Psychology in medieval Islam

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Islamic psychology translates the term ʿIlm al-Nafs^[1] (Arabic,علم النفس) the science of the Nafs ("self" or "psyche")^[2] and refers to the medical and philosophical study of the psyche from an Islamic perspective. This article is about the subject during the Islamic Golden Age (9th–13th centuries).

Concepts from medieval Islamic thought have been reexamined by Muslim psychologists and scholars in the 20th and 21st centuries.^[3]

Contents 1 Terminology 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References

[edit] Terminology

In the writings of Muslim scholars, the term Nafs (self or soul) was used to denote individual personality and the term fitrah for human nature. Nafs encompassed a broad range of faculties including the qalb (heart), the ruh (spirit), the aql (intellect) and irada (will). Muslim scholarship was strongly influenced by Greek and Indian philosophy as well as by the study of scripture.

In medieval Islamic medicine in particular, the study of "mental illness was a speciality of its own",^[4] and was variously known as al-‘ilaj al-nafs (approximately "curing/treatment of the ideas/soul/vegetative mind),^[5] al-tibb al-ruhani ("the healing of the spirit," or "spiritual health") and tibb al-qalb ("healing of the heart/self," or "mental medicine").^[2]

Some authors have argued that the medieval scientist Alhazen should be considered the founder of psychophysics, and by definition, of experimental psychology.^[6] However, there is no evidence that he used quantitative psychophysical techniques and many of his psychological speculations had been remarked upon previously by other polymaths of the ancient world such as Aristotle, Ptolemy, Lucretius and Euclid.^[7] To apply the term "psychology" to the works of Alhazen is presentist, anachronistic and it has been argued that to do so is boosterist.^[7]

[edit] See also

• Islamic philosophy
• Medicine in the medieval Islamic world
• Ophthalmology in medieval Islam
• Science in medieval Islam

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Haque, Amber (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists", Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357–377, doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z 
• Plott, C. (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Period of Scholasticism, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 8120805518 
• Youssef, Hanafy A.; Youssef, Fatma A.; Dening, T. R. (1996), "Evidence for the existence of schizophrenia in medieval Islamic society", History of Psychiatry 7 (25): 55–62, doi:10.1177/0957154X9600702503, PMID 11609215 

v · d · eMedicine in the medieval Islamic world Physicians 7th century Abu Haftzah Yazid • Bukhtishu • Masarjawaih • Nafi ibn al-Harith • Ibn Abi Ramtha al-Tamimi 8th century Bukhtishu 9th century Albubather • Bukhtishu • Jabril ibn Bukhtishu • Jābir ibn Hayyān • Hunayn ibn Ishaq • Yahya ibn Sarafyun • Al-Kindi • Masawaiyh • Sabur ibn Sahl • Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari • Al-Ruhawi • Yuhanna ibn Bukhtishu 10th century Qusta ibn Luqa • Abu ul-Ala Shirazi • Abul Hasan al-Tabari • Al-Natili • Qumri • Abu Zayd al-Balkhi • Isaac Israeli ben Solomon • Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi • Abu Sahl 'Isa ibn Yahya al-Masihi • Muvaffak • Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi • Ibn Juljul • Al-Zahrawi • Ibn al-Jazzar • Al-Kaŝkarī • Ibn Abi al-Ashʿath • Ibn al-Batriq • Ibrahim ibn Baks 11th century Abu Ubaid Juzjani • Alhazen • Ali ibn Ridwan • Avicenna • Ephraim ibn al-Za'faran • Ibn al-Wafid • Abdollah ibn Bukhtishu • Ibn Butlan • Ibn al-Kattani • Ibn Jazla • Masawaih al-Mardini • Yusuf al-Ilaqi • Ibn Al-Thahabi • Ibn Abi Sadiq • ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Kahhal 12th century Abu al-Bayan ibn al-Mudawwar • Ahmad ibn Farrokh • Ismail Gorgani • Ibn Hubal • Zayn al-Din Gorgani • Maimonides • Serapion the Younger • Ibn Zuhr • Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Israili • Abu Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo • Averroes • Ibn Tufail • Al-Ghafiqi • Ibn Abi al-Hakam • Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi 13th century Sa'ad al-Dawla • Al-Shahrazuri • Rashidun al-Suri • Amin al-Din Rashid al-Din Vatvat • Avraham son of Rambam • Da'ud Abu al-Fadl • Al-Dakhwar • Ibn Abi Usaibia • Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta • Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (medieval writer) • Ibn al-Nafis • Zakariya al-Qazwini • Najib ad-Din-e-Samarqandi • Qotb al-Din Shirazi • Ibn al-Quff 14th century Muhammad ibn Mahmud Amuli • Al-Nagawri • Aqsara'i • Zayn-e-Attar • Mansur ibn Ilyas • Jaghmini • Mas‘ud ibn Muhammad Sijzi • Najm al-Din Mahmud ibn Ilyas al-Shirazi • Nakhshabi • Sadid al-Din al-Kazaruni • Yusuf ibn Ismail al-Kutubi • Ibn al-Khatib • Rashid-al-Din Hamadani 15th century Abu Sa'id al-Afif • Muhammad Ali Astarabadi • Husayni Isfahani • Burhan-ud-din Kermani • Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu • Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Harawi • Nurbakhshi  • Shaykh Muhammad ibn Thaleb 16th century Hakim-e-Gilani • Abul Qasim ibn Mohammed al-Ghassani • Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf Concepts Psychology • Ophthalmology Works The Canon of Medicine • Anatomy Charts of the Arabs • The Book of Healing • Book of the Ten Treatises of the Eye • De Gradibus • Al-Tasrif • Zakhireye Khwarazmshahi • Adab al-Tabib ("Practical Ethics of the Physician") Centers Bimaristan • Nur al-Din Bimaristan • Al-'Adudi Influences Ancient Greek medicine Influenced Medical Renaissance

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