Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Kaaf

kubra

The major premise in a syllogism (qiyas, q.v.); see al-muqaddamat al-kubra.

Kitab al-Ustuqussat

The Arabicised title of Euclid's geometrical work: the Elements in 13 books-first translated into Arabic in 214/829-30 by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar (fl. 170-218/786-833) and then commented on severally by al-‘Abbas ibn Sa‘id al-Jauhari (fl. 198-218/813-33), al-Mahani (d.c. 261/874) and al-Nairizi (d.c. 310/922). See also Uqlidis.

Kitab al-Huruf

"Book of Letters", the title given by Muslim philosophers to Aristotle's 13 books (collectively) on metaphysics named as they are after the letters of Greek alphabet; see Matatafusiqi.

Kitab al-Khair al-Mahd

"The Book of Pure Good", one of the apocryphal works ascribed by Muslim philosophers to Aristotle. The work is really based on Proclus’s "Elements of Theology" ; more exactly it contains two parts : the first is a summary of Proclus’s work and the second a short commentary on it. This work was later translated into Latin (Liber de Causis) and commented on by Albert the Great. It thus served one of the best vehicles for the transmission of Neoplatonic thought first to the Muslims and Jews and then to Christians.

Karusfus

Chrysippus (280-209 B.C.): Greek Stoic philosopher. He was perhaps alone among the Stoics not to accept the typically Stoic doctrine of the unity of virtue. According to him, virtue is not natural to man, but is acquired through instruction and by practice. He also combined the Stoic principle of natural necessity or determinism with the doctrine of Providence. See also Rawaqiyah.

Kisnufans

Xenophanes (c. 570-c. 480 B.C.): Greek philosopher, a con temporary of Pythagoras (Fithaghuras, q.v.). He defended theistic monism divested of anthropomorphic conceptions of God current in his time. Well-known for his saying: "The gods of the Ethiopians; are dark-skinned and snub-nosed; the gods of the Thracians are fair and blue-eyed; if oxen could paint, their gods would be oxen," An account of him in Arabic religio-philosophical literature is to be found in al-Shahrastani’s Kitab al-Milal wa'l-Nihal written in 625/1127-8.

Kalbiyah

Cynicism: a Greek school of ethics founded by Antisthenes (c. 444-368 B.C.). The Cynics taught that a good man is one who is independent of all external involvements such as family, wealth, happiness, etc. He also keeps

his desires and appetites under they strict control of reason, so that he reduces them only to such as are indispensable to life. Later Cynics regarded all pleasures as evil. In extreme cases like that of Diogenes (Dayujans al-Kalabi, q.v.) this philosophy expressed itself in a revolt against all social conventions and courtesies and in a desire to live the life of nature amidst a civilised community, The Stoics (Ashab al-Mazallah, q.v.) are considered to be the followers of the Cynics, but their doctrine is less severe and more humanitarian.

kalimah

In logic any single utterance referring to a meaning or to the: definite time of the occurrence of an event or action.

al-kulyat al-khamsah

Literally the five predicables. It is also known as the al-mufradat al-khamsah (the five definitions) or alfaz al-khamsah. The first is genus (jins, q.v.) and nau', species is the second. The third is fasl and the fourth is 'ard amm (general) and the fifth predicable is khas (specific). Ikhwan al-Safa' also added a sixth predicable called shkash, class membership. Note that this entry is missing from the printed text.

kamm

Lit. "How much?"; technically, the category of quantity as one of the ten Aristotelian categories (al-maqulat al-‘ashr, q.v.). It denotes the volume of a thing as well as the duration of an event and is of various kinds: al-kamm al-muttasil (q.v.), al-kamm al-munfasil (q.v.), al-kamm al-muttasil qarr al-dhat, and al-kamm al-muttasil ghair qarr al-dhat (see below al-kamm al-mattasil).

