Hawzah News Agency – On the occasion of the publication of the collection articles about Avicenna's scientific and philosophical works, which Ramz Publications recently published, we have interviewed with the compiler and editor of this work, Dr. Jafar Agbayani Chavoshi, professor of Sharif University of Technology, to get more acquainted with his book. The following text is the result of this conversation.
Q - Please explain a little about this book and say whether this work is different from the works that have been published in Iran?
A - That's a good question, but it is necessary to mention a few points to answer that. The first point is that we Iranians do not know our Scientifics and Philosophers in general and Avicenna in particular as we should know, and this lack of knowledge has prevented us from introducing our values to the world; Westerners are far ahead of us in this regard. For example, comparing what the British have done about Newton, the Italians about Leonardo da Vinci, and the French about Descartes with what we have done Avicenna, you will see how far we are from them. From producing films and TV series to publishing books and holding seminars to honor their great’s Scientifics, they have made good use of them. We also made a film about Avicenna, which is far from the truth and looks like a myth. If Hollywood has made a film about Avicenna in recent years, it was not to honor of this Iranian philosopher, but abuse him and Iran. So if we do not do anything, others will write our history of science with a lot of distortions! And in that case, we will never be able to correct and counteract these distortions. However, Avicenna, due to the richness of his works, has always been popular and of interest both in the East and West, which is due to the fair of great Western scientists that spend nights and days researching the works of this genius of all ages, to be able to answer some of the scientific and philosophical questions of the day in the light of his works. Conferences about Avicenna have been held in almost all important countries, from the United States, Britain, and France to Algeria, India, and Pakistan, etc. The papers presented in some of these seminars are not at all comparable to what we have done in Iran, so to answer your question, I must say that my primary motivation for compiling this book has been the translation and publication of some such articles. You will agree with me by reviewing the articles in this book.
Q - What made you do this in the first place? Did your field of study cause this tendency, or other factors affect it?
A - To answer this, I have to go back about forty years, that is, the beginning of the revolution and the time of the imposed war, when I was studying in France and my master's degree at the University of Jussieu (Paris 7). One of our compulsory lessons was about Descartes's philosophy. Dr. Dominique Lecourt, one of specialist of Descartes, taught this lesson. I have not been aware with his life situation for several years, but with the good memory I had of this lesson, I must say this couplet:
گر بمردست روانش پر نور باد
ور بُوَد زنده خدا یارش باد
"If he has died, his soul be full of light.
If he is alive, may God help him."
The professor’s lessons were fascinating, and the class was full of French students and the students of other nationalities. I used to record the lessons to replace them well in my memory. I still have old cassette tapes of these lessons. On the first day of the lessons, when the professor introduced Descartes, he asked the students this question: "Why is Descartes different from other French philosophers, both before and after him, and has found a separate procedure?" In parenthesis, let me say that the French have constantly introduced themselves as rationalists, and they also attribute this causal to Descartes. With this question, silence reigned over the class. Some students gave an answer that the professor did not accept. He pulled the class out of suspense with his weird answer, which was a bit surprising to me as well. As I said, those days coincided with the early days of the revolution and the imposed war, and the French media broadcast the news of the Iranian war and revolution day and night, discussing in detail. He said: "If you trace the roots of the Iranian Revolutionary, you will reach the Shia religion, which, unlike other Islamic religions, is revolutionary and has always been in conflict with kings and rulers and has not recognized them. The great Iranian philosopher, Avicenna, who the medieval West owes its knowledge and philosophy to him, also belongs to the same Shia revolutionary religion. It was also due to his affiliation with this revolutionary religion that he was in conflict with the rulers and was displaced to the cities and the countries." Then he continued: "I think Descartes, who was one of the readers of Avicenna's philosophical works in Latin, was influenced not only by his philosophy but also by his Iranian predecessor in his way of life. Then he said: Descartes' philosophical foundation, which is summarized in the sentence "I think, then I am (je pense, donc je suis)," is influenced by a philosophical work of Avicenna about the suspended man. Apart from this scientific and philosophical use, we see that Descartes was restless during his life and would flee from city to city and from country to country to come to a safe house and do research and so on. It seems that in this behavior, whether he likes it or not, he had taken the example of Avicenna. I was pleased about myself in the classroom that the teacher praised Avicenna so much. But I was sorry that we Iranians could not do what the French did about Descartes about Avicenna. These made me write a book about Avicenna with a new look in my future research program.
