Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung.

Volume 67 (3), 273 – 287 (2014)

DOI: 10.1556/AOrient.67.2014.3.2

MEDIAEVAL ARABIC LOVE THEORY

BETWEEN DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE:
ABŪ BAKR MUḤAMMAD IBN ZAKARIYYĀᵓ AL-RĀZĪ
AND HIS ARGUMENT AGAINST ᶜISHQ∗
JALAL ABD ALGHANI

Department of Arabic Language and Literature, University of Haifa

199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel
e-mail: jabdalg1@univ.haifa.ac.il

This article deals with Chapter V of Kitāb al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī of Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (Rhazes) which
is concerned with ᶜishq (love) and entitled Fī al-ᶜIshq wal-Ilf wa-Jumlat al-Kalām fī al-Ladhdha or
“On Love and Intimacy and a Summary Account of Pleasure”. In this chapter, al-Rāzī propounds the
idea that love is an unfortunate condition that leads to subservience and surrender, madness and en-
ervation. Previous studies on Kitāb al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī show that al-Rāzī based his work on the mala-
dies of the self on Plato, Galen and the tradition of Hedonism. In this article, however, I intend to
explore al-Rāzī’s views on ᶜishq and aim to contextualise them within the framework of mediaeval
Arabic love theory. I propose to show, moreover, that al-Rāzī’s psychology, or more specifically his
argument over ᶜishq, is based not only on “a blend of materialistic and Platonic elements”, as Lenn
Evan Goodman asserts, and on “lively debates typical of Hellenistic philosophy”, as Thérèse-Anne
Druart claims, but his contemplation which derives from his perception of the vicissitudes of the so-
ciety and his endeavours to demolish what he considers mistaken ideas of love which were promul-
gated by some works of mediaeval Arabic literature. By doing so, Chapter V could be considered
an exemplar of a form of mediaeval applied ethics which “addresses the moral permissibility of spe-
cific actions and practices” as it occurred in the society.
Key words: Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, mediaeval Arabic love theory, Plato, Galen, ᶜishq; al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī,
psychology.

I. Introduction

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyāᵓ al-Rāzī (Rhazes) (d. 313/925 or 323/935), a phy-
sician, philosopher and alchemist,1 is the author of, among other medical and philoso-

∗
This article is an expansion and modification of a paper presented at the International Me-
diaeval Congress 2012, University of Leeds, 9 – 12 July 2012.
1
On Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī life and medical and philosophical writ-
ings, see Ibn al-Nadīm (1988, pp. 356 –357); Ibn Juljul Sulaymān ibn Ḥassān al-Andalusī (1985,
0001-6446 / $ 20.00 © 2014 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest
274 JALAL ABD ALGHANI

phical compilations, Kitāb al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī (Psychological Medicine), which is re-

garded as one of the earliest mediaeval Arabic works dedicated to psychology.2 Writ-
ten as a complementary text to his opus Kitāb al-1ibb al-Man?ūrī (Liber Almanso-
ris), assigned to advance medical treatment for certain bodily diseases,3 al-RāzīTs al-
1ibb al-Rū4ānī encompasses twenty chapters all dealing with some typical maladies
afflicting the human soul (al-nafs). Representing al-Rāzī’s Epicurean ethical system,
al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī proposes certain prescriptions for the improvement of people’s char-
acters (i?lā4 al-akhlāq) intended for the welfare of the human soul. Al-Rāzī deals with
certain vices which afflict the soul, such as arrogance, jealousy, avarice, voracity, and
concerns himself with some negative forms of behaviour, such as immoderate drink-
ing and unrestrained coitus.
Love is among the psychological maladies on which al-Rāzī expounds in Chap-
ter V of al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī and entitled Fī al-ᶜIshq wal-Ilf wa-Jumlat al-Kalām fī al-
Ladhdha or “On Love and Intimacy and a Summary Account of Pleasure”. Chapter V,
which is of central importance to the scholarship of mediaeval Arabic love theory, is
written to express al-Rāzī’s thoughts of cautioning against love’s symptoms and to
warn, moreover, against its deception. In this article, I propose to explore his views
on ᶜishq and aim to contextualise them within the framework of mediaeval Arabic
love theory. Previous studies on al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī stress the influence of Plato and
Galen on al-Rāzī and his thoughts developed in his work. Mehdi Mohaghegh, for ex-
ample, states that “the influence of both Plato and Galen is evident in setting reason
and passion as opposites and of attributing all virtues to reason and all vices to passion”

