The Sixty Comprehensive Sciences
This is the most important Persian work of Imam Fakhr Razi, which concerns sixty famous sciences of the author’s time.
It has two main sections:
1) The transmitted sciences, which includes the religious sciences
2) The intellectual and philosophical sciences
The first section includes, jurisprudence, commentary, reading the Quran, syntax, history and prosody. The ####second section talks about medicine, mathematics, geometry and optics. It was written in 1179. Fakhr Razi dedicated his work to “Sultan Ala al-Din Takesh Kharazmshah”. Besides some unknown resources, for compiling this encyclopedia, some of the famous works of Avicenna also have been applied.
The author
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Umar Ibn Hossein Tabaristani Razi, also known as "Imam Fakhr", Ibn al –Khatib" ,"Fakhr Razi" and also "Imam al- Mushakkekin" (because he doubted about most of the philosophical subjects), a famous Iranian Sunni theologian and philosopher. He was born in 1149 in Ray –Iran and died in 1209. He studied jurisprudence and Kalam and other Islamic sciences under his father and then studied under Majduddin Jili. He wrote on medicine, astrology, physics, literature, history and law. Fakhr Razi was from "Shafi'i" of Islamic law. Razi's most major work is "The keys to the unknown" (his exegesis on the Quran) and his most important philosophical work is "Eastern discussions".
Structure of the book
The book includes a preface and sixty chapters:
Preface: Fakh Razi’s biography, his works, his Persian poems, the comprehensive sciences, a Persian encyclopedia, introduction of the manuscripts of the comprehensive sciences, the method of correcting the manuscripts
The chapters:
1- Theology
2- The principles of jurisprudence
3- Polemics
4- The science Khelaf
5- Religion
6- Religious duties
7- Wills
8- Commentary
9- The reasons for miracles
10- Reading
11- Hadiths (Prophetic traditions)
12- The names of Rejalists
13- History
14- Syntax
15- The methods and manners
16- Morphology
17- Derivation
18- Sayings
19- Prosody
20- Rhyme
21- Figures of speech
22- Rhetoric
23- Logic
24- Natural sciences
25- Interpretation (of dreams)
26- Medicine
27- Perspicacity
28- Anatomy
29- Alchemy
30- Agriculture
31- Geometry
32- Perspective
33- Astronomy
34- Geomancy
35- Commandments
36- Music
37- Ethics
38- Politics
39- Algebra
40- Mathematics
41- Chess, etc.
Sources :
The Sixty Comprehensive Sciences (Imam Fakhr Razi)