The Golden Islamic Age: Who was Al-Kindi, the founder of Arab philosophy, and what were his contributions to science?


The name Kundi refers to the membership of the Arab tribe Kanda. Kundi's genealogy traces its origins to Al-Ishaat bin Qais, an early convert to Islam and a friend of the Prophet of Islam. Al-Kindi's father was a prince of Kufa and he was born into a wealthy and high-ranking family. He received the title of "Arab Philosopher", which also indicates that he laid the foundation of philosophy in Arabic.




This is a title that is also true because there was no such thing as philosophy in Arabic before Al-Kandi. We know that Al-Kindi's tendency towards philosophy was not very popular among his peers. Let's sketch a scene for a moment.

This scene is from the book market in Baghdad in 850 AD, where book lovers are looking very excited. The reason for this was the launch of the book by Jahz, a popular prose writer, theologian and author of many famous books.

His rival writers were also present on the occasion to learn about the contents of the latest book, The Father of Arabic Prose.

Abu Usman Amr Bahr al-Kanani al-Basri aka Jahez's last two books, Kitab al-Bayaan wa al-Tabeen and the seven-volume Kitab al-Hayawan were not only among the most popular books of the last decade but also because of them Left

The Book of the Beast became especially popular, and even Aristotle's great work seemed obsolete to Jahez. Until a few years ago, no one wanted to read anything other than a translation of Aristotle's work. Aristotle's books on metaphysics and metaphors were very popular and he was a fan of his wisdom.

Now, however, because of Jahez, readers wanted to read books on theological controversies.

The publisher of Jahez had announced that he would discuss in his latest book the topics that had confused the best minds in Iraq at that time, namely, "Did God create the best world? If he could create a better world, why didn't he? And does the presence of evil mean that there is no God? '

When this book of Jahez was published, grief and anger were expressed against it and it was declared beyond comprehension. It spread like wildfire. Jahez named this book Kitab al-Bakhla. What does a person present there have to do with the problems of an evil person?

Everyone said that this old man had lost his senses due to illness. One malicious opponent said that no one understood what he had written.

However, when people started reading this book, it was actually a kind of humor in which the etiquette of the society and a few people were satirized.

Its pages were full of details about contemporaries. Some of these characters may have been renamed. The mob began to compete with each other in an attempt to identify the characters in the literal sketches provided by Jahez.

People started asking each other:

Wait, wait, it also mentions Alkandi!

said what? The "Arab philosopher" Al-Kandi?

Yes, it's just Alkandi!

So let us know what it says about Alkandi.

This is a long story told by a religious scholar who has been a tenant of Alkandi for some time.

At one point the temple had to accommodate two guests for a month. Al-Kandi increased his rent by 33% for this month. Kundi argued that the presence of two extra people in the house, even if only for a month, puts a burden on the owner in terms of logical steps and cause and effect theory.

According to him, this puts a strain on local drains and increases the demand for drinking water. The landlord suffers financially because the value of his property goes down and no one wants to live here for rent in the future.

This also seems to be Al-Kindi's argument.

Listen, it must be Alkandi.

There are also words like, "If you kill the desire as it emerges, I can guarantee you a happy future." Al-Kandi will not be happy to see his moral ideology being ridiculed in this way.

The caliph's move to write a book on philosophy came as a surprise to many, as he was hailed as one of the strongest men in the empire, a general who would break someone's brain with his hand. Perhaps al-Mu'tasim also wanted to increase his mental abilities after spending his entire life on the battlefield.

Al-Kindi's library and his bad days

Al-Kindi's bad days came during the reign of the Caliph al-Mutawakil (847-861) and his connections with the elite and his birth into a wealthy family did not bring him much benefit. Baghdad was a highly competitive society during the Khilafah era. An important area of   competition here was science.

Al-Kindi's famous mathematicians of the time were not made up of the Banu Musa brothers, who had the full support of the caliph. He persuaded the caliph to hurt Kundi where he was most vulnerable, that is, to take his library from him.

Without the library, Kundi would not be able to function like any other scholar, but a turning point in this story was yet to come and the time had come for the Banu Musa brothers to be punished.

One of the caliph's responsibilities was to run his empire properly, including the management of various complex canals and waterways that ran through major Iraqi cities. An incompetent engineer was hired by the Banu Musa brothers for a canal project. It so happened that the plan failed miserably and only a friend of Alkandi could have saved it.

From here, Banu Musa fell in the eyes of Bhai Khalifa and thus he got the library of Al-Kandi. During the ninth century, there was no shortage of polytheists in Iraq. However, even in such an era, Al-Kindi's expertise and intelligence in various disciplines increased his importance and status.