————
pp. 77 – 80); Ibn Abī Uṣaybiᶜah (1884, Vol. 1, pp. 309– 321); Ibn al-Qifṭī (1908, pp. 271 – 277);
Ruska (1923, pp. 26 – 50); Kraus (1936); Goodman, L. E.: al-Rāzī. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, sec-
ond edition, electronic version; Straface (2011). Consult also the following studies: Meyerhof (1935,
pp. 321 – 372); Ruska (1939, pp. 31 – 94); Kraus (1939); Nadjmabadi (1960); Ullmann (1970, pp.
128 – 136); Sezgin (1970, Vol. 3, pp. 274 –294); Goodman (1975, pp. 25– 40); Iskandar (1976, pp.
133 – 147); Ansari (1976, pp. 155 – 166; 1977, pp. 157 –177); Rockey – Johnstone (1979, pp. 229 –
243); Bausani (1981); Fischer – Weisser (1986, pp. 211 – 241); Richter-Bernburg (1994, pp. 377–
399); Goodman (1996, pp. 198 – 215); Mu4ammad ibn Zakarīyā’ ar-Rāzī (d. 313/925): Texts and
Studies, collected and reprinted by Fuat Sezgin and others (Frankfurt am Main, Institute for the His-
tory of Arabic-Islamic Science, 1999); Stroumsa (1999, pp. 87 –120); Álvarez-Millán (2000, pp.
293 – 306); Bernburg (2008); Pormann (2011, 2, pp. 134 – 145).
2
Here I am using the text of Kitāb al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī which was incorporated in Abū Bakr
al-Rāzī: Rasāᵓil Falsafiyyah maᶜ qiGaᶜ baqiyat min kutubih al-mafqūdah, edited and collected by
Paul Kraus. Tehran, al-Maktabah al-Murtaḍawīyah, 1969. References are to this edition. There is
another edition of al-Rāzī’s al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī together with al-Aqwāl al-Dhahabiyyah lil-Karmā-
nī and al-Munādharāt of Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī edited by ᶜAbd al-Laṭīf al-ᶜAbd. Cairo, Maktabat
al-Nahḍah al-Miṣriyyah, 1978. For reviews on the edition of Kraus, see Gabrieli (1940, pp. 270 –
271); Mehdi Mohaghegh (1967, pp. 5 – 22); Gutas (1977, pp. 91 –93). For an English translation of
al-Rāzī’s work see Arberry (trans.) (1950). All the English citations of al-Rāzī’s al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī
in this article are Arberry’s translation, except for the first paragraph quoted from al-1ibb al-Rū-
4ānī, which is my translation. For a recent French translation of the book, consult Brague (trans.)
(2003).
3
See Trois traités d’anatomie Arabes par Mu4ammed Ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī ᶜAli Ibn al-
ᶜAbbās et ᶜAli Ibn Sīnā, edited and translated by P. de Koning. Leiden, Brill, 1903.
Acta Orient. Hung. 67, 2014
 MEDIAEVAL ARABIC LOVE THEORY BETWEEN DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE 275

(Mehdi Mohaghegh 1967, p. 9).4 Lenn Evan Goodman, on the other hand, considers
al-Razī as complete hedonist and also underlines the hedonic framework of his ethics
and proposes that al-Rāzī turned “to unmistakably Epicurean alternatives for the reso-
lution not only of almost every practical moral question which his philosophy con-
fronts, but also (and no less importantly) for the very ethical standard from which, as
he claims, all of his specific teachings can be deduced” (Goodman 1971, p. 6).5 In an-
other study, Goodman concludes that the psychology of al-Rāzī “appears to be a blend
of materialistic and Platonic elements” (Goodman 1972, p. 43).6 The studies of Meir
M. Bar-Asher and Thérèse-Anne Druart, refer to the relation of al-Rāzī to the Galenic
tradition. Bar-Asher expounds on the question of Galen’s influence on the ethics of
al-Rāzī (Bar-Asher 1989); and Druart presents al-Rāzī’s concept of the individual ra-
tional soul and explicates his views on “the fall of the cosmic soul and its rescue by
God” (Druart 1996, pp. 245–263; 1997, pp. 47–71).7 Based on her detailed study of
the two books by al-Rāzī, namely al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī and Kitāb al-Sīrah al-Falsafiyyah
(The Philosophical Life), Druart claims that these works “are grounded in lively de-
bates typical of Hellenistic philosophy known at least through Galen’s enormously
influential works” (Druart 1997, p. 48). In addition to these judgments, which intend to
show that the ethics of al-Rāzī are based mainly on Plato and Galen and the tradition
of hedonism, I propose to show that the psychology of al-Rāzī and, more specifically,
his argument over ᶜishq is based not only on “a blend of materialistic and Platonic ele-
ments”, as Lenn Evan Goodman asserts (Goodman 1972, p. 43), and on “lively de-
bates typical of Hellenistic philosophy”, as Druart claims, but his contemplation
derives from his perception of the vicissitudes of the society and his endeavours to de-
molish some wrong ideas of love which were promulgated by some works of medi-
aeval Arabic literature. By doing so, Chapter V would be considered an exemplar of a

