Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect (Ibn Rochd): June 2008

Friday, June 27, 2008

Ibn Rushd, Bridging Islamic Traditions and Greek Thought

Ibn Rushd
By Martin Nick

Ibn Rushd provoked discussion about the relationship between the Muslim faith and philosophical reasoning, stating the two are not only compatible but are in fact complimentary. He was also interested in other scientific subjects, such as medicine and astronomy. The following is a brief account of Ibn Rushd’s life and achievements
Ibn Rushd’s Early Life.

Abu Al Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Rushd, widely known simply as Ibn Rushd, was born in 1126 in the town of Cordova, then part of the Muslim dynasty in Spain. The young Ibn Rashid grew up in his hometown, spending much of his early life in studies and academic pursuit. On the whole, he led a calm life, and was close to his father and grandfather; they were both accomplished judges in Cordova. His grandfather, in particular, was very involved in Fiqh (Maliki School) and was also kacting Imam of the Jamia Mosque in Cordova. Ibn Rushd acquired a great deal of knowledge from his father and grandfather as the family was scholarly oriented and this gave him the proper setting to shine in education. He also had formal tutors appointed for him in the subjects of law and philosophy and was very interested in the study of medicine as well. Ibn Rushd was indeed at the right time at the right place to further his academic interests. At his disposal were around 500,000 books and manuscripts on various subjects housed at the grand library of Cordova. The extensive library collection started to build up under Al-Hakam, the eminent Umayyad Caliph of Spain who ruled two centuries earlier. This invaluable resource for information made possible the academic awakening in Muslim Spain, a trend in which Ibn Rushd took active part.

Building a Career and Venturing into Aristotelian Logic

After reaching a certain level of academic maturity and scholarly accomplishment, Ibn Rushd continued the family tradition by becoming a chief Qadi (judge) of Cordova as his father and grandfather had. As Ibn Rushd was rising to prominence, in 1169 Ibn Tufail introduced him to Caliph Abu Yaqub who was incidentally also interested in philosophical trends. Abu Yaqub challenged Ibn Rushd by asking him whether the heavens were created or not. The Caliph provided the answer before Ibn Rushd, which took the pressure away from the latter. They proceeded to have a long amiable conversation, which impressed the caliph. He sent Ibn Rushd home as a dignitary with expensive presents. Along with the gifts, the caliph presented Ibn Rushd an appointment proposal for a thorough analysis of the philosophical works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Ibn Rushd accepted and spent years of arduous labor working on the project and balancing it with his demanding career as a chief Qadi. After the philosopher Ibn Tufayl died, Ibn Rushd got appointed in his place as personal physician to the Caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf in 1182 and then to his son Abu Yusuf Yaqub in 1184.

Ibn Rushd continued his work on interpreting Aristotle until 1195 and finalized it by producing a methodical set of commentaries on most of the great philosopher’s works. Most notable are the famous De anima (Of the Soul), Physica, and Metaphysica. Others include De Partibus Animalium, Rhetorica, Parva Naturalia, Nicomachean Ethics, Meteorologica, and Poetica. On Politica, Ibn Rushd wrote an indirect commentary in the sense that he retrieved it through Plato’s Republic, which can be viewed as a rewording of Politica. On most of the other works he wrote thorough analyses accompanied by summaries. Sometimes the analysis on a particular work was longer than the original text. Ibn Rushd’s commentaries and interpretations proved so effective to understanding Aristotle that they are all included into the Latin publication of Aristotle's complete works. Unfortunately, that is the most authentic representation of the commentaries in existence today. The Arabic original script has been lost.

Without any doubt, the analysis Ibn Rushd wrote on Aristotle’s work had an enormous eye-opening effect on Muslim and Christian philosophical and intellectual thought throughout the Middle Ages.

