Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
The Treatise for Shams al-Din on the Rules of Logic
Compact textbook of logic written for a patron named Shams al-Din: terms and definitions, propositions with their modalities, conversion and contradiction, syllogisms; with the commentary of Qutb al-Din al-Tahtani and the glosses of al-Jurjani it was a standard text of logic in the madrasas for centuries.
Introduction
Najm al-Din al-Katibi wrote “The Treatise for Shams al-Din on the Rules of Logic” (al-Risāla al-Shamsiyya) in the second half of the thirteenth century for a patron named Shams al-Din. It opens by defining logic as a rule whose observance guards the mind from error in thinking and then treats terms, definitions, propositions with their modalities, conversion, contradiction and the syllogism, including a detailed account of thirteen modal propositions that goes beyond Ibn Sina. Read with the commentary of Qutb al-Din al-Razi al-Tahtani and the glosses of al-Sharif al-Jurjani, it was a central text of logic teaching in madrasas from the fourteenth century to the present, and al-Taftazani wrote a further commentary on it. Tony Street published an edition with English translation and commentary in 2024.
More works by Najm al-Din al-Katibi
- c. 1270The Philosophy of the Source
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