WAS AL-MANTIQ AL-KABĪR COMPILED BY FAKHR AL-DÎN AL-RĀZĪ? THE PROBLEM OF AUTHORSHIP

Our first decision to study Fakhraddīn al-Râzî's al-Mantiq al-Kabīr (The Major Book on Logic) was within the framework of Ph.D. dissertation. Some debates about the belonging of the work necessitated facing some difficulties at the beginning. But this work was completed with the permission of Allah with the encouragement and appreciation of our supervisor and other scholars. The fact is that some reasons, such as those indicated below have caused some doubts and objections about the belonging of this work to the author: the work has a single manuscript copy; this is not an author copy and includes some different records; there is not any reference to it by the author's students; such a work belonging to the author is not mentioned in classical bibliography sources; and finally al-Qazwînî, who wrote a commentary on al-Râzî, declares that he did not see this work. However, Râzî himself referred to this work in his later works. By comparing with other known works, it is seen that the work is original. As a matter of fact, we tried to examine the known authors as much as we can and we did not come across such a work belonging to another author. Also, considering that the inner integrity of the work is consistent with other works belonging to al-Râzî, we have convinced that al-Mantiq al-Kabīr, which is the biggest logic work after Ibn Sînâ’s al-Shifa, belongs to Fakhraddīn al-Râzî. It is possible to mention that some differences in the work are due to the writing of the work in the early period