Author(s): Mohammadreza Shahidipak
The most ancient science that is still at the forefront of scientific research is psychology, because despite the inherent difference between the term psychology in the modern period with ancient period and medieval period, word psychology is used in the same sense in all three periods. This word, which is the root of term psychology, reaches Aristotle’s teachings in the book of soul. The hypothesis of present study is innovative services of Islamic civilization in the field of psychology and especially, emergence branch of psychology in Islamic civilization that has studied the behavior of politicians and various societies in moments of history as laws and general traditions that can be generalized to human behavior throughout time. The materials of this research are found in medieval literature and humanities texts produced by scholars of Islamic civilization. AL-Jahiz (869AD), the leader of Arabic prose and literatur , considers the method of fourth caliph, Ali ( 661 AD ) in dividing, recognizing and defining the behavior and psyche of individuals, people and cities as special, distinctive and unique that has analyzed and explained the behavior of city and its citizens and their properties in Egypt, Syria, Kufa, Mecca, Medina, some cities of Mesopotamia and has examined the specific behavior of politicians who have been at the helm of government power. The behavior of these people is at a moment in history that has an international impact. The present study is a brief explanation of the three scientific achievements of Islamic civilization in the Middle Ages, which is still useful in theoretical and clinical psychology; 1- Classification of human behavior within the values of ethics and providing a theoretical solution for their treatment by any scholars of Islamic civilization. 2- The initiative of the science of historical political psychology. 3-Report of Avicenna (1037 AD) initiative in clinical psychology research in the field of sleep, neurology, and various mental disorders such as depression, insanity, etc. and clinical ways of treating them. The empirical study of the soul by Avicenna has always been of interest to scholars and has been researched and tested in the Middle Ages by order of Frederick II (1250.AD).
The emergence of Islamic civilization caused extensive changes in the behavior and actions of individuals and societies in a large part of the world and the history of world science developed. Among the sciences and knowledge related to soul -knowledge and human behavior was in the center of attention of Islamic scientific centers Islamic civilization changed the face and culture of societies in the Middle Ages and presented great scientific achievements [1, 2, 3]. The Qur’an The most important medieval Arabic text that is the metaphysical basis of Islamic civilization is the book of knowing man and regulating his behavior. The study and research on the personality and behavior of the Islamic Prophet soon led to the emergence of the science of perfect human behavior. Ali the fourth Caliph, who was at the heart of socio-political events, faced a major crisis in the behavioral changes of those who lived within his rule. This special socio-political situation in which Ali took place led his to analyze and explain the political behavior of citizens, especially politicians. Ali’s method of defining the behavior and division of peoples and societies, which was based on the Qur’an, continued in Arabic literature and people like AL-Jahiz wrote several treatises on the specific behavior of some people and societies, and the behavioral literature spread in Islamic civilization. On the other hand, a part of Islamic ethics has precisely defined the human soul and its attributes. Many ugly human behaviors and traits have been introduced as diseases of the human soul by moral scholars. Soon, the definition of the soul and the behavior of man and society became one of the issues of Islamic philosophy and Avicenna, the founder of Islamic philosophy, wrote a book about the soul and its states and AL-Farabi wrote a book on understanding the behavior of societies and divided them. Thus, in a historical course of studies that lasted two hundred years, the theoretical foundations of psychology in Islamic civilization were formed.
The ancient psychology and modern psychology is quite different from each other in terms of subjects and methods and classification of subjects of science of soul. According to ancient psychology, soul knowledge is intuition but according to contemporary psychology, especially since fifty years ago, soul -knowledge is part of the empirical science of psychology which is obtained through external method of observations. The center of psychology in Greece and part of Islamic philosophy is reason [4]. And the study of lust is part of the science of ethics. Psychology in the modern era discusses the three issues of perception and feeling and thought, Descartes, the founder of Western philosophy, has limited it to understanding and will, and Leibnitz considers it to be limited to appetite and perception [5]. Detailed discussions on the topics of psychology, ethics and psychology continue [6].
But there is a historical point in Islamic civilization in the field of psychology that is still less known. And that is that Avicenna in her philosophical works and in her medical works has mentioned the scope of discussion, definitions and principles of psychology in both theoretical and clinical branches. Careful reference to Avicenna’s research leads to a comprehensive plan that settles many disputes over the subjects of psychology and its research methods.
