Did Avicenna Write a Risāla fī l-Wujūd?

Abstract The paper claims that Avicenna authored a thus far unknown treatise on existence, following a hint in Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Jawābāt al-masāʾil al-bukhāriyya . Al-Rāzī informs us about the doctrinal content of the treatise–Avicenna held that existence does not have a second-order existence–as well as about its textual history–a portion of the treatise was preserved in Bahmanyār’s Taḥṣīl . Al-Rāzī’s report is confirmed by several manuscript witnesses of the Taḥṣīl , which contain an anomalous layer of text corresponding to his description. Additional evidence comes from comparing the doctrines defended in the text to other Avicennian works, as well as to al-Khayyām’s own treatise on existence. This leads to the additional conclusion that Avicenna’s treatise (or the portion preserved by Bahmanyār) is among the sources of al-Khayyām’s. Finally, the paper outlines the content of the available portion of the treatise, highlighting its connections to other Avicennian and early post-Avicennian works.