FALSAFAH. The term falsafah is the Arabized loan word from the Greek philosophia, "love of wisdom," and hence in its general sense simply means "philosophy." It is, however, also used (as it will be in this account) in a more specific sense as an abbreviation of the expression al-falsafah al-islāmīyah, "Islamic philosophy." Similarly, the general Arabic word for "philosophers," falāsifah (sg., faylasūf), is used more specifically as an abbreviation for the expression al-falāsifah al-islāmīyūn, "the Islamic philosophers."

Because for many Muslims, past and present, falsafah remains at best doctrinally suspect, the sense in which it will be referred to here as "Islamic" requires clarification. This term, as applied to falsafah and falāsifah, will first of all be used in a broad cultural sense, for falsafah was developed within an Islamic cultural milieu by men whose culture was Islamic. This...