Hayy ibn Yaqdhan

Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān (Arabic: حي بن يقظان‎, lit. 'Alive, son of Awake') is an Arabic philosophical novel and an allegorical tale written by Ibn Tufail in the early 12th century.[1] The name by which the book is also known include the Latin: Philosophus Autodidactus ('The Self-Taught Philosopher'); and English: The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan.

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
AuthorIbn Tufail
Original titleحي بن يقظان
GenrePhilosophy

Concepts

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan is an allegorical novel in which Ibn Tufail expresses philosophical and mystical teachings in a symbolic language in order to provide better understanding of such concepts. This novel is thus the most important work of Ibn Tufail's, containing the main ideas that form his system.

With this novel, Tufail focuses on finding solutions of the three main problems discussed during his period:[2]

  1. Human, by his or her own, is able to reach the level of al-Insān al-Kāmil by merely observing and thinking of the nature, without any education.
  2. The information that is obtained through observation, experiment, and reasoning, does not contradict with revelation. In other words, religion and philosophy (or science) are compatible, rather than contradictory.
  3. Reaching the absolute information is individual and simply any human being is able to achieve that.

Plot

The story revolves around Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, a little boy who grew up on an island in the Indies under the equator, isolated from the people, in the bosom of an antelope that raised him feeding him with her milk. Ḥayy has just learned to walk; imitating the sounds of antelopes, birds, and other animals in his surrounding, he learns the languages of the animals around him; and he learns to guide himself to the actions of animals by imitating their instinct.

He makes his own shoes and clothes from the skins of the animal, studies the stars, till he reaches a higher level of knowledge of the finest of astrologist. His continuous explorations and observation of creatures and environment led him to gain great knowledge in natural science, philosophy and religion. He will conclude that, at the basis of the creation of the universe, a great creator must exist. Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān lived a humble modest life as Sufi and forbade himself from eating meat.

Once 30 years old, he meets the first human, landed on his isolated Island. By the age of 49, he will be ready to teach other people about the knowledge he gained throughout his life.

Translations

English translations

In chronological order, with translators names:

  • Ockley, Simon. 1708. The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan. London: E. Powell.
    • Directly translated from the original Arabic, with an appendix in which the possibility of man's attaining the true knowledge of God, and things necessary to salvation, without instruction, is briefly considered.
  • — 1929. The History of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan (revised ed.), with an introduction by A. S. Fulton. London: Chapman & Hall.
  • Goodman, Lenn Evan. 1972. Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzān: A Philosophical Tale, translated with introduction and notes by L. E. Goodman. New York: Twayne.
  • Kocache, Riad. 1982. The journey of the soul: the story of Hai bin Yaqzan. London: Octagon.
  • Colville, Jim. 1999. Two Andalusian Philosophers, with an introduction and notes by J. Colville. London: Kegan Paul.
  • Khalidi, Muhammad Ali, ed. 2005. Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings. Cambridge University Press.
    • Omits the introductory section; omits the conclusion beginning with the protagonist's acquaintance with Asal; and includes §§1-98 of 121 as numbered in the Ockley version.

Other translations
  • Dutch: Reelant, Adriaan. 1701. De natuurlijke wijsgeer. Netherlands: Willem Lamsveld.
  • German: Schaerer, Patric O. 2004. Der Philosoph als Autodidakt. Hamburg: Meiner. ISBN 978-3-7873-1797-4
  • German: Abdeljelil, Jameleddine Ben, and Viktoria Frysak, eds. 2007. Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan. Ein muslimischer Inselroman. Vienna: Edition Viktoria. ISBN 978-3-902591-01-2.
  • Modern Greek: Kalligas, Pavlos. 2018. Ο δρόμος του λόγου: Χάυυ Ιμπν Γιακζάν ή Τα μυστικά της φιλοσοφίας της Ανατολής. Athens: Ekkremes Publishing House. 264. ISBN 978-618-5076-22-1.

See also

References
  1. Kukkonen, Taneli (November 2016). "Ibn Ṭufayl's (d. 1185) Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓan". In El-Rouayheb, Khaled; Schmidtke, Sabine (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  2. Özalp, N. Ahmet. Hay bin Yakzan. Yapı Kredi Yayınları. ISBN 975-363-475-7.
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