Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī’s al-Risālah al-Shamsiyyah

Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī’s al-Risālah al-Shamsiyyah

An Edition and Translation with Commentary

454 Pages

May 2024

ISBN: 9781479827527

$75.00

Hardcover

Author

Tony Street is Assistant Director of Research in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity and is a Fellow of Clare Hall.

A scholarly edition of a classic textbook on logic

Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī’s al-Risālah al-Shamsiyyah is a scholarly edition and translation of The Rules of Logic, with commentary and notes. Composed by Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī, a scholar of the Shāfiʿī school of law, al-Risālah al-Shamsiyyah is the most widely read introduction to logic in the Arabic-speaking world. It has probably enjoyed a longer shelf-life than any other logic textbook ever written, having been in use by madrasah students from the early eighth/fourteenth century up until the present day. Building on the theories of Avicenna, al-Rāzī, and other pioneers of logic, al-Kātibī discusses the many pitfalls of building arguments and setting out unambiguous claims in natural language. The enduring nature of the text is a testament to al-Kātibī and his impact on concepts of formal discourse and argument.

An Arabic edition with English scholarly apparatus.