Mantiqah

Mantiqah is the term used in several languages to denote logic, the branch of philosophy and formal study concerned with the principles of valid inference and reasoning. The word is derived from Greek logikē and entered Arabic as manṭiqah, then spread to Persian, Urdu, Turkish, and other languages with local spellings such as mantık or mantik.

Historically, logic traces back to ancient Greece, notably Aristotle’s syllogistic, and was developed further by the Stoics. In the Islamic Golden Age, scholars such as Al-Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), and Al-Ghazali integrated Aristotelian logic with theological and philosophical concerns, producing influential treatises and commentaries. Later, medieval European scholars engaged with these traditions through translations, contributing to the revival and expansion of logic in the modern era.

Today, logic encompasses subfields such as propositional logic, predicate logic, modal logic, temporal logic, and various non-classical logics (including fuzzy and intuitionistic logics). It provides foundational methods for mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and artificial intelligence, focusing on syntax, semantics, and proof theory, as well as applications in philosophy and cognitive science.

In contemporary use, mantiqah is taught as a core subject within philosophy, mathematics, and computer science programs. The term also serves as a linguistic bridge among languages sharing historical roots in the discipline of logic.