Table of Contents

 

Introductory material

Introductory material of Book One, Kitab al 'Ibar

Preliminary Remarks

Chapter I

Human civilization in general

Chapter II

Bedouin civilization, savage nations and tribes and their conditions of life, including several basic and explanatory statements

Chapter III

On dynasties, royal authority, the caliphate, government ranks, and all that goes with these things. The chapter contains basic and supplementary propositions

Chapter IV

Countries and cities, and all other forms of sedentary civilization. The conditions occurring there. Primary and secondary considerations in this connection

Chapter V

On the various aspects of making a living, such as profit and the crafts. The conditions that occur in this connection. A number of problems are connected with this subject

Chapter VI

The various kinds of sciences. The methods of instruction. The conditions that obtain in these connections. The chapter includes a prefatory discussion and appendices

1

Man's ability to think

2

The world of the things that come into being as the result of action, materializes through thinking

3

The experimental intellect and how it comes into being

4

The sciences (knowledge) of human beings and the sciences (knowledge) of angels

5

The sciences (knowledge) of the prophets

6

Man is essentially ignorant, and becomes learned through acquiring knowledge

7

Scientific instruction is a craft

8

The sciences are numerous only where civilization is large and sedentary culture highly developed

9

The various sciences that exist in contemporary civilization

10

The Qur'anic sciences of Qur'an interpretation and Qur'an reading Qur'an interpretation

11

The sciences concerned with Prophetic traditions

12

Jurisprudence and its subdivision, inheritance laws  B The science of inheritance laws

13

The science of the principles of jurisprudence and its subdivisions, dialectics and controversial questions

14

The science of speculative theology

15

An exposition of ambiguity in the Quran and the Sunnah and of the resulting dogmatic schools among both the orthodox and the innovators

16

The science of Sufism

17

The science of dream interpretation

18

The various kinds of intellectual sciences

19

The sciences concerned with numbers. The craft of calculation. Algebra. Business arithmetic. Inheritance laws

20

The geometrical sciences. Spherical, figures, conic sections, and mechanics. - Surveying. Optics.

21

Astronomy. Astronomical tables

22

The science of logic

23

Physics

24

The science of medicine

25

The science of agriculture

26

The science of metaphysics

27

The sciences of sorcery and talismans. The evil eye

28

The science of the secrets of letters. The Za'irajah. On learning hidden secrets from letter connections

29

The science of alchemy

30

A refutation of philosophy. The corruption of the students of philosophy

31

A refutation of astrology. The weakness of its achievements. The harmfulness of its goal

32

A denial of the effectiveness of alchemy. The impossibility of its existence. The harm that arises from practicing it

33

The purposes that must be kept in mind in literary composition and that alone are to be considered valid

34

The great number of scholarly works available is an obstacle on the path to attaining scholarship

35

The great number of brief handbooks available on scholarly subjects is detrimental to the process of instruction

36

The right attitude in scientific instruction and toward the method of giving such instruction

37

Study of the auxiliary sciences should not be prolonged, and their problems should not be treated in detail

38

The instruction of children and the different methods employed in the Muslim cities

39

Severity to students does them harm

40

A scholar's education is greatly improved by traveling in quest of knowledge and meeting the authoritative teachers of his time

41

Scholars are, of all people, those least familiar with the ways of politics

42

Most of the scholars in Islam have been non-Arabs (Persians)

43

A person whose first language was not Arabic finds it harder than the native speaker of Arabic to acquire the sciences

44

The sciences concerned with the Arabic language    319 Grammar, 320. - The science of lexicography, 325. - The science of syntax and style and literary criticism, 332. - The science of literature,

45

Language is a technical habit

46

Contemporary Arabic is an independent language different from the languages of the Mudar and the Himyar

47

The language of the sedentary and urban population is an in­dependent language d fferent from the language of the Mudar

48

Instruction in the Mudar language

49

The habit of the Mudar language is different from Arabic philology and can dispense with it in the process of instruction

50

The interpretation and real meaning of the word "taste" ac­cording to the technical terminology of literary critics. An explanation of why Arabicized non-Arabs as a rule do not have it

51

The urban population is in general d fcient in obtaining the linguistic habit that results from instruction. The more remote urban people are from the Arabic language, the more difficult it is for them to obtain it

52

The division of speech into poetry and prose

53

The ability to write both good poetry and good prose is only very rarely found together in one person

54

The craft of poetry and the way of learning it

55

Poetry and prose work with words, and not with ideas

56

The linguistic habit is obtained by much. memorizing. The good quality of the linguistic habit is the result of the good quality of the memorized material

57

An explanation of the meaning of natural and contrived speech. How contrived speech may be either good or de cient

58

People of rank are above cultivating poetry

59

Contemporary Arab poetry, Bedouin and urban The Spanish muwashshabahs and zajals

Concluding Remarks

Selected Bibliography, Walter J. Fischel