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Avicennism is a school ofIslamic philosophy which was established byAvicenna. He developed his philosophy throughout the course of his life after being deeply moved and concerned by theMetaphysics ofAristotle and studying it for over a year. According toHenry Corbin andSeyyed Hossein Nasr, there are two kinds of Avicennism: Islamic Avicennism, and Latin Avicennism.[1][2]
According to Nasr, the Latin Avicennism was based on the former philosophical works of Avicenna. This school followed thePeripatetic school of philosophy and tried to describe the structure of reality with a rational system of thinking. In the twelfth century AD, it became influential inEurope, particularly inOxford andParis, and affected some notable philosophers such asThomas Aquinas,Roger Bacon andDuns Scotus. While the Latin Avicennism was weak in comparison with LatinAverroism, according toÉtienne Gilson there was an "AvicennisingAugustinism".
On the other hand, Islamic Avicennism is based on his later works which is known as "The Oriental Philosophy" (حکمت المشرقیین). Therefore, philosophy in the Eastern Islamic civilization became close tognosis and tried to provide a vision of a spiritual universe. This approach paved the road for theIranian school of Illuminationism (حکمت الاشراق) bySuhrawardi.[3]
Corbin referred to divergences between Iranian Avicennism and Latin Avicennism[4] and showed that one can see three different schools in Avicennism, which he called Avicennising Augustinism, Latin Avicennism and Iranian Avicennism.[5]
Several Mu’tazilites were contemporaries of Avicenna,[6] while the philosophical programme of Avicenna and his students was criticised by the MuʿtazilīḤanafī scholarIbn al-Malāḥimī (d. 1141), who argued that philosophy in the Greek tradition would be used to justify false beliefs and dilute the prophetic character of Islam. He put forwardChristianity as an example of a prophetic religion corrupted by Greek abstract thought.[7]
