Did a 12th-century polymath anticipate the multiverse long before modern physics?

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, a towering Islamic scholar, rejected the Aristotelian view of a single, geocentric universe. By synthesizing Ash'ari atomism with rigorous logic, he argued that an infinite void exists beyond our world, suggesting God could create millions of universes, each as vast and complex as our own.

Born in Ray, Iran, around 1149 or 1150, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi became one of the most influential figures in Islamic intellectual history. Known as the Sultan of the Theologians, his work spanned medicine, physics, astronomy, and theology. He was a central figure in the development of 'philosophical kalām,' a movement that integrated the logical and metaphysical methods of philosophers like Ibn Sīnā into the framework of Ash'arī theology. His massive 32-volume Quranic commentary, Tafsīr al-Kabīr, remains a testament to his ability to synthesize linguistic, rational, and scriptural analysis.

Al-Razi’s cosmological views were remarkably bold for his time. In his work The Higher Issues, he dismantled the Aristotelian and Avicennian consensus that the universe was a single, closed system. Grounding his argument in the concept of atomism, he posited that the universe contains vast, empty spaces where atoms move and combine. He concluded that there is no logical necessity for a single world, asserting that God possesses the power to create infinite universes beyond our own. This radical departure from geocentrism was not merely speculative; it was a systematic critique of the 'flimsy' arguments used by his predecessors.

While his later years saw a shift toward mysticism and a growing emphasis on the primacy of the Quran over pure rational speculation, al-Razi never abandoned his commitment to intellectual inquiry. He taught hundreds of students in Herat, where he died in 1210. His legacy persists not only in his extensive written corpus but in the way he transformed Islamic theology into a more expansive, intellectually rigorous discipline. By insisting that sound reason and authentic revelation could not contradict one another, he left a template for harmonizing faith and science that continues to be studied by scholars today.

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