Al-Kindi on Education: Curriculum Theorizing and the Intercultural Minhaj

Curriculum Inquiry ISSN: 0362-6784 (Print) 1467-873X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcui20 Al-Kindi on education: Curriculum theorizing and the intercultural Minhaj Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar To cite this article: Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar (2020) Al-Kindi on education: Curriculum theorizing and the intercultural Minhaj, Curriculum Inquiry, 50:3, 262-280, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2020.1809966 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1809966 Published online: 05 Oct 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 108 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rcui20 CURRICULUM INQUIRY 2020, VOL. 50, NO. 3, 262–280 https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1809966 Al-Kindi on education: Curriculum theorizing and the intercultural Minhaj Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This article presents Al-Kindi as the first Arab intercultural curriculum theorizer, rather than the first Arab philosopher as is often argued. He envisioned an intercultural and interdisciplinary curriculum within the Arabic intellectual tradition. This article proposes Al-Kindism as a conceptual framework for education that revisits interdisciplinary and intercultural possibilities geared toward conflict resolution and synthesis. It also explores how AlKindi was arguably the first in the Arabic intellectual tradition to initiate a move from Majlis to Minhaj, that is from Masjid learning practices centered on theological studies to schooling. In other words, in the absence of actual schooling, his educational vision offered a possibility of a conceptualized curriculum to be taught. Al-Kindi’s scholarly eagerness was driven not necessarily by, as generally perceived, the desire to promote philosophy, but more importantly, by the need to develop an intellectually responsive educational tradition to accommodate emerging intercultural encounters. He believed that the acquisition of true knowledge could only be achieved through intercultural competence and that such competence would eliminate the tension between Greek thought and Islamic culture. Thus, as a curriculum theorizer, Al-Kindi initiated a Minhaj marked by indebtedness to intercultural encounters, by a shift away from Majlis, and by the implementation of interdisciplinarity. Intercultural education; AlKindi; medieval Islamic philosophy; Muslim education; curriculum studies During the Middle Ages, Al-Kindi, a ninth-century Basrah-born, Baghdad-educated young man, managed to convince the Islamic world that its intellectual tradition was compatible with Greek philosophy. This article proposes that Al-Kindi was the first Arab intercultural educator, rather than the first Arab philosopher as is often argued. He envisioned and paved the way for an intercultural and interdisciplinary curriculum within the Arabic intellectual tradition. Al-Kindi’s scholarly eagerness was driven not necessarily by, as is generally perceived, the desire to promote philosophy, but more importantly by the burning question of how Muslim thinkers could develop an intellectually responsive educational tradition in an expanding empire. In response, he successfully extended the possibilities of education beyond the boundaries of theology through the diversification of knowledge. This article proposes Al-Kindism as a CONTACT Wisam Abdul-Jabbar [email protected] ß 2020 the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. AL-KINDI ON EDUCATION 263 conceptual framework for education that can revisit interdisciplinary and intercultural possibilities geared toward synthesis, as exemplified by Al-Kindi’s response to the political and intellectual upheavals of his time. When confronted with emerging intercultural encounters, Al-Kindi sought an inclusive approach that challenged prescribed and fixed interpretive practices, hence the shift from Majlis to Minhaj. An intercultural approach in education regards cultural diversity as inherently positive, and places itself in opposition to those who believe that cultural differences are divisive. I propose two specific attributes of intercultural education that demonstrate why this intercultural paradigm matters in curriculum theorizing: the diversification of knowledge and the implementation of interdisciplinarity. These are important because they correspond to how Al-Kindism functions as a conceptual framework for curriculum theorizing. First, those undertaking an intercultural approach understand the acquisition of knowledge as a process of travelling across different, not necessarily Western, boundaries. Paraskeva (2011) recommended that we “assume consciously that (an)other knowledge is possible” and that we “go beyond the Western epistemological platform, paying attention to other forms of knowledge and respecting indigenous knowledge within and beyond the Western space” (p. 152). Likewise, Sousa Santos (2008) argued that “the decolonization of science is based on the idea that there is no global social justice without global cognitive justice [and] the logic of the monoculture of scientific knowledge and rigor must be confronted with the identification of other knowledges” (p. xlix). An interculturally conceived curriculum presents an understanding of culture that moves beyond the narrow path of heritage events, culinary practices, fashion, ethnic pride, and popular songs. It shifts into the wide and open terrain of dialogue that helps us to build solidarity with each other. In effect, by exploring moments of converging educational practices within seemingly conflicting cultures, intercultural educators generated the concept of an intercultural curriculum “as a new tool both to integrate immigrants better into host societies and to frame relationships between communities in more positive ways” (Moskal & North, 2017, p. 108). The diversification of educational contents and methods, the ability to establish dialogue, and an emphasis on the development of intercultural competencies are necessary to challenge hegemonic threats and opposition to cultural diversity. A curriculum that provides opportunities for students to enter into direct relations with different perspectives and contexts is crucial to help them shape their own views free from the influence of ethnocentric curricula. Al-Kindi: The First Arab Philosopher Abu Yusuf Ya’qub b. Ishaq Al-Kindi (801–873) is often celebrated as the first Arab philosopher in the strict ethnic sense. His tribe includes Imru’ Al-Qais, one of the last Kindite princes and one of the greatest sixth-century Arab poets. His father held a high official position, and Al-Kindi frequented the courts of both the caliphs AlMa’mun and Al-Mu’tas: im. He wrote much during the Al-Mu’tas: im Caliphate and was tutor to Al-Mu’tas: im’s son Ahmad. Al-Kindi, however, unfairly fell from grace and lost support in the time of the succeeding Caliph Al-Mutawakkil. This was either because of his alleged anti-Islamic views, or perhaps due to sheer personal resentment on the 264 W. ABDUL-JABBAR part of the Caliph’s associates. His large personal library was confiscated, and he was beaten up; although his books were later returned, he never regained his former position of favor in the court. Though the subject matter of his writing ranges from pharmaceuticals to