الكندي
al-Kindī
Person
Two figures: the philosopher Yaqub al-Kindi (d. around 873), and the author of a debated Christian apology.
What it means
Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi, “the philosopher of the Arabs”, worked in Baghdad on mathematics, optics and medicine, and promoted translation of Greek texts. The “Apology of al-Kindi” is a separate and anonymous Christian polemic written in the ninth century in the name of a Christian courtier.
What the sources say
Scholars of the Apology question its date and authorship, and it is not evidence of what early Muslims held. It was answered by Muslim writers in the genre of debate, and the philosophical al-Kindi is a figure of Muslim learning.