Abstract

Ibn Sina's overriding, lifelong concern was with the fate of the soul. An examination of the Danishnama, the only major work written by Ibn Sina in his native Persian , situates that concern firmly within his eastern Iranian cultural environment and the New Persian Renaissance, and thus brings to light the importance to Ibn Sina of Being as the proper direction of the soul's attention. After an introductory overview of the traditions of Ibn Sina interpretation, an analysis of Firdausi's Shahnama is presented as a case study of medieval Iranian conservative syncretism, the nature of which is further developed in an examination of the variety of cultural and religious resources upon which Ibn Sina might have drawn. Next, the place of the Danishnama as a transitional work in Ibn Sina's opera is established. The analysis of the text begins with the role of logic, the proper order of scientific questions, and the division of the sciences. The inquiry into Being is in two parts: the 'universal science' and ilahiyyat . Necessary Existence, Ibn Sina argued, is beyond name and categories, and Ibn Sina's attempts to turn our attention toward Necessary Existence mark, it is argued, a key development in his move to indicative method. The failure of the emanation scheme is then examined, and it is suggested that the emanation scheme has its roots in Iranian culture, not solely in Neoplatonism . Finally, a discussion of the happiness of the soul concludes that the source of suffering is in grasping onto transitory objects as though they were permanent, and that release from suffering lies in turning our attention instead toward Being-as-such