Early Exegetical Practice on Avicenna’s Šifāʾ: Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Marginalia to Logic

Nine manuscripts preserving Avicenna's Kitāb al-Šifā' share a set of identical marginal glosses to the section of Logic. One of these manuscripts reports, at the end of each of the glosses, a certificate of transmission ascribing them to the theologian and philosopher Fahr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606H/1210), which provides some material evidence of the existence of a flourishing exegetical activity on the Kitāb al-Šifā' during the twelfth-thirteenth century, in spite of the apparent lack of commentaries on the text in that period. The present paper provides an edition of the so far unknown hāšiyāt to Avicenna's Kitāb al-Šifā' by al-Rāzī, with an attempt at reconstructing their tradition and contextualizing them within al-Rāzī's exegetical and teaching activity.