The ''Daneshnameh-ye Alai'' ( is an 11th-century

Early New Persian Persian ( ), also known by its endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoke ...

work by

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

Title

Ibn Sina dedicated the ''Danishnama'' or "Book of Science" to the Kakuyid ruler

Ala al-Dawla Muhammad Muhammad ibn Rustam Dushmanziyar (Persian language, Persian: ابوجعفر دشمنزیار), also known by his ''laqab'' of Ala al-Dawla Muhammad (علاء الدوله محمد), was a Daylamite military commander who founded in 1008 the short-l ...

, who supported his work. The book is also known as the ''Ḥikmat-i ʿAlā'ī''

Topic

''Daneshnameh-ye Alai'' is a comprehensive treatise on seven sciences grouped in four sections:

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. The original section on mathematics was lost in Avicenna's lifetime.

Translation

The ''Danishnama'' was translated into

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

under the title ''Maqāṣad al-falāsafa'' by

al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

in 1111, into French by M. Achena and H. Massé, under the title "Le livre de science", 2 vols., 1955–58 and into English by P. Morewedge, entitled ''The Metaphysica of Avicenna: A Critical Translation-Commentary and Analysis of the Fundamental Arguments in Avicenna’s Metaphysica in the Dānish Nāma-i ʿAlāʾī'' in 1973.{{cite journal, url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/parviz-morewedge-tr-the-metaphysica-of-avicenna-ibn-sina-persian-heritage-series-no-13-xxvii-336-pp-london-routledge-and-kegan-paul-1973-5/9A3510FF73AD3ABB3E1AE4A0D1C40590, title=Parviz Morewedge (tr.): The Metaphysica of Avicenna (ibn Sīnā). (Persian Heritage Series, No. 13.) xxvii, 336 pp. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul., journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, date=1973, volume=37, issue=2, pages=473–474, publisher=Cambridge, doi=10.1017/S0041977X00136572, last1=Brows, first1=Vivian, s2cid=161547495 , url-access=subscription

References

External links

Digital version of ''Ḥekmat-e 'Alā'ī''
(archive.org)
The Metaphysica of Avicenna (Ibn Sina): A Critical Translation-Commentary and Analysis of the Fundamental Arguments in Avicenna's Metaphysica in the Danish Nama-I Ala I (The Book of Scientific Knowledge)
Persian literature Scientific works of the medieval Islamic world Metaphysics literature Works by Avicenna 11th-century Persian books