Sa'd Ibn Kammūna al-Baghdādī

Saʿd ibn Manṣūr ibn Saʿd ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Hibat Allāh Ibn Kammūna al-Baghdādī was a Jewish philosopher who presumably held an administrative office in the Il-Khanid state. He was presumably born in Baghdad and spent most, if not all, of his life there. Nothing is known about his early life and education, and much of his biography can only hypothetically be reconstructed. Born into a Jewish family, he must have received a thorough education in both Jewish and Islamic letters, as is evident from the erudition of his writings in both fields. His knowledge of Jewish religious literature is apparent from his treatise on the differences between the Rabbanites and Karaites and from his Tanqīḥ al-Abḥāth li-l-Milal al-Thalāth (An Examination into the Inquiries of the Three Faiths), a work of interreligious theology. Ibn Kammūna may also have studied Islamic literature formally with scholarly teachers, although for the field of philosophy he states that he was self-taught in his Maqāla fī l-Taṣdīq bi-anna Nafs al-Insān Bāqiya Abadan (Treatise Confirming That the Human Soul Remains Forever).

Following the completion of his commentary on the illuminationist philosopher Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī’s (d. 1191) al-Talwīḥāt (The Intimations) at the beginning of 1268, Ibn Kammūna seems to have benefited from the patronage of the family of the ṣāḥib al-dīwān (finance minister) Shams al-Dīn al-Juwaynī (d. 1284). During the period in which the Juwaynī family occupied the leading bureaucratic positions in the state, Ibn Kammūna apparently had a high-ranking post in their administration. A reliable indication of this is his title ʿizz al-dawla (glory of the dynasty). It is further supported by the repeated statements in his writings that he was engaged in some professional activity which was in complete contrast to his scholarship. Moreover, there is no evidence that he was ever a regular teacher at any of the madrasas in Baghdad, and we do not know of any students who studied with him. He may, however, have occasionally lectured informally on philosophy, especially toward the end of his life. The chronicler Ibn al-Fuwaṭī (d. 1323) mentions for 1284 that “he was sought by many people who wished to profit by his instruction.”

According to a report by the anonymous author of the historical work al-Hawādith al-Jāmiʿa, Ibn Kammūna was persecuted in 1284 for having written the Examination of the Three Faiths, which he completed in 1280. He was able to flee to Hilla, where his son was an official, and that is where he died sometime after this event. The interval between the completion of the book and the riot that made him take flight suggests that there were other factors leading to the persecution. Sometime before the incident, on October 16, 1284, Ṣāḥib al-Dīwān al-Juwaynī and several of his sons were executed, and it is likely that the immediate cause for the persecution of Ibn Kammūna was the execution of his patrons.

Ibn Kammūna was in contact with many of the Muslim scholars and philosophers of his time. He twice wrote to Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274) seeking answers to philosophical problems. Of the first exchange, only Ṭūsī’s reply is available; in it he addresses Ibn Kammūna as “the devoted propagandist” (Ar. al-dāʿī al-mukhliṣ). In the second round of correspondence, Ṭūsī addresses Ibn Kammūna respectfully as “the excellent sage, most clever of the centuries and most singular of the time” (Ar. al-ḥakīm al-fāḍil akyas al-aqrān wa-awḥad al-zamān). Another Muslim scholar Ibn Kammūna corresponded with twice on problems of logic was Najm al-Dīn al-Dabīrān al-Kātibī (d. 1277). From the terms of address used in these exchanges it is evident that the two regarded each other as colleagues of equal standing. Ibn Kammūna also corresponded with Maytham ibn Maytham al-Baḥrānī (d. 1300), a Twelver Shīʿī scholar teaching in Hilla, and he had written exchanges with a certain Fakhr al-Dīn al-Kāshī and with Ibn al-Fuwaṭī.

