Avicenna: Živý, syn Bdícího, Pták a Salamán a Absál. Iniciační příběhy

Abstract

Avicenna (980–1037) was one of the foremost thinkers of the Islamic East and a unique representative of falsafa, the medieval Islamic Hellenistic philosophy. The present paper focuses on his philosophical-mystical recitals Hayy ibn Yaqhdan (The Living, Son of the Vigilant), Risalat at-Tair (The Epistle on Bird) and Salaman wa Absal (Salaman and Absal) and presents them as a cycle of initiation stories. The protagonist of these stories is the human intellect, which undergoes the journey towards higher knowledge under the guidance of an initiator, the Active Intellect. Using the language of symbols and metaphors, Avicenna presents the central elements of his teachings – the theory of intellect, psychology, epistemology, the theory of matter and form, cosmology, emanation theory, angelology and theology – and emphasizes the angelic nature of the human soul and its capability of reaching salvation from the material world and returning to God, its spiritual point of origin.