Abu Yusuf Yaqub Ishaq Al-Kindi

Full Name: Abu Yusuf Yaqub Ishaq Al-Kindi

Born: C.800 (born at Kufa)

Died: Baghdad Abasid Caliphate

Era: Medieval Era

Region: Middle East, Arab World, Muslim World

School: Islamic Theology, Philosophy

1. Life:

Al-Kindi was born in Kufa to an aristocratic family of Kinda tribe, descended

from the chieftain at-‘Ash’ ath ibn Oays, a contemporary of Mohammad. The family
belonged to the most prominent families of tribal nobility of kufa in early Islamic
period. His father Ishaq was the governer of kufa, and Al Kindi received his primary
education there. He later went to complete his studies in Baghdad.

On account of his learning and aptitude of study, Ma’mun appointed him to

‘House of Wisdom’s, a recently established center of translation of Greek philosophic
and scientific text in Baghdad.

He is also known for his beautiful Calligraphy and at one point was employed as a
calligrapher by Al-Mutawakil. There are various theories concerning this some
attributes al-kindi downfall to Scholarly rivalries at house of wisdom. Other refers to
al-Mutawakils often violent a persecution of unorthodox Muslim at one point al-kindi
was beaten and his library temporarily confiscated.

2. Books:

Books of astrological works by Al Kindi include:

 The book of Judgment of Stars

 The choices of the Day
 On the revolution of the year
 Treatise on the Spirituality of the planet

He was a prolific writer; the total number of books written by him was 241,
the prominent among which are divided as follows:

 Astronomy 16
 Geometry 32
  Philosophy 22
 Arithmetic 11
 Medicine 22
 Logic 9

In addition, various monograph written by him Concern Lides astronomical instruments,

rocks, precious stone etc. He was also an early translator of Greek works into Arabic. A large
number of books were translated into Latin. Most famous books of Al-Kindi are as follows:

Scientific weather forecasting in middle age:

I. De Gradibus:
It was an Arabic book published by Arab physician Al-Kindi De Gradibus is the
Latinized name of book.
In this book Al-Kindi attempt to apply mathematics to pharmacology by Quantifying
the strength of drugs.
He also developed a system based on phases of moon, that would allow a doctor to
determine in advance the critical days of patient illness.2
● Specific Weather forecasting:
The first comprehensive treatise on scientific weather forecasting can be traced to
Al-Kindi, a prominent Arab philosopher. In other words, he used the application of
science and technology to predict the conditions of atmosphere for a given location
and time.

Al-Kindi’s work in psychology:

I. The Human Soul:
We have two works by Al-Kindi devoted to the antilogy of human soul:
a. Incorporeal soul (having no material existence)
It is a creative application of ideas from Aristotle’s categories. Al-
Kindi takes up this task in these stages; proving that soul is substance and
showing that it is immaterial.
b. Discourse on the soul (written or spoken about soul)

These two depend on very different Greek sources.

He wasn’t convinced by the definition of soul by early philosophers such as Aristotle.

Aristotle has talked about three types of soul:

i. Nutritive
ii. Rational
iii. Sensitive

But Al-Kindi focused only on rational soul.

 II. Epistemology:
In epistemology, Al-Kindi speaks of the soul as separate from the body even
during our worldly life; he is referring only the Rational Soul. The most important is:
Sleep and Dream: A-Kindi move text on sleep, which gives a naturalistic account of
why dreams occur. Following Aristotle, Al-Kindi says that dreams occur when we are
sleeping because ‘senses’ are no longer active and Imagination has free rein (long,
thin piece of material) to conjure up (by magic) forms on its own.
III. Application to Ethics:
Al-Kindi divides rational soul as from the body and the lower psychological
faculties. He sees the rational soul as our true self or essence and the only part of us
that survives the death of the body. It is no surprise that his ethical thought is likewise
highly intellectual. The most significant remaining test is on dispelling sadness.
IV. Mathematics:
In mathematics, he wrote four books on the number system and laid the
foundation of the large part of modern arithmetic. He also contributed to spherical
geometry to assist him in astronomical studies. No doubt the Arabic system was
largely developed by Al-Khwarizmi but Al-Kindi also made rich contributions to it.
V. Chemistry:

In chemistry, he opposed the idea that base metals can be converted to

precious metals. He was insistent that chemical reactions cannot bring about the
transformation of elements.

