The Ikhwan al-safa, or “Pure Brethren” were an anonymous group of philosophers who lived and worked in Basra during the tenth century. Among their many treatises is one that gives a lengthy argument for animal rights, entitled The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn. In this unusual work, representatives from the animal kingdom bring a court case against the human race whom they accuse of abusing their position. The animals point out that before the creation of man they roamed the earth in peace and harmony, in what might be called “natural balance” in contemporary language. The Brethren’s view of the natural world is striking for its exceptionality in the context of tenth century Muslim society. They were a radical group, as indicated by their choice to remain anonymous, and in subsequent centuries, only the heterodox Sevener-Shi‘i or Isma‘ili sect, identified today with the Aga Khan, adopted their writings as authoritative. Bibliography Ikhwan al-Safa (Pure Brethren), The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn, tr. Lenn Evan Goodman, Boston: Twayne, 1978. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, An introduction to Islamic cosmological doctrines : conceptions of nature and methods used for its study by the Ikhwan al-Safa', al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina , Albany : State University of New York Press, 1993. Netton, Ian Richard, Muslim neoplatonists : an introduction to the thought of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwân al-Safâ'), London ; Boston : Allen & Unwin, 1982. By Richard C. Foltz, University of Florida