Al-Kindi

Pioneering Arab polymath, philosopher, and physician of the Islamic Golden Age.

Chronology: 801 – 870

Origins & Early Life

Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; Arabic: أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي; Latin: Alkindus; c. 801–873 AD) was a Mesopotamian Arab polymath who was active as a philosopher, mathematician, physician, and music theorist. Al-Kindi was the first of the Islamic peripatetic philosophers, and is hailed as the "father of Arab philosophy". Al-Kindi was born in Kufa and educated in Baghdad.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma), an institute of translation and learning patronized by the Abbasid caliphs, in Baghdad, and a number of Abbasid caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language. This contact with "the philosophy of the ancients" (as Hellenistic philosophy was often referred to by Muslim scholars) had a profound effect on him, as he synthesized, adapted and promoted Hellenistic and Peripatetic philosophy in the Muslim world. He subsequently wrote hundreds of original treatises of his own on a range of subjects, from metaphysics, ethics, logic and psychology, to medicine, pharmacology, mathematics, astronomy, astrology and optics, and further afield to more practical...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

Source: Wikipedia