Building the Philo-theological Bridge

If controversy can be accounted for in the work of Ibn Rushd, it would have to be about the sensitive topic of bringing philosophical reasoning into the religious realm – a subject many theologians of the time considered inappropriate. In this respect, Ibn Rushd managed to stir quite a debate around him, which eventually erupted into a crisis. When in venturing into the topic of compatibility between the science of philosophy and the interpretation of Islamic doctrines, Ibn Rushd was again influenced by the reasoning of Ancient Greek texts. On the same subject, he wrote his 3-part magnum opus representing 3 religious philosophical books. They were written during the course of two years and completed in 1180. Ibn Rushd entitled the three treatises the Fasl, Manahij, and Tahafut al Tahafut – as his work in defense of philosophy. The Fasl and the Manahij reveal statements that were quite revolutionary for their time. Among other things, a main theme in these two works is related to the statement that only certain men can fully comprehend the doctrines in the Shariah – the religious law as revealed by the Prophet. These men had to be metaphysicians and to be basing their interpretations on syllogism – certain proof. As opposed to the metaphysician, the dialectic Muslim theologian who is basing his prophetic interpretations on dialectical argumentation is incapable of fully understanding the Shariah. Therefore, it is the philosopher ‘s highest deed to find the true and essential revelation contained in the religious law. Thus, the essential meaning should not be and cannot be communicated to the ordinary people. They must instead limit their comprehension to the Shariah’s external and direct moral found in metaphorical compositions and easy to understand stories. On such grounds, Ibn Rushd came to the conclusion that there are three types of arguments and that each should be applied in communication to the respective type of people it is meant for. The three types of people were classified as philosophers, theologians, and the masses. The three respective types of argumentation that should be applied were classified as demonstration, dialectical, and persuasive.

In the third book, Ibn Rushd makes an extensive effort to present a well-grounded defense to philosophy. However, the work failed to bring back the reputation of philosophy. It was so because of the fact that in the Iberian Peninsular and North Africa at the time works based on assumptions, no matter whether well founded or not, were looked down on. These claims, in their revolutionary for the time statements, won quite a few enemies for Ibn Rush. Many theologians found his claims nothing more that offensive suppositions. Soon after, Ibn Rushdi found no more purpose in his life. In his mind, he was misunderstood and alienated. The Caliph, however, continued to respect and support him, believing he was only trying to arrive at the absolute truth. So, after he came back to Marakesh, the Caliph invited Ibn Rushd to his court to stay and work there. Despite this generous offer, Ibn Rushd’s depression grew and soon after he fell sick and died. A burial was held for him in Marakesh, but his remains were eventually moved to the family tomb in Cordova.

Some historian sources claim that Ibn Rushd's works encompassed more than twenty thousand pages of manuscript. While this may be somewhat of an exaggeration, he certainly produced extensive and innovative, if not outright revolutionary, works in a number of disciplines. The one with most substance and impact were undoubtedly those on philosophy and religion, and those on jurisprudence. Ibn Rushd also wrote on medicine and is said to have written more that twenty books on the subject. On jurisprudence, he wrote what is considered to be the best 12-th century manuscript on the Maliki School of Fiqh. The book was called Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihayat-al-Muqtasid. Latin translations of Ibn Rushd’s books were widely spread but the books were also translated in other languages, including German and English. Most of the Arabic originals are now lost but many of the translations have remained, especially those on philosophy in Latin. This is indicative of the interest towards Ibn Rushd’s works in the west. Two of the preserved famous translations are the commentary on Plato's Republic, and on Al Farabi's Logic. An impressive eighty-seven of his translated manuscripts are still in existence today.

SIGNIFICANT DATES

1126 (520 AH by the Islamic Calendar) - Ibn Rushd is born in Cordova, Muslim Spain.

1169 (565 AH) - Becomes Judge in Sevilla. Translates Aristotle's famous book “de Anima,”(Of the Soul) in the same year.

1171 (567 AH) - Relocates to Cordova to act as Qaadi – Judge – for the next ten years. Writes commentaries on major works of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Plato's Politcia.

1182 (578 AH) – Relocates to Marrakesh as the Caliph’s physician; soon afterwards returns to Cordova to act as Great Qaadi, or Chief Judge.

