About this text: The Treatise on Love

رسالة في العشق

Ibn Sīnā (370–428/980–1037)

The whole treatise in seven chapters: love runs through every being, from prime matter and the plants to the lover of beautiful faces and the divine souls, and the Good loves itself.

On the Platonic Current: Avicenna

In the reader

39 passages · ~50 min · published translation

4,792 words

Published translation: Mehren (1894), French summary

Not yet: audio, commentaries.

Read it →Grammar practice Study sheet (print)

Difficulty

much rare vocabulary

Lexical difficulty, from the words themselves: how many roots fall outside the 1,000 most frequent in the Quran, how long the words are, and how much of the vowelling had to be supplied by AI. It says how unfamiliar the vocabulary is, not how deep the ideas are.

Rare roots 17% · mean word length 4.5 letters · AI vowelling on 100% of words

Themes & resonances AI

What the text is about, and what it connects to across the history of thought. Every connection says what kind of claim it is: a documented lineage, a shared source, a resonance with no influence claimed, or a contrast. Mapped by AI; references are shown only once checked. Across the library

Themes

Love (ʿishq) running through every being, from prime matter to the angelsعشقʿishqroot عشقἔρωςerōs
The pure Good that loves itselfالخير المحضal-khayr al-maḥḍroot خيرτἀγαθόνtagathon
Self-disclosure of the Good, veiled only in the recipientتجلّيtajallīroot جلو
Becoming like the First by its own measureتشبّهtashabbuhroot شبهὁμοίωσις θεῷhomoiōsis theōi
Beauty as order, proportion and nearness to unityحسنḥusnroot حسن
Refined love of beautiful faces as a partnership of the animal and rational soulsظرفẓarfroot ظرف
The active intellect as the first mirror of the Goodالعقل الفعّالal-ʿaql al-faʿʿālroot عقلνοῦςnous
Union (ittiḥād) as the most perfect reception of self-disclosureاتّحادittiḥādroot وحد

What each theme is here

Love (ʿishq) running through every being, from prime matter to the angels. Each being has an innate love for its own perfection that keeps it in existence: matter clings to form, plants feed and grow, animals seek and flee, and rational souls love the First Good.
The pure Good that loves itself. The First Cause is good in its essence and lacks nothing; because it apprehends itself perpetually, its love of itself is the most complete love, and in it love and existence are one.
Self-disclosure of the Good, veiled only in the recipient. The Good discloses itself by its very essence to all existents; the only veil is the weakness of those who fail to receive it, and this self-disclosure is the cause of all existence.
Becoming like the First by its own measure. Natural bodies, plants, animals and souls imitate the First in the ends of their actions and not in their starting points; only the angelic souls resemble it in their very essence.
Beauty as order, proportion and nearness to unity. Rational and animal souls love whatever is well ordered and proportioned, and the rational soul knows that what lies nearer the First Beloved shares more in unity, proportion and concord.
Refined love of beautiful faces as a partnership of the animal and rational souls. Love of a handsome form is praiseworthy when the rational soul governs it and seeks nearness, and blameworthy when the animal soul uses it for pleasure alone.
The active intellect as the first mirror of the Good. The universal intellect receives the self-disclosure without intermediary, like a form in a mirror, and may be called the image of the Good, though never its like.
Union (ittiḥād) as the most perfect reception of self-disclosure. Ibn Sīnā identifies the utmost nearness to the Good, the reception of its self-disclosure in the fullest possible way, with what the Sufis call union.

Connections

Lineage 3

Documented transmission: a chain of reading, teaching, translation or citation, grounded in a verified reference or in the later text itself.

Aristotle, Metaphysics Λ.7: the unmoved mover moves as an object of love (kinei hōs erōmenon)Aristotelianism · firm
Ibn Sīnā's angelic souls move the heavens out of love for the First and in assimilation to it, which develops Aristotle's account of a first mover that moves the spheres by being loved. Book Lambda was available in Arabic, and Ibn Sīnā wrote on it.
Carried byمعشوقmaʿshūqroot عشقἐρώμενονerōmenon“the beloved that moves”
- Dimitri Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works (1988): Ibn Sīnā's reading of and work on the Aristotelian corpus, including the Metaphysics.
al-Ghazālī, The Niche of Lights: God as the light that is manifest in itselfSufism · probable
Ibn Sīnā holds that the Good discloses itself by its essence and is veiled only by the weakness of recipients; al-Ghazālī's Niche makes light into manifestness and says the hiddenness of God comes from the intensity of His manifestation. Al-Ghazālī's mystical epistemology was built on Avicennan foundations.
Carried byظهورẓuhūrroot ظهر“manifestness, and the veil in the viewer”
In the library:Mishkāt al-anwār ¶45 Mishkāt al-anwār ¶70 Path: Light and its veils
- Alexander Treiger, Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazālī's Theory of Mystical Cognition and its Avicennian Foundation (2012): al-Ghazālī's use of Ibn Sīnā's psychology and metaphysics in his mystical works, including the Niche of Lights.
Suhrawardī, The Temples of Light: the souls' love for the lights above themIshraqi philosophy · probable
Suhrawardī's Temples describe the rational souls as kin to the angelic lights and drawn to them in love and likeness, recasting the Avicennan hierarchy of intellects and souls in the language of light. His philosophy grew out of a critical reading of Ibn Sīnā.
Carried byشوقshawqroot شوق“the souls' longing for what is above them”
In the library:Hayākil al-nūr ¶27 Hayākil al-nūr ¶29
- Hossein Ziai, Knowledge and Illumination: A Study of Suhrawardī's Ḥikmat al-ishrāq (1990): Suhrawardī's critical reworking of Avicennan (Peripatetic) philosophy.

Shared source 1

Both draw on a common ancestor by different routes; grounded like a lineage.

Plato, Symposium 207d: mortal nature seeks to be always by generationPlatonism · probable
Ibn Sīnā says the generative faculty yearns to produce its like so that the species endures, and that reasoned procreation imitates the First Cause; Diotima says mortal nature seeks immortality by leaving behind something new. Both rest on the idea that living things share in the everlasting through their kind.
Common ancestor: Aristotle, De anima II.4 (415a26-b7): living things reproduce in order to share in the eternal and divine as far as they can
Carried byἀθανασίαathanasia“preserving the species as a share in the everlasting”
In the library:Symposium 207d Symposium 206c
- Dimitri Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works (1988): Ibn Sīnā's dependence on the Aristotelian corpus, through which the Platonic idea reached him.

Resonance, not influence 8

Resonance, not influence: a structural or thematic likeness. No influence is claimed.

Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, Ringstone of Adam: the Real willed to see ItselfAkbarian tradition (after Ibn Arabi) · probable
Both make the divine self-disclosure the ground of all existence and give God a desire that it be received: Ibn Sīnā's Good loves that its self-disclosure be attained, and Ibn ʿArabī's Real wills to see itself in the polished mirror of the human being. Our sources here do not document Ibn ʿArabī reading this treatise.
Carried byتجلّيtajallīroot جلو“self-disclosure”
In the library:Faṣṣ Ādam ¶1 Faṣṣ Ādam ¶3
Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, Ringstone of Seth: the Real as mirrorAkbarian tradition (after Ibn Arabi) · probable
Ibn Sīnā compares the universal intellect's reception of the Good to a form appearing in a mirror, an image of the Good that is never its like. Ibn ʿArabī builds a whole account of self-disclosure on the mirror, in which each side sees itself in the other.
Carried byمرآةmirʾātroot رأي“mirror”
In the library:Faṣṣ Shīth ¶13 Path: The mirror
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Divine Names IV: erōs as a power that runs through all beingsEarly Christianity and the Fathers · probable
Dionysius describes a divine erōs that moves through every level of being, binding the higher to the lower and turning all things back to the Good. Ibn Sīnā's ʿishq likewise pervades every rank of being and returns it to the First.
Carried byعشقʿishqroot عشقἔρωςerōs“love pervading all beings”
Dante, Paradiso XXXIII: the love that moves the sun and the other starsMedieval Latin philosophy · firm
Dante ends the Commedia with a love that moves the heavens, and Ibn Sīnā has the angelic souls move the celestial bodies out of love for the First Good. Both draw on a cosmos ordered by love.
Carried by“love as the mover of the heavens”
Spinoza, Ethics V, props. 35-36: God loves himself with an infinite intellectual loveEarly modern philosophy · firm
Spinoza says that God loves himself with infinite intellectual love, and that the mind's intellectual love of God is part of that same love. Ibn Sīnā's First Good loves itself most perfectly because it apprehends itself, and its beloveds are the souls that receive it.
Carried by“amor intellectualis Dei; divine self-love”
Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle: Eros as the drive that holds living substance togetherPsychoanalysis and depth psychology · probable
Freud extends Eros beyond sexuality to a force that preserves and binds living things. Ibn Sīnā extends ʿishq further still, to prime matter and the elements, as the innate drive by which every being keeps its perfection and flees non-being.
Carried byἔρωςerōs“a love wider than desire”
Troubadours and courtly love: the lover ennobled by restrained desireTroubadours and courtly love · suggestive
Ibn Sīnā's refined young men of chivalry (fityān) are praised for loving beautiful faces while keeping the animal faculty subdued, a love that raises the lover. The troubadours also praise a love made noble by restraint. Whether this is a case of influence is disputed, and nothing here establishes it.
Carried byفتوّةfutuwwaroot فتي“refinement and chivalry in love”
Ibn al-Fāriḍ, The Wine Ode: the wine drunk before the vine was createdPersian poetry · probable
Ibn al-Fāriḍ's wine exists before all created things and through it things subsist while it veils itself. Ibn Sīnā's Good, through its self-disclosure, causes all existence and is veiled only by the weakness of those who receive it. One speaks as a poet and the other as a philosopher.
Carried by“a hidden source by which all things subsist”
In the library:al-Khamriyya ¶24 al-Khamriyya ¶23

Contrast 3

An instructive opposite: the difference teaches something about both.

Plotinus, Ennead VI.9: the One as the object of the soul's loveNeoplatonism · probable
In VI.9 the soul loves and turns to the One, which does not turn toward it. Ibn Sīnā's Good loves itself, as Plotinus also allows in VI.8, but it also loves that its self-disclosure be attained by souls, so that they can be called its beloveds.
Carried byعشقʿishqroot عشقἔρωςerōs“love from above as well as from below”
In the library:Ennead VI.9, ch. 9 Path: Love: the soul's longing back
Plotinus, Ennead I.6: beauty is not mere symmetryNeoplatonism · probable
Plotinus argues that beauty cannot be defined as proportion, since simple things like light and gold are beautiful. Ibn Sīnā grounds the soul's love of beauty in order and proportion, though he also ties proportion to nearness to the unity of the First.
Carried byتناسبtanāsubroot نسبσυμμετρίαsummetria“proportion”
In the library:Ennead I.6, ch. 1
al-Ghazālī, The Niche of Lights: the gnostics' union is only a likeness of unionSufism · probable
Ibn Sīnā accepts the Sufi word 'union' (ittiḥād) as the name for the most perfect reception of the Good's self-disclosure. Al-Ghazālī warns that the ecstatics' words of union only resemble union and must be read as passing away, with oneness held in truth and union in metaphor.
Carried byاتّحادittiḥādroot وحد“union”
In the library:Mishkāt al-anwār ¶53 Mishkāt al-anwār ¶54 Path: Unification: the soul at peace

Claude (opus) via Claude Code, headless, no web access, 2026-10-04. A reference with a check was found and checked with a web search.

Versions

14 layers, each with its licence

The original

Mehren's edition (Leiden 1894)A. F. Mehren · 1894Public domain

By: A. F. Mehren (editor) · 1894
Source:: A. F. Mehren (ed.), Traités mystiques d'Abou Alî al-Hosain b. Abdallah b. Sînâ ou d'Avicenne, fasc. III (Traité sur l'amour; Traité sur la nature de la prière; …) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1894), Arabic text of رسالة الشيخ الرئيس قدّس سرّه في العشق pp. ١–٢٧ (typeset), with the manuscript variants as lettered footnotes, and the Leiden variants and Mehren's corrections on pp. 33–34. Internet Archive scan of a Stanford copy (Google), bound with fasc. I, II (French) and IV; the treatise on pdf pp. 152→126 (reverse-bound) · link ↗
In the reader:: In full, through our transcription: 39 passages (our division by sense inside the author's seven chapters), 4,792 words, with Mehren's 108 footnote variants and the 31 Leiden variants
Licence:: Public domain (Leiden 1894; Mehren d. 1907)
Notes: Mehren fixed the text from two manuscripts (British Museum and St Petersburg, Asiatic Museum) and gives a third (Leiden) separately. Gutas (Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Avicenna v. Mysticism') argues that the series title 'Traités mystiques' is Mehren's and arbitrary.

The three manuscripts (via Mehren's apparatus)A. F. Mehren · UNVERIFIEDPublic domain

By: A. F. Mehren (reports their readings) · UNVERIFIED
Source:: B. M.: London, British Museum (Cureton–Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium … pars secunda, p. 447, no. 978), now British Library Add MS 16659, ff. 8v–13r (dated 1182/1768–69 per the Qatar Digital Library, which publishes it as public domain); St. P.: St Petersburg, Asiatic Museum (Mehren: pp. 94 ff. of the MS; current shelfmark not traced); Leiden: Or. 958(40) Warn. (Cat. codd. or. Bibl. Acad. Lugd. Bat. III, p. 339, no. 1480), its variants 'of a certain importance' listed by Mehren pp. 33–34 · link ↗
In the reader:: Their variants, as Mehren gives them
Licence:: Manuscripts: public domain; known here through Mehren's apparatus (the BL copy also online)
Notes: Mehren's avant-propos: the last copyist of the Leiden copy dates it 981 (1573–74). The BL copy was identified from the QDL finding aid by the companion sweep, not checked against the text here.
UNVERIFIED:: The date of the St Petersburg manuscript and its current shelfmark. Whether the Leiden copy is digitised.

