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Dictionary of Muslim Philosophy

by M.Saeed Sheikh

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Jay said: " It covers a selection of concepts, but it seems like it misses many key concepts and words which are surprising not to find here. Although it's titled "Muslim Philosophy" and claims to contain topics on "logic, metaphysics, psychology and other allie It covers a selection of concepts, but it seems like it misses many key concepts and words which are surprising not to find here. Although it's titled "Muslim Philosophy" and claims to contain topics on "logic, metaphysics, psychology and other allied disciplines," the word list is scant in at least two of these areas, logic and metaphysics.

For example, very common words I was looking for and were missing:
Mantiq (the study of logic), Aqeeda (creed), Sifat (attribute; this should go along with Dhat "essence" which was included), Qadeem (eternality), Azal (another word for eternality).

Another drawback is that there is a decided lack of synonyms. One of the issues in studying this field is a variety of words used for similar or the same meanings, but this is not addressed in the book.

If you read "Mantiq al Jilani" and are looking for common definitions used in logic, there are basically none covered, and if you're reading any of the common Aqeeda books, I don't think you'll find much use in this book.

Finally, the organization does not lend itself to one who studies Arabic. The words are not arranged in dictionary fashion (according to root letters) but rather by the actual first letter in the word. So if I look for the word "mu'arrif' ('definition') under the letter meem (م), I find nothing because the only word in the dictionary are types of "ta'reef' ('definition'), listed under the letter ta (ت). Thus even though these words have the same root letters ع ر ف , the related meanings are scattered at best and unfindable at worst.

And unlike a dictionary, which has a letter index on the top corners of the pages, the book only has the starting-letter printed once at the beginning of each chapter. So you have to flip pages one-by-one to find the letter you're looking for.

That said, if you read the entire book sequentially, you might still learn about some big names or some unique concepts previously unaware of. It's decidedly not a student's handbook for one who's looking for a collection of common terminologies in logic or metaphysics, though.

I have the 2009 version from Adam Publishers. ...more "

Aug 26, 2021 04:50PM · see review