1195 (591 AH) – Ibn Rushd finds himself in conflict with the Caliph when tension builds up as theologians disfavor the former. Accused of heresy. Banned to Lucena, near Cordova. His books are destroyed.

1198 (595 AH) Ibn Rushd dies in Marrakesh.

Martin Nick.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Averroes as a Physician

(Abul Walid Muhammed Ibn Ahmed Ibn Rushd)
(1126-1198)
Edited and prepared by Prof. Hamed A. Ead
On the occasion of the 800th Anniversary of Averroes
During the DAAD fellowship hosted by Heidelberg University, July-October, 1998)

Introduction:

The medical school of the western Caliphate was both medically and philosophically antagonistic to Ibn Sina (1037) Avicenna, who is usually regarded as the chief representative of Islamic Medicine. The Arabic physician that emanated from the Cordova center of Islam showed a modification, owing to its intimate contact with the Christian West, and the medical and philosophical literature issued by the Christians and Jews of Moslem Spain is based more on the practical realities and attach less importance to dialectic vanities.
The eminent Arabic writers of the western Caliphate are small in number as compared to those of the Eastern, but their influence on the Latin West was far-reaching. The most of the Western Moslem physicians who reached any degree of eminence date long after Razes and Avicenna: the four most eminent of these were Albucasis, Avenzear, Averoes and Maimonides, all of whom exercised a great influence over the Scholastics of the Latin West.

Muslim Spain has produced some of the brightest intellectual luminaries of the Middle Ages. One of them was Ibn Rushd known in the West as Averroes, who is universally aknoweldge as the great philosopher of Islam and one of the greatest of all times. George Sarton in his introduction of history of science said that " Averroes was great because of the tremendous stir he made in the minds of men for centuries. A history of Averroism would include up to the end of the sixteenth-century, a period of four centuries which would perhaps deserve as much as any other to called the Middle Ages, for it was the real transition between ancient and modern methods."