al-kamm al-muttasil

The continuous quantity, i. e. the quantity of the kind the parts of which are so contiguous to one another that they form arts of which are so contiguous to one another that they form a single continuum; it is either a spatial continuum (makan) or a, temporal continuum, i.e. time (zaman, q.v.). The spatial continuum is of three kinds, viz. (1) one-dimensional, i.e. line (khatt); (2) two-dimensional, i.e. surface (sath); and (3) three-dimensional, and 'i.e. volume (hajm). As all these are static continua, they are classed under. the category of al-kamm al-muttasil qarr al-dhat (the unchanging continuous quantity). The temporal continuum, though .constituted of the series of past, present and future, is uni-dimensional and, being in a perpetual flux, is named as al-kamm al-muttasil ghair qarr al-dh-at (the ever-changing continuous .quantity).

al-kamm al-munfasil

The discrete quantity as represented by integral numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.); opposed to al-kamm al-muttasil (q.v.).

al-kawakib al-thabitah

The fixed stars, i.e. the stars fixed in the first or the outermost sphere (al-falak al-awwal, q.v.) in the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology. In Ptolemy's Almagest (al-Majisti, q.v.) the number of stars mentioned is 1025; this number was generally accepted by Muslim philosophers and astronomers.

‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Umar al-Sufi (291-376/903-986), one of the greatest Muslim astronomers, in his work Kitab al-Kawakib al-Thabitah al-Musawwar (Illustrated Book of the Fixed Stars), however, adds that there are many more stars than 1025, but they are so faint that it is not possible to count them.

al-kawakib al-sufliyah

The lower planets, i.e. the planets below the sphere of the Sun in the Ptolemaic astronomy, current with the Muslim philosophers and scientists. They are three, viz. Venus (Zuhrah), Mercury (‘Utarid) and the Moon (Qamar). See also below al-kawakib al-sayyarah.

al-kawakib al-sayyarah

The planets as opposed to stars (al-kawakib al-thabitah), q.v. ; according to the Ptolemaic cosmogony current with the Muslim philosophers there are only seven planets which according to their remoteness from earth were mentioned in the following order : Saturn (Zuhal), Jupiter (Mushtari); Mars (Marikh), the Sun (Shams), Venus (Zuhrah), Mercury (‘Utarid) and the Moon (Qamar). It may be noted that according to modern astronomy with its heliocentric view, the order of planets, nine in all, according to their increasing distance from the Sun is: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.; the Moon is not a separate planet but merely a satellite of the earth. It is also to be noted that with the Muslim as with the Greek philosophers of antiquity every planet is studded in a crystalline, i.e. transparent, celestial sphere like a gem in a ring so that the movement of a planet is really the rotation of its whole sphere.

al-kawakib al-‘ulwiyah

"The high planets", i.e. the planets beyond the sphere of the Sun. These are three, viz. Saturn (Zuhal), Jupiter (Mushtari); Mars (Marikh). See al-kawakib al-sayyarah and also al-kawakib al-sufliyah.

kaif

Lit. "How?"; also termed as kaifiyah. It denotes quality as one of the ten Aristotelian categories (al-maqulat al-‘ashr, q.v.); for everything falls under the question: "How?" It is concerned with the sensuous qualities of things such, as their colours, tastes, odours and hotness and coldness or dryness and moisture, and also with the character traits and emotional states of persons such as their boldness or state of feeling shy. It has many forms or kinds for which see below the various kids of kaifiyat.

al-kaifiyat al-isti‘dadiyah

Qualities of capacity, i.e. qualities of a thing on account-of power or ability possessed by it to act in a certain manner or to suffer a certain change. If this capacity is active and resistant to the outside influence or pressure, it is named as quwwah (power); but if it is passive and non-resistant and easily suffers change, it: is called du‘f (weakness). See also ’isti‘dad.

al-kaifiyat al-uwal

The first or primary qualities, i.e. the four qualities of hotness. (hararah), coldness (burudah), moisture (rutubah) and dryness (yubusah); so called because all other qualities such as of colours, smells, tastes, touch, etc., were supposed to have originated from these four.

al-kaifiyat al-mahsusah

The sensible qualities: these are either firmly rooted in things like sweetness in honey or salinity in brine in which case they are called ’infi‘aliyat (q.v.), or they are merely transitory states like the blush on the face of man on account of embarrassment or pallidness on account of fear; in this latter case they are called ’infi‘alat (q.v.), while the sudden change of one state into another is known as ’istihalah (q.v.).