music, AlKindi is best known for popularizing philosophy as a fundamental part of the Islamic intellectual tradition and for advancing the importation of knowledge from other cultures. Fakhry (2004) called him “the first systematic philosophical writer in Islam” who championed “the reception or assimilation of foreign concepts and methods [which] entitle him to a place entirely his own in the history of philosophical thought in Islam” (p. 67). Responding to constant engagements with interfaith debates of the time and attempts to resolve theological problems, he succeeded in reconciling Islam with Greek philosophy and negotiating the compatibility of the Aristotelian cosmic view with divinity. Al-Kindi was undoubtedly influenced by the era in which he lived. The intellectual heritage of the Greek world and the achievements of the Arabic sciences and translation movement contributed immensely to the rise of Renaissance Europe. Al-Kindi’s scholarly efforts exemplify this intercultural moment of the uncanny convergence of the foreign with the familiar. His welcoming attitude towards foreign knowledge transformed it from a threat into a thread to be woven into Al-Kindi’s Minhaj, a tapestry of cultural diversity. The Historical and Intellectual Milieu of Ninth-Century Baghdad When the Abbasids (750–1258), the second caliphal dynasty and descendants of the Prophet’s uncle Abbas, vanquished the Umayyads dynasty in 750, their greatest menace was not the Persians or the Byzantines, as is generally thought. The Abbasids did not wish to be seen as merely the usurpers of the Umayyads. As a newly established dynasty, they sought intellectual superiority and attempted to establish an Islamic culture in the tradition of the Prophet and the four rightly guided Caliphs that could efficiently integrate and congenially cope with the astonishing speed of the empire’s expansion. Moving their headquarters from Damascus, the Umayyads’ stronghold, into Baghdad was not only a geopolitical shift or a strategic military maneuver, but also a mental and intellectual departure from all things Umayyad. Among their greatest achievements in internally fortifying the empire was, with the help of the Barmakids family,1 establishing a “centralized administration” that extended beyond the reign of the Caliph Al-Ma’mun (Kennedy, 2016, p. 124). They were fully aware of the uncertain lives of rulers and did not wish for history to repeat itself. Unchaining themselves from the Arab tribal system characteristic of the Umayyads, the Abbasids strove for the universal without losing sense of their cultural roots. The change, therefore, was a move from the narrow path of an ethnocentric, tribal attitude into the wide terrain of the politics of inclusion of non-Arab ways and non-Arab Muslims. This was because the Abbasids’ campaign started in Persia and was immensely supported by Mawali2 as well as by aggrieved Arabs. The result was the establishment of Baghdad’s House of Wisdom, a renowned research center for translation, the dissemination of knowledge, invention, and the study of the Hellenistic philosophical tradition. In other words, from its formative years to the early modern period, AL-KINDI ON EDUCATION 265 the Islamic empire was highly tolerant. Indeed, many viziers were not Muslim, or at least not Arab, within the Abbasid empire and the Andalusian landscape. These viziers generally demonstrated a high level of sociopolitical tolerance of differences and an embraced professional knowledge and skills regardless of ethnic or religious affinities. This inclusive attitude was a distinctive characteristic of the tradition of Islamic public administration. Many of the senior administration staff also had scholarly roles at established higher education and research centers, such as the House of Wisdom. The House of Wisdom and the rigorous translation movement exemplify the importance of this intercultural dialogue. Dimitri Gutas (1998) described this movement as equal in significance to, and belong[ing] to the same narrative as, I would claim, that of Pericles’ Athens, the Italian Renaissance, or the scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it deserves so to be recognized and embedded in our historical consciousness. (p. 8) This movement encouraged the translation of Greek philosophical texts and, most importantly, led to distinctive interpretation efforts that contributed to philosophy in general and to the Aristotelian philosophical tradition in particular: Medieval Arab philosophers, from al-Kindi to Averroes, … painstakingly subjected Aristotle to the demands of their belief … And it was this ‘Arab Aristotle,’ not so much the pagan thinker of classical Greece, who ultimately triumphed in the West. (Lyons, 2009, p. 197) The aim of the House of Wisdom was to amalgamate the teachings of Islamic tradition and Hellenistic culture in order to demonstrate the intellectual compatibility of Islam with Greek thought. This proved to be a priority for an expanding civilization that sought to demonstrate the plurality and inclusivity of Islam: Like the Romans, they could have refused to accept the legitimacy of Greek thought and have the circulation and reading of it banned. They did not take this course of action, however. Instead, they chose to amalgamate its teachings into Muslim culture—that is, show that it was consistent with the Koran while at the same time attempting to demonstrate the intellectual superiority of Islam over the Greek philosophical tradition … [and ultimately] demonstrate just how intellectually resilient and fertile Islam was. (Booth, 2017, p. 49) Unlike the Roman Empire, which closed the Greek schools in 529, the Abbasid responded to their encounter with the Hellenic tradition by moving toward integration. As such, Al-Kindi’s eagerness to foster a pluralistic approach to education did not happen in a sociocultural vacuum. He reconfirmed commonly held beliefs and practices from the Quran itself to promote diversity and openness to knowledge from places other than the Islamic world. For example, the Quran includes the following passage: “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other)” (Quran, 49:13). Amyn B. Sajoo (2012) asserted that a pluralist narrative is central to Islamic education and identity: Pluralism in culture and identity is cast here not as a passive reality, but as a project: human communities are expected to ‘know each other’ as a fulfilment of the covenant 266 W. ABDUL-JABBAR with God. The expectation is explicitly aimed at all of mankind, not a particular community. (p. 11) Moreover, the teachings of the Mu’tazilite school, the dominant theological school of the early Abbasid Caliphate, embodied a rationalistic view of Islam that sought to validate its own epistemological approach towards knowledge. This was especially so since the work of ninth-century scholars such as Muhammad Al-Bukhari and Muslim Ibn Al-H : ajjaj provided momentum to the collection of the Prophet’s Hadith. As Booth (2017) contended: This came alongside the project of trying to determine what were, and what were not, genuine reports of the Prophet’s practices. This involved a great deal of scholarship, of course, which was seen as central to the development of the Islamic faith. (p. 50) This rationalistic and truth-seeking pedagogy, oriented toward the codification and validation of knowledge, continued to set the tone for Islamic education and Madrassas