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, Muḥammad b. As̲h̲raf al-Ḥusaynī, an expert in both the ancient and Islamic sciences who composed important works on theology, logic, geometry and astronomy. He is most celebrated for his epistle on the art of disputation, al-Risāla al-Samarḳandiyya fī ādāb al-baḥt̲h̲ (in Mad̲j̲mūʿa mus̲h̲tamila ʿalā al-ātī bayānuhū , ed. Maḥmūd al-Imām al-Manṣūrī, Cairo 1353, 125-32), which was the most famous treatment of disputation ¶ and which became the subject of numerous commentaries (see Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Ḵh̲alīfa, Kas̲h̲f al-ẓunūn , Istanbul 1951-3, i, 39). Unli…

(a.), lit. “making known”, hence “definition”. 1. As a term in logic. Ibn Sīnā appears to have been the first philosopher to use the word taʿrīf as a general term for definition that encompasses both “Aristotelian definition” ( ḥadd [ q.v.]) and descriptive definition, rasm , Gr. ύπογραφή Ibn Sīnā defines taʿrīf more generally as “an intentional act, by means of speech or sign, that causes the person perceiving it to conceive of the thing defined” huwa an yaḳṣida fiʿl al-s̲h̲ayʾ id̲h̲ā s̲h̲aʿara bihi s̲h̲āʿir taṣawwara s̲h̲ayʾan-mā huwa ’l-muʿarraf wa-d̲h̲ālika ’l-fiʿl …