Q - Did this lesson of the French teacher and his revolutionary view of Avicenna make you research the works of the famous philosopher Iranian?
A - Yes, I came back to Iran after graduation. I would teach at the Sharif University of Technology and research about Iran's Islamic sciences at the Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies. At that time, Dr. Mehdi Golshani was the institute's director, and I also would manage some special issues about Khayyam and Khajeh Nasir. Afterward, I took over the Avicenna project and accepted articles within and outside of Iran. Unfortunately, shortly after the beginning of the project, Dr. Golshani was fired. New director discipline was so exhausting for me, and I couldn't have research freely, so I was forced to resign because of that. Next time to publish the book, I asked the institute of Wisdom and philosophy, which was refused under the pretext of containing a translation version of the articles. Mediated by Dr. Golshani, I requested for publication to the Institute of Islamic Culture and wisdom in Qom, hoping to be published there. After a year that delayed me under different pretexts, the publishing director finally asked me that part of the introduction, what I call the Suffering Letter, should be deleted in case of publication. I refused and took the book back, consulting myself with the thought that a publisher who appreciates this work may be found reminding this couplet:
گوهر خود را مزن بر سنگ هر ناقابلی
صبر کن پیدا شود گوهرشناس قابلی
"Do not mallet your gem on every worthless stone.
Wait for a good gemologist to be found."
And this gemologist was a passionate youth, a patriot and lover of Islamic Iran named Kambiz Khaleghi, who published the book beautifully, satisfying me after years.
Q - Now, please tell us a little about the difference between this work and previous works about Avicenna.
A - Of course, we should appreciate the great efforts that have been made in this field, especially the late researchers, Ayatollah Motahari, Professor Hassan Malekshahi, Ayatollah Hassanzadeh Amoli, and Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, the great connoisseurs of Avicenna. However, these great men paid more attention to Avicenna's Metaphysical and Mysticism works. Still, other aspects of Avicenna were studied in the West, such as mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, music, etc. I want to introduce these aspects in my country by providing translations of such works. I do not know to what extent I was able to achieve that.
Q - Could you please talk a little about the authors of the articles?
A - Both the authors and the book's translators are prominent authors and experts in their field of research application. Unfortunately, during this book's publishing time, Dr. Sasan Sepanta, an Iranian writer, and Mr. Moro Zonta, a French writer, passed away and could not witness the publication of their article. Mr. Ghassam Finianos, the Syrian author of one of the articles, has left his current location due to the attack of ISIS and terrorist groups on Syria, and I do not have any news about him now. One of the good articles in this book belongs to Dr. Golshani and his student Dr. Jamali, which is about consciousness and the relationship between mind and brain from the point of view of Avicenna. I have written two articles on astronomical works, one in Persian and some in French. I hope I have also written an article on Avicenna's astronomical works, one in Persian and the other in French, which I hope will be considered. We also have articles about the logic of modalities from Avicenna's point of view by foreign logicians translated into Persian by Iranian professors. These articles also have a new look at Avicenna's logical topics.
Q - Dr. Chavoshi, the title of your book suggests that this is the second collection of articles about Avicenna that you have compiled. Would you please tell us the difference between it and the previous collection?
A - You are right. Half of the articles in the previous collection were the text of the speeches of Avicenna's International conference in Hamedan, which was held a few years ago, and the other half were articles that I had commissioned from their authors. Therefore, the present collection, whose articles were all written in my preferred order and translated, is very different from the previous collection, which readers will notice this well by reading. I should not say anything about this difference, as the poet says:
خوشتر آن باشد که سرّ دلبران
گفته آید در حدیث دیگران
"It would be better if the mystery of the beloved,
be mentioned by the lovers."
Q - Why did you write about Avicenna again and not about another scientist not known well?