Rhetoric is a special type of literature that reveals the psychological roots of the prevailing culture in society and can have effects in changing behavior and is in the field of political and historical psychology. There are many historical sermons that prove this , Rhetoric is one of the five logical industries that deals with the psyche of individuals and people[7]. The best speeches are from those who have a proper knowledge of people’s feelings and emotions and One of the masterpieces of Arabic literature is Ali’s rhetoric. In these rhetoric, Ali evaluated the behavior of certain political figures and rulers of the time. In his political and social teachings, Ali was the first Islamic thinker to study the carnal characteristics of individuals and societies, their behavior has been historic. In sermon 37, Ali advises people to lead an honest and pious life, he also explained the condition in which people were living in at that time. Ali also describes four main types of people: He has identified the psychological roots of the behavior of politicians and ordinary people of his time, Two of the most important analyzes and explanations of Ali are: the first, the interpretation of the psychological roots of the historical and political behavior of the Council of Appointing a Successor to the Prophet who decided to transfer power. Selfishness, tyranny, arrogance, impatience, extremism, overeating, and tyranny have been the psychological roots of the behavior of the political men of the succession council. The German Weber pointed to the socio-political importance of the Saqifa Council in Medina, [8]. He has turned the behavior of the people of Basra and Kufa into stupidity and negligence and the prevailing humiliation Ruler of them. The second and another masterpiece of describing behavior in causal statements is describing the existential nature of good and perfect human behavior. In a sermon called perfect man., he described the behavior of a good man, In this sermon, he has described 105 attributes of a perfect human being. The boiling point of the emotions and feelings in this sermon was so great that the soul of the addressee was attracted to the truths that were described to him and his soul left his body [9]. AL-Jahiz is one of the leaders of Arabic literature and one of the reporters of the behavior of the people of Baghdad, and he has described the mental states of different segments of the people in several literary treatises. AL-Jahiz praised Ali for dividing the people into guilds, His masterpiece in his literary works is the book, al-Bayan wa alTabyin , which according to Ibn Khaldun is one of the four pillars of Arabic literature[10]. In this book, he has quoted a sentence about human behavior from Ali and then equat,ed the value of this sentence in behavior with the value of his whole book. In this sentence, Ali states that the value of every human being is the good behavior he does [11]. There are many interpretations about this sentence, but this sentence emphasizes behavior and behaviorism, and behavior in this sentence is the main issue that is the criterion for valuing all human beings based on mental and soul health.
AL-Jahiz and recognizing behavior of individuals and groups AL-Jahiz’s works are a collection of behaviors and actions of different classes of society and various guilds as well as ordinary people of Baghdad over the years (778- - 869AD). AL-Jahiz has mentioned some of the attributes of the human soul that are part of the attributes of the human soul in all periods. AL-Jahiz’s work only mentions the behaviors of the people of Baghdad in his time and it is mostly about the social and psychological deviance of the class of the people, such as various communities of thieves, wine drinkers, singers, centers of corruption and lust, and so on. AL- Jahiz has also dealt with psychological abnormalities in the professional behavior of the upper classes of society and the aristocracy, such as the writers’ classes of the caliphate, merchants, commentators, and so on[12] . AL-Jahiz’s works are of greater literary importance, and the Abbasid Caliphate used his pen to critique the beliefs, speech, and actions of people of different faiths, religions, and sects. As a government writer, he has reported to the society and does not have a general plan to express the society and people and study their behavior. In any case, his work is a kind of psychological and social behavior of the people of Baghdad. Jahiz has also classified people in other cities of the Islamic world. Among them, he has written about the classes of the people of Qom the city in central Iran and their historical behavior in his time [13].
AL-Farabi as a philosopher who made the connection between the socio-political philosophy of Aristotle and Plato with the previous plan, it examined and categorized the behavior of human societies In his book on the division of sciences Farabi mentions civil science and considers it as the science of studying actions and behavior. In her other works, including the book of letters, Farabi has dealt with cognitive sciences the mind and the laws of perception. In defining the term truth in propositions, he writes: Any proposition whose meaning is the same as it is in the soul and understood in the soul outside the soul is exactly the same Farabi has paid attention to the differences between societies in culture and has used it as the basis of psychology and sociology of societies’ behavior[14,15]. Farabi has developed a philosophical framework for the historical classification and critique of individual and societal behavior that is still widely used One of the most important lasting actions of Farabi is about music psychotherapy, which is one of Farabi’s scientific fame [16,17].