well beyond the end of the Mu’tazilites’ actual intellectual presence. It was in these times, characterized by the stabilization of political turbulence, the centrality of authority, and the advancement of cultural maturation and affluence, that Al-Kindi flourished. Why Knock at Al-Kindi’s Door? A Future in the Past and Familiarity in the Strange In the “West Meets East” issue of the journal Philosophy Now (2019), editor Anja Steinbauer commented on what she called the impossible task: I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about how to communicate between different traditions of thought and how to encourage their representatives to communicate with each other. I’ve tried hermeneutics and comparative philosophy and my conclusion is that it is a pretty impossible task. (p. 4) Halstead (2004) addressed a similar concern in his discussion of an “apparent reluctance” on the part of Muslim scholars to engage in a conceptualization of a philosophy of education. He attributed this uneasiness to “cultural baggage” and to the irreconcilable nature of the foreign terms “philosophy” and “education” to Islamic education (p. 157). Al-Kindism, therefore, serves as a pedagogy in practice that breaks down binary oppositions in education and reconciles seemingly divergent philosophical trajectories. For Al-Kindi, the intercultural aspect of the dissemination of knowledge does not simply mean seeking knowledge in distant places, but more importantly from unknown nations that are generally perceived to be antagonistic. For instance, in the heyday of the Islamic civilization, Al-Masu’di, a tenth-century traveller, dismissed Western Europeans as follows: The warm humor is lacking among them; their bodies are large, their natures gross, their manners harsh, their understanding dull and their tongues heavy. Their color is excessively white … Their religious beliefs lack solidity, and this is because of the nature of cold and the lack of warmth. Those of them who are furthest to the north are the most subject to stupidity, grossness and brutishness. (Lewis, 2000, p. 31) A thousand years later, the position has been reversed, and extreme Western discourses have adopted similarly antagonistic and stereotypical rhetoric about Middle AL-KINDI ON EDUCATION 267 Easterners and Muslims. Islamic signs such as hijab, minarets, and Shari’ah-related codes are still regarded as extremely anti-Western. Islam is overwhelmingly mis/re/presented through reinforcing issues such as Shari’ah debates, the rise of ISIS and radicalization, and the alleged inability of Muslim immigrants to assimilate: “Islamic signs are not only ostracized in public discourse but are also controlled and restricted through multiple legal and administrative procedures in an attempt to ‘civilize’ or adjust them to fit Western political cultures” (Cesari, 2013, p. xiii). This hegemonic attempt to present a predetermined image of Islam as a visible social oddity that is immune to interpretation and unarguably incompatible with the Western intellectual tradition has become the dominant rhetoric in the mainstream media in the West. In response, many Muslims found refuge in Islamic schools that exercise a protective attitude in the face of Western hegemonic practices: “For many Muslims, Islamic education has become a point of resistance, revival and renewal; a shield against the onslaught of western culture from colonialism and neoliberalism and the consequent de-legitimization of Islamic and other ways of knowing” (Ahmed, 2014, p. 562). On both sides, the general perception of Islam and the West as perennial adversaries that can never meet is thus reinforced. Al-Kindi opposed this essentialist mentality towards foreign nations and distant sources of knowledge and proposed a more intellectually challenging disposition that is conducive to pluralistic education and synthesis. He negated what Sousa Santos (2014) referred to as epistemicide: Unequal exchanges among cultures have always implied the death of the knowledge of the subordinated culture, hence the death of subordinated groups that possessed it … The loss of epistemological confidence that currently afflicts modern science has facilitated the identification of the scope and gravity of the epistemicides perpetuated by hegemonic Eurocentric modernity. (p. 92) Where epistemicide rejects and annihilates anything that does not readily converge with the normative dissemination of knowledge, Al-Kindism promotes the systematic integration of any indigenous knowledge base and advocates fusion over ethnocentricity. Although many on both sides have viewed the Islamic intellectual tradition in opposition to its Western counterpart, Halstead (2004) pointed out that history has a different story to tell: “Islamic scholarship led the world for hundreds of years in virtually every known academic discipline, there was a wide range of schools throughout the Islamic empire and the greatest Islamic universities predate western universities by several centuries” (p. 157). The heyday of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–950) was a time of intellectual diffusions that gave rise to different schools of thought, such as Kalam and Mu’tazili, which upheld reason as a vital tool to better understand theology and as reconcilable with revelation. Contrary to the oppositional view mentioned above, many other scholars have argued that intellectual streams of Islamic education are compatible with contemporary Western ways of knowing. For instance, the Mu’tazilites’ emphasis on the centrality of reason to all knowledge-based ways of learning would “presumably not be opposed to the intellectual freedom striven for in a liberal education” (O’Hear, 1981, p. 13). In fact, Shehadi (1982) referred to the Medieval Islamic tradition as that of “West meets East,” since Islamic philosophers are true inheritors of the Greek philosophic tradition. They not only mastered and assimilated the Greek material on being, but also added to it, developed it, and at moments attained 268 W. ABDUL-JABBAR peaks of originality and subtlety that give them a permanent place in the history of metaphysical ideas. (p. v) This age contributed significantly to the development of the philosophical traditions. It also serves as a historical microcosm representing an Islamic educational praxis that materializes through intercultural and interdisciplinary encounters. Al-Kindi was the fruit of that microcosmic labor. Al-Kindi was aware of the rapidly changing face of knowledge and that eventually, Islam, like Judaism and Christianity before it, must address philosophical enquiries that challenge revelation, God’s nature, and orthodox notions of knowing. He was convinced that philosophy and religion are two sides of the same coin; the latter is truth revealed directly to prophets, whereas the former provides the tools that decode the unrevealed and yet intelligible truth. While others understood Greek and Islamic thought to be irreconcilable, Al-Kindi observed that, “Islamizing the Greek concept of good, and … reinterpreting their hierarchical scheme of knowledge” could “give certain pattern and order to education” (Ashraf, 1985, pp. 35–36). Revisiting his legacy becomes essential because his overriding concern was for an interdisciplinary and intercultural Minhaj that caters to both objectives and seeks truth as the ultimate outcome. We knock at the door because Al-Kindi realized that the