Hindawi digital text (via OpenITI)Hindawi Foundation, OpenITI · UNVERIFIEDOpen licence

By: Hindawi Foundation (digital text); OpenITI (corpus) · UNVERIFIED
Source:: OpenITI 0428IbnSina.MaHiyaCishq.Hindawi053714184-ara1 (رسالة في ماهية العشق); the printed edition it follows is not named · link ↗
In the reader:: Not shown; used as a typing aid and compared word by word (335 differences in wording logged privately)
Licence:: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (OpenITI); cited, not reproduced
Notes: A different line of the text: it reads أبا عبد الله … المعصومي in the dedication, فائزا for Mehren's فائقا, and the closing doxology is longer. Every word of our text was checked against Mehren's page images; where they differ Mehren is followed.
UNVERIFIED:: Which printed edition the Hindawi text reproduces.

Our edition

Our transcription of Mehren's ArabicClaude (AI), Claude (AI) · 2026-10-04AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (first reading of the page images); Claude (AI) (second, independent reading) · 2026-10-04
Source:: data/sources/ishq-mehren.json (scripts/recitals/ishq_assemble.py, ishq_apply_proof.py); text record §§3–4
In the reader:: In full; footnote keys not reproduced (each variant records its anchor word)
Licence:: Ours
Made by:: Claude (Opus 5.5), 2026-10-04 (AI reading of page images by parallel Claude Code agents (first reading and proof))
Notes: Letter by letter from 200-dpi page images, doubtful words at 500–1200 dpi, keeping the print's spelling. Second, independent reading of all 27 pages: 4,770 words agree, 22 disagreements; 16 corrections applied, 3 kept, 3 unclear; 3 doubts resolved, 12 readings left marked ⟨?⟩ (mostly worn type on p. 12). Mehren's own Corrections applied (sukūns deleted, اليد for اليدو). Not yet checked by a person.

Published translations

Mehren's French summaryA. F. Mehren · 1894Public domain

By: A. F. Mehren (translator and explainer) · 1894
Source:: Mehren, Traités mystiques III (Leiden 1894), « Traité sur l'amour », French pp. 1–15 (pdf 61–75 of the scan): a summary-explanation chapter by chapter, partly paraphrase, with notes · link ↗
In the reader:: Beside the text, cut to our passages by sense (data/sources/ishq-mehren-fr.json); 37 of 39 passages
Licence:: Public domain (1894)
Notes: Not a full translation. Mehren reorders chapter II (his own note) and summarises passage 27 in a footnote, which is not shown. Transcribed from the page images, checked against the archive.org OCR.

Fackenheim's English translationEmil L. Fackenheim · 1945Copyrighted: cited only

By: Emil L. Fackenheim (translator) · 1945
Source:: Emil L. Fackenheim, "A Treatise on Love by Ibn Sina. Translated", Mediaeval Studies 7 (1945): 208–228 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies), from Mehren's Arabic · link ↗
In the reader:: Not shown; none of its wording is reproduced
Licence:: In copyright; cited only
Notes: Published in Canada; Fackenheim died in 2003, so it is protected in Canada (life + 70) and, by URAA restoration, in the US, whether or not the US renewal was filed. Not open access (Brepols sells it). Not downloaded and not consulted for this edition: the triangulation could not use it.

AI layers

Vowelling (supplied vowels)Claude (AI) · 2026-10-04AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (vowelling) · 2026-10-04
In the reader:: The vowel marks the AI supplied are shown in amber (per-character mask: 't' from the print, 'a' from AI)
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code; exact version not recorded by the script), 2026-10-04 (scripts/recitals/prepare.py ishq: headless Claude Code, letters verified unchanged (passage 24 re-run by hand after a hamza-encoding mismatch))
Notes: The print's own marks kept (1,768); the rest supplied by AI (16,586 marks). Mehren's sign over alif read as a connecting alif where the model rewrote it (37 cases logged). 207 words with two defensible vowellings listed. No vowelled edition compared.

English translation, passage by passageClaude (AI) · 2026-10-04AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (translator) · 2026-10-04
In the reader:: Under each passage
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code), 2026-10-04 (scripts/recitals/translate.py ishq opus: headless Claude Code, minimal context)
Notes: Written for this reader from the Arabic (our vowelled text) with the glossary in data/sources/ishq-meta.json (ʿishq, khayr, kamāl, al-khayr al-maḥḍ, jawhar basīṭ, ṣūra, hayūlā, al-nafs al-nāṭiqa, al-ʿaql al-faʿʿāl, tashabbuh, jamāl …); the model was told not to reproduce or imitate published translations (Fackenheim, Mehren, Inati …) and was given none.

Word glossesClaude (AI) · 2026-10-04AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (glosses) · 2026-10-04
In the reader:: One gloss per word, in the sense the passage gives it (word panel)
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code), 2026-10-04 (scripts/recitals/translate.py ishq opus)
Notes: Contextual glosses (1–5 words) for every word id, from the same run as the translation.

Term notesClaude (AI) · 2026-10-04AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (notes) · 2026-10-04
In the reader:: Up to six technical terms per passage, each with a one-sentence note
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code), 2026-10-04 (scripts/recitals/translate.py ishq opus)
Notes: From the same run as the translation, with the glossary in data/sources/ishq-meta.json.

Translators differ (triangulation)Claude (AI) · 2026-10-04AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (comparison of the translations held, by docs/PROTOCOLS.md §17) · 2026-10-04
In the reader:: Serious divergences only, as a 'Translators differ' note under the passage
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code), 2026-10-04 (scripts/triangulate.py ishq)
Notes: Only one translation is held: Mehren's French summary (public domain). Fackenheim's English is not held. The comparison is therefore between Mehren and our AI English, with the Leiden variants as the textual evidence; see the text record §10b.

Resonances: themes and connectionsClaude (AI) · 2026-10-04AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (map of themes and connections, by docs/RESONANCES-METHOD.md) · 2026-10-04
In the reader:: For the whole text and per passage, on the About page and in the connections panel
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code), 2026-10-04 (scripts/resonances.py whole --only ishq; passages ishq)
Notes: Every connection states its kind; parallels are resonances, not claims of influence. External references were proposed without web access and are shown only after an agent verified them with a web search.

Automatic analysis

Word analysis (CAMeL Tools)CAMeL Tools 1.6 (NYU Abu Dhabi) · 2026-10-04Our work

By: CAMeL Tools 1.6 (NYU Abu Dhabi) (analyser: calima-msa-r13 + MLE, constrained by the text's vowelling) · 2026-10-04
Source:: scripts/fusus/analyze_ch.py → data/sources/ishq-analysis.json · link ↗
In the reader:: Lemma, root, part of speech, clitics and pattern, in the word panel
Licence:: Our analysis layer, made offline with CAMeL Tools (code MIT; calima-msa-r13 database GPL v2, not redistributed)
Notes: 4,792 words, 2,864 with a root, 454 distinct roots, 199 vowel conflicts with the AI vowelling. Automatic and non-generative.

Quran quotations found automaticallyscripts/quran_refs.py · 2026-10-04Our work

By: scripts/quran_refs.py (skeleton matcher against the Tanzil Uthmani text) · 2026-10-04
Source:: app/src/data/quran-refs/ishq.json
In the reader:: None found
Licence:: Ours
Notes: No Quran quotation was marked when the text was established, and the matcher finds none. The treatise quotes two sayings attributed to the Prophet (passage 21, «اطلبوا الحوائج عند حسان الوجوه»; passage 39, a ḥadīth qudsī «… عشقني وعشقته»): not Quran, not matched.

