الباب الثاني: في منشأ العلوم والكتبBab 02 Fasl 01 — Causes for the Origin of Sciences and Books

Book Two: On the Origin of the Sciences and Books

Chapter One: On Its Cause

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Book Two: On the Origin of the Sciences and Books

It contains: chapters

Chapter One: On Its Cause

It contains: explanations

The First Explanation: Knowledge and Instruction Are Natural to Human Civilization, and Human Beings Need Them

This is because human beings share with all animals their animality: sensation, movement, nourishment, and other necessities. They are distinguished from animals only by thought and by their apprehension of universals, through which they are guided to secure their livelihood, cooperate in securing it with members of their own species, establish the association that makes such cooperation possible, accept what the prophets brought from God Most High, act upon it, and follow what will make their afterlife sound. They are constantly thinking about all of this, never ceasing to think about it for even the blink of an eye; indeed, the stirring of thought is swifter than a glance. From this thought arise the sciences and crafts.

Then, because of this thought and because human beings—and even animals—are constituted to obtain what their natures demand, thought desires to acquire perceptions that it does not possess. It therefore turns to someone who preceded it in knowledge, surpassed it in understanding or apprehension, or takes from earlier prophets, who convey it to whoever receives it. The recipient learns it from them and strives to acquire and know it, returning to what he has learned either through oral transmission or through indications pointing toward it. This is a natural inclination in human beings to receive and benefit. Some are aided by their understanding, while others are not, despite their inclination toward it.

As for the absence of inclination, it results from an incidental cause, such as a disordered temperament or a place distant from equilibrium, and it is of no consequence. Thought and reflection then turn toward each individual reality, examining one thing that occurs to it in itself after another. The thinker practices this until linking incidental properties to that reality becomes a habitus, and whatever occurs to that reality becomes a specific science. The souls of the emerging generation yearn to acquire this, so they turn to those who possess it, and instruction proceeds from this. It has thereby become clear that

[Edition footnote 1] This section is from Ibn Khaldoon's Introduction, pp. 1118–1119.

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knowledge and instruction are natural to human beings.

[Edition footnote 1] The final words of Ibn Khaldoon.

The Second Explanation: Knowledge and Writing Are Among the Requirements of Civilization

Know that, since the human species is civilized by nature and needs to communicate what is within it to another and to understand what is within another, divine wisdom required the creation of signs that would be easy for people to produce and would not require anything beyond their natural instruments. Divine inspiration therefore led them to use sound and to divide the breath, necessarily produced by the innate instrument, into letters distinguished from one another by their points of articulation and properties. Through their combination, words signifying the meanings present in the mind are formed. The benefit of conversation, dialogue, and the purposes indispensable to their livelihood thereby becomes possible. Since the combinations of these letters could take different forms and varied patterns, they acquired different tongues, divergent languages, and diverse sciences.

Then, because people of high aspiration among the nations were not content to disseminate these blessings through conversation, which is limited to those present, their elevated ambition moved them to inform those absent and those who would come after them of the knowledge and sciences they had deduced. They exerted themselves to acquire them so that the inhabitants of distant regions might benefit and the sciences might increase through the succession of reflections. They established the rules of writing, whose forms remain inscribed throughout time, investigated the forms of its letters in terms of vowels, quiescence, diacritical marks, and dots, and examined their composition and arrangement in lines. Through writing, readers could move from signs to words and letters, and from these to meanings. From this arrangement arose a whole body of sciences and books.

The Third Explanation: Script and Writing Are among the Human Crafts

Writing consists of letter-forms and shapes that indicate spoken words, which in turn indicate what is in the soul. It is the second rank of linguistic signification and a noble craft. Writing is among the distinctive properties by which human beings are distinguished from animals. Through it one gains access to what lies in people's minds; purposes are conveyed to distant lands; needs are fulfilled without the expense of direct contact; and one gains access to sciences, forms of knowledge, the records of earlier peoples, and what they wrote of their sciences and reports. It is noble on account of these aspects and benefits.

Its passage in human beings from potentiality to actuality takes place only through instruction. The quality of script in a city therefore corresponds to the degree of association, civilization, competition in perfections, and aspiration toward them, for writing is one of the crafts and crafts follow civilization. Thus we find that most nomads are illiterate: they neither write nor read. If one of them reads or writes, his script is deficient and his reading ineffective. In cities whose civilization has grown beyond measure, we find instruction in script to be more complete, better, and an easier path to consolidating the craft. This is reported of Egypt in the present age: it has teachers dedicated to teaching script who give the student rules and regulations for forming each letter and supplement that with direct instruction in forming it. The rank of knowledge and the sensory practice of instruction thereby reinforce one another, and the student's habitus develops in the most complete manner. This results from the perfection

[Edition footnote 2] The final words of Ibn Khaldoon.