expansion of the Empire necessitated a complementary expansion of knowledge. What we learn from Al-Kindi is that, for any body of thought to survive intercultural encounters, be it across religion or any system of knowing including the Greek mindset itself, it must develop a universal capacity and a welcoming attitude towards inclusivity that can be adopted by other encroaching cultural assemblages. In other words, the difference between culture and civilization is that whereas culture explains attributes that are peculiar and unique to a particular society, civilization refers to what is transferable and exchangeable between societies. As Turmen (1999) contended, “within this context, culture is unique to the genes and civilization is what can be generalized” (p. 2). Al-Kindi’s main contribution, if not responsibility as an educator, therefore, was to nurture a pluralistic educational outlook, a Minhaj, born of a quintessential universality within Islam transforming it from a culture that dominated Arabia into a civilization. He realized that theology and the pursuit of knowledge had become much more than just an understanding of jurisprudence and revelation. Therefore, the purpose of this article is not to persuade the reader of the excellent reputation of Al-Kindi as a philosopher nor of his historical importance, as other scholars have already successfully undertaken this work. His direct influence on the trajectory of education in the Muslim world, however, has yet to be adequately examined. I propose a quadruple Minhaj, a curriculum informed by Al-Kindi’s thought, that is marked by gratitude, intercultural encounters, a departure from Majlis, and a move towards interdisciplinary learning. Al-Kindi’s Minhaj of Gratitude and Intercultural Encounters In Arabic, the words Minhaj and Manhj are often used interchangeably to mean curriculum. Manhj refers to a school program and includes its subjects, regulations, and pedagogical methods, whereas Minhaj, with its broader implications, is a more appropriate Arabic equivalent for the English word curriculum, which encompasses AL-KINDI ON EDUCATION 269 conceptual frameworks and practices. Furthermore, Minhaj can be said to subsume Manhj, as the latter suggests a structured approach to learning. Nasreen Jawad Sharqi (2014), for instance, explored Al-Kindi’s contributions to Manhj in terms of an educational methodology that is grounded in the Quran and the Prophet’s Hadith and pays attention to the Arabic language and the professional ethics of teaching. Sharqi also explains that Al-Kindi divided Manhj into three methods/subjects: Mathematics, Natural Science, and Quiddity/Metaphysics (p. 238). M. K. Awaidha (1993) identified three research approaches that are characteristic of Al-Kindi’s Manhj: empirical, logical, and historical (p. 70). Likewise, Abdul Al-Latif (2012) gave a rather general account of how Al-Kindi’s work contributes to categorical areas of educational studies: Islamic, linguistic, sociological, ethical, scientific, aesthetic, and bodily. These and similar studies have explored Al-Kindi’s interest in education in terms of what he contributed to the advancement of learning in general and the departmentalization of knowledge in particular. This study, however, argues that his main contributions are his advancement of curriculum theorizing and intercultural competency. In Arabic, the word Minhaj is a more comprehensive term than Manhj and includes a broad scope and content. It also means a “path” that is clear and leads to truth. In Al-Kindi’s time, it also meant a pathway or a way of life, and the Quran uses the word in Chapter 5, verse 48: “From the Truth that hath come To thee. To each among you Have We prescribed a Law And an Open Way [Minhaj].” This verse makes a distinction between Shir’at, rules of religious conduct, and Minhaj, a path that encompasses all aspects of life. Al-Kindi, however, used the specific word Subul, Arabic for paths that lead to an achievable end, to refer to ways that lead to truth.3 In On First Philosophy, Al-Kindi referred to Subul that scholars had offered over the ages. Adamson and Pormann (2012) translated this passage as: “They have been our collaborators and associates in offering some fruits of their thought, which have become for us paths (Subul) and instruments” (p. 11). In the following paragraph, he also used “Subul Al Haq” (approaches to the truth) within the context of gratitude to those who have previously contributed to knowledge: So we ought to be very grateful to those who have brought a small part of truth, to say nothing of those who have brought a large part of truth since they have shared with us the fruits of their thought, and facilitated our studies into things that are true but hidden, by offering us introductions that pave the way to the truth. (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 11)4 As indicated above, Sabil is Arabic for path or way, which, as Al-Kindi explained, leads to truth by unravelling hidden inquiries. Notably, he uses the plural form “subul” rather than the singular “sabil,” which suggests an understanding of the pluralistic nature of knowledge. Al-Kindi helped to decentralize religious education by fostering a Minhaj that incorporated difference in a world defined by an expanding empire in which intercultural encounters loomed large. It is a path that starts not in divergence, but in gratitude to those who have travelled before us. The intercultural act of unlocking “hidden inquiries” determines the pedagogical nature of Al-Kindism. The act of intellectual engagement and sharing diverse approaches gives an intercultural encounter a sense of purpose and inclusivity. Al-Kindism advocates intercultural encounters as catalysts for a pluralistic education that should not be limited to tolerance and 270 W. ABDUL-JABBAR hospitality, but that also ventures into cross-cultural dialogues whose ultimate aim is to contribute to knowledge and diversify paths to truth. For Al-Kindi, therefore, the educator was not only a conveyor of knowledge, but a conversationalist who was interculturally trained to become a knowledge-seeker or a path-finder within an expanding world of contact with unfamiliar regions and expanding boundaries.5 This role underscores the importance of Minhaj. In this context, Al-Kindi’s Minhaj is an assimilator of difference. It is a methodological approach that disseminates knowledge interculturally and is geared towards synthesis and inclusion. That said, Al-Kindi appears to have been responding to an inhospitable sentiment against the Hellenistic intellectual tradition, most likely from anti-Mu’tazilite traditionalist theologians: It is truly incumbent upon us to refrain from criticizing those who have brought us benefits, even small, meagre ones. How then [can we criticize] those who have brought us great, real, enormous benefits? For, even if they have fallen short of the truth, they have been our collaborators and associates in offering some fruits of their thought, which have become for us paths and instruments that lead to extensive knowledge of things whose truth they did not manage to attain. (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 11) Sadly, such an xenophobic attitude is still very much with us. Al-Kindi advocated the infusion of foreignness into knowledge as an antidote for an ethnocentric mode of disseminating knowledge. It is worth noting here that Al-Kindi’s