9

C and D: wa-dhalika anna.

10

Cf. 3:275, below. With its component parts inverted, the statement appears in at-Tabari, Firdaws al-hikmah, ed. M. Z. Siddiqi, p. 6; Ibn Qutaybah, Adab al-katib, ed. M. Grunert (Leiden, 1901), pp. 4 f.; as­Samaw'al al-Maghribi, al-Bahir, MS. Istanbul, Aya Sofya, 2718, fol. 26b. The first half of the statement is found in Pseudo-Majriti, Ghayah, ed. H. Ritter, p. 319, and in Ibn Sina, Ta'liqat 'aid hawashi Kitab an-Nafs li-Aristu, ed. 'Abd-ar-Rahman Badawi, in Aristu 'inda l-'Arab (Cairo, 1947), p. 112. A related remark appears in the Theology of Aristotle, ed. F. Dieterici (Leipzig, 1882), p. 11. Further references in M. Steinschneider, Gesammelte Schriften (Berlin, 1925), I, 62.

Some of the authors who quote the statement ascribe it to the Sage or the Philosopher, and, in fact, it goes back to Aristotle. In the Eudemian Ethics 12276 32 f., Aristotle says: "Thus, the End is the beginning of thinking, but the conclusion of thinking is (the beginning) of action." This statement is quoted by loannes Philoponus in his commentary on Aristotle Physics 200' 22-24; see the ed. Vitelli (Berlin, 1887), p. 336: Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, XVI. There it is followed by a statement almost exactly corresponding to the Arabic quotation: "Theory starts where action ends, and action starts where theory ends." * Cf. In Cat., pp. 115 ff. Busse.

Moreover, in De anima 433' 16 f., speaking about appetite, Aristotle says: "The terminal point (of the practical intellect) is the beginning of action." In his commentary on De anima, loannes Philoponus succinctly explains this as "The end of the intellect is the beginning of action" (ed. Hayduck, Berlin, 1897, p. 585: Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, XV). This corresponds to the form of the statement we find in Ibn Sina and Pseudo-Majriti.

The entire passage is based upon an idea that we find developed, for in­stance, by Simplicius in his Commentary on the Categories, ed. Kalbfleisch (Berlin, 1907), p. 14: Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, VIII. Simplicius states that theory and practice proceed in opposite directions, since theory proceeds from the end to the beginning, and practice from the beginning to the end. Theory realizes that man needs a house as a shelter, that a house cannot be built without walls, that walls need foundations, and that foundations require an excavation. Now, practice starts with the excavation, etc. It remains to be investigated through which intermediary this material from Simplicius (and other introductions to Aristotelian philosophy that were translated into Arabic) reached Ibn Khaldun, Averroes was probably, one of them. Cf. S. M. Stem, in Journal of Sent. Studies, VII (1962), 234-52.

11

Cf. Issawi, pp. 166 f.

12

Al-hawadith: D.

13

Qur'an 2.30 (28)

14

Cf. Qur'an 17.70 (72).