The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn: A translation from the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity

"...This epistle, 'The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn', is arguably the best known of the contents of the Rasā’il, on account of its ecological fable, which casts the exploited and oppressed animals pursuing a case against humanity. ...'The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn’ (Epistle 22) is the longest of the fifty-two essays written in the 960s or 970s by a group of authors who took the pen name Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa-Khullān al-Wafāʾ (the ‘Sincere [or ‘Pure-Hearted’] Brethren and True Friends’). The collection was meant to spread philosophical, scientific, and mathematical understanding, scriptural lore and legend, and Persian, Indian, Muslim, Greek, and Hebraic values and traditions among the new Arabic literati of the lands of Islam. But in this essay, widely read and translated in the Middle Ages and since, the Brethren break away from their usual expository format and fly up into the realm of fable. Their aim, as they explain, is ‘to consider the merits and distinctions of the animals, their admirable traits and pleasing natures, and to touch on man’s overreaching, oppression, and injustice against the creatures that serve him — the beasts and cattle — and his heedless, impious thanklessness for the blessings for which he should be grateful.’ Once given words, the animals have much to say, both about their own plight and about the human condition. They present themselves not as mere objects of study but as subjects with an outlook and interests of their own. That casts the essay into a moral mode: the animals warmly appreciate the bounty of creation but passionately criticize human domination and systematically indict its underlying rationales as the products of human arrogance. The ingenious and insightful design of every creature, say the animals, testifies to God’s creative and providential beneficence. But the natural piety, generosity, courage, and trust of the animals model virtues that human beings too often lack. The animals become living, speaking rebukes of human waywardness, faithlessness, negligence, and insensitivity..." Lenn E. Goodman is Professor of Philosophy and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. His books include _Islamic Humanism_; _In Defense of Truth: A Pluralistic Approach_; _Jewish & Islamic Philosophy: Crosspollinations in the Classic Age_; _Judaism, Human Rights, and Human Values_; _God of Abraham_; _Avicenna_; _On Justice_; _Creation and Evolution_; and his Gifford Lectures, _Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself_. A winner of the American Philosophical Association Baumgardt Memorial Prize and the Gratz Centennial Prize, Goodman has lectured widely in international venues. His original translation of _The Case of the Animals versus Man_ appeared in 1978. He is also the translator of Saadiah Gaon’s Arabic commentary of the _Book of Job_. His translation, with commentary, of Ibn Ṭufayl’s _Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān_ was published in 2009 in an updated edition by the University of Chicago Press. Richard McGregor is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Islamic Studies at Vanderbilt University. His primary field of research is mediaeval Egypt and Syria, with a focus on intellectual history, visual culture, and Sufism. He is author of _Sanctity and Mysticism in Medieval Egypt_ (2004), a study of the evolution of theories of religious authority among mystics of mediaeval Cairo. He is also co-editor with Adam Sabra of _Le développement du soufisme en Égypte à l'époque mamelouke_ (2006), and is currently at work on a study of religious practice centred on processions, banners, pilgrimage, and iconoclasm.