interest in this intercultural Minhaj was born from his involvement in the translation movement, which had its own detractors. Accordingly, in his foreword to the Philosophical Works of Al-Kindi, general editor S. N. Haq pointed out that Al-Kindi’s works embody “a linkage and continuity between three grand cultural domains – Hellenistic, Arabo-Islamic and Latin” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. vii). This implies that almost any research done on Al-Kindi is bound to be intercultural in nature. He further argued that Al-Kindi’s works cannot be studied in isolation from the Western tradition, “nor can Europe’s story of its intellectual history be complete without recourse to the Arabic legacy, or rather to the GraecoArabic legacy in which al-kindi looms large” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. vii). This intercultural attitude dominated Al-Kindi’s conceptualization of education. His intellectual undertaking was not solely for the sake of promoting Greek philosophy, but of promoting the Greek intellectual inheritance as a whole, which accounted for his profound interest in and contribution to the translation movement. Translating the Greek intellectual legacy meant promoting interest in mathematics and other educational and scientific fields in addition to philosophy. By producing numerous treatises and texts intended for the beginner and the learned alike, Al-Kindi, whether intentionally or not, created the possibility of a reconceptualized curriculum of the Islamic learning tradition, which was then rooted in orality, the masjid, and circles of learning. A Shift from Majlis to Minhaj Al-Kindi formulated his notion of education in the absence of schooling. His work in the field of the translation of Greek scholarship induced a pedagogical shift in Islamic education from orality to literacy, from education to schooling, from Majlis to Minhaj. AL-KINDI ON EDUCATION 271 In a radio program hosted by M. Brag, Hugh Kennedy explains that educational activities in Al-Kindi’s time were not institutionalized: Educational activities happened not in institutions or in what later will become Madressas … but in big houses, people had salons very much as in 18th century France or 18th century Britain, for example, real intellectual life happened in big people’s houses where they paid for intellectuals to come and say their piece and so on … we are talking about an informal and flexible intellectual world no syllabus, no exams or anything like that. (Kennedy, 2012) Mujalasat and Majlis were the dominant educational models operating at the time. Mujalasat were literary salons that emerged in ninth-century Baghdad and gained popularity across the Islamic world. These forums “offered edification, entertainment, and escape for middle- and upper-rank men and women; [they] also served as a means of building one’s public reputation, establishing one’s status, expanding one’s social network, and socializing the young” (Ali, 2010, p. 3). Majlis, on the other hand, is a space, usually within a mosque, in which teaching and learning occur: The mosque, masjid, was the first institution of learning in Islam. The term majlis gives philological evidence to this effect. It was used in the first century of Islam to designate a hall in which the teaching of hadith took place. (Makdisi, 1981, p. 10) The word was used to refer to that act of teaching in a place where people sit and receive learning. The majlis thus preserved the primacy of the Masjid as a center for learning. The early schools of thought were “the schools of jurisprudence: (1) those groups of jurisconsults who shared the experience of belonging to the same locality … (2) those groups who were designated as followers of a leading jurisconsult, and were called ‘personal schools’” (Makdisi, 1981, p. 1). During Al-Kindi’s time, especially during the ninth century, personal schools proliferated in the context of the rivalry between the rationalist Mu’tazilis and the traditionalists. Schools were formed around “individual masters,” and by the ninth century, “the ancient schools transformed themselves into ‘personal’ schools’” (Makdisi, 1981, p. 2). This led to the emergence of the four dominant Sunni schools or Madhab towards the end of the thirteenth century. In the pre-madrasa era, therefore, there were three dominant pedagogical domains: the masjid, the majlis, and the halqas: The so-called maglis figured prominently in the Abbasid court culture. Maglis literally means ‘place where one sits down’, and the caliph and his entourage regularly organized sessions where he and his boon companies would invite the intellectual and cultural elite to discuss the prominent topics of the day. (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. xvii) The topics discussed were religious, philosophical, medical, or scientific, and were almost always thought-provoking and controversial. Moreover, in Baghdad the halqa, or study-circle, served as “a meeting of students around a professor; hence, course, succession of lessons; also, a hall where someone in place held meetings, gave lectures, where a professor gave lessons” (as cited in Makdisi, 1981, p. 13). Al-Kindi’s attitude towards knowledge, therefore, provided content for a curriculum required for a theologian or a majlis teacher within a society that was becoming increasingly diverse and literate. Al-Kindi wrote 272 W. ABDUL-JABBAR numerous commentaries on, and abridgements or clarifications of, works by Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, and others … But there is also a section on polemical works (aljadaliyyat), which shows that Al-Kindi engaged in disputes with his contemporaries over controversial topics of the day. (Adamson, 2007, p. 8). This engagement demonstrates his contributions to “the rise of dialectic, jadal,6 as applied to the study of legal theory and methodology, usul al-fiqh” in the ninth century (Makdisi, 1981, p. 76). He tried to find answers through these texts, simply because Islamic theology itself had become a book culture, especially with the introduction of paper from China. Reminiscing about the great Muslim thinkers, eleventhcentury physician Ibn Butlan “listed the three major divisions of the sciences that had developed in Islam by the middle of the ninth century: the Islamic sciences, the philosophical and natural sciences, and the literary arts” (Makdisi, 1981, p. 75). Butlan deemed Islamic law to be the mother of all sciences, while he considered the other two divisions to be subordinate. Another division, called ‘the sciences of the Ancients’, that is of the Greeks, while opposed for its ‘pagan’ principles by every believing Muslim scholar among the faithful, commanded nevertheless an unpublicized, silent, begrudging, respect. These sciences were studied in private, and were excluded from the regular courses of Muslim institutions of learning. (Makdisi, 1981, pp. 75–76) Given the well-known notion that “he lacked no knowledge that an educated man of his time might need” (Rosenthal, 1942, p. 268), we need, perhaps, to consider each kittib and risalah as part of a continuing effort to write a curriculum that is addressed to a learning audience infused with philosophical aspects. Each kittib and risalah mark a move from Masjid-centered educational practices based on oral commentary to a focus on the written works and contents. In effect, this proposition explains Al-Kindi’s choice of