al-Sharif al-Jurjani
Al-Jurjani held that the sciences depend on exact definitions and on testing every step of an argument; in his commentaries he examined the textbooks of logic, theology and rhetoric line by line, correcting their authors where their reasoning failed.
Placement
Scholar from near Astarabad (Gorgan) who taught in Shiraz, was taken to Samarqand by Timur in 1387 and returned to Shiraz after Timur’s death: in his commentary on al-Iji’s “Stations” (1405) and in glosses on the main textbooks of logic, theology and rhetoric he examined every argument closely; his “Book of Definitions” collected the technical terms of the sciences, and his disputes with al-Taftazani were discussed in the madrasas for centuries.
Key ideas
- Precision through definition
- The gloss as critical examination
- Theology in dialogue with philosophy
- The foundations of necessary knowledge
Influence
Influenced by 4
Suhrawardi
influenced by
Al-Jurjani wrote a commentary on Suhrawardi’s Philosophy of Illumination. SEP “Suhrawardi”, citing M. Kadivar (2011), 290–292
Evidence: AI draft
Suhrawardi › 1154–1191
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
influenced by
Al-Jurjani wrote a commentary on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s Memoir on Astronomy (al-Tadhkira fī ʿilm al-hayʾa); the oldest manuscript dates from 1410, during his lifetime. al-Jurjani, Sharḥ al-Tadhkira; F. J. Ragep, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s Memoir on Astronomy (1993)
Evidence: AI draft
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi › 1201–1274
Najm al-Din al-Katibi
influenced by
Al-Jurjani wrote extensive glosses on Qutb al-Din al-Tahtani’s commentary on al-Katibi’s Shamsiyya, which were read with the text in the madrasas. al-Jurjani, Ḥāshiya ʿalā Taḥrīr al-qawāʿid al-manṭiqiyya (manuscripts Bodleian Library, Princeton 1412); K. El-Rouayheb, The Development of Arabic Logic (2019)
Evidence: AI draft
Najm al-Din al-Katibi › 1203–1277
Adud al-Din al-Iji
influenced by
Al-Jurjani’s Commentary on the Stations, completed in Samarqand in April 1405, explains, corrects and extends al-Iji’s Stations of Theology. al-Jurjani, Sharḥ al-Mawāqif (manuscripts Princeton, Garrett 4439Y; New Series 260)
Evidence: AI draft
Adud al-Din al-Iji › 1281–1355
Influenced 1
Jalal al-Din al-Dawani
influenced
Al-Dawani, a student of al-Jurjani’s students, treated him as an authority and appealed to his view in the dispute with Dashtaki over the Liar paradox. SEP “The Liar Paradox in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy” (2026), §3.5; R. Pourjavady, Philosophy in Early Safavid Iran (2011)
Evidence: AI draft
Jalal al-Din al-Dawani › c. 1426–1502
Criticism
Criticizes 1
Sa’d al-Din al-Taftazani
criticised
Al-Jurjani disputed with al-Taftazani at Timur’s court in Samarqand, among other things on the “representative metaphor”, and argued against his readings in rhetoric and theology; the individual passages have not been checked here. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “al-Jurjānī”; Wikipedia “Al-Taftazani”
Evidence: AI draft
Sa’d al-Din al-Taftazani › 1322–1390
Works
- c. 1400The Book of Definitions
Alphabetical dictionary of the technical terms of theology, philosophy, law, grammar and Sufism, each defined in a sentence or two; edited by Gustav Flügel in 1845, it is still a standard reference.
Commentary on al-Iji’s Stations of Theology, completed in Samarqand in April 1405 and dedicated to the Timurid prince Pir Muhammad: al-Jurjani explains, corrects and extends the argument at every step; for centuries the work was the summit of the kalām curriculum in Ottoman, Persian and Indian madrasas.
Position
Al-Jurjani is on the map as the great commentator of the post-classical madrasa. He wrote more than fifty works, many of them commentaries and glosses on the standard textbooks: on al-Katibi’s Shamsiyya through Qutb al-Din al-Tahtani’s commentary, on al-Iji’s Stations of Theology, on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi’s Memoir on Astronomy, on al-Sakkaki’s Key to the Sciences and, according to the SEP entry on Suhrawardi, on the Philosophy of Illumination. His Commentary on the Stations, completed in Samarqand in 1405, explains, corrects and extends al-Iji’s arguments step by step and became the summit of the kalām curriculum in Ottoman, Persian and Indian madrasas; it carries forward the theology in the tradition of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, in which the doctrines of the philosophers are examined in their own terms. His Book of Definitions, an alphabetical dictionary of the technical terms of theology, philosophy, law, grammar and Sufism, remains a standard reference. In his debates with al-Taftazani, among them one on the “representative metaphor”, he argued closely from the wording of texts and the intentions of speakers. In Shiraz he was remembered as an authority: Jalal al-Din al-Dawani and Sadr al-Din Dashtaki, students of his students, both appealed to him in their dispute over the Liar paradox, though they reported his view differently.
Life & context
ʿAli ibn Muhammad al-Jurjani, known as al-Sayyid al-Sharif, was born in 1340 in Tagu near Astarabad in Gorgan, south-east of the Caspian Sea. After his studies he taught in Shiraz, where his fame as a teacher spread. When Timur took Shiraz in 1387 he carried al-Jurjani off to Samarqand, where he met al-Taftazani and taught and wrote for many years. After Timur’s death in 1405 he returned to Shiraz and died there in 1413.
Further main works
- Glosses on Qutb al-Din al-Tahtani’s commentary on the Shamsiyya
- Commentary on al-Tusi’s Memoir on Astronomy (Sharḥ al-Tadhkira)
- Commentary on al-Sakkaki’s Key (al-Miṣbāḥ fī sharḥ al-Miftāḥ)
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