Abd al-Rahmān al-Bistāmī’s Classification of the Sciences

Abd al-Rahman al-Bistami (1380-1454) is a scholar who was active in the 15. century Ottoman milieu. His engagement with occult sciences such as the science of letters (ilm al-huruf) provoked discussions among Ottoman scholars and statesmen as well. Confronted with his writings, the Ottoman ulama who were educated and well-versed in classical orthodox sciences such as Kalam and Usul al-Fiqh faced with a new dimension in the structure of Islamic sciences. Although al-Bistami harshly criticized the Hurufi teachings of Fadl Allah al-Astarabadi and his followers, he took to the science of letters seriously. Al-Bistami wrote al-Fawayih al-Miskiyya, an encyclopedia of sciences, and in that book which characterizes the Greco-Arabic literature, he is mainly under the influence of the philosophy of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Safa). Not only al-Bistami follows the framework of the Brethren in the classification of sciences, but he maintains their philosophical project so much so that he builds a syncretic system which combines different religious and philosophical tendencies. The “Ikhwanism” of al-Bistami is not restricted to the allusion that comes by the phrase “ikhwan al-safa”, which is repeated many times throughout his work. Al-Bistami’s project is a revision of the syncretic philosophy of the Brethren, with a special touch from the occult science of the letters.