Abū Ḥātim Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdān al-Rāzī () was an Ismaili philosopher of the 10th century, who died in 322 AH (932/933 CE).Abi Bakr Mohammadi Filii Zachariæ (Razis): Opera philosophica fragmentaque quae supersunt collegit et edidit PAULUS KRAUS. Pars prior. (Universitatis Fouadi I Litterarum Facultatis Publicationum fasc. XXII). Cairo, 1939. p. 291. Editor mentions that this date is mentioned only in كتاب لسان الميزانHenry Corbin, "The voyage and the messenger: Iran and philosophy", North Atlantic Books, 1998. pg 74: "Virtually all its greatest exponents covering the period from the ninth to the eleventh century C.E. show obvious Iranian affiliation. Examples are Abu Hatim Razi)" He was also the Da'i al-du'at (chief missionary) of Ray and the leader of the Ismaili da'wah in Central Persia.
Life
He was born in Ray near modern Tehran. His last name is given as al-Warsenānī al-Laythī. He was a contemporary of Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi and engaged in debates with him.
Works
Al-Jāmiʿ, a book on jurisprudence. Kitāb aʿlām al-nubuwwa (The Proofs of Prophecy), a refutation of Abū Bakr al-Rāzī.Parallel Arabic-English edition, translated, introduced, and annotated by Tarif Khalidi, Brigham Young University Press, 2012, Islamic Translation Series (). Kitāb al-Iṣlāḥ (Book of the Correction), “the oldest extant Ismāʾilī work presenting a Neoplatonic world-view.”H. Landolt in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, volume 1, edited by Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey, p. 34. Written as a corrective to the views of his contemporary Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Nasafī. Kitāb al-Zīna (Book of the Ornament), on the superiority of the Arabic language and on religious terminology.
Bibliography Brion, Fabienne, “Philosophie et révélation : traduction annotée de six extraits du Kitâb A'lâm an-nubûwa d'Abû Hâtim ar-Râzî”, Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 28, 1986, p. 137-162. Brion, Fabienne, “Le temps, l'espace et la genèse du monde selon Abû Bakr al-Râzî. Présentation et traduction des chapitres I, 3 du « Kitâb a'lâm al-nubuwwa » d'Abû Hâtim al-Râzî”, Revue philosophique de Louvain, tome 87, n°74, 1989, p. 139-164. Khalidi, Tarif, parallel Arabic-English edition of Kitāb aʾlām al-nubuwwa (The Proofs of Prophecy), Brigham Young University Press, 2012, Islamic Translation Series (). Vajda, Georges, “Les lettres et les sons de la langue arabe d'après Abû Hâtim al-Râzî”, Arabica 8, 1961, p. 113-180.
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