A Tale of Two Tales: Ibn Ṭufayl (d. 1185) and Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288) on the Place of Sociality in Human Life and Thought

Abstract This article argues that Ibn al-Nafīs’s (d. 1288) Treatise of Kāmil in the Prophet’s Biography ( al-Risālat al-Kāmiliyya fil-sīra al-nabawiyya ) can be categorized as a hypertext that seeks to critically respond to Ibn Ṭufayl’s (d. 1185) claims regarding the benefits of isolation for human beings and the possibility of direct access to knowledge as expressed in his Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān . To make this point, I will examine in detail the ways in which the former’s tale parallels the latter’s to most effectively diverge from it at critical junctures. In the first part, I focus on how in denying the epistemological and attendant social and political claims of Ibn Ṭufayl’s isolated sage, Ibn al-Nafīs’s island hero is only able to think and live properly among other humans. In the second part of the paper, I theorize the overlapping and diverging relation between the epistemological and socio-political claims in the two authors. For Ibn Ṭufayl, these claims rest on a hierarchical conception of created human nature or fiṭra : because of his exceptional fiṭra , Ḥayy can reach the highest insights rationally and self-sufficiently. He does not need society. Ibn al-Nafīs makes no distinctions based on fiṭra : all human beings need revealed knowledge to gain higher insights. As a result, humans must live among others to receive the benefits of revealed knowledge. In the end we see that Ibn al-Nafīs’s tale inverts the claims of his famous predecessor, making a strong case for sociality as the necessary precondition for a fulfilled human life and properly ordered thought.