Isagoge: A Classical Primer on Logic

by Feryal Salem, Feryal Elif Salem

Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī’s (d. 663/1265) Isagoge is one of the most important logic texts produced in the Islamicate world; this concise summary ( matn ) outlines the basic elements of logic and includes topics such as the identification of proper definitions, valid syllogisms, and logical fallacies. It has been an essential text of school curricula since its inception in the thirteenth century, making it one of the oldest works in continual use since its dissemination.

This edition of the Isagoge contains the complete vocalized Arabic text with facing English translation. This is followed by extensive commentary, including helpful diagrams and tables, that makes it an indispensable book for scholars and students of Arabic logic and those seeking to engage with classical Islamic texts.

Feryal Salem’s (PhD, University of Chicago, 2013) translation and commentary on the Isagoge make this otherwise dense text accessible to the reader.

Genres: Logic, Islam

168 pages, Paperback

Published February 19, 2022

Reviews

[адэм · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains both the Arabic + English translations along with accompanying commentary notes. The translator demonstrates great familiarity with both Western and Islamic logic traditions through a cross examination of influential texts and how they articulated the art of reasoning. I found their explanations for renditioning various terms from the original Arabic versus previous translations of Isagoge insightful to how the Muslim traditional, contrary to popular myth, didnt just copy logic texts but built off of them with new terminologies and divisions not mentioned by the likes of Aristotle.

Take for example the term istithnā'ī in relation to al-qiyas al-istithnā'ī or the "selective syllogism": a literal translation would render the term as a syllogism of "exclusion" or "exception". This wouldn't be accurate to how the author Imam al-Abhari actually uses the term istithnā'ī in the text however. We're taken into an exploration of how early translations of Greek texts, like Aristotle's Die Interpretation by Ishaq b. Hunayn translated prostithēmi, "to add", into istithnā'. Istithnā' is also translated as iḍāfa and zāda in different areas. Other translations render the Greek term prosdiorismos meaning "further condition" as istithnā'. There's further discussion on the word's root letters likely meaning th-n-y or "to duplicate", commentaries on the Isagoge, and how this type of syllogism functions in contrast to the correlative syllogism (qiyās al-iqtirānī). Overall cool to see the progress of terms from Greek -> Arabic translations into their own contextually evolved usages in logic texts.

The glossary also lists the Arabic terminology and its English counterparts which is useful for familiarity.

Solid read although a bit difficult to follow in some areas where the explanation wasn't as clear as I'd like it to be, especially for a logic primer.

[Serine · Rating 4 out of 5]

great one.