Revisiting the Secret of the First Admonition of the Ninth Namat of Esharat O-Tanbihat in Refusing the Ascription of Salaman O-Absal to Avicenna

Abstract

Following the conflicts and doubts cast by Fakhr Razi on Avicenna’s symbolic reference to the symbolic-allegorical tale of Salaman O-Absal in the first admonition of the ninth Namat of Esharat O-Tanbihat, Khajeh Nasir, in refuting this claim, expounded on Avicenna’s accounts through a narrative of Salaman O-Absal which he had found consistent with Avicenna’s remarks. Jozjani also mentions Salaman O-Absal in Avicenna’s works and Avicenna makes a mention of “Absal” in his “Ghaza O-Ghadar” treatise. Considering the existing evidence, the tale of two brothers, Salaman and Absal, could be considered as Avicenna’s allegorical-symbolic tales. After Khajeh Nasir, other commentators of Esharat O-Tanbihat and other works of Avicenna, considered Khajeh Nasir’s Salaman O-Absal as the third allegorical-symbolic tale of Avicenna; merely relying on Khajeh Nasir’s statements and without further explorations; while there were no documents other than the unsubstantiated claims made by Khajeh Nasir. This study, through providing firm evidence, refutes such an assumption and declares that there is no tale entitled Salaman O-Absal written by Avicenna. Besides, the mentioned first admonition of the ninth Namat of Esharat O-Tanbihat is not Khajeh Nasir’s narration of the tale Salaman O-Absal but, actually, is the legendary Greek tale of Salaman O-Absal translated by Hannis Ibn Ishaq.

Keywords

• avicenna
• esharat o-tanbihat
• salaman o-absal
• khajeh nasir