Existence and Knowledge

Existence and Knowledge

Logic of Concept and the Divisions of Propositions in Zubdat al-Asrār by Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Author
ََAsadollah Fallahi
Professor in the Department of Logic, Iranian Institute of Philosophy, Tehran, Iran
10.22096/ek.2026.2084391.1622
Abstract
Based on available evidence, the medium-length book Zubdat al-Asrār by Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī, encompassing logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, represents his first philosophical compendium. References made by Abharī in his shorter treatise, Hidāyat al-Ḥikmah, directing the reader to Zubdat al-Asrār for further elaboration, clearly indicate that this book was composed even prior to that treatise. In this article, by examining the initial sections of the logic in Zubdat al-Asrār, I highlight some of the notable points and innovations of this work. Abharī, in these sections, defines the “restrictive compound” in contrast to the “declarative compound” for the first time in the history of logic in the Islamic world, and through the repeated application of these two concepts in his later works, he solidifies their place in Islamic logic and philosophy. In this book, he emphasizes the “mental proposition”, yet in his subsequent works, he sometimes places the “genuine proposition” and at other times the “external proposition” in a superior position. Regarding modal propositions, he introduces the “intermediate absolute” and the “intermediate possible” for the first time in the history of logic. He demonstrates that the simple conversion of necessary and permanent propositions equals the intermediate absolute, not the general absolute or the general possible as predecessors like Ibn Sīnā and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī had supposed.
Keywords
Zubdat al-Asrār
Hidāyat al-Ḥikmah
Ṣāḥib al-Baṣāʾir
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī
Zayn al-Dīn al-Kashshī
Subjects
Bibliography
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Existence and Knowledge

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 23 June 2026