VI. Music:

Very little was known about scientific aspects of music in his time. He pointed
out that the various notes that combine to produce harmony have a specific pitch each.
Thus notes with too little or too high pitch is non-pleasant. The pitch of harmony
depends upon the frequency of notes. His work contains of notion one the
determination of pitch.

VII. Philosophy:
His greatest contribution to the development of Islamic philosophy was his
efforts to make Greek thought both accessible and acceptable to the Muslim audience.
Al-Kindi carried out this mission from the house of wisdom (Bayt-al-Hikma) on
institute of translation and learning patronized by the Abbasid Caliphs, in Baghdad.
As well as translating many texts, much of what was to become Standard Arabic
Philosophical Vocabulary originated with Al-Kindi. Indeed, if it had not been for him,
the works of philosophers like Al Farabi, Avicenna and Al-Ghazali might not have
been possible.
VIII. Optics:
Two major theories of optics appear in the writings of Al-Kindi, Aristotelian
and Euclidean. Aristotle had believed that in order for the eye to perceive an object,
both the eye and the object must be in contact with a transparent medium that is filled
 with light. When these criteria are met, the sensible form of objects is transmitted
through the medium to the eye.
IX. The soul and the afterlife:
Al-Kindi says that the soul is a simple, immaterial substance, which is related
to the material world only because of its facilities which operate through the physical
body. To explain the nature of our worldly existence, he compares it to a ship which
has, during the course of its ocean voyage, temporarily anchored itself at an island and
allowed its passengers to disembark. The implicit warning is that those passengers
who linger too long on island may be left behind when ship sets sail again.
X. Medicine:
He was the first to systematically determine the doses to be administered of all
the drugs known at his time. He developed a mathematical scale to quantify the
strength of drugs and a system based on the phases of moon that would allow the
doctor to determine in advance the most critical days of patients illness.

Influences on Al-Kindi:
1. Greek influences:

As one would expect given his prominent role in the translation movement,
Al-Kindi’s work is overflowing with ideas from Greek thoughts. His purpose in his
book called metaphysics is to explain things that exist without matter and though, may
exist together with what does have matter, are neither connected nor united to matter.
He conflates metaphysics with theology is clear from the opening of one first
philosophy, which says that since philosophy in general is the study of truth. First
philosophy is knowledge of first truth who is cause of all truth Al-Kindi thought was
largely influenced by neo platonic philosophy.

2. Contemporary Influences:
Mu’tazilites influence may also be present in Al-Kindi theory that creation is a
“bringing to be being from non-being” and especially in his denial that creation can be
eternal/ without end.
“Al-Kindi’s Inventions”
Al-Kindi has two inventions:
1) Cryptanalysis:
It is the study of analyzing information system in order to study hidden aspects
of the system. Al-Kindi is the originator of cryptanalysis (first method of code
breaking). According to Al-Kindi, cryptanalysis is also referred to as code breaking or
cracking the code.
2) Frequency Analysis:

According to Al-Kindi, frequency analysis is the frequency of letters or groups

of letters in a cipher text. The first known recorded explanation of frequency analysis
was given in 9th century by Al-Kindi. Manuscript1 has been suggested that close
1
Piece of writing, handwritten book
textual study of the Quran first brought to light that Arabic has a characteristic letter
frequency. His concept of frequency analysis involves calculating the percentage of
letters of a particular language in plain text, calculating the percentage of language in
cipher (0) and then substituting (replacement) the symbols for the letters who have an
equal percentage of occurrences.