Matn al-Sullam

What this document is

This is the matn (core teaching poem) of al-Sullam al-Munawraq (السلم المنورق), “The Ornamented Ladder,” by Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman al-Akhdari. It is a compact didactic poem in rajaz meter introducing the main topics of classical Islamic logic, or mantiq (منطق).

How it is structured

The poem begins with praise of Allah and blessings on the Prophet ﷺ, then explains why logic is studied: just as grammar protects speech from error, logic protects thinking from error. It then moves through the standard curriculum of introductory logic:

1. The permissibility of studying logic and the qualifications needed.
2. Knowledge: tasawwur (conceptualization) and tasdiq (assent or judgment), plus immediate and inferential knowledge.
3. Words and meanings: simple and compound expressions, universals and particulars, and the five predicables.
4. Definitions: hadd, rasm, and verbal definition, with rules for good definitions.
5. Propositions: categorical and conditional propositions, quantity, quality, contradiction, and conversion.
6. Syllogism: qiyas, figures, moods, and conditions for valid inference.
7. Exceptive syllogism: reasoning with conditionals and disjunctions.
8. Appendices to reasoning: compound arguments, induction, analogy, and kinds of argument.
9. Demonstration and certainty: burhan and the kinds of certain premises.
10. Errors in proof: mistakes in wording, meaning, material, and form.

How to read it

Read the poem as a map of the discipline rather than as a full explanation. Each couplet gives a compressed rule. In class, the task is to unpack the technical terms, supply examples, and connect the rules to familiar logical ideas such as definition, proposition, syllogism, induction, analogy, and fallacy. Many terms correspond closely to the Aristotelian logical tradition, especially Porphyry’s five predicables and Aristotle’s theory of syllogism.