Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan

Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan

Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān (Arabic: حي بن يقظان‎ "Alive, son of Awake"; Latin: Philosophus Autodidactus "The Self-Taught Philosopher"; English: The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan) was the first Arabic novel and the first philosophical novel, written by Ibn Tufail (also known as Aben Tofail or Ebn Tophail), a Moorish philosopher and physician, in early 12th century Islamic Spain. The novel was itself named after an earlier Arabic allegorical tale and philosophical romance of the same name, written by Avicenna (Ibn Sina) in early 11th century, though they both had different stories.

Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan had a significant influence on Arabic literature, Persian literature, and European literature after it was translated in 1671 into Latin and then into several other European languages. The work also had a "profound influence" on both classical Islamic philosophy and modern Western philosophy, and became "one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution" and European Enlightenment. The novel is also considered a precursor to the European bildungsroman genre.