✦ marks AI that no person has reviewed yet; ✧ marks AI reviewed by a named person. Copyrighted works are cited, never shown. All sources · How texts are established

Companions

Recitations, commentaries, lectures, editions and references around this text, by other people. They are linked out, not copied: the recordings belong to their reciters and platforms, and none of them is this reader's own (AI) audio. Links checked 2026-10-04.

Recitations · 1

رسالة في ماهية العشق لابن سينا بصوت محمد السرطاسي (reading of the whole treatise) · YouTube ↗
Muḥammad al-Sarṭāsī (reader) · whole text
Rights: the owner's channel · unknown: a reading on the reader's own channel ('آداب العرب.محمد السرطاسي'), 56 min, 28 Oct 2025; title and description follow Hindawi's text, so probably read from it (UNVERIFIED); accuracy not checked · Embeddable via YouTube's player (playableInEmbed true; the reader's own recording of a public-domain text).

Commentaries & lectures · 6

Traités mystiques, fasc. II: the last three sections of al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt (namaṭ 8 'On joy and happiness', 9 'On the stations of the knowers', 10), Arabic with a selected commentary and French explanation; and Risālat al-ṭayr · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn Sīnā (author (parallel text)); M. A. F. Mehren (editor); Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (commentator (excerpted)) · ch. 6–7 (¶24–39)
Rights: public domain / open · the author's own fuller treatment: Avicenna's later, systematic account of the soul's love and joy in the First (namaṭ 8, bahja) and of the knower's stations (namaṭ 9); Mehren says he used al-Ṭūsī's commentary (India Office and Leiden MSS); the Arabic title page reads 'maʿa sharḥ mukhtār' · Leiden: Brill, 1891; public domain. Also in the Google bound scan (traitsmystiques00avicgoog). archive.org's date '1889' is wrong for this fascicle (preface dated Copenhagen, July and October 1891).
Kitāb al-ishārāt wa-al-tanbīhāt (Le livre des théorèmes et des avertissements), Arabic text, incl. namaṭ 8–10 · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn Sīnā (author (parallel text)); J. Forget (editor) · ch. 6–7 (¶24–39)
Rights: public domain / open · scholarly edition (1892): full Arabic of the Ishārāt; namaṭ 8 (fī al-bahja wa-l-saʿāda), 9 (fī maqāmāt al-ʿārifīn), 10 confirmed in the OCR · Leiden: Brill, 1892; public domain. Ohio State scan.
Ibn Sīnā and Mysticism: Remarks and Admonitions, Part Four · PhilPapers ↗
Shams C. Inati (translator and commentator) · ch. 6–7 (¶24–39)
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: English translation with analysis of Ishārāt namaṭ 8–10 (joy and happiness; stations of the knowers; secrets of signs) · London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1996, xiv + 114 pp.; copyrighted, cite only.
شرح رساله عشق (Commentary on the Treatise on Love), series 'Sharḥ-i āthār-i ʿirfānī-yi Ibn Sīnā' · kadivar.com ↗
Mohsen Kadivar (lecturer) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Mohsen Kadivar, scholar of Islamic philosophy; posted on his own site with the audio (mp3, 200 OK); 13 Nov 2015 (22 Ābān 1394), Culture and Wisdom forum, UNC Chapel Hill · Single session (~56 min). The page calls it session 4; the series programme (https://kadivar.com/14690/) lists it as session 3. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Gc58f7CLs ('The Recital of Love - رساله در عشق', channel 'Iranian Circle of Culture and Wisdom', the hosting forum; embedding disabled, so link out). The programme also lists sessions on Ishārāt namaṭ 8 (15 Jan 2016) and 9 (12 Feb 2016), but no pages for them were found.
مقامات عارفان از منظر ابن سینا (The stations of the knowers according to Ibn Sīnā), session 11: آزادی از خود · YouTube ↗
Ustād Kūhpāya (lecturer); channel 'Canada Rumi Cultural Academy' (publisher) · ch. 6–7 (¶24–39)
Rights: linked, not embedded · unknown: a long series on Ishārāt namaṭ 9 and related treatises (sessions 8, 22, 23 also seen); lecturer's full name and credentials not established · Parallel text, not this treatise. Link out only.
History of Philosophy without any Gaps, ep. 142: Gutas on Avicenna · History of Philosophy without any Gaps ↗
Peter Adamson (host); Dimitri Gutas (guest) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist (general): Adamson (LMU Munich / King's College London) with Gutas; on reading Avicenna, including the 'mystical Avicenna' question; does not treat this treatise specifically · Posted 22 Sept 2013. Related: ep. 140 'Avicenna on God' (https://historyofphilosophy.net/podcast/islamic-world/formative-period/avicenna-god). No HoPWaG episode on the Risāla fī al-ʿishq was found.