4
He also comments that “al-Rāzī, in his Spiritual Physic like all his other philosophical
writings was influenced by Plato and Galen”. He tries to prove his statement by announcing that
“Al-Rāzī had at his disposal Arabic translations, commentaries and summaries of the works of
Plato and Galen” (Mehdi Mohaghegh 1967, p. 7). Thus Mehdi Mohaghegh concludes that al-Rāzī
“is influenced by the traditions encountered among Muslims concerning the contempt of love by
Greek philosophers” (ibid., p. 12).
5
Goodman concludes that “Râzî is a hedonist, for in every major case Râzî’s guiding prin-
ciple is the maximisation of pleasure, and it is evident from Râzî’s analysis of pleasure that the only
mode by which he deems this possible is the minimisation of desire” (Goodman 1971, p. 14). In an-
other paragraph, Goodman justifies Rāzī’s hedonic principles by stating that “there is no part of
Râzî’s ethics which is not strictly hedonistic, in principle and in application. It might be thought,
especially in view of Râzî’s ultimate soteriological appeal, that this hedonism of his is due to his
effort to popularise the results of philosophy” (ibid., p. 18).
6
In another paragraph, Goodman states that “the Epicurean theory of pleasure as relief from
pain is crucial to Rāzī’s ethical system. For Rāzī’s ethic is founded upon the premise that pleasure
is nothing ‘positive’ to be sought but only a release, the necessary pre-condition which is some
form of pain or discomfort. This account of pleasure, which has its origin in Plato’s critique of he-
donism, is transformed by Rāzī into comprehensive ‘logic of pleasure’ which becomes the founda-
tion of his own ‘critical’ hedonism. Rāzī’s ethic is a systematic derivation of a moderate asceticism
from these purely hedonic considerations” (Goodman 1972, p. 32).
7
See also her article: Druart (1993).
Acta Orient. Hung. 67, 2014
276 JALAL ABD ALGHANI

mediaeval applied ethics which “addresses the moral permissibility of specific actions
and practices” occurring in the society.8

II. The Affliction of ᶜIshq

As Chapter V demonstrates, Al-Rāzī considers love as an adversity that leads to sub-

servience and surrender, madness and enervation, want and need; and, lastly, suffering
from the arrogance of the beloved.9 Holding such a disagreeable view on love, al-
Rāzī condemns the lovers, particularly the effeminate men, love poets, idle people and
those leading a sybaritic life for they are engrossed in love. He opens Chapter V with
the following statement:
“The renowned men who are endowed with lofty purposes and exalted
souls distance their dispositions and propensities from this adversity for
there is nothing more severe that may befall those people than servility,
obedience, surrender, showing destitution and want; bearing accusation
and vilification. Where they have considered what constrains the lovers
to these meanings, they would despise love and dispel it though they
might have sustained it and, moreover, they would incline to equanim-
ity. Corresponding to these people are those who are occupied with se-
rious activities whether they are secular or religious matters. Still, the
effeminate men (al-khanithūn), and those who hold amorous talks with
women (al-ghazilūn), and the leisured men (al-furrāgh), and those who
lead a sybaritic life, and those who lean towards and are involved with
concupiscence (al-shahawāt) who desire, of the present life, but the at-
tainment of these passions and consider the loss of them as great priva-
tion, sorrow and suffering; they are barely exempt from this adversity,
especially when they are poring considerably over the stories of lovers
and recite the tender love poems and listen to the affecting melodies and
songs.”10 (Al-Rāzī, al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī, p. 36)