[Edition footnote 3] This section appears in Ibn Khaldoon's Introduction, pp. 1083–1092.

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and abundance of crafts through the abundance of civilization and the expansion of occupations.

Arabic script had attained an extraordinary degree of firmness, precision, and excellence under the Tubba's when their civilization and luxury reached their height. It was called the Himyarite script. From them it passed to al-Heera, where the dynasty of the Mundhirs existed; they were related by lineage and solidarity to the Tubba's and renewed Arab sovereignty in the land of Iraq. Their script was not as excellent as that of the Tubba's, because the two states differed in strength, and their civilization and associated crafts were less developed. From al-Heera, the people of al-Taa'if and Quraysh learned it. It is said that the first person from al-Heera to learn writing was Sufyaan ibn Umayya; it is also said to have been Harb ibn Umayya, who took it from Aslam ibn Sidra. This is plausible and closer than the view that they learned it from the Iyaad of Iraq, on the basis of their poet's words:

A people for whom the Iraqi plain belongs,

when they travel all together—with script and pen.

This latter view is remote. Although Iyaad settled in the Iraqi plain, it remained nomadic, whereas script is an urban craft. The poet's meaning is only that they were closer to script and the pen than the other Arabs because of their proximity to the cities and their outskirts. The view that the people of the Hijaaz learned it from al-Heera, and that the people of al-Heera learned it from the Tubba's and Himyar, is the most fitting. Himyar had a script called the musnad, whose letters were separate, and they prevented people from learning it without their permission. From Himyar, Mudhar learned Arabic writing, but they did not become proficient in it. This is the condition of crafts when they enter the nomadic environment: their methods are not firmly established and they do not incline toward precision and ornamentation, because of the distance between nomadism and craft and because nomads generally have no need of it. The writing of the Arabs was therefore nomadic, like their writing—or close to their writing—in the present age. Indeed, one might say that their writing today is a better craft, because they are closer to civilization and to contact with cities and states.

Mudhar, however, were more deeply rooted in nomadism and farther from urban life than the people of Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. Arabic script at the beginning of Islam had therefore not reached the height—or even the middle degree—of firmness, precision, and excellence, because the Arabs were nomadic and uncivilized and distant from the crafts. Consider what resulted from this in the writing of their mushaf: the Companions wrote it in their own hands, which were not firmly proficient, and many features of their writing differed from the conventions required by the craft of script among its practitioners.

The Successors followed the script of the early generations out of devotion to what the Companions of the Messenger of God—God bless him and grant him peace—and the best of creation after him, those who received his revelation in the Book of God and His speech, had written. In the present age, people likewise follow the handwriting of a saint or scholar as a blessing, following its form whether correct or incorrect. How can this be compared with what the Companions wrote? Their form was followed and established as a standard, and scholars used the written form to point out its proper places. Do not heed what some heedless people claim: that the Companions had mastered the craft of writing, and that the apparent divergence of their script from the principles of orthography is not as it appears, since every instance has an explanation. They say, for example, that the additional alif in laa adhbahannahu (“I shall certainly sacrifice it”) indicates that the sacrifice did not occur, and that the additional yaa' in bi-aydin (“with hands”) indicates the perfection of divine power. Such claims have no basis beyond arbitrary assertion. They were motivated only by the belief that this would exonerate the Companions from any suspicion of deficiency in their poor command of writing. They imagined that script was a perfection, exonerated them from its deficiency, attributed perfection to them through their proficiency, and sought an explanation for every departure from excellence in their writing. That is incorrect.

Know that script was not a perfection in their case. Script is one of the civil crafts that support livelihood, as you have seen above.

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Perfection in crafts is relative, not absolute, since its absence does not diminish the self in religion or character; it affects only the means of livelihood, according to the degree of civilization and cooperation required by writing's indication of what lies in the souls. The Prophet—God bless him and grant him peace—was unlettered, and this was a perfection in his case and relative to his station, because of his nobility and his transcendence above the practical crafts that are all means of livelihood and civilization. Illiteracy is not a perfection in our case, for he was wholly devoted to his Lord, while we cooperate in worldly life. The same applies to all crafts, even the technical sciences: his perfection lay in transcending them altogether, unlike us.

