Najm al-Din al-Katibi (d. 1276) wrote a logic text for intermediate students, The Epistle on Logical Rules for Shams al-Din. It became wildly successful, read by most students in the course of their madrasah education. What made it such a bestseller? Some of Katibi's readers went on to deal with immeasurably more difficult texts like Afdal al-Din al-Khunaji's Disclosure of Secrets from the Obscurities of Thought. How did the Shamsiyyah prepare them for dealing with advanced topics in research on logic? The talk offers some reflections on both receptions of Katibi's Shamsiyyah.

Tony Street is Assistant Director of Research in Islamic studies at the Divinity School of Cambridge. He works on the history of Arabic logic, and has recently been part of projects on the reception and impact of Aristotelian Logic on medieval Jewish culture, and on the medieval receptions of Aristotle's Sophistical Refutations.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.