Ikhwan al-Safa

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Ikhwan al-Safa was a secretive medieval Islamic philosophical brotherhood best known for its encyclopedic "Epistles" that synthesized Greek philosophy, science, and Islamic thought.

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Label Occurrences
Ikhwan al-Safa canonical 1

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Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Islamic philosophical school
medieval scholarly circle
philosophical brotherhood
secret society
alternativeName Ikhwan al-Safaʾ wa Khullan al-Wafaʾ
characteristic anonymous authorship of works
esoteric interpretation of religion
secretive membership
use of allegory and fables
era Islamic Golden Age
fieldOfWork astronomy
ethics
mathematics
metaphysics
music theory
natural sciences
philosophy
political philosophy
religious studies
goal attainment of salvation through knowledge and virtue
purification of the soul
influenced Ismaili thought
Scholasticism
surface form: Latin scholasticism

later Islamic philosophy
medieval Jewish philosophy
influencedBy Aristotle
Hellenistic science
Islamic theology
Neoplatonism
Plato
Pythagoreanism
Qurʾanic exegesis
language Arabic
mainWork Epistles of the Brethren of Purity
Rasaʾil Ikhwan al-Safa
notableIdea encyclopedic classification of sciences
harmonization of philosophy and religion
hierarchical cosmology
spiritual purification of the soul
universal brotherhood of the virtuous
philosophicalTradition Aristotelianism
Islamic philosophy
Neoplatonism
placeOfActivity Basra
Iraq
religion Islam
selfDesignation Brethren of Purity
temporalContext 10th century
workStructure 52 epistles
division into mathematical, natural, psychological, and theological sciences

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Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Islamic philosophy majorFigure Ikhwan al-Safa