The publishing of these texts would take a long time. Therefore it is necessary that a number of individuals and academies cooperate with one another in accomplishing this important task. The Cairo University had at one time adopted an interesting and effective technique in that it gathered films of some of the manuscripts and printed some samples from them. Unfortunately it has recently stopped doing this. Maybe it has been because of the war, and the university will resume this practice. I also hope that the College of Alexandria will also join this effort, and finally that all the universities of the East shall compete with one another in accomplishing this task.
A comment about the libraries of Istanbul must be made here. In these libraries, the heritage of more than six centuries of Islamic culture is stored. Naturally, texts can be found there the copies of which do not exist anywhere else in the world. For example, a German Orientalist has recently found some precious volumes in these libraries among which Ash'ari's Maqalat alIslamiyin can be mentioned. This book is an important source in the field of the history of Islamic doctrines. Since the publication of Ash'ari's book and the Nihayat alAqdam of Shahristani, some of the views we had held regarding Islamic theology (kalam) and theologians (mutakallimun) have changed.
I have no doubt that our Turkish brothers are aware of the value of this priceless heritage, and if they themselves are unable to publish these masterpieces they shall not hesitate to make them available to those who wish to do so.
Besides the publishing of these texts, we should also engage in investigation and discussion of the works of Islamic philosophers and get to know them just as well as we do the nonIslamic philosophers. We should prepare biographies of our thinkers, describe their views in detail, explain the factors which were instrumental in formation of their views, clearly evaluate their intellectual debt to the ancients and to their immediate predecessors, and examine the similarities existing between their ideas and those of their contemporaries.
I hope that the day will come when they will write about Al-Farabi just as they are writing today about Musa ibn Maymun, that they become as familiar with the works of Ibn Sina as they are with the writings of Thomas Aquinas, and shall discuss AlGhazzali just as they discuss Descartes. That would be the day when it can be justifiably said that Islamic philosophy has been given the recognition and stature it so rightly deserves.
[1]. See V. Cousin, Cours de l' histoire de la philosophie, pp.4849, Paris l841.
[2]. E. Renan, Histoire Generale de systeme comparedes langues semitiques;
[3]. L. Gauthier, L'esprit semitique et l'esprit aryen, pp. 66~67, Paris 1923, see also I. Madkour, La Place d' al-Farabi, p, 14, Paris, 1934
[4]. Renan, "Le 'islamisme et la Science", dans Discours et Confe'rences, p. 337 Paris, 1887; Madkour, La Place d' al-Farabi, p. 54.
[5]. Renan, Averroe's et l'Averroesme, pp. 79, II, Paris, eighth edition.
[6]. Ibid, vol. I, p. 171. See also Goldziher, Le dogme et la loi de 1' Islam, pp. 29-34.
[7]. Renan, Averroe's, Avertissement, p.11.
[8]. Ibid, p.89.
[9]. Ibid.
[10] G. Dugat, Histoire des philsophes et des theologians musulmans, p. XV,
[11] G. Tennemann, Manuel de l' histoire de la philosophic (French translation by V. Cousin), T. I, pp.358359, Paris 1839.
[12]. Madkour, La place d'al-Farabi, p.46 et suive.
[13]. Madkour, L'Organon d'Aristote, p. 49 et suive, Paris, 1934.
[14] L. Gauthier, "Scolastique musulmane et sehoiastique chretienne", dans Revue d'Histoire de la philosophie, Paris, 1928.
[15] Renan, Averroe's, p. 88; Duhem, Le systeme du monde T. IV p 321 et suive, Paris, 1917.
[16] S. Van den Bergh, Die Epitome der Metaphysik des Averroes, Leiden, 1924.
[17]. T.J. De Boer, Geschichte der Philosophie im Islam, Stuttgart, 1901, tr. ang., par E.R, Jones, The History of Philosophy in Islam, London, 1903.
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