Sciences of the Soul and Intellect Part I. An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of EPISTLES 32-36

Epistles 32 to 36 constitute the first five treatises in the third division of the Rasa'il, on the sciences of the soul and intelelct. Combining Islamic revelation with Hellenistic philosophy, the Ikhwān delineate herein their metephysical system. Epistles 32 and 33 present adaptations of Pythagorean doctrines, and of Nepolatonist leitmotivs, whereby a numerical analogy is applied to the unique and transcendent God, or the One, from whom all existence emanates. Epistle 34 takes up the pervasive theme of the correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm, situating the human being as the central link between the celestial and the terrestrial realms. In Epistle 35, we find an explanation of the intellectual faculties of the individual human soul, whose ultimate aim is ascension to the timeless reality of pure intellect. Finally, Epistle 36 presents itself as the astrological epistle par excellence of the Easā'il; from the coming-to-be of worms, to the emergence of religions and empires, nothing in the sub-linar sphere escapes the determining influence of the celestial cycles