Defending Natural Philosophy and Its Demarcation: Hocazāde’s (d. 893/1488) Prolegomenon to Mullāzāde’s Hidāya al-ḥikma Commentary on the Subject Matter of Ḥikma

The article examines a central disciplinary question in post-formative Islamic intellectual history: how to define ḥikma (post-Avicennan philosophy), determine its internal branches, and demarcate the boundaries of natural philosophy (al-ḥikma al-ṭabīʿiyya) in relation to metaphysics (al-ilāhiyyāt) and other domains of philosophical inquiry. It centers on the pedagogical prolegomenon to the Ottoman verifier Ḫocazāde’s (d. 893/1488) gloss on Mullāzāde al-Kharziyānī’s (d. 809/1407) commentary on Hidāya al-ḥikma, wherein Ḫocazāde critically examines whether certain foundational concepts—such as natural bodies, numbers, souls, circular motion, matter and form—fall legitimately within the purview of natural philosophy or whether they are to be subsumed under the expanding jurisdiction of other types of scientific knowledge—most importantly, metaphysics. Ḫocazāde’s analysis unfolds within a broader postclassical context in which natural philosophy sought to reassert its autonomy at a time when metaphysics and theology were increasingly dominating philosophical inquiry and debates over the proper subject matter. By following the Avicennan framework as mediated by Mullāzāde, Ḫocazāde seeks to reaffirm the autonomy of natural philosophy against this encroachment. His gloss operates as a paratextual intervention—both a pedagogical clarification for students and a disciplinary defense against his scholarly contemporaries—offering a model of scholarly practice where conceptual distinctions and curricular structures are actively renegotiated. The text also marks a pivotal intervention in postclassical debates on scientific taxonomy, shaping the contours of early Ottoman scholasticism and anticipating, if not informing, subsequent exchanges between Mollā Luṭfī (d. 900/1494) and Mollā ʿİzārī (d. 901/1496), as well as Ṭaşḳöprīzāde’s (d. 968/1561) sustained treatise on the definition and subject matter of ḥikma and kalām.