Tradition and in many other magisterial essays, Dimitri Gutas has underscored the key role that metaphysics plays in Avicenna’s philosophical system. 1 Gutas’ account of metaphysics (as well as of the other main philosophical disciplines), in Avicenna’s œuvre is based on a full fledged methodology resulting from the critical evaluation of the assumptions of previous scholarship, an insightful analysis of the fundamental texts, and a thorough reconstruction of their doctrinal and historical context. All scholars interested in Avicenna’s metaphysics (not to say of his psychology, noetics and epistemology) and Arabic metaphysical speculation in general, can only be thankful to Gutas’ pioneering research for having explored and mapped what had been, to a large extent, virgin territory and for having provided a solid, brilliant and comprehensive outline of the whole, thus paving the way to subsequent, more specific investigations. As a sign of personal heartfelt gratitude and in the footsteps of Gutas’ masterly approach outlined above, the present contribution wishes to provide the analysis of a crucial issue of Avicenna’s metaphysics. The

* Earlier versions of the present article have been presented in the following meetings: the seminar “La Métaphysique d’Avicenne,” Centre d’histoire des sciences et de philosophies arabes et médiévales (CNRS-UMR 7062), Ecole Normale Supérieure-Ulm, Paris (November 2006); a research meeting organized at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa in December 2006; and a Forschungskolloquium held at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität of Freiburg in May 2007. I wish to thank the organizers of these meetings (Dr. A. Hasnaoui, Prof. M. Rashed, Prof. F. Del Punta, Dr. G. Galluzzo, Prof. M. Hoenen, Dr. N. Germann), as well as all the participants, for their valuable remarks. My sincere gratitude goes also to Prof. D. Twetten for his insightful comments on content and style.