The Birth of Indology as an Islamic Science: Al-Bīrūnī's Treatise on Yoga Psychology

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-90-04-29029-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 97, 228 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 726 g

Reihe: Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies

In The Birth of Indology as an Islamic Science Mario Kozah closely examines the pioneering contribution by Biruni (d. ca. 1048) to the study of comparative religion in his major work on India. Kozah concludes that a process of Islamisation is employed through a meticulous systematization of Hindu beliefs into one “Indian religion”, preceding by almost a millennium the earliest definitions of Hinduism by nineteenth-century European Orientalists. This formulation of Hinduism draws on Biruni’s interpretation of Yoga psychology articulated in the Kitab Batanjal, his Arabic translation of the Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali. Biruni’s Islamic reading of Hinduism relies on certain common denominators that he identifies as being of fundamental importance. In the case of Hinduism he identifies metempsychosis as its unifying banner.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kozah, Mario

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Vergleichende Religionswissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Geschichte des Islam Geschichte des Islam: 7. - 14. Jahrhundert
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionssoziologie und -psychologie, Spiritualität, Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Hinduismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Al-Biruni: A Brief Summary of His Life and Major Works 7
1 Al-Biruni: Prologues and Method 11
1 Al-As'ila wa'l-Ajwiba 11
2 Al-Athar 'l-baqiya 'an 'l-qurun 'l-khaliya 12
3 Al-Qanun al-mas'udi fi'l-hay'a wa'l-nujum 18
4 Kitab tahqiq ma li'l-Hind 23
5 Al-Biruni, Hindu Cosmology, and Atomism 32
2 Hindu Metaphysics According to the Hind 34
1 Mediaeval Arabic Texts on Hinduism and Their Sources 34
2 Al-Biruni’s Sanskrit Sources: Kitab Sank and Kitab Batanjal 37
3 The Differentiation of Kitab Sank and Kitab Batanjal 41
4 Theology from Kitab Batanjal to the Hind 43
5 Passage 1: The Theological Interface between Kitab Batanjal and the
Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali 45
6 Passage 2: The Theological Interface between Kitab Batanjal and the
Citations from the Book Referred to as gita 55
7 Passage 3: Kitab Sank and the Discussion of Human and Divine
Action in the Hind 65
8 Kitab Sank as Conclusion to the Comparative Triptych 71
3 Al-Nafs: the Soul in Kitab Batanjal 73
1 Introduction 73
2 From Kitab Batanjal to the Hind 74
3 The Soul and Spiritual Liberation 75
4 Al-Biruni and Western Scholarship 76
5 The Yoga-Sutra and the Psychology of Kitab Batanjal 80
4 Kitab Batanjal: the Preface and Sections i–iii 85
1 The Tripartite Preface of Kitab Batanjal 85
2 Section i: Concentration of the Heart (Mind) 96
3 Section ii: Guidance towards Praxis 106
4 Section iii: The Manner of Recompense 118
5 Conclusion 120
5 Section iv of Kitab Batanjal: Liberation and Unification, a Reading 125
1 Introduction 125
2 Section iv and the Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali: Liberation, the Soul and
the Intellect 126
3 The Soul, Matter and Unification 132
4 Liberation: The Intellect, Intellected and Intellector 139
5 Ibn Sina’s Treatment of the Soul and Intellect in Ahwal al-Nafs and
His De Anima 146
6 Conclusion: Kitab Batanjal, Knowledge and Language 149
6 Al-Nafs: the Soul in the Hind 151
1 Introduction 151
2 The Body/Soul Relationship in the Hind 153
3 Chapter Seven of the Hind: On the Manner of Liberation from the
World and the Description of the Path That Leads to It 154
4 The Part of Worship 155
5 Islamic Characteristics Attributed to the Hindu “God” 157
6 Liberation, Divine Unification, and Knowledge 159
7 The Nature of Liberation According to Kitab Batanjal and Kitab
Sank 167
8 Conclusion: Liberation, Metempsychosis and al-Biruni’s Islamic
Reading of Hinduism 184
Conclusion 189
Appendix. Translation of Section iv of Kitab Batanjal 195
Glossary of Terms 206
Bibliography 209
Index of Subjects 221
Index of Modern Authors 224
Index of Names 225
Index of Ancient and Mediaeval Sources 227

Über Autor(innen)

Mario Kozah, Ph.D. (2002), University of Cambridge, is Assistant Professor of Syriac and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. He has published extensively on comparative religion and literature including The Syriac Writers of Qatar in the Seventh Century (Gorgias Press, 2014).