Al-Muqabasat | Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi

Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi excelled in expressing the ideas of the philosophers of the fourth century AH, and his books became records of their ideas, which they pursued in divine science, natural science, logic, philosophy, ethics, politics, and every issue related to literature and arts. Abu Hayyan is the greatest philosopher of all time after Al-Jahiz, whom he considered his teacher in style, thought, and debate. Abu Hayyan described him as "the one of the world." As for Yaqut al-Hamawi, he described Abu Hayyan as "the philosopher of writers and the writer of philosophers," the unique individual of the world who had no equal in intelligence, astuteness, and capability. Abu Hayyan was able to express in a literary language the deepest problems that troubled the philosophers of his era, to the extent that it seemed as if for the first time in the history of Arabic literature, we witness an authentic artist whose art is not incapable of delving into the most precise philosophical and non-philosophical truths.