Abul Waleed Muhammed Ibn Ahmed Ibn Muhammed Ibn Rushd

* He was born in Cordova, the metropolis of Moslem Spain in 520 A.H. (1126 C.E.). Both his father and grand father were prominent judges. His family was well known for scholarship and it gave him fitting environment to excel in learning. He studied religious law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy and (according to Leo Africanus) he was a friend of Avenzoar, the great Moslem clinician. He studied medicine, philosophy and law from Abu J'afar Harun and from Ibn Baja (1138) and he learned 'Fiqh' (Islamic jurisprudence) from Hafiz Abu Muhammed Ibn Rizq.
* Ibn Rushd under Islamic protection centered on the masterworks of Plato and Aristotle as preserved by an evolving series of lengthy and often innovative commentators, ideas that by now had been banned for centuries and virtually forgotten in the adjoining Holy Roman Empire.
* Like his father and his grandfather, he too became a judge, first in Seville and then Cordova, though his main love was philosophy. Supposedly, one night over dinner, he entered into a discussion with Almohad prince Abu Ya'qub Yusuf over the origin of the world and the nature of the mind.
* Averroes' ruminations on Aristotle's account of existence and the nature of the soul so impressed the ruler that he commissioned Averroes to write an entire set of commentaries. A few years later the prince appointed Averroes as his personal physician; under his auspices, Averroes spent the rest of his life writing commentaries on virtually all of Aristotle's works, producing detailed and original reconstructive commentaries on Aristotle's Metaphysics, Physics, Posterior Analytics, De Caelo, and De Anima, as well as Plato's Republic.
* Ibn Rushd was a genius of encyclopedic scope. He spent a great part of his fruitful life as a judge and as a physician. Yet he was known in the West for being the grand commentator on the philosophy of Aristotle, whose influence penetrated the minds of even the most conservative of Christian Ecclesiastes in the Middle Ages, including men like St. Thomas Aquinas. People went to him for consultation in medicine just as they did for consultation in legal matters and jurisprudence.
* At the age of twenty-seven, Ibn Rushd was invited to the Movahid Court at Marrakesh (in Morocco) to help in establishing Islamic educational institutions. Upon the ascendancy of Yousuf, he was introduced to him by another great Muslim philosopher Ibn Tufail to help in translating, abridging and commenting on some works of Aristotle (in 1169 C.E.).
* Ibn Rushd was appointed a judge (Qaadi) in Seville at the age of forty-four. That year he translated and abridged Aristotle's book "de Anima" (Animals). This book was translated into Latin by Mitchell the Scott. Two years later he was transferred to Cordova, his birthplace where he spent ten years as judge in that town. During those ten years Ibn Rushd wrote commentaries on the works of Aristotle including the Metaphysics. He was later called back to Marrakesh to work as a physician for the Caliph there, before his return to Cordova as Chief Judge.
* Ibn Rushd was well versed in the matters of the faith and law, which qualified him for the post of Qaadi (judge), but he was also keenly interested in philosophy and logic. So he tried to reconcile philosophy and religion in many of his works. Besides this area of study, he was deeply interested in medicine as well, as was his predecessor Ibn Sina (Avicenna). According to the French philosopher Renan Paris 1866), Ibn Rushd wrote seventy-eight books on various subjects.
* A careful examination of his works reveals that Averroes was a deeply religious man. As an example, we find in his writing, "Anyone who studies anatomy will increase his faith in the omnipotence and oneness of God the Almighty."
* In his medical and philosophical works we see the depth of his faith and knowledge of the Qur'an and Prophetic traditions, which he often quotes in support of his views in different matters.
* Ibn Rushd said that true happiness for man can surely be achieved through mental and psychological health, and people cannot enjoy psychological health unless they follow ways that lead to happiness in the hereafter, and unless they believe in God and His oneness.
* Ibn Rushd commented that Islam aims at true knowledge, which is knowledge of God and of His creation. This true knowledge also includes knowing the various means that lead to worldly satisfaction and avoidance of misery in the Hereafter. This type of practical knowledge covers two branches: (1) Jurisprudence which deals with the material or tangible aspect of human life and (2) the spiritual sciences which deal with matters like patience, gratitude to God, and morals. He compared spiritual laws to medicine in their effect on human beings physically on one hand, and morally and spiritually on the other. He pointed out that spiritual health is termed 'Taqwa' (righteousness and God-fearing) in the Qur'an.
* Ibn Rushd made remarkable contributions in philosophy, logic, medicine, music and jurisprudence. Ibn Rushd's writings spread more than 20,000 pages, the most famous of which deal with philosophy, medicine and jurisprudence. He wrote 20 books on medicine.

In Philosophy:

* His most important work Tuhafut al-Tuhafut was written in response to al-Ghazali's work. Ibn Rushd was criticized by many Muslim scholars for this book, which, nevertheless, had a profound influence on European thought, at least until the beginning of modern philosophy and experimental science. His views on fate were that man is in neither full control of his destiny nor it is fully predetermined for him.
* He wrote three commentaries on the works of Aristotle, as these were known then through Arabic translations. The shortest Jami may be considered as a summary of the subject. The intermediate was Talkhis and the longest was the Tafsir. These three commentaries would seem to correspond to different stages in the education of pupils; the short one was meant for the beginners, then thintermediate for the students familiar with the subject, and finally the longest one for advanced studies. The longest commentary was, in fact, an original contribution as it was largely based on his analysis including interpretation of Qur'anic concepts.
* Ibn Rushd wrote many books on the question of theology, where he tried to use his knowledge of philosophy and logic. It is not surprising then that his works greatly influenced European religious scholarship, though Averroes is innocent of many views of Western so-called Averroism.
* Professor Bammate in his booklet "Muslim Contribution to Civilization" quotes Renan: St. Thomas Aquinas was "the first disciple of the Grand Commentator (i.e., Averroes). Albert Alagnus owes everything to Avicenna, St. Thomas owes practically everything to Averroes." Professor Bammate continues: "The Reverend Father Asin Palacios, who has carried out intensive studies of the theological Averroism of St. Thomas and, in no way classifies Averroes with Latin Averroists, takes several texts of the Cordovan philosopher and compares them with the Angelic Doctor of (St. Thomas). The similarity in their thought is confirmed by the use of expressions similar to that of Ibn Rushd. It leaves no room for any doubt about the decisive influence that the Muslim Philosopher (Averroes) had on the greatest of all Catholic theologians.

