The work here translated is the epistle entitled Kitāb al-Akhlāq wa-l-Siyār fī Mudāwāt al-Nufūs — literally, The Book of Morals and Conduct in the Healing of Souls — one of Ibn Hazm’s most renowned writings.
This concise ethical treatise declares as its aim the treatment of the soul’s afflictions and its purification from corruption, through the articulation of an ideal code of conduct grounded in a set of positive values and virtues — chief among them justice, intelligence, courage, and generosity. The cultivation of these virtues leads to a life of moral integrity and to true success, both in this world and in the Hereafter. Drawing upon the author’s long and often arduous personal experience — marked by both the heights of eminence and the collapse of his Andalusi homeland — the work calls upon its readers to adhere to a higher moral order, defined by the precepts of the religious Law and sound reason, as a means of navigating the trials and tribulations of this earthly life.
The Author: Abū Muhammad ‘Alī ibn Hazm al-Andalusī
384–456 AH (994–1064 CE)
Undoubtedly one of the greatest scholars of Islamic civilization — though also among its most unconventional — the illustrious Andalusi polymath Ibn Hazm left an indelible mark upon his age through his intellectual nonconformity, his uncompromising political engagement, his many impassioned debates, and his major contributions to learning. These extended not only to the Islamic sciences, but also to the comparative study of religions, medicine, logic, and even the art of love.
