Love these reviews. I am always happy to hear about premodern writers. All the better if they're sci-fi! And I especially love hearing about
Ibn al-Nafis's book sounds clearly based on ibn Tufayls's Hayy ibn Yaqzan, an earlier (5th c AH/12thc CE) Sufi-influenced fable about a man stranded on a desert island who does many of the same things--reason the existence of God from first causes, the vivesection, etc. etc. It's sometimes called the first European philosophical novel; ibn Tufayl was from al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) (I don't know his ancestry), though he later moved to North Africa. His book was translated into European languages around 1700 and hugely influential--it's thought that Daniel Defoe drew heavily on him for Robinson Crusoe, and ditto Rousseau for Emile.
I've really enjoyed what I've managed to find of The 99, but I am much frustrated by how hard it is to find issues after the first one, never mind finding them sequentially.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-03-06 04:29 am (UTC)Ibn al-Nafis's book sounds clearly based on ibn Tufayls's Hayy ibn Yaqzan, an earlier (5th c AH/12thc CE) Sufi-influenced fable about a man stranded on a desert island who does many of the same things--reason the existence of God from first causes, the vivesection, etc. etc. It's sometimes called the first European philosophical novel; ibn Tufayl was from al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) (I don't know his ancestry), though he later moved to North Africa. His book was translated into European languages around 1700 and hugely influential--it's thought that Daniel Defoe drew heavily on him for Robinson Crusoe, and ditto Rousseau for Emile.
I've really enjoyed what I've managed to find of The 99, but I am much frustrated by how hard it is to find issues after the first one, never mind finding them sequentially.