genre. From the Fihrist, we learn that his responses to various theological and philosophical questions were in the form of rasa’l, Arabic for “epistles” or “letters.” These tended to be educational in purpose and were addressed to specific individuals, such as his numerous letters to his student Ahmed, the Caliph’s son. For instance, in his letter On the Oneness of God and the Finiteness of the Body of the World, Al-Kindi responded to a request to elaborate on what he had already explained in previous discussions, demonstrating that Al-Kindi was diligently involved in tutoring and Majlis meetings. The letter, however, was written obligingly, in a way that advanced an educational Minhaj in that it upheld “a form of discourse [appropriate] for your mental abilities, [leading] to a firm understanding. I should provide a brief discussion that is not too complex to understand, nor too cumbersome to remember” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 63). The letter was, therefore, written in the form of a study guide for the perplexed. Likewise, Al-Kindi’s Letter on the Method of How to Dispel Sorrows was a response to another unnamed friend who seems to have asked him how to deal with the inevitability of loss and sadness. Al-Kindi advised to dispel sadness by putting his intercultural competence into practice and effectively invoking the Hellenistic tradition within an Islamic context. Grayling (2019) associated Aristotleian thought with identifying causes: “The Greek word for explanation, aitia, also means ‘cause’, and Aristotle framed the task of explaining things as ascertaining their causes: to know or understand AL-KINDI ON EDUCATION 273 something, he said, is to know its cause” (p. 87). Likewise, Al-Kindi immediately took up an Aristotelian position by exploring the causes of sadness. He inferred that sadness “occurs because one loses what one loves or is frustrated in obtaining what one seeks. Thus we ought to investigate whether anyone can be free from these causes” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 249). His task was not only to dispel sorrow, but also to make unfamiliar cultures relevant. He referred to a historical anecdote in which Alexander the Great was on his death-bed, writing a letter to his mother in which he asked her to invite only those who have not been afflicted by sorrow to his funeral. When nobody showed up, Al-Kindi explained, she said, “I am not the first to suffer from misfortunes, nor are they specific to any one human being” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 255). Additionally, Al-Kindi mentioned two reports sharing Socrates’ wisdom on sadness. While maintaining an Islamic context, he emphasized one of the most important intercultural competencies: a deep recognition of the universal human experience despite our cross-cultural differences. Al-Kindi and the Interdisciplinary Approach Little is known about Al-Kindi’s enormous corpus. Most of his known treatises are from a single Istanbul manuscript, but we do know from the book Fihrist (The List), written by the tenth-century scholar Ibn Al-Nadim, that his work was extensive. The list contains over 300 titles attributed to Al-Kindi and demonstrates that Al-Kindi’s interest in the acquisition of knowledge was his overriding concern. Adamson (2007) contended that “It would seem that strictly philosophical research took up only a fraction of Al-Kindi’s energy and time” since only “21 are devoted to what Ibn al-Nadim calls ‘philosophical’ topics, with another 10 or so apiece on logic and practical philosophy” (p. 7). The rest are entirely unphilosophical, featuring a wide range of topics such as mathematics, medicine, and astrology. For Al-Kindi, therefore, education in various fields and facilitating public education by creating treatises to serve as study guides took precedence over philosophy or any other disciplinary-focused approach. Al-Kindi was conscious that only an interdisciplinary falsafa could effectively serve an increasingly diverse society in a rapidly expanding Islamic empire. He realized that for Islam to be universal as the Prophet intended, an inclusive substratum that invited dialogue and successfully reconciled itself with what was conceived to be divergent and dissident was necessary. The interdisciplinary approach brings together disciplines and cultural intellectual traditions and attempts to find commonality and correlations between seemingly dissident cultural traditions. Al-Kindi’s Minhaj exemplified this attitude towards knowledge that looked beyond the religious aspects. Al-Kindi’s conceptualization of education disclosed his own personal struggles. He reimagined Islamic education, traditionally understood as an enclosed, revelation-based curriculum, into a communicative form set within an intercultural community of interdisciplinary-trained thinkers: “And while it was quite common for scholars, almost up to the modern age, to cover a range of disciplines, few made such an impact across so many fields as al-kindi [sic]” (Al-Khalili, 2011, p. 133). Consciously or not, he encouraged thinkers to linger in the multiplicity 274 W. ABDUL-JABBAR that interdisciplinarity offers within a curricular landscape that addresses intercultural encounters, thus legitimizing everyday concerns. Al-Kindi’s work includes many connections between ideas across difference and disciplines. Interdisciplinary training enacts this shift from Majlis to Minhaj, in which Aql (intellect) plays a pivotal role. In his letter to Ahmed b. Al-Mu’tasim, Explaining the Prostration of the Outermost Body and its Obedience to God, Al-Kindi explained his position on the importance of Aql in the dissemination of knowledge. Adamson and Pormann (2012) translated this position as: “Upon my life, what Muhammad the truthful has said and transmitted from God may indeed be understood wholly through reasonable deductions, which are rejected only by all those people who are deprived of the form of the intellect” (p. 175). He argued against those who do not appreciate interpretation based on critical discernment: “For they destroy what he affirmed, missing the point … or they are among those ignorant of the reason set out by the Prophet” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 175). He then set out to explain what he meant by lacking reason: “They do not know about the ambiguity of the words in it nor about inflection and derivations, which, although numerous in the Arabic language, are common to every language” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 175). Al-Kindi cited cases of ambiguity in Arabic words, such as how one word can possibly mean two different things; he noted that in the Quran, certain words should not be taken literally, such as the verb sajadah, which literally means to prostrate but can mean different things in different contexts. Accordingly, Aql establishes the nature of inquiry and demonstrates how philosophy, in this case logic and epistemology, engages with theological issues and exegesis, allowing the Majlis to expand beyond its limited zone into the realm of Minhaj. In modern religious education, this shift suggests a pluralistic paradigm that subscribes to “the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference” beyond the oft-prescribed multicultural dimensions marked by hospitality and tolerance (Niyozov, 2016, p. 203). In spite of his interest in philosophical abstraction and