Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed by S. M. Stern, presents Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi al-Sijistani, a philosopher born about 300/912 and died about 375/985. He was a pupil of Matta b. Yunus (d. 328/939) and Yahya b. 'Adi (d. 364/974), lived in Baghdad, and was patronised by 'Adud al-Dawla, to whom he dedicated some treatises. His system, like that of most of his milieu, had a strong Neoplatonic colouring. ¹

Our knowledge of his teaching comes mainly from Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, whose al-Muqabasat and al-Imta' wa-l-mu'anasa are full of reports of his utterances on philosophy and other topics. Some of his shorter treatises survive, and his history of Greek and Islamic philosophers, Siwan al-Hikma, survives only in an abbreviation. Al-Shahrastani used the Siwan for the old Greek philosophers in his al-Milal wa-l-nihal, and Ibn al-Nadim, who was his disciple, quotes him in the Fihrist. ²