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Abu Bakr al-Razi

c. 865–925

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

According to his opponents’ reports, reason is given to everyone and is worth more than the authority of prophets – and God, soul, matter, space and time have all always existed.

Placement

Philosophy in the Islamic World · West Asia & North Africa · Science, Religion, Ethics

Persian physician (Rhazes) and freethinker: according to his opponents’ reports he trusted reason over prophetic authority; he taught five eternal principles – God, soul, matter, space and time.

Key ideas

  • Five eternal principles
  • Primacy of reason
  • Spiritual medicine

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Influence

Influenced by 2

  • Democritus

    influenced by disputed

    Al-Razi taught that bodies consist of indivisible atoms and void; whether his atomism derives from Democritus through Greek sources or from other traditions is disputed. S. Pines, Beiträge zur islamischen Atomenlehre (1936); P. Adamson, Al-Razi (2021)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Democritus › c. 460–370 BCE

  • Plato

    influenced by

    Al-Razi built his doctrine of five eternal principles – Creator, Soul, matter, absolute time and absolute place – largely on Plato’s Timaeus. P. Adamson, Al-Razi (2021)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Plato › 428–348 BCE

Works

Position

Al-Razi was a freethinker in medicine and philosophy. He held five principles to be eternal: the Creator, the soul, matter, absolute space and absolute time; the world arose when the soul, enamoured of matter, sought union with it, and God gave it reason to free itself. Reason, he taught, is God’s greatest gift and open to all; according to his opponents, who preserved many of his views, he therefore saw no need for prophets. His ethics, modelled on Socrates, has reason heal the soul by governing the passions. In medicine he valued observation over authority, even doubting Galen, and was the first to clearly distinguish smallpox from measles.

Life & context

Abu Bakr al-Razi, known in Latin as Rhazes, was born around 865 in Rayy near present-day Tehran. According to tradition he turned to medicine only as an adult, after earlier interests in music and alchemy. He directed hospitals in Rayy and Baghdad, dedicated works to Persian princes and became the most famous clinician of his age. Late in life he went blind; he died in Rayy around 925.

Further main works

  • The Comprehensive Book (al-Hawi, compiled from his notes after his death)
  • The Book for al-Mansur (Kitab al-Mansuri, c. 903)
  • The Philosophical Life (al-Sira al-falsafiyya, late work)

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

As of November 2026 · Sources · Improve this page · How Agora is made

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