theology, Al-Kindi showed almost equal attention to crafts and non-academic subjects: This highly intellectualist theory of knowledge did not, however, stop Al-Kindi from exploring the physical world around him with enthusiasm. In fact, he turned his attention to a staggering range of topics, some of them quite practical (the making of swords and perfumes, the removal of stains from clothing). (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. xl) Moreover, his effort to organize the Greek intellectual tradition into categories was definitely Aristotelian in origin. A good example can be found in On the Quantity of Aristotle’s Books, in which he systemizes Aristotle’s corpus based on the works that he knew best. This example exemplifies his interest in envisioning an educational substratum. Anthony Robert Booth (2017) believed that one of Al-Kindi’s main contributions to knowledge was the introduction of “Islamic Evidentialism,” a process that validates belief according to available evidence. Belief should be rationally justified by providing reasonable proof; thus, Evidentialism monitors and mitigates the relationship between faith and reason. Booth (2017) wrote: “Evidentialism’s answer is that if religious belief is justified, then ipso facto religious belief must be compatible with science … The underlying assumption here is that two beliefs that are both compatible with the AL-KINDI ON EDUCATION 275 evidence cannot be contradictory” (p. 54). By applying Evidentialism in First Philosophy, Al-Kindi popularizes this practice and makes it essential for knowledge-based ways of learning: “ever the salesman for Falsafa, [he] uses this as a marketing technique. Assuming that Muslim beliefs are justified, and therefore correct vis-
a-vis the measure of truth, they cannot be in opposition to other evidentially justified beliefs” (Booth, 2017, pp. 54–55). The point here is that justified truth is consistent across disciplinary boundaries. In other words, from an educational perspective, he asserted that the skill required for the perusal of true knowledge can only be achieved through different humanistic practices and diversified approaches, as long as these practices and approaches were well-validated. Al-Kindi offered a process of verification that a system of belief should sustain internal consistency when encountering a different culture, perspective, or discipline. An intercultural Minhaj, therefore, welcomes and creates these opportunities for the verification of such an encounter to materialize and be resolved. Additionally, Al-Kindi negotiated the third space that is born of the dialogical contact between different disciplines: Quite often, he will set up a number of alternatives (say A, B, and C), which are then further divided into alternatives … Al-Kindi then proves that each of these alternatives is wrong … and then concludes that the original proposition must have been wrong. (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. xix) In this sense, he used an interdisciplinary approach by applying a mathematical method to philosophical or other non-mathematical contexts. Likewise, he used philosophical practices to resolve theological questions and explained philosophical issues with Islamic overtones. For example, he objected to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity by affirming that God cannot be eternal and multiple at the same time … He refutes them by using the tools of Aristotelian logic, especially as they had been exposed in Porphyry’s Introduction (Eisagoge), a text that he expects them to know. This illustrates again an important aspect of Al-Kindi’s programme: to demonstrate religious truth by philosophical means. (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. xxxi) He was interested in a synthesis-driven praxis that facilitates a move from the narrow path of debate into the wider terrain of conflict resolution and hoped that others would lead by example. In Configurations of Culture Growth, A. L. Kroeber (1947) seemed perplexed by the seeming lack of disciplinarity of scholarship in the Islamic world: The Arabs struggled over the problem of their classification. They were more than mere cyclopaedists – their culture was probably too young for that; but they never got over an encyclopaedic approach. Philosopher and physician; historian and astronomer; mathematician and surgeon; historian and physician, are typical combinations; not to mention numerous polyhistors. (p. 42) Muslim thinkers had sought to remain unbound by the dominant trend in academia of disciplinarity or “classification,” which continues today as a form of a “culture of complacency that has crept into academia in which interdisciplinary academic rigor is mistakenly considered the antithesis of focused studies, which diminishes exposure to different theoretical lenses and pedagogical practices” (Abdul-Jabbar, 2019, p. 329). What Kroeber dismisses as an “encyclopedic approach” was an interdisciplinary 276 W. ABDUL-JABBAR method that Al-Kindi strove to establish in order to meet the intellectual challenges of his time. Apart from that, it was common, up to a certain point in the nineteenth century, for scholars to deal with many interrelated topics and areas of research. The specialization in only one or two disciplines came to be normalized with the departmentalization of disciplines within the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century. The itinerant tradition, in which scholars from European territories travelled to distant places, similarly facilitated a much more dynamic knowledge sharing tradition than is usually depicted. Al-Kindi’s students took on his interest in interdisciplinary education. Abu Zayd Al-Balkhi, for instance, showed “an encyclopedic genius whose profound contributions to knowledge covered many diverse fields that would seem, to our modern minds, to be unrelated to each other” (Badri, 2013, p. 1). Al-Balkhi authored more than 60 books and “meticulously research[ed] disciplines as varied in scope as geography, medicine, theology, politics, philosophy, poetry, literature, [and] Arabic grammar,” among other subjects (Badri, 2013, p. 1). Similarly, Abu Al-Hasan Al-Amiri, a second-generation student of Al-Kindi’s, continued his mentor’s conscious attempt towards a philosophically responsive teaching of Islam. Al-Kindi was, therefore, a progenitor of the interdisciplinary approach in education whose followers were well-rounded intellectuals. This approach ultimately became the norm during the Islamic Golden Age. Al-Kindi can be seen as the first to set interdisciplinary and intercultural trends in Islamic education that proved foundational for later generations. Scholars often refer to Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes when speaking of Al-Kindi’s legacy and its significance within the philosophical tradition, as these thinkers have followed the Al-Kindian legacy of interdisciplinarity in their pursuit of diverse fields of knowledge. Al-Kindi’s educational legacy and encyclopedic approach to knowledge were carried on by his direct followers and the following generation of students; for instance, Abu Zayd Al-Balkhi and Ahmed Al-Tayyib Al-Sarakhsi expanded on and reproduced Al-Kindi’s thoughts, and Abu Zayd’s student Ibn Farighun wrote the expansive Compendium of the Sciences (Jawami’ al uloom). Conclusion This article contributes to the interest in alternative perspectives on