In Medicine:

* The philosophical, religious, and legal works of Ibn Rushd have been studied more thoroughly than his medical books, since he was primarily a theologian-philosopher and scholar of the Koranic sciences.
* Among his teachers in medicine were Ali Abu Ja'lfar ibn Harun al-Tarrajjani (from Tarragona) and Abu Marwan ibn Jurrayul (or Hazbul, according to al-Safadi).
* Ibn Rushd's major work in medicine, al-Kulliyyat ("Generalities"), was written between 1153 and 1169.
* Its subject matter leans heavily on Galen, and occasionally Hippocrates' name is mentioned. It is subdivided into seven books: Tashrih al-a'lda' ("Anatomy of Qrgans"), al-Sihha ("Health"), al-Marad ("Sickness"), al-'Alamat ("Symptoms"), al-Adwiya wa 'l-aghdhiya ("Drugs and Foods"), Hifz al-sihha ("Hygiene"), and Shifa al-amrad ("Therapy")
* Ibn Rushd requested his close friend Ibn Zuhr to write a book on al-Umur al-juz'iyya (particularities, i.e., the treatment of head-to-toe diseases), which he did, and called his book al-Taisir fi 'l-muddawat wa 'l-tadbir ("An Aid to Therapy and Regimen").
* Ibn Rushd's al-Kulliyyat and Ibn Zuhr's al-Taisir were meant to constitute a comprehensive medical textbook (hence certain printed Latin editions present these two books together), possibly to serve instead of Ibn Sina's al-Qanun, which was not well received in Andalusia by Abu '1-,Ala' Zuhr ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn Zuhr (Ibn Zuhr's grandfather).
* Two Hebrew vesions of al-Kulliyyat are known, one by an unidentified translator, another by Solomon ben Abraham ben David.
* The Latin translation, Colliget, was made in Padua in 125 5 by a Jew, Bonacosa, and the first edition was printed in Venice in 1482, followed by many other editions.
* Ibn Rushd wrote a talkhis (abstract) of Galen's works, parts of which are preserved in Arabic manuscripts.
* He showed interest in Ibn Sina's Urjuza fi 'I-tibb ("Poem on Medicine," Canticum de medicina . . . ), on which he wrote a commentary, Sharh Urjuzat Ibn Sina.
* It was translated into Hebrew prose by Moses ben Tibbon in 1260; a translation into Hebrew verse was completed at Beziers (France) in 1261 by Solomon ben Ayyub ben Joseph of Granada.
* Further, a Latin translation of the same work was made by Armengaud, son of Blaise, in 1280 or 1284, and a printed edition was published at Venice in 1484.
* Another revised Latin translation was made by Andrea Alpago, who translated Ibn Rushd's Maqala fi '1-Tiryaq ("Treatise on Theriac," Tractatus de theiaca).
* Ibn Rushd's unsuccessful attempts to defend philosophers against theologians paved the way for a decline in Arabic medicine.
* The great image of the Hakim (physician-philosopher), which culminated in the persons of al-Razi and Ibn Sina, has been superseded by that of faqih musharik fi ''l- ulum (a jurist who participates in sciences), among whom were physician-jurists and theologian-physicians.
* Because Ibn Rushd'frame as a physician was eclipsed by his frame as a philosopher, his book Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb stands no comparison to 'Continents' of Rhazes and 'Canon' of Avicenna.
* Averroes wrote a commentary on Avicenna's poem Canticum de Medicina (translated into Latin by Armengaud). and also mentioned the Philosophia Orientalis of the latter.
* His commentary of the Canticum was published at Vinice in 1484 under the title Incipit translatio Canticor. Avi. cum commento Averrhoys facta ab Arabico in Latinum a mag. Armegando blassi de Montepesulaano.
* The German physician Max Meyerhof remarked that: "In Spain, the philosophical bias predominated among medical men. The prototypes of this combination are the two Muslims, Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes).

