Abstract

Mukhtasar siw an al-hikma is a work hikma compiled by the twelfth century qadi-philosopher 'Umar b. Sahlan al-Sawi. This work, which has been until now in a manuscript form, is actually an abridgment of the famous but lost Siwan al-hikma, attributed traditionally to Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi al-Sijistani. The Mukhtasar is extremely important both in its relation to the Siwan al-hikma and in its own right. ;The work contains some 905 wise sayings from 60 Greek and 13 Muslim philosophers. These sayings address various issues in ethics as well as politics, such as happiness, moral virtues and vices, the ideal just ruler and advice to the king. They also reflect the philosophers' views on God, worldly life, women, children, life and death, and love and friendship. ;This highly instructive work has not been available to general readers, nor has it been sufficiently studied by scholars. The present study shows that all works dealing directly with the text of the Mukhtasar by modern scholars, such as Franz Rosenthal, Manfred Ullmann, and Von Jorg Kraemer, cover only one-ninth of the entire body of sayings contained in it. The manuscript of the Mukhtasar, therefore, needs to be fully edited. ;The main purpose of my dissertation is to make the text of the Mukhtasar available to scholars in a critically edited form, and to put it in its proper place among philosophical works of medieval Islamic civilization, in a study introducing the edited text