The Rules of Logic

A classic textbook on the study of logic

In the Muslim East, logic was an integral part of the syllabus of schools and found to be especially helpful for legal studies. It was at this time that The Rules of Logic was composed by Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī, a scholar of the Shāfiʿī school of law.

The Rules of Logic is the most widely read introduction to logic in the Arabic-speaking world. It has probably enjoyed a longer shelf-life than any other logic textbook ever written, having been in use by madrasah students from the early eighth/fourteenth century up until the present day. Building on the theories of Avicenna, al-Rāzī, and other pioneers of logic, al-Kātibī discusses the many pitfalls of building arguments and setting out unambiguous claims in natural language. The enduring nature of the text is a testament to al-Kātibī and his impact on concepts of formal discourse and argument. This new translation of The Rules of Logic brings to both an Arabic and English readership an influential text that has shaped the work of scholars of logic for centuries.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī (Author)
Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī was a Persian philosopher and scholar who was a member of the Shāfiʿī school of law. Born in 600/1204 in Qazvin, al-Kātibī’s most famous work aside from The Rules of Logic is Philosophy of the Source, a text about physics and metaphysics.

Tony Street (Edited and Translated by)
Tony Street is Assistant Director of Research in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity and is a Fellow of Clare Hall.