18
Here I am consulting the definition of applied ethics as proposed by Joel Dittmer in his
article “Applied Ethics” in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Peer-Reviewed Academic Re-
source: http://www.iep.utm.edu/ap-ethic/.
19
“Lovers, because of their obedience to passion and their preference and worship of pleas-
ure, experience sorrow where they precisely suppose that they will rejoice, and pain where they
think they will have pleasure. This is because they never reach or attain any single pleasure without
being affected and controlled by sense of anxiety and effort. It may well happen that they will con-
tinue in a state of constant anguish and unremitting agony without accomplishing any desire what-
soever. Many of them are reduced by prolonged insomnia, worry and undernourishment to a state
of madness and delusion, of consumption and wasting away” (The Spiritual Physick, p. 42; al-1ibb
al-Rū4ānī, p. 40). On viewing love as illness in mediaeval Arabic culture, see Biesterfeldt – Gutas
(1984).
10
The translation is mine – J.A.A.
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 MEDIAEVAL ARABIC LOVE THEORY BETWEEN DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE 277

Al-Rāzī refutes the general view which was accepted by certain writings on
the theory of love that elevates this emotion to a highly esteemed position. These
works, some of which are contemporary and some almost contemporary with his work,
al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī, have been accepted as a basis for modern research on mediaeval
Arabic love theory. In her book, Theory of Profane Love Among the Arabs, Lois Anita
Giffen considers the works dedicated to love theory as a single group linked by ge-
netic relationships. Hence she states that “We do not need to be timid in treating these
works as a distinct branch of literature, since we can demonstrate not only their com-
mon content but also their historical or genetic relationships to each other in many
cases. I think we may even call them a genre” (Giffen 1973). Giffen, here, refers to the
canonical works, such as Risālah fī al-ᶜIshq wal-Nisāᵓ by al-Jāḥia (d. 255/869) (see
Cheikh-Mousaa 1990), or 1awq al-Kamāmah by Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064),11 which
constitute the corpus of the genre of mediaeval Arabic theory of love. Al-Rāzī’s Chap-
ter V however, together with other works, such as the Risālat Māhiyyat al-ᶜIshq by
the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-Ṣafā), which are not affiliated with the genre of writ-
ing on love, according to Giffen, were marginalised by her and grouped together in
the appendix of her book. These “marginalised” texts were mostly studied separately
from the scholarship of mediaeval Arabic love theory. Reading Al-Rāzī’s Chapter V
reveals, however, how the mediaeval Arabic love theory is incompatible with itself.
By this, I mean that this theory, while striving for a thorough knowledge of love,
avails itself of diverse incompatible trends and ideas. Such a diversity nourishes the
mediaeval theory and even strengthens it not working, however, to weaken its func-
tionality as might be considered. Thus, examining Chapter V of al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī
shows how much the “marginalised” texts and the central canonical texts of the theory
of love are interlaced with one another; hence every effort to explore the mediaeval
love theory thoroughly should deploy both kind of texts.
Al-Rāzī, through his interesting argument on ᶜishq, engaged with certain topics
related to love and its consequences such as explicating the essence of pleasure en-
gendered by love, commented on the pain caused by the departure of the beloved or
referred to the detrimental effect of reading love stories (al-naLar fī qi?a? al-ᶜushshāq),
the recitation of tender love poems (riwāyat al-raqīq al-ghazil) and, lastly, listening
to the affecting melodies and songs (samāᶜ al-shajiyy min al-al4ān wal-ghināᵓ).12
Thus, al-Rāzī presents his awareness of some of the social observances of love pre-
vailing at this time. It is more important that al-Rāzī was able to assimilate and criti-
cise the literary discourse on love developed by certain authors, or the udabāᵓ accord-
ing to his expression,13 and practised by the refined people, al-Lurafāᵓ, whom he con-
demns for their practices, as they were engrossed in love and its affairs.14 His disap-

