad Mahdī Ibn Abī Ḏarr Narāqī Kašānī (d. 1209H/1795)

Commentary on Ilāhiyyāt I-II.2 (p. 64.6-7 of Cairo ed.)

Part regarding Ilāhiyyāt I.1-5 in Mahdī ibn Abī Ḏarr al-Narāqī, Šarḥ al-Ilāhiyyāt min Kitāb al-Šifāʾ, ed. M. Mohaghegh, Tehran 1365Hš/1986 (Mohaghegh 1986, pp. 14-16, provides some information on the two manuscripts used for this edition, without specifying their identity: the first ms. was allegedly copied in 1201H by Narāqī himself; the second ms. was copied in 1203H from the first ms. at Narāqī's order).

Overall commentary in Mahdī ibn Abī Ḏarr al-Narāqī, Šarḥ Ilāhiyyāt al-Šifāʾ 1-2, ed. Ḥ. Nāǧī Iṣfahānī, Tehran 2001 (with no indication of the mss. used).

Excerpts in Ibn Sīnā 2004.

Mss: Khwansar, Fāḍil al-Khwānsarī, 25; Qum, Iḥyāʾ Mīrāt, 112; Tehran, Dānišgāh, 3551; Tehran, Maǧlis, 2709, 11338; Tehran, Muʾassasa, 3, 114 (see D, vol. VI, pp. 804-5, nrs. 168907-11).

Another commentary, in verses, is recorded in Narāqī 1986, p. 28.

 

Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī Ḫātūnābādī Iṣfahānī (d. 1233H/1817-8)

Commentary on Ilāhiyyāt IX-X

Ms.: Qum, Marʿašī 4838 (see D, vol. IV, p. 311)

 

Mullā Ḥādī Sabzawārī (1212-1289H/1797-1873)

Glosses on the Ilāhiyyāt

Ms.: Qum, Markaz Iḥyāʾ Mīrāṯ Islāmī 4549 (signature by the author, for example, on fols. 22v and 28r)

 

Mīrzā Abū al-Ḥasan Ibn Muḥammad Ǧilwa Ṭabāṭabāʾī (d. 1314H/1896)

Glosses on the Ilāhiyyāt in ms. Tehran, Maǧlis 10198 (1070H/1659-60), pp. 201-438 (see D, vol. IV, p. 311). Two annotations in the guard leaves at the beginning of this manuscript state that this codex was corrected by Ǧilwa, who used it for his teaching of philosophy in 1314H, and that the glosses that do not bear indication of their authors (the names of al-ʿAlawī, Mullā Awliyāʾ, and others, are visible) are by Ǧilwa himself. The first part of the ms., containing the fifth section of Logic, presents a much smaller number of marginalia.

Glosses on the Natural Philosophy of the Šifāʾ in ms. Tehran, Miškāt 241 (1075H/1664-5) (see M, p. 171, n. †). The glosses on four chapters of the first section of Natural Philosophy (chapters I.2, I.6, I.8, and II.8) have been edited in Maǧmūʿat Āṯār Ḥakīm Ǧilwa, ed. Hasan Rezazadeh, Muʾassasat Intišārāt Ḥikma, Tehran 1385Hš [= 2006], pp. 309-342.

 

ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm Ibn ʿAlīrḍā al-Ḥusaynī Iṣfahānī (XIII/XIX c.)

See Fihristgān: nusḫahʾhā-yi ḫaṭṭī-i Īrān (Fanḫā), Union Catalog of Iranian Manuscripts, ed. M. Dirāyatī, Sāzmān-i Asnād va Kitābḫānah-i Millī-i Ǧumhūrī-i Islāmī-i Īrān, vol. XXI, Tehran 1390Hš/2011, p. 58.

 

Ṭāhir Ibn Faraǧ Allāh Tunikābunī (1280/1863-4-1360/1941)

Glosses on the Ilāhiyyāt

Mss.: Tehran, Maǧlis 1898 (glosses marked by “Ṭ” = Ṭāhir); Tehran, Millī 3843 (see D, vol. IV, p. 311).

 

ʿAbd Allāh Anwār (1303Hš/1924-5-)

Unpublished glosses to the text of the Cairo ed. (in Persian).

 

Muḥammad Taqī Miṣbāḥ Yazdī (1313Hš/1934-)

Šarḥ Ilāhiyyāt Šifāʾ, ed. ʿAbd al-Ǧawād Ibrāhīmī-far, Intišārāt Muʾassasat Amūzišī wa-Paǧūhišī Imām Khomeyni, 3 vols, Qum 1386-7Hš [= 2007-8] (in Persian)

Further items in Āmulī 1997-8, pp. 5-6; Ḥabībī 2003, pp. 9-15; Nāǧī Iṣfahānī 2004, pp. 54-58, 96-100.

 

Abridgments of the Ilāhiyyāt

 

A concise expositon (talḫīṣ) of Ilāhiyyāt I-II.3 is contained in Ms. University of Michigan Library, 981 (before 1951 AD, probably XX c.)

 

Super-Commentaries on the Ilāhiyyāt

 

Āqā ʿAlī Mudarris Ṭihrānī (Zunūzī) (1234-1307H/1818-1889)

Commentary on Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm Šīrāzī (Mullā Ṣadrā)'s commentary (see above)

See Nasr-Aminrazavi 2015, p. 473.