Modern scholars have debated the question of whether Ibn Kammūna converted to Islam at some stage of his life. In the Examination, completed some four years before his death, his loyalty to Judaism is beyond doubt, and his critical attitude toward Islam is equally clear. For a variety of reasons, some scholars have argued nevertheless that Ibn Kammūna converted to Islam even before he composed the work. Moritz Steinschneider considered the eulogies for the Prophet Muḥammad in the Examination to be clear indications that the author had become a Muslim. Another scholar who took as a historical fact Ibn Kammūna’s conversion to Islam prior to the composition of the Examination was Carl Brockelmann (GALS 1/431). He was evidently misled by the confusion in the card catalogue of the Süleymanie Library in Istanbul between al-Samawʾal al-Maghribī (d. 1175), the Jewish convert to Islam who wrote the anti-Jewish polemical treatise Ifḥām al-Yahūd (Silencing the Jews), and Ibn Kammūna. The catalogue ascribed to Ibn Kammūna the correspondence between Samawʾal and an anonymous accuser who doubted the sincerity of his conversion (preserved in MS. Fatih 3141/2). The entry in the card catalogue of the Süleymanie Library was doubtless Brockelmann’s source, for he ascribes the correspondence preserved in MS. Fatih 3141/2 to Ibn Kammūna. Brockelmann also states that Ibn Kammūna composed the Examination following his conversion to Islam. He was evidently unfamiliar with the text. Ibn Kammūna and al-Samawʾal are also confused in MS. Köprülü 1612, containing Ibn Kammūna’s independent philosophical summa, al-Jadīd fī ʾl-Ḥikma (The New Wisdom), copied in 1291-92 by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ibrāhīm al-Māridānī in Baghdad. The title page states that “he converted to Islam before his death and composed the book Silencing the Jews” (Ar. aslama qabla mawtihi wa-ṣannafa Kitāb Ifḥām al-Yahūd).

These two cases of confusion between Ibn Kammūna and al-Samawʾal notwithstanding, the majority of Muslim scholars and scribes either considered him to have been Jewish, as can be seen from epithets such as “al-Yahūdī” or “al-Isrāʾīlī,” or else felt that the question was of no concern, as is indicated by the numerous “neutral” title pages and colophons. It cannot be decided conclusively whether Ibn Kammūna did or did not, at some stage, convert to Islam. Yet the evidence against conversion seems to be stronger than the evidence suggesting it. On the basis of the Examination, his personal convictions on Judaism and Islam are beyond doubt. Another indicator against conversion is that he is invariably called ʿIzz al-Dawla by virtually all later scholars and scribes. Had he ever converted to Islam during his professional life, his title would have been modified to ʿIzz al-Dīn (glory of the religion) or ʿIzz al-Dawla wa-l-Dīn.

2. His Writings

Ibn Kammūna was first and foremost a philosopher, and most of his writings are within this discipline. Among his earliest writings on philosophy are three tracts devoted to the soul in which he formulated his peculiar notion of the pre-eternity of the human soul, Maqāla fī l-Taṣdīq bi-anna Nafs al-Insān Bāqiya Abadan, Maqāla fī anna Wujūd al-Nafs Abadī wa-Baqāʾahā Sarmadī, and Maqāla fī anna l-Nafs laysat bi-Mizāj al-Badan wa-lā Kāʾina ʿan Mizāj al-Badan. Two additional concise early tracts are his al-Maṭālib al-Muhimma and Taqrīb al-Maḥajja wa-Tahdhīb al-Ḥujja, both completed in 1259. Sometime before 1268, Ibn Kammūna wrote glosses on the critical remarks of Kātibī on Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s (d. 1209) Kitāb al-Maʿālim fī ʾl-Uṣūlayn, and in 1268 he completed his most popular work, his commentary on Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī’s al-Talwīḥāt. Four years later, in 1273, he completed a commentary on the al-Ishārāt wa lTanbīhāt (Remarks and Admonitions) of Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), but it apparently did not circulate widely, as may be inferred from the comparatively few extant manuscripts. In 1278, Ibn Kammūna completed his most extensive independent treatise on philosophy, which later circulated under the titles al-Kāshif and al-Jadīd fī ʾl-Ḥikma, and sometime before December 1279, Ibn Kammūna composed his Kalimāt Wajīza Mushtamila ʿalā Nukat Laṭīfa fī ʾl-ʿIlm wa-l-ʿAmal (known also under the titles al-Lumʿa al-Juwayniyya fī ʾl-Ḥikma al-ʿIlmiyya wa ʾl-ʿAmaliyya and Risāla fī l-ʿIlm wa ʾl-ʿAmal). His last work was a brief treatise on philosophy and/or theology, possibly entitled Risāla fī l-Kalām. Apart from this, Ibn Kammūna composed two works that may be described as belonging to the genre of interreligious theology—a treatise on the differences between the Rabbanites and Karaites, which cannot be dated, and his famous Examination of the Three Faiths. Ibn Kammūna’s authorship of the following works, by contrast, is rather doubtful: Kitāb fī ʾl-Manṭiq wa-l-Ṭabīʿa wa-mā baʿdahā, al-Kāfī al-Kabīr fī ʾl-Kuḥl, and al-Tadhkira fī ʾl-kīmiyā.

