Ikhwan Al –Safa' (Purity Brothren), like any other Muslim Philosophers, were greatly interested in knowledge, education, and pedagogy. What had been written down by them testifies, high keenness on knowledge and sciences to the extent that their letters stood as encyclopedia covering all sciences whether at their time or before. They are viewed as the first bulky volume encompassing, through stylistically clear way, all sciences. Such is the dominant feature of most those letters. Others are not stamped with such a feature owing to their own purposes which are salient to all those who read meticulously their letters. Ikhwan Al–Safa' stressed the importance of knowledge – seeking, let alone the lofty status they gave to both teacher and learner. It is worth to mention that they put down a complete theory of information. Thus, they talked about means whereby Man can acquire knowledge, and resources he depends on to gain concerted knowledge to whom he seeks. All these topics have been touched upon throughout this thesis of three chapters.

Chapter one deals with the theory of information of Ikhwan Al–Safa.Section one of which is concerned with ways of knowledge beginning with sensory knowledge that they divide it in to two: first, the outer senses namely (touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight) where I explain the sensory perception , the conditions required by senses to perceive their perceptible, in addition to the

KNOWLEDGE, EDUCATION, ANDPEDAGOGY

OF

IKHWAN AL- SAFA’

A THESIS SUBMITTED BY ALI HADI TAHIR

TO THE COUNCIL OF THE COLLAGE OF ARTS