kaifiyat mukhtassah bi’l-kammiyat

Quantitative qualities or qualities specific to magnitudes and spatial continua. These are of two kinds: (1) qualities of continuous-quantities like the rectilinearity or curvature of a line, triangularity of a triangle, or sphericity of a sphere ; (2) qualities of discrete quantities like the evenness or oddness of numbers. See also al-kamm al-muttasil and al-kamm al-munfasil.

al-kaifiyat al-nafsaniyah

The mental states or qualities both innate and acquired. A permanent state of mind becoming a part of the structure of mind is called malakah (q.v.), i.e. a disposition or habit like the orator's skill in speech, while a transitory state which is a passing; mood of mind is called halah (see ’infi‘alat ).

Lam

la ’adriyah

Skepticism, the doctrine that no certain knowledge is possible, for senses can deceive and reasoning may be false-a view, for example, adopted by Imam Ghazali (450-505/1053-1111 -website-) at one stage of his spiritual development. In-its extreme form, as with some of the Greek philosophers, skepticism means that one does not know anything, and not even that. See also Furun.

la yasduru shai’-un ‘an la shai’-in

The principle of ex nihilo nihil fit: out of nothing, nothing comes. The fundamental assumption of the law of causation that nothing happens in the universe without there being a cause for it. See also al-‘ilal al-’arba‘ah.

lafz

Vocable [see S. Afnan, Avicenna: His Life and Works, 92]; term.  (AnAc)

al-alfaz al-khamsah

Literally the five predicables. It is also known as the al-mufradat al-khamsah (the five definitions) or al-kulyat al-khamsah. The first is genus (jins, q.v.) and nau', species is the second. The third is fasl and the fourth is 'ard amm (general) and the fifth predicable is khas (specific). Ikhwan al-Safa' also added a sixth predicable called shkash, class membership. Note that this entry is missing from the printed text.

al-lafz al-hasir

The word used as a quantifier of a determinate proposition [al-qadiyat al-mahsurah, (q.v.); or al-qadiyat al-musawwarah (q.v.)], i.e. the expressions like "all"; "some"; "not all", "not some", used to indicate the definite quantity of the subject in a proposition. See also sur.

al-lafz al-mushtarak

Homonym, a word that is spelt and pronounced in the same way as another, but has an entirely distinct meaning like the word ‘ain in Arabic which means "eye" as well as "spring" and the word "spring" itself in English which means "springing motion" as well as the "place where water or oil wells up". The use of such words. leads to a number of fallacies of equivocation in logic (see mughalatah ishtirak al-lafzi).

lazim

Concomitant.  (AnAc)

lima

"Why?": a form of question put in order to discuss the form and matter of definitions and propositions with regard to problems that arise in science. The interrogative pronoun lima is used in logic to ask two kinds of things: (1) "Why a thing is or what it is?" or "Why has an event occurred?", i.e.

"What is the cause of it?" (2) "What are the grounds of somebody's making an assertion?", i.e. "How is the assertion to be verified?". See further muta‘alliqat al-qiyas wa’l-burhan.

lams

The touch sensation: a power diffused in the skin and flesh of the animal body. When anything comes in contact with the body the nerves are stimulated and there occurs a change in the skin or flesh which leads to the sensation of touch. This is not a single sensation but one constituted of four pairs of sensations that we get from different sense-organs in the skin or flesh. These four pairs of contrary sensations are: heat and cold, dryness and wetness, roughness and smoothness, hardness and softness (see al-hawas al-zahirah). Through these sensations an animal is enabled to feel its way towards safe and profitable places and avoid those which are dangerous and unprofitable.

lahu

Lit. "he has", but technically the category of possession as one of the ten Aristotelian categories (al-maqulat al-‘ashr, q.v.) see milk.

lauh al-taqabul

Table or square of opposition representing four kinds of relations of "opposition" among the four traditional propositions, i.e. (1) subalternation (tahkim, q.v.), (2) contradiction (tanaqud, q.v.), (3) contrariety (tadadd, q.v.). and (4) subcontrariety (al-tadadd al-tahtani, q.v.). See also al-qadiyatan al-mutaqabilatan.