al-Taqrib li Hadd al-Mantiq wa al-Madkhal Ilayhi bi al-Alfaz al-Ammiyya wa al-Amthila al-Fiqhiyya
- Author died
- 456 AH
- Editions
- Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāh
al-Taqrib li-Hadd al-Mantiq wa-al-Madkhal Ilayhi bi-al-Alfaz al-Ammiyya wa-al-Amthila al-Fiqhiyya (Approximation to the Definition of Logic and an Introduction to It Using Common Terms and Jurisprudential Examples) is a treatise on Aristotelian logic by the Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm (384–456 AH / 994–1064 CE) . The work aims to simplify formal logic, render it accessible to religious scholars, and demonstrate its harmony with Islamic jurisprudence and other sciences .
Purpose and Background
Ibn Hazm composed the treatise out of a conviction that logic is not merely a mental exercise, but a necessary instrument across diverse disciplines, including theology, grammar, lexicography, medicine, and geometry . He sought to address two major obstacles that hindered students: the obscure vocabulary of earlier translations and the abstract symbolic notation commonly used by logicians . To overcome these, he substituted technical jargon with standard, familiar Arabic terms (al-alfāẓ al-ʿāmmiyya) and replaced abstract letters with concrete examples drawn from daily life and Islamic law (al-amthila al-fiqhiyya) .
Ibn Hazm had studied logic under Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Madhhiji (known as Ibn al-Kattani) and Thabit ibn Muhammad al-Jurjani, both of whom stood in an intellectual lineage linked to the translator and logician Abu Bishr Matta ibn Yunus . The book was completed before 439 AH, as an extant manuscript owned by Abu Abd Allah al-Rusafi records a reading certificate in Ibn Hazm's handwriting dated Safar 439 AH (and noted in another reading as 437 AH) .
Structure and Method
The work follows the traditional eightfold division of the Aristotelian Organon alongside Porphyry's Isagoge, though with substantial structural modifications:
- Introduction (al-Madkhal): Corresponding to Porphyry's Isagoge .
- Book of Simple Terms (Kitāb al-Asmāʾ al-Mufrada): Corresponding to Aristotle's Categories (Categoriae) .
- Book of Propositions (Kitāb al-Akhbār): Corresponding to Aristotle's De Interpretatione .
- Book of Demonstration (Kitāb al-Burhān): A combined section in which Ibn Hazm merged the contents of four Aristotelian texts—Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics (Topica), and Sophistical Refutations (Sophistici Elenchi)—while rejecting the term qiyās (syllogism) in favor of burhān (demonstration) .
- Concluding Sections: Discussions on dialectical dispute, the etiquette of debate (ādāb al-munāẓara), premises drawn from twelve distinct disciplines, and brief assessments of rhetoric and poetry that diverge from Aristotle's treatment .
Reception and Critique
The book generated mixed reactions among contemporaries. Ibn Hazm's student al-Humaydi praised the work, stating that Ibn Hazm took an unprecedented approach in explaining logic, dispelling prejudice against it, and exposing those who used it deceitfully . In Ṭabaqāt al-Umam, the historian Sa'id al-Andalusi noted that Ibn Hazm expounded the paths of knowledge through legal examples, but criticized him for departing from Aristotle's foundational principles, claiming that the book contained numerous errors because Ibn Hazm relied on religious premises, downplayed induction (istiqrāʾ), and reshaped logical doctrines to suit his own epistemological framework . Ibn Hazm also faced harsh opposition from conventional jurists who condemned logic outright .
Al-Dhahabi listed al-Taqrīb among Ibn Hazm's works as consisting of a single volume . The text has survived in manuscripts in Tunis and Izmir and has been published in modern editions, including one edited by Ihsan Abbas within Rasāʾil Ibn Ḥazm and another edited by Abd al-Haqq ibn Mulla al-Turkmani .
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