The philosophical epistolary exchange between Avicenna and al-Bīrūnī

该项目的重点是伊斯兰世界哲学史和科学史上最重要的两位人物--伊本·S·阿维森纳(Ibnīnā)和al-Bīrūnī之间的书信交流。这封信写于公元1000年左右，开始于al-Bīrūnī向一位年轻但已经广为人知的阿维森纳提出了一系列问题。这些书特别涉及亚里士多德自然哲学中的主题。阿维森纳撰写了回复，引发了al-Bīrūnī的又一轮批评回应。最后，阿维森纳的一名学生回答了这些反驳。令人高兴的是，信件的所有四个阶段今天都被保存在一个尚未得到充分翻译或研究的文本中。这就是拟议研究的任务，它将以一本经过改进的阿拉伯文本的专著形式出版，这是第一次将整个函件可靠地翻译成任何欧洲语言，并附有详细的评论，解释交流所提出的历史和哲学问题。该项目将把这本重要的文本带给更广泛的受众，并帮助科学和哲学历史学家理解它对诸如世界的永恒、虚无、光学、元素理论和宇宙学等主题的讨论。这本书还将把信件放在阿维森纳和al-Bīrūnī的著作中，并将揭示他们接受亚里士多德哲学和晚期古代哲学的方式。

This project has as its focus an epistolary exchange between two of the most important figures in the history of philosophy and science in the Islamic world, Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and al-Bīrūnī. Written around 1000 CE, the correspondence began when al-Bīrūnī posed a series of questions to a young, but already well-known, Avicenna. These deal especially with topics in Aristotelian natural philosophy. Avicenna composed replies, which elicited a further round of critical responses from al-Bīrūnī. Finally, a student of Avicenna’s answered these rejoinders. Happily, all four stages of the correspondence are preserved today, in a text that has not yet been adequately translated or studied. This is the task of the proposed research, which would issue in a monograph giving an improved Arabic text, the first reliable translation of the entire correspondence into any European language, along with a detailed commentary explaining the historical and philosophical issues raised by the exchange. The project will bring this important text to a wider audience and help historians of science and philosophy understand its discussion of such topics as the eternity of the world, void, optics, elemental theory, and cosmology. The resulting book will also situate the correspondence within the writings of both Avicenna and al-Bīrūnī and it will cast light on the way in which they receive Aristotelian and late ancient philosophy.