According to the first, hayy would have been born on a desert island south of the equator, not from a father and a mother, but from clay in fermentation. After this introduction, ibn tufayl proceeds to narrate the experiences of hayy the son of yaqzan. It includes also a biography on the author,his education and religious philosophy and his position in society. It is called hayy ibn yaqzan or alive, son of awake, and it was a sensation among intellectuals in daniel defoes day. At the heart of the story is a literal autopsy of a heart. He was trained as a physician but also followed the. Mar 03, 2017 if you want a truly old gem, a story which immerses you into philosophy with debatable concepts and a novel from a time long past then pick up hayy ibn yaqzan, the philosophical story of the feral child raised on an uninhabited island and raised by a wild gazelle who achieved an enlightenment few people ever do. Hayy ibn yaqdhan dealt with many philosophical themes, especially in regards to epistemology.
The ruler of the island and its most eminent man at this time was salaman, absals friend who believed in living within society and held it unlawful to withdraw. As in ibn tufayls work, ibn alnafis protagonist, kamil whose name means the. Ibn tufayl s hayy ibn yaqzan the title begins with the name of the novels protagonist is the highly intriguing account of a boy who grows up on a remote island, alone and without contact to human civilization, and finds god solely through intellectual endeavor and spiritual exercise. Oct 01, 2015 the 12thcentury muslim mystic ibn tufayl relates the story of a spontaneously generated child raised by a gazelle on a desert island, and the process by which he attains union with god through the naturally acquired art of mystic contemplation. Jun 21, 2015 one writing of ibn tufayls that has survived, however, is a story about a baby boy who was abandoned on a desert island. A philosophical novel by ibn tufayl if i tell you this is a story of a man on a desert island who keeps goats, builds himself a shelter and finally discovers footprints in.
Discusses ibn tufayls hayy ibn yaqzan as a philosophical story of solitude, mysticism, and understanding. The story of hayy ibn yaqdhan also anticipated robert barclay, the quakers, 35 samuel hartlib, 25 karl marx, 15 and voltaire. The boy, who is alone on the island, is nurtured by a gazelle for two years note. Ibn tufayls hayy ibn yaqzan was derivative in basing its title and several characters on avicenna. He was known to the medieval west as abubacer, on account of his full name.
Hayy ibn yaqzan alive the son of awake tells how the baby was adopted by a gazelle, grew to adulthood and along the way explored the meaning of life from what he observed around him. Such was the tale titled hayy ibn yaqzan, written in the 12th century by a philosopher from alandalus, or southern spain, named ibn tufayl. Isolated from human civilization, the infant hayy ibn yaqzan is raised by a gazelle on a deserted island through observation, experimentation, and speculation. Abu bakr muhammad bin abd almalik bin tufayl alqaisi.
Ibn tufayl on learning and spirituality without prophets and. Abu bakr ibn tufail, the history of hayy ibn yaqzan, translated from the arabic by simon ockley, revised, with an introduction by a. This human was born in an uninhibited island in the indian ocean, so goes the story, without human begetters. In ibn tufayls philosophical tale hayy ibn yaqzan, the main character hayy realizes that in order to become his ideal self, he must complete a series of duties. Written by the 12thcentury andalusian genius, ibn tufayl, the hayy is a philosophical novel that examines the human condition through the eyes of a child as he is raised by a doe on a desert island. After his gazelle mother passes away when he is still a child, he dissects her body and performs an autopsy in order to find out what happened to her. An excerpt from the last few pages, describing hayys experiences on the inhabited island. Although ibn tufayls work has been unjustly neglected in our times, 1 the importance and necessity of the study of this work is more evident today than it has been for. Ibn tufails novel tells the story of an autodidactic feral child, raised by a gazelle and living alone on a desert island in the indian ocean. Others say he was begotten from the daughter of a tyrant and son of a.
Ibn tufayl on learning and spirituality without prophets. Hay ibn yaqzan is the story about a little boy who comes to being or is transferred to a desert island to be raised by gazelles. Inspired by the cartoon for children about hayy ibn yaqzan life on the deserted island,and curiocity about the first authour writing a story of a boy growing up on a deserted island. One writing of ibn tufayls that has survived, however, is a story about a baby boy who was abandoned on a desert island.
Ibn tufayl, speaking to us from nine centuries ago, explores the possibility of cosmopolitanism and offers a thoughtful response to its hopes in his book hayy ibn yaqzan. Hayy ibn yaqzn is the name of the protagonist in ibn tufayl s tale. Aug, 2019 the arabic philosophical fable hayy ibn yaqzan is a classic of medieval islamic philosophy. Hayy ibn yaqzan the name means alive, son of the awake, the vigilant was the title of a work by avicenna, and the two other characters of the tale, absal and salaman, are also the names of characters in avicennas work.