Editions & translations · 10

Traités mystiques d'Avicenne, fasc. III: Traité sur l'amour (Risāla fī al-ʿishq), Arabic text with French explanation (Google scan of the four fascicles bound together) · Internet Archive ↗
M. A. F. Mehren (editor and translator) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · scholarly (1894): the only critical-ish edition of the 19th century; Arabic fixed on two MSS (British Museum, Cureton–Rieu catalogue p. 447 = Add MS 16659; St Petersburg, Asian Museum), with an appendix of variants from Leiden 958(40) Warner; French is a paraphrase-summary, not a literal translation · Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1894 (fasc. III; preface dated Copenhagen, 16 April 1894); public domain. This scan binds fasc. IV (1899) first, then III (1894), II (1891), I (1889); archive.org's date '1899' is fasc. IV's. Fasc. III: Arabic pp. 1–27, French pp. 1–15 (page range per QDL's bibliography). The Arabic opens at scan leaf n151 (footnote naming the MSS); the Leiden variants are at leaf n92 ('Variantes du premier traité (العشق) d'après le manuscrit de Leyde n°. 958(40) (Warn.)', citing Catal. codd. orientt. Bibl. Acad. Lugd. Batav. t. III, p. 339, n°. 1480). Mehren dedicates the treatise as addressed to the jurist Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maʿṣūmī.
Rasāʾil al-shaykh al-raʾīs … fī asrār al-ḥikma al-mashriqiyya, al-juzʾ al-thālith: Risāla fī al-ʿishq … (Mehren, fasc. III; Digital Library of India scan) · Internet Archive (Digital Library of India) ↗
M. A. F. Mehren (editor); Digital Library of India (State Central Library, Hyderabad) (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · scholarly (1894); second scan: same edition as the Google scan; useful where one scan is faint · Catalogued as 'Traité sur le destin' (fasc. IV, 1899), 268 pp., but checked by page image: leaf n5 is fasc. II's Arabic title page (al-Ishārāt namaṭ 8–10 'maʿa sharḥ mukhtār' and Risālat al-ṭayr) and leaf n95 is fasc. III's Arabic title page (Risāla fī al-ʿishq, Risāla fī māhiyyat al-ṣalāt, Kitāb fī maʿnā al-ziyāra, Risāla fī dafʿ al-ghamm min al-mawt; Leiden, Brill). Which fascicles beyond II and III it holds is UNVERIFIED (OCR is unusable).
al-Risālah fī al-ʿishq الرسالة في العشق (manuscript, Add MS 16659, ff. 8v–13r) · Qatar Digital Library ↗
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts (holding library); Qatar Digital Library (digitiser and host) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · primary witness: Mehren's British Museum MS: QDL's finding aid cites Cureton–Rieu, Catalogus … pars secunda, item 978, pp. 447–51, which is the 'p. 447 du Catal.' of Mehren's apparatus · Part of a 53-item compendium of works by and about Avicenna (1208 images); dated 1182 AH (1768–69 CE) per QDL. QDL usage terms: 'Public Domain'; access 'Unrestricted'. IIIF manifest: https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000001517.0x000093/manifest . QDL blocks automated fetches; read in a browser, 4 Oct 2026.
Jāmiʿ al-badāʾiʿ (collection of eighteen treatises), al-risāla al-thāmina fī al-ʿishq lil-shaykh al-raʾīs · Internet Archive ↗
Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿāda, Cairo (printer) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · printed witness (1917): an early Cairo print of the Arabic, independent of Mehren's apparatus; editor not identified · Cairo, 1335/1917; public domain. Treatise 8 in the volume, confirmed in the OCR (chapter list matching Mehren's seven chapters). A third-party upload of a Bibliotheca Alexandrina scan (catalogue no. 027984).
Risāla fī al-ʿishq رسالة في العشق, ed. Ḥusayn al-Ṣiddīq and Rāwiya Jāmūs · Dār al-Fikr (bookseller listing) ↗
Ḥusayn al-Ṣiddīq (editor); Rāwiya Jāmūs (editor) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · modern edition (2005): listed in QDL's bibliography for Add MS 16659 (Dimashq: Dār al-Fikr, 2005); Jāmūs trained in manuscript editing at the Institute for the History of Arabic Science, Aleppo (Arab Writers Union bio); manuscript basis UNVERIFIED · Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 2005, 96 pp.; copyrighted, cited only. QDL's bibliography also lists Ḥasan ʿĀṣī, al-Tafsīr al-qurʾānī wa-al-lugha al-ṣūfiyya fī falsafat Ibn Sīnā (Beirut, 1402/1983), pp. 241–69, as an edition (not linked: no verified page).
رسالة في ماهية العشق (Risāla fī māhiyyat al-ʿishq) · Hindawi Foundation (safahat.org) ↗
Muʾassasat Hindāwī (publisher) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · reading text (2019): clean typeset text in Mehren's seven chapters; source edition not stated, unvocalised apparatus absent · Hindawi states the text is in the public domain and offers ePub/PDF free (hindawi.org/books/53714184 redirects here). Free reading copy, not a critical edition.
A Treatise on Love by Ibn Sina. Translated · Brepols Online (Mediaeval Studies) ↗
Emil L. Fackenheim (translator) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist (1945); the standard English: from Mehren's Arabic; the English version most cited in the literature · Mediaeval Studies 7 (1945): 208–228 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies; now published by Brepols). In copyright: cite only; never copy (PROTOCOLS §17). Not open access: Brepols sells the article; PIMS sells the print back issue. Two archive.org uploads of the whole journal run ('MediaevalStudies', 'mediaeval-studies') are by private accounts, not PIMS: do not link.
Avicenna, A Treatise on Love (in Love, Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages: A Sourcebook) · Taylor & Francis ↗
Routledge (publisher) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · anthology excerpt: Crossref: chapter pp. 278–285; translator and extent UNVERIFIED (probably an excerpt of Fackenheim) · Copyrighted; cite only.
Rasāʾil-i Ibn Sīnā (Persian translation, incl. Risāla-yi ʿishq) · WikiNoor ↗
Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Durrī (translator) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · translation (1939): the Persian version Kadivar names; University of Tehran manuscript catalogue (record 548226) says Durrī's translation was printed in Tehran in 1318 Sh. (1939); later Markazī, Tehran (2nd printing, date UNVERIFIED) · The same UT record mentions an older anonymous Persian translation printed in Tehran, and one in Nāma-yi dānishvarān vol. 2. Copyright status of Durrī's translation UNVERIFIED: cite only.
رساله عشق (Risāla-yi ʿishq), Persian translation with commentary from the lectures of Muḥammad-Ḥasan Ḥishmatpūr · Taaghche ↗
Bahrām Bāqirī-fard (translator); Muḥammad-Ḥasan Ḥishmatpūr (lecturer (commentary)) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · modern (2024): commercial e-book; Intishārāt-i Taʾthīr, 1403 Sh., 308 pp. (per the store page); translator's credentials not checked · Copyrighted; cite only.

