AVICENA’S OFFERING
to the
PRINCE
«E l’anima umana la qual è colla nobiltà dellapotenzia ultima, cioè ragione, participa delladivina natura a guisa di sempiterna Intelligenza;perocchè l’anima è tanto in quella sovranapotenzia nobilitata, e dinudata da materia,che la divina luce, come in Angiolo,raggia in quella; e però è l’uomo divino animaleda’ Filosofi chiamato.»[1]
(Dante, Convito, III, 2.)
STAMPERIA DI NICOLA PADERNO
S. Salvatore Corte Regia, 10
VERONA, ITALIA
A
COMPENDIUM
ON THE
SOUL,
BY
Abû-'Aly al-Husayn Ibn 'Abdallah Ibn Sînâ:
TRANSLATED, FROM THE ARABIC ORIGINAL,
BY
EDWARD ABBOTT van DYCK,
WITH
Grateful Acknowledgement of the Substantial Help
OBTAINED
From Dr. S. Landauer’s Concise German Translation,
AND FROM
James Middleton
MacDonald’s Literal English Translation;
AND
PRINTED
AT
VERONA, ITALY, in THE YEAR 1906,
For the Use of Pupils and Students of Government Schools
IN
Cairo, Egypt.
PREFACE
Several sources out of which to draw informationand seek guidance as to Ibn Sînâ’s biographyand writings, and his systems of medicineand philosophy, are nowadays easily accessibleto nearly every one. Among such sources the followingare the best for Egyptian students:
- Ibn Abi Uçaybi´ah’s “Tabaqât-ul-Atib-ba,”and Wuestenfeld’s “Arabische Aertzte.”
- Ibn Khallikân’s “Wafâyât-ul-A´ayân.”
- Brockelmann’s “Arabische Literatur.”
- F. Mehren’s Series of Essays on IbnSînâ in the Periodical “Muséon” from theyear 1882 and on.
- Clément Huart’s Arabic Literature, eitherin the French Original or in the English Translation.
- Carra de Vaux’s “Les Grands Philosophes:Avicenna,” Paris, Felix Alcan, 1900,pp. vii et 302.
- T. de Boer’s “History of Philosophy inIslâm,” both in Dutch and in the English translation.
The “Offering to the Prince in the Formof a Compendium on the Soul,” of which thepresent Pamphlet is my attempt at an EnglishTranslation, is the least known throughout Egyptand Syria of all Ibn Sînâ’s many and able literaryworks: indeed I have failed, after repeatedand prolonged enquiry, to come across so muchas one, among my many Egyptian acquaintances,that had even heard of it.
Doctor Samuel Landauer of the Universityof Strassburg published both the Arabic text,and his own concise German translation, of thisResearch into the Faculties of the Soul, in volume29 for the year 1875 of the Z.d.D.M.G.,together with his critical notes and exhaustivelyerudite confrontations of the original Arabic withmany Greek passages from Plato, Aristotle, AlexanderAphrodisias, and others, that Ibn Sînâ hadaccess to, it would appear, second hand, i.e.through translations. Doctor