His autobiographers have released about 300 documents covering his work on science and philosophy.

Al-Kindi was not only a great philosopher but also had a practical significance of his work which could be used in the military field as well.

His glass work was used as a weapon by the caliph's army. He also worked on different types of swords and iron and gave specific instructions on their use and also explained how to make the best weapons from them.

He also researched ocean tides, thunderstorms, and other meteorological trends. He did research on animals and flies, and his perfumes and distance measurements are also popular. He also worked on politics and ethics and compiled a collection of Socrates' sayings. Al-Kandi also wrote on dealing with grief and sadness and on governance.

He also did research on the soul and his work on religious conflicts with non-Islamic groups. He also worked on astronomy, astronomy, cosmology, medicine, mathematics, geometry, arithmetic, circles and music. He also worked on logic, logic and philosophy.

He also examined what the curriculum of philosophy should be, the order of Aristotle's books and his own most comprehensive work, The First Philosophy.

From anyone's point of view, this is definitely a very impressive list. However, time has not been kind to Al-Kindi's library for a long time. We have lost most of the work done by this productive and intelligent thinker.

Al-Kindi's most popular work is on First Philosophy. Only the first part of his book has been preserved and it has been further divided into four parts. Each section deals with a different topic.


The first part speaks in favor of and in defense of philosophy. It should be noted that Al-Kandi was introducing philosophy in Arabic, so it is clear that there were opponents to his views on philosophy.

The second part refutes the philosophical view that the world is eternal and therefore does not need a creator to bring it into being.

The third section deals with the true meaning of monotheism, while the fourth section deals with the oneness of God, saying that its existence cannot be described in detail, that is, in other words, it is indescribable.

These four themes represent Al-Kindi's four main philosophical concerns. The remaining fragments and sayings of his work indicate one of his favorite subjects and that is Lordship. That is to say, Al-Kandi would be "obscure" to the famous philosophical question about the nature of creation, which most people in the 850's kept asking. Yes, the world is the best, man just needs to understand it properly and the clues to understand it can be found in Al-Kindi's philosophical system.

These important topics were his favorite, his philosophical "obsession" and he talks about these topics again and again. Such as the need for philosophy, the creation of the universe, the meaning of oneness, the indescribable nature of God, and the Lordship.

They see philosophy as a special kind of piety through which the educated elite can enter heaven by correcting their lives.

Their themes revolve primarily around Islamic ideology. For him, there is no conflict between philosophy and religion. For al-Kandi, philosophy is the highest level of religious speculation and philosophy is in line with the revelation revealed in the Qur'an.

But why was it called the First Philosopher? Perhaps the reason is that this book was about the oneness of God. The first cause that runs through everything. And why does God come first? In the same way, the number one (1) comes first, and Al-Kandi and his companions did not consider it a number. So "first philosophy" comes before all philosophical speculation, including physics and ethics.

That is why, due to the rise of philosophical thinking, this is the place that every philosopher wants to reach, so it should be read at the end.

Al-Kandi was also very interested in numbers and used them on everything he thought about. He was actually a numerologist and believed that the universe came into being from polyhydric forms. That is, the shape of the fire is like a pyramid, the earth is in the shape of a cube, the air has eight sides and the celestial sphere has 12 sides.

In Jahez's literal sketch of Al-Kandi, his attachment to numbers is also ridiculed. How far did Alkandi want to take his numeracy?

Al-Kindi's biographers also cite a love poem by him, which reads:

I love four things about you in my four parts

I don't know what makes me forget to breathe

Your face in my eyes, your taste in my mouth, your words in my ears or love for you in my heart

The great Arabic philosopher al-Kandi was a man who lived as he thought and felt. There is no confirmed date of when he passed away but according to some sources he died around the year 873.

Although we do not know why he died, we do know how he died. Sadly, his death was not as great as that of Socrates, who died of poisoning among his friends in an Athens prison. Al-Kindi's death is the tragic event of a physician deceiving himself.

He had been suffering from an infection in his knee for some time which had also caused pus. At the time, it was thought that because mucus was one of the four fluids, it could be balanced with other fluids: blood, bile, and black bile.

Al-Kandi first drank old wine and then when it had no effect, he also drank honey, but this treatment was not possible as Al-Kandi thought. The heat from alcohol and honey did not pass from his veins to his knees and did not reach the balance he had hoped for. On the contrary, the mucus attacked his psyche and the pain spread to his brain and he died of a stroke.

Ironically, now that we are writing about his death, the title of one of his researches revolves around the eyes, the symptoms of phlegm and the causes of sudden death. However, it was the most tragic but surprisingly auspicious end of a great man.