References · 16

Avicenna's Risâla fî ʾl-ʿišq and Courtly Love · Journal of Near Eastern Studies (University of Chicago Press) ↗
G. E. von Grunebaum (author) · ch. 5 (¶13–23)
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: JNES 11.4 (Oct 1952): 233–238 (Crossref); on the treatise's place in the history of 'ennobling' love · Copyrighted; cite only. A PDF circulates on praxeology.net: do not link.
Avicenna's Treatise on Love and the Nonphilosophical Muslim Tradition · Der Islam (De Gruyter) ↗
Joseph Norment Bell (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Der Islam 63.1 (1986), from p. 73 (Crossref); the reception of the treatise outside the philosophers · Copyrighted; cite only. Bell's book Love Theory in Later Hanbalite Islam (Albany: SUNY Press, 1979) is the background: https://sunypress.edu/Books/L/Love-Theory-in-Later-Hanbalite-Islam (its treatment of this treatise UNVERIFIED).
Ibn Sīnā's Philosophical Theology of Love: A Study of the Risālah fī al-ʿIshq · Islamic Studies (Islamic Research Institute, Islamabad) ↗
Etin Anwar (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · scholarly: Islamic Studies 42.2 (2003): 331–345; cited in QDL's bibliography · Subscription; copyright assigned to the journal. Cite only.
Relationship with God through knowledge and love, ʿishq, in the philosophy of Ibn Sīnā · Routledge (God and Humans in Islamic Thought, 2006) ↗
Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth (author) · ch. 6–7 (¶24–39)
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: book chapter, pp. 74–118 (Crossref), on ʿishq between the soul and God in Ibn Sīnā · Copyrighted; cite only.
Avicena: sobre el amor · Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía (UCM) ↗
Rafael Ramón Guerrero (author) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · specialist: Ramón Guerrero (Complutense, Arabic philosophy); argues the treatise is not mystical but agrees with Avicenna's systematic works · Vol. 25 (2008): 245–261; open access, CC BY 4.0 (per the journal page).
رسالة في العشق: ارزیابی تصحیحات و پژوهش‌های مرتبط بر اساس نسخ خطی جدید (The Treatise of Love: Evaluating the Textual Criticisms and the Relevant Studies Based on the New Manuscripts) · Avicennian Philosophy Journal (Imam Sadiq University) ↗
Sina Mashayekhi (author); Mohammad Javad Esmaeili (author) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · specialist (textual): surveys the printed editions against 30+ manuscripts (45–54 copies in Iran, 37 abroad, per the abstract); variant readings that change the sense (e.g. al-ḥayya vs al-ḥissiyya; compare Mehren's Leiden variant al-jismiyya for al-ḥayya at p. 5 and p. 6) · Vol. 24, no. 64 (2020): 47–75; CC BY-NC 4.0. Most useful for the text: check our base text's readings against it.
«رسالة العشق» ابن‌سینا و تأثیر آن در ملاصدرا (Ibn Sīnā's Risālat al-ʿishq and its influence on Mullā Ṣadrā) · Noormags (Adyān va ʿirfān) ↗
Jaʿfar Shānaẓarī (author); Majīd Yāriyān (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · scholarly: Adyān va ʿirfān 9, no. 47 (1393 Sh./2014): 71–94 (Noormags metadata); the reception in Ṣadrā's Asfār · Noormags is a paid database: link out.
Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 2nd ed., incl. an Inventory of Avicenna's Authentic Works · Brill ↗
Dimitri Gutas (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: the authenticity inventory; QDL's bibliography cites pp. 480–81 for this treatise · Leiden: Brill, 2014. Copyrighted; cite only.
Theory of Profane Love among the Arabs: The Development of the Genre · Cambridge Core (IJMES review) ↗
Lois Anita Giffen (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist (background): the standard study of the Arabic 'love theory' genre (New York: NYU Press, 1971, xvii + 167 pp.); its treatment of this treatise UNVERIFIED · Linked through a review page, because no open publisher page was confirmed. Copyrighted.
From Ḥubb to ʿIshq: The Development of Love in Early Sufism · Journal of Islamic Studies (Oxford) ↗
Joseph E. B. Lumbard (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist (background): JIS 18.3 (2007): 345–385; the Sufi shift to the word ʿishq; whether it discusses Avicenna's treatise is UNVERIFIED · Copyrighted; cite only.
AVICENNA v. Mysticism · Encyclopaedia Iranica ↗
Dimitri Gutas (author); Encyclopaedia Iranica (reference) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist reference: argues that Mehren's Arabic title (fī asrār al-ḥikma al-mashriqiyya) and French 'Traités mystiques' were arbitrary and created the myth of a mystical Avicenna: read before taking Mehren's framing at face value · Vol. III, fasc. 1, pp. 79–83 (1987; updated 2017).
BELOVED (maʿšūq; with ʿāšeq and ʿešq) · Encyclopaedia Iranica ↗
J. T. P. de Bruijn (author); Encyclopaedia Iranica (reference) · ch. 5 (¶13–23)
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist reference: the lover–beloved–love triad in Persian literature and mysticism · Vol. IV, fasc. 2, pp. 128–129 (1989). Iranica has no article titled ʿEŠQ: /articles/esq/ redirects to an unrelated entry (ʿEšq, Shaikh Golām Moḥyi-al-Din Mobtalā).
ʿIs̲h̲ḳ · Brill Reference Works ↗
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition (reference) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist reference: the EI² entry on passionate love (DOI confirmed on Crossref); author UNVERIFIED (a search result names M. Arkoun) · Subscription.
Ibn Sina [Avicenna] · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗
Dimitri Gutas (author); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (reference) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist reference: life, works and system; first published 2016, revised 31 Oct 2025 · Open to read.
Ibn Sina's Metaphysics · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗
Olga Lizzini (author); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (reference) · ch. 1, 7
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist reference: treats ʿishq and tashawwuq in the Ilāhiyyāt (IX.2) and the First's self-love as will (VIII.7), noting the Theology of Aristotle formula · First published 2015, revised 9 Jun 2026. Open to read.
The Theology of Aristotle · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗
Peter Adamson (author); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (reference) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist reference: the Arabic Plotinus through which Neoplatonic eros reached Avicenna · First published 2008, revised 14 May 2025. Open to read.

The text record

Our working notes on this edition: status, witnesses, the decisions taken and why, and what AI supplied. This is a working edition, not an authority.Show the notes

Work / author / dates	Risāla fī al-ʿishq (رسالة في العشق), "The Treatise on Love"; Mehren's heading رسالة الشيخ الرئيس قدّس سرّه في العشق; St Petersburg MS: رسالة في اثبات العشق في كلّ الموجودات; Hindawi/OpenITI: رسالة في ماهية العشق · Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Sīnā (370–428 AH / 980–1037 CE). Dedicated to the jurist Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maʿṣūmī, his pupil (Mehren's avant-propos, after Ḥājjī Khalīfa III p. 419; Mehren's text prints «يا عبد الله الفقيه المعصرىّ», the Leiden copy «يا أبا عبد الله الفقيه»).
Part added	Whole treatise: introduction and seven chapters, Mehren's Arabic pp. ١–٢٧, 39 passages
Reader route	`/read/ishq` · about page `/read/ishq/about`
Kind	Philosophical treatises (`philosophy`), with the Niche of Lights and the Temples of Light (§14)
Status	text of Mehren transcribed and read twice by independent AI readers against the page images (4 Oct 2026) · AI-vowelled where the print is bare · AI English ✦ unreviewed · not yet checked by a person · reviewed by: —

Structure (Ibn Sīnā's own): an introduction listing seven chapters (¶1); 1 love runs through every being: everything governed strives toward its perfection and away from the deficiency of matter and non-being, and the Good is loved by itself and loves itself (¶2–5); 2 love in the simple, non-living things: prime matter (like an ugly woman who covers her face when unveiled), form, accident (¶6–7); 3 the vegetative souls: nutrition, growth, generation (¶8); 4 the animal souls: natural and chosen love (the donkey that leaves its barley at the sight of the wolf), why animal appetite serves the species (¶9–12); 5 the love of the refined and the young (ẓurafāʾ, fityān) for beautiful faces: four premises, then loving a beautiful form "by an intellectual consideration" as a means of nearness to the First, the ḥadīth «seek your needs from those with beautiful faces», embrace and kiss (¶13–23); 6 the love of the divine souls: the First Cause is the pure Good, without deficiency, the beloved of the souls made godlike (¶24–31); 7 conclusion: every being loves the absolute Good, which discloses itself (tajallī) to all and is veiled only by the recipients' deficiency; the active intellect as its image; assimilation (tashabbuh) in ends and not in beginnings; the Good loves to be attained, the ḥadīth qudsī «… he loved Me and I loved him», and the great King whose pleasure is to be imitated (¶32–39).

