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The Milky Way is the largest object in the astronomical sky, so it has always attracted the attention not only of past and present scientists but the public in general. Here, we summarise findings and opinions about the Milky Way that were widespread in the early Islamic period. We compare texts by several Arabic authors from the 8th to 15th centuries to explore the role of the Milky Way in the early Islamic civilisation. We refer to texts by Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Rahiq, Ibn Majid and al-Marzouqi. First, we discuss the description of the Milky Way given by al-Marzouqi in the 21st chapter of his Kitab al-Azminah wa al-Amkinah. Al-Marzouqi also points out how the Milky Way can be used to determine the direction of prayer. Second, we discuss Ibn al-Haytham's finding that, in comparison with the Moon, the Milky Way has no measurable parallax and must belong to the realm of the stars. We compare the situation at Ibn al-Haytham's time to that of the Great Debate in 1920. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al-Muḥaqqiq al-Iṣfahānī and Spinoza, two prominent intellectuals of the Islamic and Western worlds, respectively, have proposed different versions of the ontological argument for the existence of God. We present five versions of al-Muḥaqqiq al-Iṣfahānī's argument in three general dimensions: first, the concept of the necessary being (wājib al-wujūd) as a mental concept; second, the concept of the necessary being as a representation of something external; and finally, the reality of the necessary being or what externally exists by its essence. Only one of these versions is compatible with al-Muḥaqqiq al-Iṣfahānī's words. On the other hand, Spinoza presents six arguments in which he has deployed the concept of God in three ways: the concept of God as a concept, the concept of God as a representation of something external, and the mental existence of this concept. In this article, we compare the accurate construal of al-Muḥaqqiq al-Iṣfahānī's argument with Spinoza's six arguments, where we make a case for a strong similarity between the grounds and forms of the ontological argument as formulated by these two intellectuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]