When sovereignty came to the Arabs, they conquered cities, ruled kingdoms, settled in Basra and Kufa, and the state needed writing, they employed script, sought to practice and learn it, and circulated it among themselves. Proficiency advanced, became established, and reached a degree of precision in Kufa and Basra, although it remained below the highest level. Kufic script is known in its present form. The Arabs then spread throughout the regions and kingdoms, conquered Ifreeqiya and al-Andalus, and the Abbasids founded Baghdad. Script advanced there to the highest degree as civilization expanded. Baghdad became the seat of Islam and the center of the Arab state; the Baghdadi script became known, followed by the Ifreeqiyan script, whose ancient form remains known today and resembles the forms of eastern script. The Umayyads established their rule in al-Andalus and distinguished themselves through their civilization, crafts, and scripts; their variety of script became the Andalusian script known today.

The sea of civilization and urban prosperity then swelled throughout the Islamic states. Sovereignty grew, the markets of the sciences flourished, books were copied and produced with excellence, and palaces and royal treasuries were filled with them beyond comparison. The inhabitants of the regions competed and surpassed one another in this. When the order of the Islamic state subsequently disintegrated, all of this declined. The landmarks of Baghdad were effaced with the disappearance of the caliphate, and its place in script, writing, and even knowledge passed to Egypt and Cairo. Its markets there have continued to flourish into the present age. Cairo has teachers who prescribe rules for forming and shaping letters, conventions known among them. The learner soon masters the forms of these letters according to those arrangements: he receives them through sensory practice, becomes skilled through training and writing, and learns their rules scientifically, so that the result is as fine as possible.

As for the people of al-Andalus, they dispersed throughout the regions when Arab sovereignty there and the rule of the Berbers who succeeded it declined, and Christian nations gained control over them. From the period of the Lamtoonid states until the present, they spread across the western shore and Ifreeqiya. They contributed their crafts to the civilized population and attached themselves to the state; their script therefore prevailed over the Ifreeqiyan script, effacing it. The script of Qayrawaan and Mahdia was forgotten along with their customs and crafts, and all the scripts of the people of Ifreeqiya in Tunis and its environs adopted the Andalusian form because Andalusians from eastern al-Andalus settled there in large numbers. A remnant of the old form survived in the Jareed lands, whose people had not mixed with the Andalusian scribes or practiced alongside them; they merely visited the royal seat in Tunis. The script of the people of Ifreeqiya consequently became one of the finest Andalusian scripts.

When the shadow of the Almohad state began to withdraw and civilization and luxury declined with the decline of urban life, the condition of script also declined, its forms deteriorated, and the method of instruction became unknown as civilization deteriorated and urban life diminished. Traces of Andalusian script remained, testifying to what they had once possessed, since it is said that when crafts become firmly rooted in civilization, they are difficult to erase. Under the Marinids, a form of Andalusian script arose in the far Maghrib because of their proximity, the recent arrival of those who had moved to Fez, and their employment throughout the state. In places distant from the royal seat and court, knowledge of script was forgotten as though it had never been known. The scripts of Ifreeqiya and the two Maghribs became inclined toward poor quality and distant from excellence. When books were copied, the reader gained no benefit from them except toil and difficulty, because of the frequent corruption, scribal errors, and changes in letter forms that made them difficult to read except with effort. They suffered what all crafts suffer through the decline of civilization and the corruption of states. God knows best.

[Edition footnote 1] The final words of Ibn Khaldoon in p. 1092.

Pause: Crafts give their practitioner intellect, especially writing and arithmetic. The rational soul exists in the human being initially in potentiality, and its passage from potentiality to actuality occurs through the renewal of sciences and perceptions, first from sensory objects and then through what is acquired by theoretical power, until it becomes actual perception and pure intellect. It then becomes a spiritual substance and completes its existence. Every kind of knowledge and reflection must therefore give it a particular intellect. Crafts always produce, through themselves and their habitus, a scientific rule derived from that habitus. Practical experience therefore gives intellect; craft habituses give intellect; and complete civilization gives intellect, because it is composed of crafts governing household administration, association with one's fellow human beings, the acquisition of etiquette in dealing with them, and the performance of religious duties with attention to their etiquette and conditions.