The protagonist hayy ibn yaqzan grows up from infancy to adulthood on a uninhabited island. If you want a truly old gem, a story which immerses you into philosophy with debatable concepts and a novel from a time long past then pick up hayy ibn yaqzan, the philosophical story of the feral child raised on an uninhabited island and raised by a wild gazelle who achieved an enlightenment few people ever do. Ibn tufayls critique of cosmopolitanism in hayy ibn yaqzan. Abu bakr muhammad ibn tufayl facts abu bakr muhammad ibn tufayl ca. It relates the story of human knowledge, as it rises from a blank slate to a mystical or direct experience of god after passing through the necessary natural experiences. The improvement of human reason, exhibited in the life of hai ebn yokdhan, written in arabic above 500 years ago, by abu jaafar ebn tophail, newly translated from the original arabic, by simon ockley.
Ibn alnafis wrote this book in direct response to ibn tufayls hayy ibn yaqzan, as is clear from the fact that ibn alnafis took both the core idea of a comingofage story and the main plot of ibn tufayls novel as a model. The 12thcentury muslim mystic ibn tufayl relates the story of a spontaneously generated child raised by a gazelle on a desert island, and the process by which he attains union with god through the naturally acquired art of mystic contemplation. Hayy ibn yaqzan the selftaught philosopher two excellent podcasts how a 900yearold arabic tale inspired the enlightenment. The process of civilization in ibn tufayls hayy ibn yaqzan. In his hayy ibn yaqdhan, ibn tufail was the first to demonstrate avicennas theories of empiricism and tabula rasa as a thought experiment in his novel, as he depicted the development of the mind of a feral child from a tabula rasa to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society on a deserted island. Philosophers were of the opinion that he was born spontaneously when the mixture of elements reached an equilibrium state, making it possible for this mixture to receive a human soul from the divine world. A philosophical novel by ibn tufayl if i tell you this is a story of a man on a desert island who keeps goats, builds himself a shelter and finally discovers footprints in the sand, what would you think of. Some say he was fashioned from clay on a remote island. Hayy ibn yaqzn is the name of the protagonist in ibn tufayls tale. The arabic philosophical fable hayy ibn yaqzan is a classic of medieval islamic philosophy. Why richard rosengarten likes to teach hayy ibn yaqzan, by. With an appendix, in which the possibility of mans attaining. Full text of ibn tufail story of hayy bin yaqzan history ockley intro fulton see other formats.
As in ibn tufayls work, ibn alnafis protagonist, kamil whose name means the complete or the perfect. Full text of ibn tufail story of hayy bin yaqzan history. Hayy ibn yaqdhan project gutenberg selfpublishing ebooks. The first latin translation of hayy ibn yaqzan in england was published in 1671 in this volume of facing latin arabic pages by edward pococke, jr. The journey of the three phases begins with the inarticulate animal, which then progresses to the celestial body, and then ends with some resemblance of god 146. As has happened before during times of tension between islam and the west. In 1719, one of the english translations of hayy ibn yaqdhan inspired daniel defoe to write robinson crusoe, which was also set on a deserted island and was regarded as thefirst novel in english. English translations of hayy bin yaqzan in chronological order. An infant, named hayy ibn yaqzan, is either born spontaneously on an uninhabited island or drifts ashore there in a sealed ark. Starting with his birth, he offers the reader a choice between two alternative accounts.
The infant hayy is discovered and nurtured by a doe, fed on does milk. Selkirk was a real sailor, marooned on an island off the coast of chile from 1704 to 1709, whose story is commonly cited as a contemporary inspiration for crusoe, while the selftaught philosopher was the title of a 1708 english translation of hayy ibn yaqzan, a translation pope is known to have had in his library. The thoughts expressed in the novel can be found in different variations and to different degrees in the books of thomas hobbes, john locke, isaac newton, and immanuel kant. Hayy ibn yaqdhan academic dictionaries and encyclopedias. Mar 24, 2017 an excerpt from the last few pages, describing hayys experiences on the inhabited island. Muhammad ibn abd almalik ibn tufayl and leon gauthier 1981, risalat hayy ibn yaqzan, p. In turn, robinson crusoe had an enormous impact on the thought of the enlightenment. Mahdi cornell university press ithaca, new york 1963 c. In 1761, an anonymous crusoe story was printed in london, entitled the life and surprising adventures of don. Participants are encouraged to read the novel prior to the meeting. The plot of ibn tufails more famous arabic novel was inspired by avicennism, kalam, and sufism, and was also intended as a thought experiment. Now in the bodleian, the manuscript was copied in alexandria in 3 by an unknown scribe, probably jewish, as the script is annotated in hebrew. Hayy ibn yaqzan the 12thcentury muslim mystic ibn tufayl relates the story of a spontaneously generated child raised by a gazelle on a desert island, and the process by which he attains union with god through the naturally acquired art of mystic contemplation. Known to medieval christian scholastics as abubacer from abu bakr, ibn tufayl was born in the town known in modern times as guadix near granada.
1024 1184 1384 442 1433 1558 516 599 1233 1463 1124 1204 1155 1004 690 197 1220 529 127 925 1323 140 1408 124 396 9 438 742 697 410 725 1236 229 273 1461 408 280 331 1069 1171 614 127 956