Dictionary of Islamic Philosophical Terms

Introduction:

This dictionary is an aid to the readers of Muslim philosophical works that are in Arabic. It includes most of the terminology that was developed by Muslim philosophers in their works and the terms that they borrowed -and sometimes translated- from Greek (Hellenistic), Syraic, Persian and Indian philosophical works. Also included are concepts that are Islamic but of a philosophical nature and were used by Muslim philosophers.

The dictionary also includes the Arabized names of the philosophers and scientist of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Persian and Indian Origin -namely those that worked with Helenistic and Indo-Persian works of science, mathematics and philosophy.

At times it only includes the names of the non-Muslim scholars and little else, as very little is known about them. Also the Greek schools of thoughts are included and briefly defined. There are philosophers and ideas that were erroneously attributed by the philosophers who worked in Arabic -Muslim and non-Muslim- and that is brought to light. An example of this is some the works of Poltinus was attributed to Aristotle.

This dictionary is based on the work by Prof. M. Saeed Sheikh "Dictionary of Muslim Philosophy" published by the Institute of Islamic Culture -of Lahore, Pakistan- first published in 1970. For the web it has been updated with corrections and additions as needed as there was some missing terms that were alluded to in the text but are missing. Professor Alparslan Acikgenc of Fatih University, Turkey,  a user of this dictionary of many years, has kindly provided us with many additional terms and they are marked as such with (AnAc).

Disclaimer:

Pure Arabic or strictly Fiqhi (including Islamic concepts) and Sufi terminology are NOT included in this dictionary. Also if you are looking for Arabic Names - male or female- this is not the place for it.