Towards a Genealogy of Avicennism

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi described Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's Shar. on Avicenna's Isharat as a jar. ("calumny", or literally, "injury") rather than a shar. ("commentary"), and this label would become almost proverbial in later discussions of Razi's role in the history of Avicennism. A survey of the introductions to Isharat-commentaries composed during the 6th/12th to the 8th/14th centuries, many of them still available only as manuscripts, helps us put Tusi's remark in historical perspective, and contributes to recent attempts to reevaluate Razi's role in propelling the Avicennian tradition forward.