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Book/Printed Material Tract on the Methods of Enquiry.

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About this Item

Title

  • Tract on the Methods of Enquiry.

Summary

  • This short tract on dialectics is attributed to Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ashraf al-Husayni al-Samarqandi, a 13th-century logician, mathematician, and astronomer, whose biography is not well known. His name, however, suggests he was from Samarqand in present-day Uzbekistan. It was largely this tract-his major work on logic and the subject of several commentaries-that established him as a logician. The tract is comprised of three parts. The first is dedicated to the definition of a number of concepts, including munazarah (comparison), dalil (evidence), taʻlil (reasoning), and muʻaradah (rebuttal). In the second part, the author employs these concepts to lay out a theoretical framework for reasoning. The third part includes three masaʼil (propositions) pertaining to the concept of necessary and possible kinds of existence; issues that engaged earlier kalam (literally, the science of debate) theologians as well. The tract, overall, is a discussion of the methods of intellectual investigation and reasoning used by earlier Muslim and Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle and Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Al-Samarqandi also wrote works on astronomy, theology, and mathematics. His Kitāb ashkāl al-ta'sīs (Book on the fundamental theorems), a summary of 35 fundamental propositions of Euclid's geometry, is also well regarded among mathematicians.

Names

  • Samarqandī, Muḥammad ibn Ashraf, 13th century Author.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1250 to 1299]

Headings

  • -  Uzbekistan
  • -  1250 to 1299
  • -  Arabic manuscripts
  • -  Logic
  • -  Naskh script
  • -  Philosophy

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  "This copy is bound with Tamḥiṣ al-talkhiṣ (Critical examination of the summary of al-Qazwini), a work on Arabic rhetoric by al-Aqhisari (1544--1616)."--Note extracted from World Digital Library.
  • -  Original resource extent: 23 folios.
  • -  Original resource at: Wellcome Library.
  • -  Content in Arabic.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021667396

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Samarqandī, Muḥammad Ibn Ashraf, 13Th Century Author. Tract on the Methods of Enquiry. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1299, 1250] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667396/.

APA citation style:

Samarqandī, M. I. A. (1250) Tract on the Methods of Enquiry. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1299] [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667396/.

MLA citation style:

Samarqandī, Muḥammad Ibn Ashraf, 13Th Century Author. Tract on the Methods of Enquiry. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1299, 1250] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021667396/>.