Professor Carmela Baffioni

Carmela Baffioni is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, having previously been Professor of the History of Islamic Philosophy and of the History of Muslim Philosophies and Sciences at the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ until 2012.

Her publications include several monographs on the transmission of Greek thought into Islam; translations of works by the Ikhwan al-Safaʾ, al-Farabi, and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), as well as al-Shahrastani; in addition, she has written a monograph on Aristotle’s Meteorologica IV (1981) and books on the history of Muslim philosophy.

Besides the Ikhwan al-Safaʾ, her articles focus on al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Yahya ibn ʿAdi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and some Latin elaborations of Arabic heritage. Her scientific interests concern logic, atomism and embryology.

She has translated books from German and Russian, and edited six collective works. Her recent publications include articles on the political views of the Ikhwan al-Safaʾ, the philosophy of nature of Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, about forty items in the Enciclopedia filosofica (Milan: Bompiani, 2006), and the revision and edition of the catalogue of manuscripts of the Ahel Habott Foundation (Chinguetti), in Arabic and French (Milan: Nottetempo, 2006).

She has edited and translated the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity: On Logic (2010) and Epistles of the Brethren of Purity: On Natural Sciences (2013).