There is a close relationship between ethics and psychology in Islamic civilization. And many issues in psychology and ethics are common. Human traits such as jealousy, anger, resentment, courage, are within the range of intellectual powers and perception and feelings and lusts, and in their classification there is a difference between psychology and ethics. Some philosophers have based philosophy on the logical and geometric classification of human attributes [18]. The issue of pleasure and pain in ancient Greece and part of Islamic philosophy is part of the science of ethics but in modern psychology, emotions are part of the science of the soul and psychology [19]. For this reason, in Islamic civilization, the attributes of good and evil and good behavior and bad behavior in human beings have been developed in the framework of Aristotelian ethics, and based on Aristotelian teachings and Islamic teachings; treatment methods for soul diseases have been presented [20]. There are many capitals of medieval Islamic works related to the introduction of the nature of human behavior and practical and theoretical ways of its treatment in the field of Islamic ethics, which is also used in the field of behavior psychology
Avicenna by expressing the Floating man test has prepared the ground for the study of the soul as an objective being and established the cognition of the soul through external and experimental observations. Ibn Sina’s studies on the soul have been of interest since his time. Those interested in Islamic civilization, in particular, carefully considered his views on the soul. For example, the German emperor Frederick II [1].who was interested in Islamic sciences, ordered that in a scientific session, the experience of the suspended human being of Ibn Sina be tested experimentally to prove the abstraction of the human soul [20]. Frederick II asked the scholars of the Mediterranean area to answer some of his philosophical questions. His most important question was about the human soul and its function. In doing so, Frederick sought to test Ibn Sina’s view of the soul [21].
Ibn Sina has devoted part of his book on medicine to defining mental injuries, classifying them, and the clinical ways in which they are treated. He has dealt with delusions, stupidity and laxity, forgetfulness, corruption, imagination, madness and melancholy, love, nightmares, epilepsy, depression, etc., and has described in detail the symptoms of the disease in speech, hearing, sight, and the appearance of the patient’s face has mentioned in Canon. he Has described the clinical ways of treating mental disorders and he has also mentioned some counseling. Ibn Sina has devoted a part of Canon in medicine to neuroscience (Avicenna, 1991)
Sleep is one of the most important topics in psychology in history and is still the main focus of psychological research . Avicenna medieval considered dream, one of political actions of the brain. in the fourth speech, in the first chapter of his book in medicine , he defines sleep; the state of soul and mental return to the source and this failure of sense and movement is called sleep , that means the psychic who controls the senses and the movement returns to where he started and leaves the sensory and motor tools. This instrument stops working without the psychic, it is the same dream [21].
Ibn Sina is apparently the only figure in the history of science and the only human being who has specialized in defining and examining love from the perspective of Sufis, mystics, philosophers, physicians, theologians, and ethics, and has developed ways of clinical treatment of love. He has prescribed several prescriptions, including counseling and psychotherapy, and several medications. Ibn Sina has mentioned the psychological and clinical signs and symptoms of love, respectively. He has provided a very precise clinical definition of love as a mental disability . He writes in the definition of love: Love is a disease which is similar to melancholy. In one page of the book, The Canon of Medicine )Law in Medicine ), Ibn Sina offers several forms of counseling and psychotherapy for the treatment of lovers[21].
Farabi and Ibn Sina are close to historical psychology among Muslim thinkers. And have formulated its theoretical foundations. Farabi’s importance is that, unlike other Islamic scholars, he considers ethics to be a branch of civic science , and ethics in Farabi’s philosophical view is not in the specific sense of Islamic ethics, which is based on religious teachings, but on nonmetaphysical teachings[19]. And has an experimental foundation, it is with this philosophical view of ethics that human behavior has been studied in history as the behavior of the citizen and has provided the ground for historical psychology in Islamic civilization in medieval. However, rationalism in ethics and the equal value of rational teachings versus religious teachings caused the human soul and human behavior to be studied as political and historical phenomena by Islamic thinkers. The behavior of an individual and the behavior of a society were analyzed and explained as a rational proposition, and their systematic relationship with sensual tendencies and instincts and emotion and conception and will was identified and categorized. And this analysis of behavior at the turning point of history in relation to the force of emotion, instinct, perception and the powers of the soul is the very nature of historical psychology [1-22].