11
On the 1awq al-Kamāmah of Ibn Ḥazm, see Lévi-Provençal (1950, pp. 335 – 375); Fuentes
(1965, pp. 161 – 178); Turki (1978, pp. 25 –82); Pinilla (1990); Giffen (1992, pp. 420 – 442); Castro
(1995, pp. 143 – 150); Benaïssa (1999, pp. 3 – 18); Adang (2003a, pp. 5 –31; 2003b, pp. 111– 145).
12
See note 9.
13
On the social and literary status of the kātib in mediaeval Islam, see Carter (1971, pp. 42 –
55); Bosworth (1998, pp. 698 – 699); Van Berkel (2000, pp. 79 –87).
14
On al-Nurafāᵓ and their role in ᶜAbbasid culture and society see Ghazi (1959, pp. 39 –71);
Enderwitz (1989, pp. 125 – 142); Montgomery (2002, p. 460); Szombathy (2006, pp. 101– 119).
Acta Orient. Hung. 67, 2014
278 JALAL ABD ALGHANI

proval of the love practices of the Lurafāᵓ is at variance with the ideas of Ibn Sīnā (d.
428/1037) who wrote, in the fifth section of his Risālah fī Māhiyyat al-ᶜIshq, a phi-
losophical apology for the views advanced by the udabāᵓ, or more specifically by al-
Washshāᵓ as proposed by Joseph Norment Bell (see Ibn Sīnā 1953, pp. 14–20).15
I agree with Lois Anita Giffen’s short comment that “the views ascribed to the parti-
sans of love”, which al-Rāzī intended to demolish, “seem to correspond with those of
Ibn Dāᵓūd and al-Washshāᵓ”, and that such a proposition leads her “to think that it is
these gentlemen and their ilk, the ‘Lurafāᵓ’ which he [= al-Rāzī, J.a.A.] has in mind.
He was a contemporary of these two men and for two periods of time lived in the
same city, Baghdad” (Giffen 1971, p. 142). Reading Chapter V gives the impression
that al-Rāzī argues with these two men and denounces the literary discourse of love
which they present in their works (see Ibn Dāwūd 1985).16 The Kitāb al-Zahra of
Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd al-hāhirī (d. 294/909) is an anthology of love poetry which
was arranged according to topics appertaining to l’affaire d’amour such as longing
for the beloved, the union between the lovers and subservience to the beloved. This
anthology was intended, as Ibn Dāwūd states in the preface of his book, for ahl al-
ādāb (the littérateurs) (see Ibn Dāwūd 1985, pp. 40–41).17 The Kitāb al-Muwashshā
of Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Washshāᵓ (d. 325/937), moreover, is a vade-mecum to
the ordinances of civility, the codes of manliness and the principles of refinement prac-
tised by the group of the Lurafāᵓ or the refined people in the Abbasid society. Love,
according to al-Washshāᵓ, is congruent with the practices of al-Larf; hence he wrote
several chapters speaking of love and its affairs expounding, for example, on the signs
of love, the vicissitudes of the lovers, and the martyrs of love. Al-Rāzī refers to these
people several times and calls them qawm ruᶜn (silly people) who are characterised
by Larf (refinement) and adab (politeness). Alluding to these people, he sets forth
their main claims as follows:
“Now because certain silly people contend and wage war with the phi-
losophers about this conception, using language as weak and flaccid as

15
Joseph Norment Bell contends that “except for the fact that Avicenna is not specific re-
garding the sex of the beloved, the fifth section of his Treatise on Love would appear to be a phi-
losopher’s apology for these views set forth after the manner of the bellettrists by al-Washshāᵓ” (see
Bell 1986, p. 87). An English translation of the Risālah fī Māhiyyat al-ᶜIshq of Ibn Sīnā was pro-
duced by Fackenheim (1945, pp. 208 – 228). On this work of Ibn Sīnā see Von Grunebaum (1952,
pp. 175 – 217); Soreth (1964, pp. 118 – 131); Rundgren (1978 –1979, pp. 42 –62); Sabri (1993 –
1994, pp. 175 – 217).
16
On Ibn Dāwūd, see Vadet, J. C.: Ibn Dāwūd. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition,
electronic version. Al-Washshāᵓ: al-Muwashshā. Beirut, Dār Ṣādir, 1965. On al-Washshāᵓ, see
Raven, W.: al-Washshāᵓ. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition, electronic version. Al-Wash-
shāᵓ’s work was translated into Spanish and French, see Washshāᵓ Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yaḥyā
(1990); Washshâ Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yahya (2004).
17
Maḥmūd b. Salmān al-Ḥalabī (d. 725/1324), a later writer on love theory, perceived Ibn
Dāwūd’s Kitāb al-Zahra work as an anthology of poetry. Speaking of Ibn Dāwūd al-Iṣfahānī, al-
Ḥalabī states that “He is the composer of Kitāb al-Zahrah of the compilations of poetry [mu?annif
kitāb al-zahrah fī al-majāmiᶜ al-shiᶜriyyah.]”. See al-Ḥalabī: Kitāb Manāzil al-A4bāb wa-Manāzih
al-Albāb, p. 76.
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 MEDIAEVAL ARABIC LOVE THEORY BETWEEN DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE 279

