A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad

For a long time, the study of the life and work of the Jewish thinker ʿIzz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284) remained limited to a very small number of texts. Interest in Ibn Kammūna in the Western Christian world dates back to the 17th century, when Barthélemy d’Herbelot (1624-1695) included information on two of Ibn Kammūna’s works – his examination of the three faiths (Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth li-l-milal al-thalāt), i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and his commentary on Avicenna’s al-Ishārāt wa l-tanbīhāt – in his Bibliothèque orientale. Subsequent generations of Western scholars were focused on Ibn Kammūna’s Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth, whereas his fame in the Eastern lands of Islam was based exclusively on his philosophical writings. These include a commentary on the Kitāb al-Talwīḥāt by the founder of Illumationist philosophy, Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191) and numerous independent works on philosophy and logic.