Editing Early Islamic philosophy (section)

===Main protagonists of Falsafa and their critics===
The 12th century saw the [[apotheosis]] of pure philosophy and the decline of the Kalam, which later, being attacked by both the philosophers and the orthodox, perished for lack of champions.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wilczyński |first=Karol |title=Why Is Philosophy Bad for the Soul? Commentary on Al-Ġazālī's Critique of the Philosophers |date=2020 |url=https://wuw.pl/data/include/cms//Truth_and_Falsehood_Bokus_Barbara_Kosowska_Ewa_red_2020.pdf?v=1586512884220#page=45 |work=Truth and Falsehood in Science and the Arts |editor-last=Bokus |editor-first=Barbara |access-date=2023-05-24 |publisher=Warsaw University Press |doi=10.31338/uw.9788323542209.pp.46-61 |isbn=978-83-235-4220-9 |s2cid=216319017 |editor2-last=Kosowska |editor2-first=Ewa}}</ref> This supreme exaltation of philosophy may be attributed, in great measure, to Al-[[Abu Hamed Mohammad ibn Mohammad Ghazali|Ghazali]] (1005–1111) among the Persians, and to [[Judah ha-Levi]] (1140) among the Jews. It can be argued that the attacks directed against the philosophers by Al-Ghazali in his work, ''[[The Incoherence of the Philosophers|Tahafut al-Falasifa]]'' (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), not only produced, by reaction, a current favorable to philosophy, but induced the philosophers themselves to profit by his criticism.<ref>{{Citation |last=Holzman |first=Gitit |title=Persecution and the Art of Commentary: Rabbi Moses Narboni's Analysis of al-Ġazālī's Maqāṣid al Falāsifah (Aims of the Philosophers) |date=2022-06-10 |url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789004506626/BP000010.xml |work=Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion Volume 1, 2022 |pages=49–78 |editor-last=Strauss |editor-first=Ze'ev |access-date=2023-05-24 |publisher=BRILL |doi=10.1163/9789004506626_003 |isbn=978-90-04-50661-9|doi-access=free }}</ref> They thereafter made their theories clearer and their logic closer.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}  The influence of this reaction brought forth the two greatest philosophers that the Islamic Peripatetic school ever produced,{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} namely, [[Ibn Bajjah]] (Avempace) and [[Ibn Rushd]] ([[Averroes]]), both of whom undertook the defense of philosophy.

Since no idea and no literary or philosophical movement ever germinated on Persian or Arabian soil without leaving its impress on the Jews, the Persian [[Abu Hamed Mohammad ibn Mohammad Ghazali|Ghazali]] found an imitator in the person of Judah ha-Levi. This poet also took upon himself to free his religion from what he saw as the shackles of speculative philosophy, and to this end wrote the "Kuzari", in which he sought to discredit all schools of philosophy alike. He passes severe censure upon the Mutakallamin for seeking to support religion by philosophy. He says, "I consider him to have attained the highest degree of perfection who is convinced of religious truths without having scrutinized them and reasoned over them" ("Kuzari", v.). Then he reduced the chief propositions of the Mutakallamin, to prove the unity of God, to ten in number, describing them at length, and concluding in these terms: "Does the [[Kalam (islamic term)|Kalam]] give us more information concerning God and His attributes than the prophet did?" (Ib. iii. and iv.) Aristotelianism finds no favor in [[Judah ha-Levi]]'s eyes, for it is no less given to details and criticism; Neoplatonism alone suited him somewhat, owing to its appeal to his poetic temperament.

[[Averroes|Ibn Rushd]] (Averroës), the contemporary of [[Maimonides]], closed the first great philosophical era of the Muslims. He was a defender of Aristotelian philosophy against [[Ash'ari]] theologians led by [[Al-Ghazali]]. Averroes' philosophy was considered controversial in Muslim circles. The theories of Ibn Rushd do not differ fundamentally from those of [[Ibn Bajjah]] and [[Ibn Tufail]], who only follow the teachings of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Farabi. Like all Islamic Peripatetics, Ibn Rushd admits the hypothesis of the intelligence of the spheres and the hypothesis of universal emanation, through which motion is communicated from place to place to all parts of the universe as far as the supreme world&mdash;hypotheses which, in the mind of the Arabic philosophers, did away with the dualism involved in Aristotle's doctrine of pure energy and eternal matter. His ideas on the separation of philosophy and religion, further developed by the [[Averroism|Averroist]] school of philosophy, were later influential in the development of modern [[secularism]].<ref name=Messeri/><ref name=Najjar/>

But while [[Al-Farabi]], [[Ibn Sina]] (Avicenna), and other Persian and Muslim philosophers hurried, so to speak, over subjects that trenched on religious dogmas, Ibn Rushd delighted in dwelling upon them with full particularity and stress. Thus he says, "Not only is matter eternal, but form is potentially inherent in matter; otherwise, it were a creation ''ex [[nihilo]]''" (Munk, "Mélanges", p.&nbsp;444). According to this theory, therefore, the existence of this world is not only a possibility, as Ibn Sina declared&mdash;in order to make concessions to the orthodox&mdash; but also a necessity.

Driven from the Islamic schools, Islamic philosophy found a refuge with the Jews, to whom belongs the honor of having transmitted it to the Christian world. A series of eminent men&mdash;such as the [[Ibn Tibbon]]s, [[Narboni]], [[Gersonides]]&mdash;joined in translating the Arabic philosophical works into Hebrew and commenting upon them. The works of Ibn Rushd especially became the subject of their study, due in great measure to Maimonides, who, in a letter addressed to his pupil [[Joseph ben Judah]], spoke in the highest terms of Ibn Rushd's commentary.

It should be mentioned that this depiction of intellectual tradition in Islamic Lands is mainly dependent upon what West could understand (or was willing to understand) from this long era. In contrast, there are some historians and philosophers who do not agree with this account and describe this era in a completely different way. Their main point of dispute is on the influence of different philosophers on Islamic Philosophy, especially the comparative importance of eastern intellectuals such as Ibn Sina and of western thinkers such as Ibn Rushd.<ref>[[Henry Corbin]], ''History of Islamic Philosophy''.</ref>