Scholarship of the Near East

Persian scholar Avicenna is widely regarded as one of the most significant physicians, philosophers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Yet, his name is far less recognizable than other famous polymaths and philosophers, like Aristotle, according to Michael Rapoport, Ph.D. He hopes to change that with his research and teaching.

Rapoport joins FAU as an assistant professor in the department of languages, linguistics and comparative literature. He will be directing the Arabic language program and teaching courses in Arabic language, literature, history, and culture.

Before coming to FAU, Rapoport received a bachelor’s degree in both political science and Spanish from Marist College in New York, and a master’s degree in Islamic and Near Eastern Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. In May 2018, Rapoport earned his doctorate in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from Yale University.

For his studies, he’s traveled around the world, including Morocco and Jordan. He completed language training in Arabic in the Middle East with support from the U.S. Department of State’s critical language scholarship program and the U.S. Department of Education’s foreign language and area studies fellowships program (FLAS). Rapoport also received a FLAS opportunity to study Persian at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Here’s what Rapoport said about his research at FAU:

Q. What is your current research focus?

A. My research focuses on pre-modern Arabic and Islamic intellectual history, as well as modern historiography on that topic. Until recently, modern scholars generally acknowledged that philosophy and the sciences flourished in Muslim societies between the eighth and 12th centuries A.D., but claimed – without offering much evidence – that they declined precipitously thereafter. I’m interested in why they made these claims, why the claims endured for so long, and the state of philosophy and the sciences in Muslim societies after the 12th century. 

Q. What is your goal for this research?

A. In the near future, I’d like to publish a couple of books based on my dissertation research.
My dissertation research focused on three chapters in a book by Avicenna, also known as Ibn Sina, to address the shortcomings in modern scholarship’s view of the book, called Pointers and Reminders.
Dozens of commentaries, during the 12th to the 14th centuries A.D., were written on Avicenna's Pointers and Reminders because they were considered a dominant form of intellectual production in Arabic scholarship. Some commentaries show that scholars at the time, weren’t concerned whether Avicenna was a mystic (unlike modern scholars). Instead, they used their commentaries to make Avicenna’s philosophy fit into their intellectual and political agendas. Avicenna’s philosophical system in these commentaries represented a comprehensive and coherent account of reality, which proved incredibly attractive to later scholars. His presentation of this system in the Pointers and Reminders was, relative to his other works, most in need of explanation and most amenable to manipulation to suit a given commentator’s intellectual and political agendas.
Modern scholarship has largely misunderstood the content on the three chapters I am researching, by only expressing what is claimed to be Avicenna’s non-rational, mystical philosophy. Through my studies of philological and comparative analyses, these chapters weren’t mystical at all. The chapters express his rational theories of cognition, albeit using some vocabulary and imagery that mystics also used.
Florida Atlantic University and the department of languages, linguistics and comparative literature have been very supportive of my research agenda.

Q. What are your greatest goals and ambitions you set for yourself?

A. Avicenna was an incredibly influential scholar, not just in Muslim societies, but in Europe, as well. Avicenna and others saw themselves as being a part of a philosophical and scientific tradition since Aristotle's time. In recognizing Avicenna as being similar to great philosophers such as Aristotle, scholars acknowledged him as the “Chief Master” for the prominence he achieved. Since the history of science and philosophy tends to skip ancient Greece to Renaissance Europe, I hope my research and teaching will help make Avicenna’s philosophy more well-known.