An Opponent of al-Dawwānī: Abū Isḥāq al-Nayrīzī and his Risāla fī taḥqīq ḥaqīqat al-ʿilm

Abstract

This article investigates the life and works of the itinerant philosopher Abū Isḥāq al-Nayrīzī (died after 895/1489). It offers a critical edition and analysis of his Risāla fī taḥqīq ḥaqīqat al-ʿilm, which he presented to Sultan Mehmet II. Nayrīzī’s work documents his travels to acquire knowledge, which took him from Shiraz to Istanbul, Istanbul to Tabriz, and Tabriz to Karabakh between 877/1472 and 895/1489. Throughout his travels, Nayrīzī studied in the most important political and scholarly centers of his age. Nayrīzī, however, is best known for his opposition to the famous theologian and philosopher Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawwānī (d. 908/1503). The analysis of this dispute not only uncovers new information about Nayrīzī’s life, but also elucidates his scholarship. The disagreement between Nayrīzī and Dawwānī started with Dawwānī’s reply to Nayrīzī’s al-Risāla al-ḥarfiyya in Shiraz in 1472, written upon the request of Sultan Khalīl. After arriving in Istanbul from Shiraz, Nayrīzī presented at least two treatises to Sultan Mehmet II, in which he criticized famous scholars of the period, including Mollā Khusraw (d. 885/1480), Sinān Pasha (d. 891/1486), Hocazāde (d. 893/1488), Khaṭībzāde (d. 901/1495), and ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Fanārī (d. circa 903/1497). Nayrīzī’s second dispute with Dawwānī took place in the presence of Sultan Yaʿqūb, when Nayrīzī returned to Tabriz from Istanbul. Nayrīzī was defeated in the debate and left to Karabakh. His third dispute with Dawwānī took place over Nayrīzī’s al-Risāla al-qalamiyya, written in 1489 in Karabakh and dedicated to Sultan Bāyazīd II, which provides a personal and scholarly portrait of Dawwānī with a pen-oriented literary narrative. In response, Dawwānī portrays Nayrīzī in a similar way. In qalamiyya works, there are both bitter and sweet criticisms that go beyond philosophical critiques to include personal ones. Therefore, the double-layered literary and biographical content of the qalamiyya treatises provide new information regarding the scholarly atmosphere of the period.