KINDI or ALKINDI (ABU YUSUF YA (YOB IBN ISHAQ UL KINDI) (died c. 873), sometimes called "the Philosopher of the Arabs," was born in Kufa where his father was governor, and studied at Basra and Baghdad. In the orthodox reaction under Motawakkil, when all philosophy was suspect, his library was confiscated, but he himself seems to have escaped. He was one of the earliest translators and commentators of Aristotle, but like Farabi appears to have been superseded by Avicenna.
Kindi's philosophy is a combination of Aristotelian and Neo Platonic elements. He stresses the unity of God, whose influ ence on the world he believes to be transmitted through inter mediate agencies, the lowest of which is the human soul. He has an original fourfold division of intelligence : (a) the intellect which is always active, (b) the passive intellect of the human soul, (c) the intellect of the human soul which passes from poten tiality to actuality, and (d) the intellect which demonstrates the necessary relations between premises. In place of Aristotle's
categories he substitutes matter, form, movement, place and time.
Of Kindi's 27o works, covering philosophy, cosmology, astron omy, astrology, optics, mathematics and medicine, about 20 are extant. During the middle ages some were translated into Latin by Gerald of Cremona and others, and exercised a considerable influence on the West. His philosophical opuscula were edited by A. Nagy (Munster, 1897).
See G. Flugel, Al Kindi genannt der Philosoph der Araber (Leipzig, 1857) ; T. J. de Boer, Geschichte der Philosophic im Islam (Stuttgart, 1901) ; H. Suter, Die Mathematiker u. Astronomen der Araber (Leip zig, 19oo) ; P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant De Collectione errorum Alkindi (Louvain, 1911) ; C. de Vaux, Les Penseurs de l'Islam, t. 4 (1923).