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Title: Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib on Spirit and Soul
Author(s): LANGERMANN, Y. Tzvi
Journal: Le Muséon
Volume: 122    Issue: 1-2   Date: 2009   
Pages: 149-158
DOI: 10.2143/MUS.122.1.2037155

Abstract :
The question of the precise distinction between, nafs and rūḥ, 'soul' and 'spirit' respectively, occupied Arabic-writing thinkers of all faiths. We publish here a short disquisition upon the subject by Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib (d. 1048), a Christian philosopher, physician, and theologian of Baghdad, and one of the key figures in the transmission of both the Aristotelian and Galenic traditions. The essay of Abū al-Faraj is concerned almost exclusively with rūḥ, specifically the different types of psychic pneuma, each inhabiting one of the three ventricles of the brain, and each responsible for a specific psychic function.

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