themselves – and they, forsooth, are called wits and literary gentlemen –
we propose to set down what they have to say on the subject and then
give our own version of it. They say that love is a habit only of refined
natures and subtle brains, and that it encourages cleanliness, elegance,
spruceness and a handsome turn-out. They accompany such statements
by quoting eloquent lyrics to the same effect, and fortify their argument
with references to men of letters, poets, chiefs and leaders who indulged
in love, even going so far as to include prophets.”
(The Spiritual Physick, p. 44; Al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī, p. 42)
This paragraph is significant and worth citing here as it encompasses the main
concepts of al-udabāᵓ and al-Lurafāᵓ which al-Rāzī attempts to contradict. These con-
cepts, as he sees them, are related to the peculiar disposition of the lovers (ᶜushshāq),
the efficacy of love and the attempt to legitimise it. Using al-Rāzī’s expressions and
making the discussion more readable, I will outline these concepts as follows:
Claim I: The belief that only discerning dispositions and flaming minds
are accustomed to love;
Claim II: Love induces purity, suavity and adornment; and
Claim III: Talking about lovers among poets, authors, chiefs and even
prophets to extol love and popularise it.
These concepts represent some of the main established conventions propounded
by mediaeval Arabic writings on love theory which emerged in the 9th century and
continued to the 14th century. Al-Rāzī’s argument against love, however, deviates
from the main outlines of mediaeval Arabic love theory. By demolishing the afore-
mentioned three points, he advances his own concepts and conventions of love. I will
now present the three claims of the conventional literary discourse of love and their
counterclaims as advanced by al-Rāzī.

Claim I Counterclaim I

[1]: “Love is peculiar to people who are
endowed with fine dispositions and affin-
ity between their souls” (Ibn Dāwūd 1985,
Vol. 1, p. 41).
[2]: “What would assist in recognising
lovers’ consummate manners and the su-
periority of their intentions is their engage-
ment with love and their suffering from
passion” (Al-Washshaᵓ 1965, p. 74).
[3]: “Whereas I have recognised what
comes under the literary pleasing anec-
“To this we answer that refinement of
nature and mental subtlety and clarity
are recognised and proven by the ca-
pacity of those so endowed to compre-
hend obscure, remote matters and fine,
subtle sciences, to express clearly diffi-
cult and complicated ideas, and to invent
useful and profitable arts. Now these
things we find only in the philoso-
phers; whereas we observe that love-
making is not their habit, but the fre-
quent and constant use of Bedouins,
Kurds, Nabateans and such-like clod-