3. Reception

Ibn Kammūna was one of the most popular and influential philosophers in the Eastern lands of Islam both during his lifetime and in the decades following his death. His commentary on Suhrawardī’s al-Talwīḥātwas most often copied and read, followed by his independent philosophical work al-Jadīd fī l-Ḥikma. The most immediate influence of his philosophical writings and notions was on his younger contemporary Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Shīrāzī (d. 1311). The latter’s Durrat al-Tāj li-Ghurrat al-Dubāj, written in Persian and completed between 1294 and 1306, most especially testifies to the profound impact of Ibn Kammūna on Quṭb al-Dīn. The sections dealing with first philosophy, physics, and metaphysics are, in fact, verbatim translations of Ibn Kammūna’s al-Jadīd fī ʾl-Ḥikma. Another noteworthy example is Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Dawānī (d. 1502), who used a wide range of writings by Ibn Kammūna. There is very little indication that philosophers who came after Dawānī used any work by Ibn Kammūna other than his commentary on Suhrawardī’s al-Talwīḥāt. It also seems that after Dawānī most scholars no longer learned of Ibn Kammūna through his own writings, but mostly through secondary sources. The most important sources for the later reception of Ibn Kammūna were the writings of Dawānī and, to some extent, of Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, although later philosophers were often no longer aware that Ibn Kammūna had influenced Quṭb al-Dīn.

In contrast to his philosophical writings, Ibn Kammūna’s Examination was never given much attention in the Islamic world and remained unknown to many scholars. Compared with the number of manuscripts of Ibn Kammūna’s philosophical works, there are few extant copies of the Examination transcribed by Muslims. A further indication of how little attention the work received in the Muslim world is the fact that the two tracts known to have been written to refute it are lost, Muẓaffar al-Dīn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. al-Saʿātī al-Baghdādī’s (d. 1294–95) al-Durr al-manḍūd fī ʾl-Radd ʿalā Faylasūf al-Yahūd and the Nuhūḍ Ḥathīth al-Nuhūd ilā Duḥūḍ Khabīth al-Yahūd of Zayn al-Dīn Sarījā b. Muḥammad al-Malaṭī (d. 1386–87). The only extant Muslim reaction to the Tanqīḥ is a comparatively brief treatise by an anonymous author that was apparently composed sometime in the fourteenth century. The only other extant refutation of Ibn Kammūna’s Examination was written by a Christian (presumably a Jacobite), Ibn al-Maḥrūma, who around 1333 composed lengthy glosses (ḥawāshī) on the chapters dealing with Judaism and Christianity. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the Examination came to the attention of Āqā Muḥammad ʿAlī Bihbihānī(d. 1801). Shortly before his death, he completed a polemical work against Judaism and Christianity. A comparison of his Rādd-i Shubuhāt al-Kuffār and the Examination reveals not only that the overall structure of Bihbihānī’s work is modeled on Ibn Kammūna’s Examination but that both the introduction and the first three chapters of the Rādd are, to a great extent, translations of extensive portions of the Tanqīḥ, although Bihbihānī does not explicitly mention either the title of the work or its author.

Compared with the significance of Ibn Kammūna’s philosophical writings and thought for the later development of philosophy among Muslims, the reception of his writings in Jewish circles was limited. The extant manuscripts of his writings in Hebrew characters indicate that three of his philosophical works were copied and read by later generations of Jews: Maqāla fī ʾl-Taṣdīq bi-anna Nafs al-Insān Bāqiya abadan, al-Maṭālib al-Muhimma, and his commentary on Suhrawardī’s Talwīḥāt. The same applies to his two comparative works. There is, so far, only one case of a later Jewish thinker who is known to have studied Ibn Kammūna’s writings and to have used them in his own writings, David ben Joshua Maimonides (ca. 1335–1410).

Sabine Schmidtke

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Cite this page

Sabine Schmidtke. "Ibn Kammūna, Saʿd." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>