Encyclopedia of Islam

Brethren of Purity

  

115  J

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The encyclopedia is divided into four parts: 1) 

mathematics

, which includes essays on astronomy, 

geography, and Aristotle’s logic; 2) natural 

science

,

including theories of matter, botany, biology, body 

and soul, death and resurrection; 3) psychological 

and rational sciences; and 4) religious sciences. 

The Neoplatonic theory of creation by emanation 

from a single creator, together with the notion that 

all creation was organized according to a hierar-

chical pattern (an idea that had circulated widely 

in the pre-Islamic Middle East), was a dominant 

theme in the encyclopedia. Indeed, the ency-

clopedia’s avowed purpose was to teach people 

how to purify their souls of bodily and worldly 

attachments and ascend back to the divine source 

from which they had come. The most famous 

section of the encyclopedia is the lengthy debate 

between 

animals

 and humans, which questioned 

the moral right humans had to exploit animals as 

slaves. The debate ended by affirming that animals 

indeed were inferior to humans, but they had their 

own intrinsic worth as God’s creatures, requiring 

humans to treat them humanely.

See also 

adab

;  a

rabic

 

langUage

 

and

 

litera

-

tUre

; i

smaili

 s

hiism

.