Abstract:

This article aims to describe the views of certain Muslim psychologists who studied psychology in the Islamic world between 800 and 1406. In this context, first (a) the views of Hārith al-Muḥāsibī, who made use of the word nafs for the first time in a purely psychological sense, (b) Ibn Miskawayh, who focused on metaphysics and the powers of the soul and tried to recognize human behavior by observation, (c) al-Kindī, who is known for his psychological studies such as the psychology of dreams, the content and functions of the mind, (d) Alpharabius, who is known for his systematic studies on the concept of happiness, revelation and dream psychology, (e) Ibn Ṭufail, who laid the foundations for mental development stages, (f) Al-Raghib al-Isfahānī, who studied the natural, animalistic and moral aspects of man, and the virtues that constitute moral integrity, (g) Avicenna, who touched on subconscious events, and the relationship between spiritual and bodily events, (h) Ibn Ḥazm, who worked on the causes for and solutions of mental problems such as sadness and obsessions, (i) Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, who dealt with personality and character disorders and conducted psychological studies on treatment methods by including psycho-somatic studies, (j) Balhi, who associated mental problems with bodily ailments, (k) Algazelus, who revealed the principles of Islamic psychology, (l) Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, who studied psychology over the soul-body relationship, the state of the soul after death, etc. (m) Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, who worked on psychological subjects such as contentment, jealousy, foresight, fear and surprise, and lastly (n) in addition to character education, bn Khaldūn, who studied on psychological causality and factors leading to unconscious motivation are included. As a result of this article, which deals with the important contributions of Islamic psychologists, whose names are given, to the science of psychology; (i) In the tradition of Islamic thought, studies on the subject started from the 7th century; (ii) Muslim researchers and thinkers began their efforts to understand psychological phenomena and events within the framework of the interest and curiosity aroused by both Quranic verses and foreign cultural products, and (iii) Although a modern scientific tradition has not developed systematically in the Islamic culture, it has been determined that the effort to understand and explain the spiritual world and life of the human continues in some way.

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