In Astronomy:

* He wrote a treatise on the motion of the sphere, Kitab fi-Harakat al-Falak.
* According to Draper, Ibn Rushd is credited with the discovery of sunspots. He also summarized Almagest and divided it into two parts: description of the spheres, and movement of the spheres. This summary of the Almagest was translated from Arabic into Hebrew by Jacob Anatoli in 1231.
* His book on jurisprudence 'Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihayat-al-Muqtasid' has been held by Ibn Jafar Zahabi as possibly the best book on the Maliki School of Fiqh.

General:

* Ibn Rushd's writings were translated into various languages, including Latin, English, German and Hebrew.
* Most of his commentaries on philosophy are preserved in the Hebrew translations, or in Latin translations from the Hebrew, and a few in the original Arabic.
* His commentary on zoology is entirely lost. Ibn Rushd also wrote commentaries on Plato's Republic, Galen's treatise on fevers, al-Farabi's logic, and many others. Eighty-seven of his books are still extant.
* Ibn Rushd has been held as one of the greatest thinkers and scientists of the twelfth century.
* According to the Western writers, Ibn Rushd influenced Western thought from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries.
* His commentaries were used as standard texts in preference to the treatises of Aristotle in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
* His books were included in the syllabi of Paris and other Western universities till the advent of modern experimental sciences. Ibn Rusd was studied in the University of Mexico until 1831.
* The intellectual movement initiated by Ibn Rushd continued to be a living factor in European thought until the beginning of modern expermintal science.

Arab Golden Age and Education

The educational standards during the Abbasid era were high. Elementary education, both for boys and for girls, flourished. Theological colleges were maintained, and extension courses from mosques as centers radiated outward to areas beyond.

Private as well as public libraries were common, and one street alone in Baghdad contained a thousand book sellers' shops. Paper, introduced from China via Samarkand, was manufactured in the provinces from vegetable fibber.

Music was cultivated, and among the musicians mentioned was one Ibrahim al-Mousili who, "could detect a false note among thirty lute-players, and tell the player to tighten up her string." He received as much as (equivalent) US $20,000 for one song from the doting Haroun al-Rashid.

All this time, while Europe was almost illiterate and Charlemagne himself could hardly write his name, a great intellectual awakening was taking place in which the Arab, with nothing but an intellect stimulated by great mental curiosity and a language which had then been the vehicle only of revelation and desert poetry, took a great and glorious part.

The currents of learning and culture which had earlier originated in Egypt, Babylonia, Phoenicia had been funneled into Greece, and having been there assimilated and vastly augmented by the Greek mind, had spread again in the form of Hellenism to the adjoining world. Among the centers of Hellenism one remembers Edessa, Antioch and Alexandria.

As the night of the Dark Ages settled down over Europe this learning had become embalmed in manuscripts and books buried in monasteries throughout the Near East, and available chiefly to monks and prominent scholars. But the flame of Hellenic learning, into which the Arab learning had been infused, feeble though it was, and was kept burning among them.

Among the by-products of the recurrent raids to which Haroun was addicted was that among the loot many manuscripts were brought to the capital. Haroun al-Rashid and his immediate successors dispatched emissaries far and wide in search of more and ever more manuscripts.

A college of translation, called the "House of Wisdom," was set up in Baghdad, and for more than a century, translation work was vigorously carried on, from Greek into Syriac and then into Arabic. Interest among the Arabs centered, however, not on Greek history, drama, and poetry, but rather on medicine and mathematics, as well as on the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato and the astronomy of Ptolemy.

