Najm al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī al-Kātibī

Najm al-Dīn al-Qazwīnī al-Kātibī (died AH 675 / 1276 CE) was a Persian Islamic philosopher and logician of the Shafi`i school.^[1] A student of Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī.^[1] His most important works are a treatise on logic, Al-Risala al-Shamsiyya, and one on metaphysics and the natural sciences, Hikmat al-'Ain.^[2]

He helped establish the Maragha observatory along with Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and several other astronomers.^[1]

Logic

His work on logic, the al-Risāla al-Shamsiyya (Logic for Shams al-Dīn), was commonly used as the first major text on logic in madrasahs, right down until the twentieth century and is "perhaps the most studied logic textbook of all time".^[3] Al-Katibi's logic was largely inspired by the formal Avicennian system of temporal modal logic, but is more elaborate and departs from it in several ways. While Avicenna considered ten modalities and examined six of them, al-Katibi considers many more modalized propositions and examines thirteen which he considers 'customary to investigate'.^[4]

See also

• Logic in Islamic philosophy
• Avicennian logic

References

1. Mohaghegh, M. (1978). "al-Kātibī, Najm al-Dīn Abu'l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. ʿUmar". In E. van Donzel; et al. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. 4 (New ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 762a–b. ISBN 90-04-05745-5.
2. Page 227 of al-Rahim, Ahmed H. (2003). "The Twelver Si'i Reception of Avicenna in the Mongol Period". In David C. Reisman; Ahmed H. al-Rahim. Before and After Avicenna: Proceedings of the First Conference of the Avicenna Study Group. Islamic philosophy, theology and science: texts and studies. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-12978-8.
3. Street, Tony (2005). "Logic". In Peter Adamson; Richard C. Taylor. The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 247–265, 247 & 250. ISBN 978-0-521-52069-0.
4. Tony Street (2000), "Toward a History of Syllogistic After Avicenna: Notes on Rescher's Studies on Arabic Modal Logic", Journal of Islamic Studies, 11 (2): 209–228