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280 JALAL ABD ALGHANI
dotes (al-nukat al-adabiyyah) and the
Arabian witty repartee (al-mula4 al-ᶜara-
biyyah), of the tender love poems (al-
ashᶜār al-raqīqah) which rouse the ardent
love (al-?abwah), and evoke the latent
passion (al-hawā), and move the dormant
fondly-felt love (al-wajd); I inclined to
combine accounts of the poets who have
composed these poems, of what verifies
that this kindness (al-luGf) that prevails
in their speech and the tenderness of their
poems (al-riqqah) that touches the minds
are by way of the abstinence in their char-
acteristics, and the truthfulness that is in-
herent in their dispositions. They arise
from proud spirits, and devout hearts, and
wholesome loneliness, and virtuous man-
ners that are not defiled by lustful desires
nor soiled by confusion (Shihāb al-Dīn
Maḥmūd b. Salmān al-Ḥalabī 2000, p. 1).
[4]: “I have realised that love befalls only
persons endowed with sagacious minds
and lofty imaginations who are character-
ised by their intellect and godliness and
acquainted with adab and who are graced
with exalted merits and pure lineage and
valuable mind and dispositionˮ (Al-Ḥuṣrī
al-Qayrawānī 1989, p. 34).
Claim II
This tradition is cited repeatedly in many
mediaeval Arabic works of love and love
theory. “Someone said to Saᶜīd b. Salam:
your son has began to compose the ten-
der (raqīq) love poetry and to transmit it.
He asked: What for? He was told: Due
to his obsession with ᶜishq (love). Then
Saᶜīd has said: Let him be a refined, amia-
ble and neat person.ˮ18
18
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. ᶜAlī al-Ḥuṣrī al-Qayrawānī: al-Ma?ūn fī Sirr al-Hawā al-Maknūn,
edited by al-Nabawī ᶜAbd al-Wāḥid Shaᶜlān. Cairo, Dār al-ᶜArab lil-Bustānī, 1989, p. 46. This tradi-
Acta Orient. Hung. 67, 2014
hoppers. We also discover it to be a
general and universal fact that there is
no nation on earth of a finer intellect
and more evident wisdom than the
Greeks who, on the whole, are less pre-
occupied by love than any other people.
This proves the very opposite of what
the others claim; that is to say, it proves
that love is in fact the habit of gross na-
tures and stupid minds; for those who
are little given to thought, reflection and
deliberation run headlong after the call
of their natures and the inclination of
their appetites” (The Spiritual Physick,
pp. 44–45; Al-1ibb al-Rūhānī, pp. 42–
43).
Counterclaim II
“As for their assertion that love encour-
ages cleanliness, elegance, a handsome
turn-out and spruceness: what is the use
of beautiful physique, when the soul
is ugly? Who wants physical beauty
anyway, or labours to attain it, except
women and effeminates?” (The Spiri-
tual Physick, p. 48; Al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī,
p. 45).
 MEDIAEVAL ARABIC LOVE THEORY BETWEEN DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE 281

Claim III Counterclaim III

“I have noticed that several authors who
wrote books on love opened their works
by speaking of earlier lovers including the
prophets, God’s blessing and peace be
upon them, and stated that prophets were
subject to love. They referred, moreover,
to other things which are not allowed
to be attached to the prophets or to be
claimed by any Muslim such as killing
the selves, which it is not allowed to put
to death (al-nufūs al-mu4arramāt), and
doing disapproved things. If I want to
mention proofs derived from the Qurᵓān
and the accounts of the earlier prophets
and saints of God (awliyāᵓ) in order to
validate love before him who denies it
and to explicate it before him who is not
able to discern it I will not fail to do that.
Love, however, does not belong to the
theological issues (umūr al-diyānāt) which
are proven by arguments (i4tijājāt). Love,
however, is peculiar to people who are
endowed with fine dispositions and affin-
ity between their souls. Any person who
is like them will excuse them, and he who
does not identify with them will say any-
thing on them. For the prophets, peace
be upon them, and the virtuous imāms of
Islam: they are too exalted for their ac-
counts to be referred to, due to their rank.
These accounts, moreover, would be taken
out of their context if they would be
approved; or they would be disapproved
if their narrator were accused of lying”
(Ibn Dāwūd 1985, p. 41).
“It remains for us to deal with an argu-
ment about which we have not yet said
anything, namely their attempt to exon-
erate carnal love on the grounds that
even the prophets were afflicted by it.
Now there is surely nobody who is pre-
pared to allow that love-making should
be accounted one of the merits or vir-
tues of the prophets, or that it is some-
thing they particularly chose and ap-
proved; on the contrary, it is to be reck-
oned among their slips and peccadilloes.
This being so, there are no grounds
whatsoever for exonerating or embel-
lishing or applauding or propagating
love on account of the prophets. For it
behoves us to incite and urge ourselves
to emulate those actions of virtuous men
which they found pleasing and approved
in themselves and desired that others
should imitate, not those slips and pec-
cadilloes which they regretted and of
which they repented, wishing they had
never happened or committed them”
(The Spiritual Physick, pp. 47–48; Al-
1ibb al-Rū4ānī, p. 45).