education and research in general, but more specifically to Islamic education in which Al-Kindi represents a unique but marginalized, if not unrecognized, position. The article proposes that Al-Kindi was primarily an intercultural curriculum theorizer in addition to his predominant reputation as a philosopher. That said, I do not intend my claims to be seen as projecting the present on the past. What I intend here is to present ideas that are understood within the specific historical context in which they were developed, even though some of these ideas have been presented or conceptualized in contemporary terminology such as interdisciplinarity and interculturalism. Therefore, I have been careful not to reinforce modern meanings so much as use them to illustrate the distinctiveness of Al-Kindi’s legacy and the relevance of his contribution to contemporary education. By drawing on relationships between history, philosophy, and curriculum theorizing, Al-Kindism looks at the curriculum from an integrated perspective. It AL-KINDI ON EDUCATION 277 implements interculturality as a praxis of becoming in the form of a dialogue among cultures. This project arises from the pressing need to revisit Islamic education and its epistemological practices in the context of increasingly fractured religio-cultural worldviews. Since co-existence is dependent on mutual respect and intercultural understanding, a more comprehensive understanding of the transformative potential of dialogue in educational settings is necessary. Al-Kindism thus serves as a conceptual framework for an Islamic education that can revisit interdisciplinary and intercultural possibilities. It ventures into the necessity of a modern Muslim conception of education and provides a pedagogical lens. For Al-Kindi, a successful educational system accommodates change through intercultural adaptation and appropriation, which can be implemented by developing an interdisciplinary learning capacity. Al-Kindi was arguably the first in the Arabic intellectual tradition to initiate a move from Majlis to Minhaj, from Masjid-centered practices based on theological studies to the possibility of a school curriculum to be taught. His interest in intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches to education developed out of his involvement in the translation movement and from his tutoring of the caliph’s family, other patrons, and his own followers. In the absence of actual schooling, two characteristic practices qualify Al-Kindi as educator: one is his interdisciplinary strategy of using philosophy as a problem-solving method in the service of theology. Second, not only did he see no tension between the Greek pursuit of knowledge and the Islamic culture, but he also believed that the acquisition of true knowledge could only be achieved through an intercultural, interfaith dialogue. Thus, we must revisit Al-Kindi as a voice that opulently extended the interdisciplinary and intercultural boundaries of education. The Minhaj of combined intercultural and interdisciplinary methods to which Al-Kindi contributed was definitely picked up by successive generations of students and thinkers. There is no doubt that eminent scholars such as Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, the last of whom actually mentions Al-Kindi, were influenced by what he started. Al-Kindi was the first Muslim thinker to show interest in a curriculum of metaphysics, or what he calls first philosophy, without delving too deep into its nuanced aspects of quiddity. Hypothetically, Al-Kindi’s work generally constitutes school curricular subjects, with variations all geared towards high academic and personal achievements, whereas Al-Farabi’s, Avicinna’s and Averroes’s works are intended for undergraduate and graduate courses. This may explain, for instance, why Al-Kindi himself was more interested in the Isagoge of Porphyry, which became a common introduction to Aristotelian studies. Al-Kindi’s approach to education was based on an intellectual commitment to the interdisciplinarity of knowledge and not on an allegiance to philosophy. Philosophy was respected for its capacity to sharpen the tools of theology, understand the nature of reality and creation, and ultimately decode the mind of God. He conceptualized a Minhaj that is marked by a de-centering approach to discipline-based curriculum and unexamined prior knowledge. In other words, he envisioned a curriculum that offers opportunities for a wide-range learning experiences, which resonates with what R. L. Irwin (2010) calls in contemporary curriculum theory “a space of generative possibilities” (p. 41). Al-Kindi advocated a move towards a curriculum inquiry informed by intercultural encounters and interdisciplinary practices. 278 W. ABDUL-JABBAR Notes 1. The Barmakids were an Iranian family from Balkh who won political ascendency under the early Abbasid Caliphs. 2. The term Mawali is used to refer to non-Arab Muslims and other allies. 3. It is important to note here that, for Al-Kindi, truth (haq) seems to consist of a blend of wisdom (hikmah) and knowledge (ma’rifah). In “On the Definitions and Descriptions of Things,” Al-Kindi defines Hikmah as “the virtue of the [rational] faculty, and is the knowledge of universal things in their true natures, and putting truths “haq” into action as one ought” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 307) and ma’rifah as “a belief that does not disappear” (Adamson & Pormann, 2012, p. 306), which seems to refer to what qualifies as factual knowledge. In Al-Kindi’s terminology, intellect and knowledge are guiding paths that determine truth. 4. Although I have retained Adamson and Pormann’s translation of Al-Kindi, I highly recommend that the singular “the way to the truth” be changed to the plural “the ways” to maintain the original intended meaning. We can see, for instance, that Subul is translated in its plural form in Ivry’s translation of the same section: “It is proper that our gratitude be great to those who have contributed even a little of the truth, let alone to those who have contributed much truth, since they have shared with us the fruits of their thought and facilitated for us the true (yet) hidden inquiries, in that they benefited us by those premises which facilitated our approaches (Subul) to the truth” (1974, p. 57). 5. This capacity seems to have developed from his involvement in the translation movement. 6. Jadal refers to dialectic and the art of disputation. Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. Notes on contributor Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar received his PhD (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) from the University of Alberta, where he was awarded The Bacchus Graduate Research Prize for scholarly excellence in International and Multicultural Education. He was also awarded the University of Alberta President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction among other awards such as the JDH McFetridge Graduate Scholarship and the Andrew Stewart Memorial Graduate Prize for outstanding accomplishment and potential in pursuit of new knowledge. He received an MA from Lakehead University and another MA from California State University in Humanities in an interdisciplinary program. Dr. Abdul-Jabbar held a postdoctoral fellowship (also funded by SSHRC) at the University of Calgary. 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