An important name to remember is that of Hunyan, a Nestorian Christian whose chief contribution among very many was the Translation of Galen's Anatomy. Outstanding work was done as well as the Sabeans, or star worshipers, particularly and naturally along the line of astronomy.

A current from India also contributed to the stream with the introduction of the digits known as Arabic numerals, as well as the decimal system and the use of zero. The century of translation was but the prelude to the original contributions made through the Arabic language and under the stimulus of Arab encouragement.

Some of the translators themselves did significant original work. It was the Nestorian Christian physician Yuhanna who used apes as subjects for dissection. He also wrote the oldest work on the disorders of the eye, and his pupil Hunayan produced a ten volume treatise on the eye.

How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs

Book review
How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs
By: Peter BetBasso

Author : De Lacy O'Leary, D.D.
Publisher : Routledge & Kegan Paul, London
Date : 1949 (according to the inside title page: "owing to
production delays this book was published in 1980")
Pages : 196

Index
Table of Contents

I Introduction

II Helenism in Asia
1. Hellenization of Syria
2. The Frontier Provinces
3. Foundation of Jundi-Shapur
4. Diocletian and Constantine

III The Legacy of Greece
1. Alexandrian Science
2. Philosophy
3. Greek Mathematicians
4. Greek Medicine

IV Christianity as a Hellenizing Force
1. Hellenistic Atmosphere of Christianity
2. Expansion of Christianity
3. Ecclesiastical Organization

V The Nestorians
1. First School of Nisibis
2. School of Edessa
3. Nestorian Schism
4. Dark Period of the Nestorian Church
5. The Nestorian Reformation

VI The Monophysites
1. Beginning of Monophysitism
2. The Monophysite Schism
3. Persecution of the Monophysites
4. Organization of the Monophysite Church
5. Persian Monophysites

VII Indian Influence, I: The Sea Route
1. The Sea Route to India
2. Alexandrian Science in India

VIII Indian Influence, I: The Sea Route
1. Bactria
2. The Road Through Marw

IX Buddhism as a Possible Medium
1. Rise of Buddhism
2. Did Buddhism Spread West?
3. Buddhist Bactria
4. Ibrahim Ibn Adam

X The Khalifate of Damascus
1. Arab Conquest of Syria
2. The Family of Sergius
3. The Camp Cities

XI The Khalifate of Baghdad
1. The 'Abbasid Revolution
2. The Foundation of Baghdad

XII Translation Into Arabic
1. The First Translators
2. Hunayn Ibn Ishaq
3. Other Translators
4. Thabit Ibn Qurra

XIII The Arab Philosophers

Commentary on the book:
O'Leary writes a fascinating history of a critically important phase in mesopotamian history. After all, it was the Arabs who brough with them into Spain the Arabic versions of the Greek works, from which translations were made into Latin and spread throughout Europe, which was then in its dark age. It is this Greek body of knowledge that brought Europe out of its dark age and into the renaisance - the rebirth or revival.

The question remains: by whom, where, and when was the Greek body of knowledge transmitted to the Arabs themselves?

O'Leary tells us:
Greek scientific thought had been in the world for a long time before it reached the Arabs, and during that period it had already spread abroad in various directions. So it is not surprising that it reached the Arabs by more than one route. It came first and in the plainest line through Christian Syriac writers, scholars, and scientists. Then the Arabs applied themselves directly to the original Greek sources and learned over again all they had already learned, correcting and verifying earlier knowledge. Then there came a second channel of transmission indirectly through India, mathematical and astronomical work, all a good deal developed by Indian scholars, but ertainly developed from material obtained from Alexandria in the first place. This material had passed to India by the sea route which connected lexandria with north-west India. Then there was also another line of passage through India which seems to have had its beginnings in the Greek kingdom of Bactria, one of the Asiatic states founded by Alexander the Great, and a land route long kept open between the Greek world and Central Asia, especially with the city of Marw, and this perhaps connects with a Buddhist medium which at one time promoted intercourse between east and west, though Buddhism as a religion was withdrawing to the Far East when the Arabs reached Central Asia. [pages 2-3].

