The first ever philosophical novel, and the first to strand its hero upon a desert island, there are few books that today lie as neglected as Hayy Ibn Yaqzan and yet historically have been more influential. Translated into Latin in 1671, and later into English, it became a bestseller in Europe, influencing novelists and philosophers, its echo to be heard in books such as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and in concepts including the tabula rasa and the noble savage that helped shape the Enlightenment.