Al-Rāzī’s approach proceeds from a psychological premise appertaining to the

soul and pleasure and a closer examination of love’s impression on society. He holds
that love is a psychosis from which one should abstain, and warns of its caused delu-
————
tion is cited repeatedly in many mediaeval Arabic works on love and love theory. See, e.g., Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (1973, p. 175); al-Ḥāfia Mughalṭāy (1997, p. 63); Shihāb al-Dīn Maḥmūd b.
Salmān al-Ḥalabī (2000, p. 46).
Acta Orient. Hung. 67, 2014
282 JALAL ABD ALGHANI

sions and latent syndromes. He opens his discussion with advancing a basic premise
related to what is pleasure and then trying to adapt it to his endeavours to refute love.
In his opinion, “Pleasure consists simply of the restoration of that condition which
was expelled by the element of pain, while passing from one’s actual state until one
returns to that state formerly experienced […] Hence the philosophers have defined
pleasure as a return to the state of nature” (The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes, p. 39).
On the basis of this philosophical explanation of ladhdhah (pleasure), al-Rāzī expounds
on the engagement of lovers with pleasure, he claims, in that regard, that:
“Lovers, because of their obedience to passion and their preference and
worship of pleasure, experience sorrow where they suppose precisely
that they will rejoice, and pain where they think they will have pleasure.
This is because they never reach or attain any single pleasure without
being affected and controlled by a sense of anxiety and effort. It may
well happen that they will continue in a state of constant anguish and
unremitting agony without accomplishing any desire whatsoever. Many
of them are reduced by prolonged insomnia, worry and undernourish-
ment to a state of madness and delusion, of consumption and wasting
away”. (The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes, p. 43)
Al-Rāzī, as might be deduced from the above paragraph, is acquainted with
the discourse on love prevailing in his time. His attempt to refute love was very sys-
tematic for he was able to identify the basic concepts in the writings of that discourse;
and then he worked on demolishing them. In the framework of his exploration of the
essence of pleasure and eulogising ᶜaql, the intellect, over hawā, the passion, al-Rāzī
was able to criticise the three concepts of mediaeval Arabic love theory and to pro-
pound his own views.

Concluding Comments

Al-Rāzī’s assessment of love is a counterclaim intended to refute some of the accepted

views of mediaeval Arabic love theory. His argument in the early stage of this theory
points to some of its important features. This argument clarifies the essence of the
mediaeval Arabic love theory, which appears to be not a self-contained perception of
passion, affection and emotions. Many of the mediaeval Arabic writings on love do
not maintain a very consistent approach to explore the love’s essence, causes and
symptoms. This theory, therefore, presents diverse trends and several expositions;
hence it aims to discern thoroughly the peculiarities of love and explicate the different
aspects of human intimacy. The argument of al-Rāzī on ᶜishq signifies the beginning
of a growing trend towards disparaging love in mediaeval Arabo-Islamic culture.19

19
The most representative works of this trend are ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Jawzī’s (d.
597/1200) Dhamm al-Hawā (ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Jawzī 1993); and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah’s
(d. 751/1350) RawOat al-Mu4ibbīn wa-Nuzhat al-Mushtāqīn (Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah 1973).
Acta Orient. Hung. 67, 2014
 MEDIAEVAL ARABIC LOVE THEORY BETWEEN DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE 283

This trend, however, represents the other side of mediaeval Arabic theory of love
which seems to be quite varied rather than monolithic for it has parallel but incom-
patible views of approving and disapproving love. This incompatibility, moreover, is
what invests this theory with a sense of harmony and makes it a theory which explores
love from a more universal humanistic view. Mediaeval Arabic love theory, in short,
is not merely an abstract contemplation of love that bears no relation to reality, but an
effective, functional and dynamic attempt to explore love depending on the sense of
truth and, in addition, suggests concepts which help people understand their presence,
grasp the multiple phenomena which they encounter and comprehend the diverse
vicissitudes of love which afflict them. This theory, moreover, is able to include sev-
eral views even a contradictory one like that of al-Rāzī. Al-Rāzī’s disapproval of
ᶜishq, moreover, is not merely a philosophical conviction but a mental attitude that
shows the absorption of the mediaeval intellectual, more specifically the philosopher,
in his society,20 and displays his responsiveness to its several anxieties, and also mani-
fests his ability to understand cultural and social phenomena; it reveals, furthermore,
his attempts to dislodge some firmly established concepts and replace them with
more accurate ideas.21 This was the aim of composing al-1ibb al-Rū4ānī and, as al-
Rāzī states, “encouragement and incentive to the nobler part; for that is the sole object
we have before us in this book” (The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes, p. 47; Al-Rāzī, al-
1ibb al-Rū4ānī, p. 44). This is the role entrusted to a committed philosopher and phy-
sician such as al-Rāzī who was trained to heal the body and the soul, the individual
person as well as the society as a whole.

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