1. Witnesses

Siglum	Witness	Kind	Vowelled?	Licence	Location
M	A. F. Mehren (ed.), Traités mystiques d'Abou Alî al-Hosain b. Abdallah b. Sînâ ou d'Avicenne, fasc. III (Traité sur l'amour; Traité sur la nature de la prière; Missive sur l'influence produite par la fréquentation des lieux saints…; Traité sur la délivrance de la crainte de la mort), Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1894. Arabic of the treatise pp. ١–٢٧ (typeset), lettered footnotes with the variants of the two MSS (108 notes); French Traité sur l'amour pp. 1–15; Variantes du premier traité from Leiden and Corrections, pp. 33–34.	critical ed. (two MSS)	sparsely	public domain (1894; Mehren d. 1907)	archive.org `traitsmystiques00avicgoog` (Google scan of a Stanford copy; binds fasc. IV, III, II's French, I): Arabic pdf 152→126 (reverse-bound), French pdf 61–75, avant-propos pdf 58–60, variants pdf 93–94. SHA-256 `909fc6b4…48031`. Local: `data/raw/arabic/ibn-sina-ishq/` (`ACQUISITIONS.md`)
B.M.	London, British Museum (Cureton–Rieu, Catalogus II, p. 447, no. 978), as Mehren cites it; now British Library Add MS 16659, ff. 8v–13r, dated 1182/1768–69 [REPORTED: Qatar Digital Library finding aid; found by the companion sweep, not checked against the text here]	MS		PD	QDL (public domain)
St P.	St Petersburg, Asiatic Museum, pp. 94 ff. of the MS (Mehren; lent through Baron V. de Rosen). Its folio changes are marked in the print by asterisks with marginal notes (fol. 86 r°–101 r°). Current shelfmark not traced.	MS			known through M
L	Leiden, Or. 958(40) Warn. (Cat. III p. 339 no. 1480); 31 variants "of a certain importance" listed by Mehren; the last copyist's note is dated 981/1573–74 (Mehren's avant-propos)	MS			known through M's Variantes
H	Hindawi digital text, via OpenITI `0428IbnSina.MaHiyaCishq.Hindawi053714184-ara1` (رسالة في ماهية العشق); printed source not named	digital, other edition	no	CC BY-NC-SA 4.0	GitHub (OpenITI 0450AH). Used as a typing aid and compared; cited, never reproduced
—	Other editions and translations (cited only): Fackenheim's English (1945, below); Jāmiʿ al-badāʾiʿ (Cairo 1917, 8th treatise); Durrī's Persian (Tehran 1318 Sh./1939); modern Arabic editions (al-Ṣiddīq and Jāmūs; Ḥasan ʿĀṣī 1983, not seen). See the Companions on the About page (`app/src/content/companions/ishq.json`).

2. Base and why

M: the only critical edition, public domain, on disk, from two MSS with their variants and a third MS reported. Corbin and the later editors did not supersede it with an open text; H is a different line of the text (335 places where its wording differs from M) whose printed source is not named.

3. Collation

First reading: nine AI agents, three pages each, from 200-dpi page images with doubtful words at 500–600 dpi, letter by letter, keeping the print's spelling (data/raw/arabic/ibn-sina-ishq/work/TRANSCRIBE.md). H was allowed as a typing aid; every word was checked against the page, Mehren followed where they differ, each difference logged (hindawiDiffers, 335).
Second reading: nine other agents read the pages independently, without H, and compared word by word (work/PROOF.md): 4,770 words agree, 22 disagreements (99.5%): 16 corrections applied (e.g. لِمَئِيّة for لِمَيِّة, يسحبها for ينسحبها, إثباته for إنباته, يَحْصل for تَحْصل, four times الطبعيّة for الطبيعيّة on p. 25, فانّه for فنّه), 3 kept, 3 unclear; 3 doubts resolved. scripts/recitals/ishq_apply_proof.py, log work/proof-changes.json (copied into data/sources/ishq-mehren.json → changes).
Mehren's own Corrections (p. 34) applied: the sukūn struck on وإن, فإذن (×3), اقتصرت, لتساوت, ولتعطّلت (أوجبت was already bare); اليد for اليدو (p. 14); إيثار (p. 4) already so.
scripts/recitals/ishq_assemble.py builds data/sources/ishq-mehren.json (39 sections, 4,792 words, 108 footnotes, 31 Leiden variants as apparatus) and ishq-base.json (the chapter headings for the reader).
Conventions: Mehren's sign over an alif (madda-like or waṣla-like) is written آ in the transcription, as in the Ṭayr; the vowelling then reads it as ٱ where it is a connecting alif (37 cases logged). The St Petersburg folio asterisks are left out of the text. Chapter headings are kept in the text where they stand. The colophon تمّت بعون الله تعالى is kept at the end of ¶39.

4. Decisions (substantive)

Where	Reading adopted	Rejected	Reason	By
p. 1, ¶1	أسعدك, الأوّل (hamza)	آسعدك, الآوّل (the second reader's literal rendering of the sign)	here Mehren's sign stands for hamza with fatḥa; آ would mislead	AI (assembler)
p. 10, ¶12	لآحطاطه, as printed	لانحطاطه	no nūn tooth in the print; misprint, read لانحطاطه (the English follows the sense)	AI (second reading)
p. 11, ¶12	إثباته	إنباته	two dots over the tooth at 600 dpi	AI (second reading)
p. 16, ¶21	الإنْسانيّة . اذ	الانْسانيّة . إذ	the hamza mark sits under the first word	AI (second reading)

Misprints kept as printed, each noted in ishq-mehren.json → uncertain: والعاية (read والغاية, p. 5), والنصل (read والنسل, p. 10), الإنقان (read الإتقان, p. 11), وجوة (St P. وجوه, p. 11), وضهور (read وظهور, p. 16), فبشوقها (read فيشوقها, p. 25), بلّغنا (read بلغنا, p. 27); p. 22 تحصيل⟨?⟩ (an extra tooth; read تحصل/يحصل). 12 words stay marked ⟨?⟩, mostly worn type on p. 12 (طورها, فوزها, المعقولات, ظفر ×2, المولى, البهنه, الناطقة), and ذمامتها (p. 7), تجذب and تصدر (p. 9). Notable readings of the print that look odd but are printed: للمعشوق after قرب من (p. 14), فتستأنق (H فتشتاق, p. 17), ينساغ (reads like ينسلغ, p. 17).

5. Quotations verified

No Quran quotation; scripts/quran_refs.py finds none. Two sayings attributed to the Prophet: «اطلبوا الحوائج عند حسان الوجوه» (¶21, p. 16, introduced «قال النبىّ صلّعم») and a ḥadīth qudsī «إنّ العبد اذا كان كذا وكذا عشقني وعشقته» (¶39, p. 26, «ما روى فى الأخبار»; Mehren's note b on p. 26 cites the ḥadīth «kuntu kanzan makhfiyyan»). Not traced to a ḥadīth collection here [UNVERIFIED]. Self-references: «رسالتنا الموسومة بالتحفة» (¶17; Mehren: a treatise named in Ibn Sīnā's bibliographies and by Ḥājjī Khalīfa) and «تفسيرنا صدر المقالة الأولى من كتاب السماع الطبيعىّ» (¶25; Mehren: the opening of the Physics of the Shifāʾ). «الصوفيّة» name union (ittiḥād) in ¶32.

6. Vowelling

The print's marks kept (1,768); the rest supplied by AI (16,586 marks), scripts/recitals/prepare.py ishq (headless Claude Opus; letters verified unchanged). Passage 24 failed three times on a hamza encoding (the transcription writes شئا as ي + combining hamza; the model wrote ئ) and was re-run and merged by hand. 207 words with two defensible vowellings are listed per passage (ambiguous). No vowelled edition to compare. CAMeL disagrees with the AI vowelling on 199 words.

