This event will begin promptly at 17.00 BST
The term “Sympathy” is derived from the Greek συμπάθεια, the state of feeling together (derived from the composite of fellow/together [συν]-feeling/passion [πάθος]). In modern times it is used as a form of affective subjectivity exemplified by the “I feel with you” formula.
This talk aims to shed some light on how the notion of “sympathy” has been used across time and by different intellectual/religious traditions. In particular, Dr De Cillis will look at the Stoic and Neoplatonic notion ofsympatheiahighlighting how, in the late classical and early Hellenistic period, it was employed to make sense of the natural world, across a plethora of disciplines. Within Islam, the notion was adapted,inter alia, in the intellectual systems of Abū Maʿshar (d. 886) and al-Kindī (d. 873), and within Ismailism “sympathy” was employed by Fatimid scholars such as Ḥamīdal-Dīnal-Kirmānī (d. c. 1021) who integrated it within the concept of “The Balance of Religion” (mīzān al-diyāna).
Identified as the main force operating throughout the Cosmos and applied, as a doctrine, in Renaissance alchemy, magic and medicine, “sympathy” features in many Italian Renaissance thinkers such as Pico della Mirandola (d. 1494) and Gian Battista della Porta (d. 1615).
Hosted by the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London) and convened by Dr Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, theIslamic History and Thought Lecture Seriesis designed to invite scholars of various international academic institutions, specialising in intellectual, social and political aspects of medieval and early modern Islamic societies, to present and discuss their research. Watch previous lectures on our.
Speakers
Dr Maria De Cillis
Dr Maria De Cillisis an Associate Professor and Head of theShiʿi Studies Unit(Interim) in the Department of Academic Research and Publications at the IIS, where she is also the Managing Editor of theShiʿi Heritage Series. Dr De Cillis obtained her bachelor’s degree (with honours) from the Faculty of Languages and Literatures in the Department of Arabic and English Studies at the Universita’ degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Naples, Italy. She completed her Master’s in Islamic Studies (with distinction) and was awarded her PhD in Islamic Studies from the Near and Middle East Section, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, SOAS University of London.
Dr Toby Mayer
Dr Toby Mayer is a Research Associate in theQur’anic Studies Unitat 51Թ, London. After completing his undergraduate degree in Indian Studies at the University of Cambridge, he went on to study Medieval Arabic thought at the University of Oxford, where he wrote his doctoral thesis on theBook of Allusions(Isharat) by the major Persian philosopher Ibn Sina.
Cover image: Ḥamīdal-Dīnal-Kirmānī’sRahat al-ʿaqlf. 130a. Provided by Russell Harris and the Ismaili Special Collections Unit. Ms 1454
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Views expressed in this lecture are those of the presenting scholars, not necessarily of IIS, the Ismaili community or leadership. Promotion of this lecture is not an explicit endorsement of the ideas presented.