All of these are rules that organize sciences, and they produce an increase in intellect. Writing is the most beneficial of the crafts in this respect because it includes sciences and reflections, unlike the other crafts. Its explanation is that writing involves a transition from written letters to verbal words in the imagination, and from verbal words in the imagination to the meanings in the soul. This occurs constantly, giving the soul a habitus of moving from proofs to what they prove. That is the meaning of rational reflection, which acquires unknown sciences. It thereby acquires a habitus of intellection that increases intellect, as well as strength of insight and practical cleverness, because of its habitual movement between these stages. For this reason, when Kisraa saw their insight and cleverness, he said in his letter that his chancery consisted of deewaans, meaning “devils” and “madmen.”

[Edition footnote 2] See this section in Ibn Khaldoon's Introduction, pp. 1105–1106.

They say that this is the origin of the word deewaan among scribes. Arithmetic belongs to the same category, for the craft of arithmetic involves manipulating number through addition and separation and requires much reasoning; its practitioner therefore remains accustomed to reasoning and reflection, which is the meaning of intellect. God knows what is correct.

[Edition footnote 3] Hunoon: its singular is hinn, a kind of jinn.

[Edition footnote 4] The final words of Ibn Khaldoon.

The Fourth Explanation: On the Earliest Appearances of Knowledge and Writing

Know that it is said that Adam—peace be upon him—knew all languages, on account of God Most High's saying: “And He taught Adam the names, all of them.” Imaam al-Raazee said: “What is meant is the names of everything God Most High created among the kinds of created beings, in all the languages spoken by his descendants today. He also taught him their meanings and sent down to him a book.” This is as reported in the hadeeth of Aboo Dharr—may God be pleased with him—who said: “Messenger of God, what book was sent down to Adam?” He replied: “The Book of the Alphabet.” I asked, “What book is the Book of the Alphabet?” He said: “A, B, T, Th, J.” I asked, “How many letters?” He said: “Twenty-nine letters.” This is the report.

[Edition footnote 5] His biography was given earlier, p. 31.

[Edition footnote 6] al-Ghifaaree, whose name was Jundub ibn Junaada ibn Sufyaan, a famous Companion among the senior Companions. He died in 32 AH/652 CE.

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They mention that it consisted of ten scrolls containing chapters whose letters were separated, including obligations, promises and threats, reports of this world and the next, and descriptions of the people of every age, their forms and ways, their prophets and kings, and the trials and wars that would occur on earth. This is evidently considered unlikely by people of limited intellect. Whoever examines the Jafr closely, however, and observes its inclusion of extraordinary matters, does not consider it impossible, especially in revealed books. This is what has been said, although the authenticity of the Book of Jafr is disputed, as we explained in Luqtat al-'Ajlaan.

It is also related that, three hundred years before his death, Adam—peace be upon him—set down a book on the kinds of languages and scripts. He wrote it in clay and then baked it. When the Flood reached the earth, each people found a book and copied it from his writing; Ishmael—peace be upon him—received the Arabic book. This was one of Adam's miracles. al-Suyootee mentions it in al-Muzhir, but this account is even more remote than the preceding one.

According to another report, Adam—peace be upon him—used to draw scripts with his fingers. His children received them from him by his instruction, and some received them through receptive sacred power. The one nearest in time to him was Enoch—peace be upon him. Enoch wrote with the pen, and sciences became associated with him that were not associated with anyone else. He was called Hermes of the Hermeses and “the Thrice Blessed” because he was a prophet, king, and sage. According to many scholars, all sciences that appeared before the Flood came from him. He was the first Hermes—namely Enoch ibn Jared ibn Mahlaa'eel ibn Anoosh ibn Seth, son of Adam—peace be upon him—who was established in Upper Egypt.

They say that he was the first to speak about the celestial bodies and stellar motions, the first to build temples and worship God Most High in them, and the first to study medicine. He composed for the people of his age poems on simple and composite substances. He warned of the Flood, perceiving it as a celestial affliction that would strike the earth. Fearing that knowledge would disappear, he built the pyramids in Upper Egypt and depicted in them all the crafts and instruments and recorded the forms of the sciences and perfections, striving to preserve them forever. Then the Flood came and humanity perished. No knowledge or trace remained except among the people on the Ark. This is the position of all people except the Magians, who do not affirm that the Flood was universal.

Then revival and restoration gradually began, and the knowledge that had been erased returned to its former state, with additional excellence and increase. Thus the founder of the edifice became the one who strengthened its foundations, continually supported by the Islamic religious community until the Day of Resurrection and the Scales. God Most High knows best.

[Edition footnote 1] See it in the second part of the book, in the discussion “The Science of Jafr and al-Jaami'a.”

[Edition footnote 2] A work by the author.

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