A - The reason for this choice was not only the knowledge of Avicenna but also was the role of this great scientist in Islamic civilization. He alone is a pioneer for an advanced civilization wholly. For example, if you look at the biographies of scientists both in the east and west, you will see that most of them sometimes had to obey the tyrants contrary to their wishes. We have many historical examples, and I do not need to name them one by one. Some of them who did not believe in religion or morality and were greedy of honors used their knowledge to benefit the enemies of humanity. A clear example of such scientists is America during World War II. At that time, the project of the atomic bomb was in progress. It was finally built with the help of hundreds of physicists and chemists headed by Oppenheimer and used in Hiroshima, which killed thousands of innocent men and women, young and older people and turned their cities into a heap of dust. Among all of those scientists who made these bombs, just Oppenheimer suffered from severe discomfort and remorse and became severely stressed, took refuge in drugs, and openly confessed that his hands were stained with blood, but others did not feel remorse at all. Now in some scientific laboratories, superpowers like America, doctors, chemists, and physicists day and night research on microbial weapons to defeat their enemies in a short time. Suppose one day it is proven that this Corona virus had been made in a US military laboratory. In that case, you will understand the destructive role of such irreligious and immoral scientists in the genocide and crimes against humanity. The reason that Oppenheimer died of grief shortly after that event was that he was a Jewish believer, and apart from his knowledge in physics, he had some research in Indian religions and other religions and the effect of religion on human beings' life. All the evidence suggests that when he supervised the build of the atomic bomb, he would never have imagined such an irresponsible use by the US military. He opposed the American government and was accused of being a communist, which was a big lie. Yes, his morality and religiosity made him different from his other US Atomic Energy Organization colleagues. Those who, due to lack of religion and morality, were like robots, and killing people was like killing locusts for them. So the reason that I still assign this book to Avicenna is that he adhered to ethical and religious principles. He did not like to be a court scientist or doctor of Sultan Mahmoud, who was cruel and would kill the Shiites and fled from him to cities. Finally, due to the stress of escaping and being homeless while he was unmarried became ill and died of a bellyache. We must train such scientists for the next generation of Islamic civilization.
Q - Apart from mentioned features, is there anything else that introduced Avicenna as a pioneer?
A - Another feature is his knowledge about different scientific filed of his time. Nowadays, people believe that it is impossible to research different scientific fields due to the extent of science, the emergence of new fields, and the human being's short lifespan. But such people can not be innovative even in their field. I know such people in our university and other universities who are unaware of their country's literature, religion, philosophy, and politics and are not also innovative and pioneers in their field. For example, I know a professor in our university who is an algebraic scientist and does not study geometry and conversely. In contrast, if you study Avicenna's life, you will be surprised by his knowledge in different fields.
Q - If possible, could you please tell us a bit about your efforts to gather articles and compile the book?
A - If it were not for my love for the culture and knowledge of my country, such an effect would not have arisen. You may rarely have met someone who gives himself a hard time to write a book, and after preparing the book, make a lot of efforts to publish it for twelve years without having any financial expectations! Today, some people pocket huge amounts of money with various tricks under the guise of a professor and researcher, and the devil's intellect also fails to do so. Gone are the days when scientists lived hand to mouth, and the Iranian poet Obayd Zakani had told them that:
رو مسخرگی پیشه کن و مطربی آموز
“Go and walk of life as buffoonery and learn musicianship”
Nowadays, we know multi-billionaire scientists who are as rich as actors and athletes. A few years ago, in the Astronomical Center of Hazrat Abdul Azim (peace be upon him) in the city of Rey, a conference about Muhammad ibn Zakaria Razi was held that I was its scientific secretary. The conference chairman insisted that we invite a Razi scholar professor, so I had to call him. He instead of complement offered a huge amount of money for his lecture. After too much bargaining, he agreed to receive one million tomans, "one toman" in his own words. He had a repetitious and improvised speech for 20 minutes in the conference, took the money, and left the conference while he was too aged and could not walk, and with the help of two people and to his difficulty, he reached the podium. This is an example of the procedures of contemporary masters. During the Corona pandemic, you, like me, have been definitely informed from the country's official media that the assistant of the late hygiene Minister of had given some professors huge funds under the pretext of research on the corona virus without any clear out-coming or result for the benefit of people. Therefore twelve years of work to publish such a book from the point of view of such researchers is complete madness.
Q - Now, it is better to give a brief overview of the book's contents. Can this work address not discussed features of Avicenna science?
A - What I have done in this book is really a spark that other researchers should turn it into a burning torch.
این هنوز از نتایج سحر است
باش تا صبح دولتش بدمد
"This is still because of dawn.
Wait to see morning."
Q - Can you tell us a little about Avicenna's influence on Descartes?
A - There are numerous articles on this subject in different languages that the investigator can find by searching. Anyway, discussing such a philosophically complex topic can not be summarized in an interview.
Q - What was the method in selecting these articles?
A - I have said multiple times that the article should discuss new features in addition to documentation and good writing form. The readers will become more familiar with my way of selection by reading the book.
Translated from Persian by Dr. Sedigheh Mousa Nejhad