7. Segmentation and word IDs

39 passages = our division by sense (work/sections.json), inside Ibn Sīnā's seven chapters plus the introduction; the reader shows the chapters as headings. Page breaks recorded per passage. Word IDs iq:<passage>:<word>.

8. Analysis layer

CAMeL Tools 1.6 via scripts/fusus/analyze_ch.py ishq.json ishq-analysis.json iq: 4,792 words, 2,864 with a root, 454 distinct roots, 199 vowel conflicts.

9. Commentaries aligned

None exists in print with the treatise. Avicenna's own fuller treatment is al-Ishārāt, namaṭ 8 (on joy, bahja) and 9 (the knowers' stations), printed with al-Ṭūsī's commentary in Mehren fasc. II and in Forget's edition (Leiden 1892), both public domain: listed as companions on chapters 6–7; not aligned. Mehren thinks the examples in ¶17 (opium, wealth) are a glossator's (French p. 8 n. 1).

10. Translation

AI (Claude Opus) from the vowelled Arabic, scripts/recitals/translate.py ishq opus, told not to reproduce or imitate published translations (Fackenheim, Mehren, Inati …) and given none; glossary in data/sources/ishq-meta.json (ʿishq love, khayr good, kamāl perfection, al-khayr al-maḥḍ the pure Good, jawhar basīṭ simple substance, ṣūra form, hayūlā prime matter, al-nafs al-nāṭiqa the rational soul, al-ʿaql al-faʿʿāl the active intellect, tashabbuh assimilation, jamāl beauty …). Word glosses and term notes from the same run. All ✦ unreviewed.

Fixes after triangulation (4 Oct 2026, by Claude from the Arabic, not a review), logged in app/src/content/ai/ishq.json → fixes: ¶11 بائنة as "manifestly" (feminine, cannot qualify قصد); ¶12 لا يستفيد بإدراك "does not come to perceive"; ¶13 "before its innate end in withering, and whatever would harm it"; ¶26 كما as grounds ("since"), ثمّ as the next step; ¶28 الخيرات التى بالإضافة اليها خيرات "the goods by reference to which [other things] are goods"; ¶31 معضّل rendered by the sense معطّل with a bracket (see §10b); ¶34 الواجب الحقّ as the True Necessary [Existent]. A person should check these.

10b. Translation triangulation

scripts/triangulate.py ishq: one translation held, Mehren's French summary (public domain; cut to the passages by sense, data/sources/ishq-tr-mehren.json, 37 of 39 passages: ¶25 and ¶27 have none, ¶27 being summarised in Mehren's footnote p. 11 n. 1). Fackenheim's English is not held: copyrighted (below) and not downloaded, so no comparison with it was possible. The model found no divergence between translators (there is only one) and flagged 7 places in our English, fixed as above. Because the serious choices in this text are textual, five curated "Translators differ" notes (scripts/recitals/ishq_differ.py, marked curated) set Mehren's printed Arabic, the Leiden copy and Mehren's French side by side: ¶4 الخير or العشق (Mehren's own proposed emendation); ¶6 البسائط الغير الحيّة or الجسميّة (Leiden, three times in ch. 2); ¶29 التشبّهات or التحريكات, القرب or القربى (Leiden and H; Mehren's French renders both, "mouvements et imitations"); ¶31 معضّل or معطّل (one dot; Mehren translates "sans effet"; H prints معطّل; cf. ¶3 «وجود المعطّل فى الطبيعة باطل»); ¶38 قصدًا وولوعًا or بالقصد الأوّل (Leiden; Mehren's French follows its sense). A recent study (Sina Mashayekhi and Mohammad Javad Esmaeili, Avicennian Philosophy Journal 24, no. 64 (2020) 47–75, DOI 10.30497/ap.2021.239447.1494) re-edits the treatise from newly found MSS and reports the same kind of split (al-ḥayya/al-jismiyya/al-ḥissiyya) [REPORTED: companion sweep; not read].

11. Rights and private layers

M (Arabic, apparatus, French): public domain; published and its pages linked. H: CC BY-NC-SA, cited only, its readings described, never reproduced. Fackenheim, "A Treatise on Love by Ibn Sina", Mediaeval Studies 7 (1945) 208–228, DOI 10.1484/J.MS.2.305873: published in Toronto (PIMS); Fackenheim d. 2003, so protected in Canada (life + 70, to 2073) and, by URAA restoration (1996) of works still protected at home, in the US regardless of renewal (to 2040), unless it was also published in the US within 30 days [UNVERIFIED]. Not open (Brepols sells it). Two archive.org uploads of the whole journal run are by private accounts, not PIMS: not used and not linked. Nothing of Fackenheim's wording is in this reader. Audio: none made (see §12).

12. Open questions / to review

A person should check the transcription (12 ⟨?⟩, mostly p. 12) and the seven AI-English fixes.
Check the BL manuscript (Add MS 16659, on QDL, public domain) against the doubtful readings and the five curated divergences.
Acquire Fackenheim through a library (USD JSTOR/Brepols) into the private layer, then rerun triangulate.py ishq so the curated notes can be weighed against a second translation.
Read Mashayekhi and Esmaeili (2020) for the new MSS; Gutas's Inventory (2014, pp. 480–81 per QDL) on authenticity and date.
Audio (Arabic and English machine voice): not generated. About 5,000 Arabic and 6,000 English words: estimated just over $1 on Azure; the author asks to approve any TTS run above $1.
The two ḥadīths: trace them.

13. Resonances (PROTOCOLS §16)

scripts/resonances.py whole --only ishq and passages ishq, references verified by an agent (resonances.py refs, verdicts, apply). The Neoplatonic lineage, graded: Plato's Symposium (Diotima on mortal nature seeking immortality by generation, 206c–207d) and Plotinus (VI.9, I.6) appear as parallels or shared source (Ibn Sīnā names neither); the documented branch is the Arabic Plotinus (the Theology of Aristotle, which he commented: SEP "Ibn Sina"), already on the Platonic Current. On the Current the Avicenna node now lists this text and a faint convergence thread to the Book of Causes (the Arabic Proclus, Kalām fī maḥḍ al-khayr): "the pure Good" is its title's phrase; no reading of it by Ibn Sīnā is documented here. Pseudo-Dionysius (Divine Names IV.10–17, God as eros) is a parallel only and not in the reader.

14. Kind

Catalogue kind Philosophical treatises (philosophy), the author's decision of 4 Oct 2026, merging the former "Philosophy of light" (the Niche of Lights, the Temples of Light) and the "Philosophy of love" first proposed for this text. Not "Visionary recitals", where Ḥayy and the Bird live (the shared editor and author are no reason: the treatise tells no tale), nor "Sufi handbooks" (no path of stations). Old ?kind=light links resolve (KIND_ALIASES).

15. Change log

2026-10-04: text established from M (27 pages, two AI readings, Mehren's corrections), 39 passages; vowelled, analysed, translated; Mehren's French cut to passages and shown beside the text; triangulation and curated divergences; companions (33 items); version record; resonances; registered at /read/ishq under Philosophical treatises.