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The following is a list of the ''rasa'il'' (epistles) which compose the influential Neoplatonic encyclopedia, the ''Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity'' composed by the Brethren of Purity in the tenth century CE in Basra, Iraq. The following tabulation of the ''rasa'il'' is principally drawn from a work entitled "Notices of some copies of the Arabic work intitled "Rasàyil Ikhwàm al-cafâ"", written by Aloys Sprenger, originally published by the ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' (in Calcutta) in 1848. Doubts have been raised by A. L. Tibawi as to the accuracy of Sprenger's catalogue: "But it is unfortunate that his account is marred by loose translation and too many misreadings of or misprints in the Arabic, and his collection omits the fourteenth tract, merges the eighth with the ninth, and leaves the text of the twelfth and thirteenth confused." ==Mathematical Sciences== # Numbers, arithmetic, and numerology, especially Pythagorean; a discussion of the importance of the number four # Geometry (''jumatriya''). Euclid's definitions and how to calculate the area of a triangle # Ptolemaic astronomy (''asturunumiya'') # Geography (''al-jughrafiya''), especially geography that uses mathematics. The Brethren explain racial characteristics as resulting from varying climates' long-term influence.〔"However, differences exist between the races and nations of the earth. According to the theory of racial differences, which we also find in the same context in al-Kindi: the particularizing and characterizing signs that distinguish nations and races are not the results of inheritance, but are caused by the place the various groups inhabit, and its climate." page 8 of Shiloah 1978〕 The Brethren seem to know of Japan: "The most eastern country of this climate is the island of Niphon # Music (''al-musiqa'') () Deals with the subject in unusually many aspects.〔"When I originally undertook to prepare this text for publication, it very soon became clear to me that this treatise in its range, construction, purpose and richness of thematic material was unique of its kind, both in the Arabic musical literature that preceded and followed it and, perhaps, in the whole of medieval musical literature." page 5 of Shiloah 1978.〕 It first lays out the power of music and its uses; it uses the practical purposes of music 〔"If one establishes the measure of time by the regular, harmonious and proportionate succession of motions and silences, the notes resulting will be comparable to the notes produced by the movements of the sphere and the heavenly bodies and in concordance with them. Thus doing, the individual soul that inhabits the world of generation and corruption, will recall the beatitude of the world of the spheres and the felicity of the souls who are there above. It will know and will acquire the conviction that the souls of the celestial world enjoy the best conditions, the sweetest delights and the most lasting felicity, for the notes produced by the movements of the spheres are purer, their melodies sweeter; for these celestial bodies are of a better constitution, of a more beautiful form, of a purer substance, their movements are better ordered and their concordance is more harmonious. When the individual soul that inhabits the world of generation and corruption will have acquired a knowledge of the states of the celestial world, will have had faith in the truth of what we have described, it will manifest an ardent desire to mount upwards and to join there the souls of its own kind, delivered from nations that disappeared in earlier times." page 35 of Shiloah, 1978.〕 as a defense against various Koranic proscription; another defense is that the restrictions are applicable only to entertainment and pleasure motivated music, analogous to contemporary defenses of poetry). Theologically motivated, it moves on to the abstracted essence of music, which is present in all arts.〔"This is the art of harmony (''tayif'') which can be defined in terms of proportions. Our intention in this Epistle is not therefore the teaching of the practice of music (''ghinī''); nor of the instrument art (''sinālat al-malāhī''), although the study of this aspect is indispensable, but our purpose is to make known the science of proportions and the modality of harmony, the knowledge of which presides at mastery in all the arts." page 12 of Shiloah 1978〕 # Deals with ratios and proportions, which are useful in mathematics and also especially in musical scales; indeed, Thomas Davidson describes there assertion thus: "The faculty of aesthetic judgement investigates these properties, and so discovers the rules of Art." Eric van Reijn classifies this epistle as dealing with "Mathematics and Geometry".〔pg. ix of Reijn 1995〕 # The seventh and eighth epistles are the "Classification of the Sciences",〔 or "On the scientific arts": * The nine professional sciences are "the educational sciences, intended to help men to a maintenance, and to direct them in their intercourse with others."〔 They are: reading and writing; grammar and language; arithmetic; sorcery and alchemy and shorthand; "Versification and poetry" or "poetry and music";〔pg 198-199, Lane-Poole 1883〕 business and agriculture; "trades and professions"; selling, buying, and other things of commerce like breeding cattle;〔 and finally, biographies and histories. * The 6 religious sciences "help the soul in its struggle towards the other world."〔pg 199, Lane-Poole 1883〕 They consist of: learning the Koran (revelation); learning the Koran's commentaries (explanation); of the hadith and other traditions (tradition); "the knowledge of law and ordinances of God and of legal division" (law); religious obligations and asceticism; and oneiromancy ("illumination").〔 * The given hierarchy of philosophical sciences is complex. It appears to be as follows: * * Mathematical sciences * * * Arithmetic * * * Geometry * * * Astronomy * * * Music * * Logic * * * Poetry * * * Rhetoric * * * Topica * * * Analytica * * * Sophistica * * Natural philosophy * * * "Sciences of the first principles of a body" * * * * Matter * * * * Shape * * * * Time * * * * Place * * * * Motion * * * "Science of the heavens and of the universe" * * * * What the heavens are made of * * * * How many bodies there are in the heavens * * * * Why those bodies move * * * * Whether those bodies can be destroyed like mundane matter * * * "''de generatione et corruptione''" * * * * The nature of the four elements * * * * The influence of stars on the sublunary world * * * Meteorology * * * Mineralogy * * * Zoology * * Metaphysical sciences * * * Theology * * * Knowledge of angels * * * Knowledge of dead souls * * * Knowledge of governments * * * "Science of things connected with a future state" * "On creeds and professions"- a classification of the sciences into three categories of professional, religious, and philosophical sciences. The Brethren write: :''"Know, my brother, that there are three kinds of sciences with which people are busy, namely: the propaedeutic sciences, the religious and conventional sciences, the philosophical and real sciences."''() This chapter deals especially with the practical arts. :9. "Where one accounts for characters, the causes of their difference and the () species of the evils which () them; anecdotes drawn from the educational rules of the Prophets and cream of the morals of the sages." (from Sprenger). "No. 9 examines the differences of Temperament and Character, with the view of enabling the soul to attain the proper mood and develop a perfect character. Here we have a system of Ethics." (from Thomas Davidson). :10. A summary of Porphyry's ''Isagoge'' (the Latin name for his ''Introduction to Categories'', sometimes simply ''Introduction''). :11. A summary of Aristotle's ''Categories'', a portion of his ''Organon''; it tries to encompass all things under the ten categories of Aristotle. :12. A summary of ''De Interpretatione'', another subsection of his ''Organon''; an essay defending the usefulness of logic in general is included after its discussion of Aristotle's propositions. :13. A summary of ''Prior Analytics'', another work included in Aristotle's ''Organon'' :14. A summary of 'Posterior Analytics'', another work included in Aristotle's ''Organon'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of rasa'il in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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