Abu Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Sabbah al-Kindī

An Arab scholar who wrote works in many fields of science, ranging from philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy to theology, psychology, physics, chemistry, and music. He was born in Kufa. His father, Ishaq b. al-Sabbah, served as governor of Kufa for many years. Kindî, who received special attention and support from the Abbasid caliphs, also served as a court astrologer and astronomer. Known in medieval Europe as “Alkindus,” he was the first Islamic philosopher. In his philosophy, he synthesized the views of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus. According to al-Kindi, who argued that the method of philosophy is proof, the goal of proof is to know the essences that give form to matter, and the purpose of philosophy is to attain God, the first step in philosophical knowledge is reasoning. The philosopher, who argued that human beings ascend step by step through reasoning from the simple to the composite and on to the most perfect, denied the attributes pertaining to the essence of God because he approached existence from a rational perspective. According to al-Kindī, who argued that God’s attributes can only be known in a negative sense, God is the Absolute One. As the Absolute Being, the Absolute One has no form, quality, quantity, or substance, and is not a relative being. Al-Kindî produced a body of work comprising 277 works across twenty distinct fields, ranging from philosophy to medicine, mathematics to astronomy, theology to politics, psychology to dialectics, astrology to divination, and optics to chemistry. Kindî, who died in Baghdad in 873, is counted among the great Muslim philosophers of his era.