Chapter II gives a history of how Western Asia came under Greek influence.

Chapter III discusses the Christian Church. A notable passage occurs in the very last paragraph of the Chapter:

It has been disputed whether Muhammad owed most to Jewish or Christian predecessors, apparently he owed a great deal to both. But when we come to the 'Abbasid period when Greek literature and science began to tell upon Arabic thought, there can be no further question. The heritage of Greece was passed on by the Christian Church. [page 46].

This passage leads naturally to Chapter IV, titled the Nestorians. In this chapter O'Leary discusses the Nestorian contribution in the transmission of Greek knowledge to the Arabs. I can only cite briefly, as it is a lengthy chapter. In brief, through the many schools the "Nestorians" (Assyrian Church of the East) founded, including the Schools at Edessa, Nisibis, and Jundi-Shapur, the Greek works were translated into Syriac for use in the curriculums. These works included Theophania, Martyrs of Palestine, and Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius; the Isagoge of Porphyry (an introduction to logic); Aristotle's Hermeneutica and Analytica Priora; and many, many others.

O'Leary states:
In the first place Hibha [a Nestorian] had introduced the Aristotelian logic to illustrate and explain the theological teaching of Theodore, of Mopseustia, and that logic remained permanently the necessary introduction to the theological study in all Nestorian education. Ultimately it was the ristotelian logic which, with the Greek medical, astronomical, and mathematical writers, was passed on to the Arabs. [page 61]

Later, O'Leary states:
Nestorian missions pushed on towards the south and reached the Wadi l-Qura', a little to the north-east of Medina, an outpost of the Romans garrisoned, not by Roman troops, but by auxiliaries of the Qoda' tribes. In the time of Muhammad most of these tribes were Christian, and over the whole wadi were scattered monasteries, cells, and hermitages. From this as their headquarters Nestorian monks wandered trhough Arabia, visiting the great fairs and preaching to such as were willing to listen to them. Tradition relates that the Prophet as a young man went to Syria and near Bostra was recognized as one predestined to be a prophet by a monk named Nestor (Ibn Sa'd, Itqan, ii, p. 367). Perhaps this may refer to some contact with a Nestorian monk. The chief Christian stronghold in Arabia was the city of Najran, but that was mainly Monophysite. What was called its Ka'ba seems to have been a Christian cathedral. [page 68]. But the most definite link between Nestorians and the Arabs was through Jundi-Shapur.

O'Leary states:
From the time of Maraba onwards there is fairly continuous evidence of translation from the Greek and of work in Aristotelian logic. [page 70]

Some examples are:
Maraba II, skilled in Philosophy, medicine, and astronomy, and to have been learned in the wisdom of the Persians, Greeks, and Hebrews, wrote a commentary (in Syriac) on the Dialectics of Aristotle.

Shem'on of Beth Garmai translated Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History.

Henan-isho' II, Catholicos (Patriach) from 686 to 701, composed a commentary (again, in Syriac) on Aristotle's Analytica.

Founded originally as a prisoner camp, Jundi-Shapur had citizens who spoke Greek, Syriac, and Persian. But in the course of time all academic instruction was administered in Syriac [page 71]. It is interesting that even though the people of Jundi-Shapur used the speech of Khuzistan, which was not Syriac, Hebrew nor Persian, the language used in the classroom was Syriac, "as is obvious from the fact that Syriac translations were made for the use of lecturers". [page 72].

Finally, O'Leary states in closing Chapter III:
When Baghdad was founded in 762 the khalif and his court became near neighbors of Jundi-Shapur, and before long court appointments with generous emoluments began to draw Nestorian physicians and teachers from the academy, and in this Harun ar-Rashid's minister Ja'far Ibn Barmak was a leading agent, doing all in his power to introduce Greek science amongst the subjects of the Khalif, Arabs, and Persians. His strongly pro-Greek attitude seems to have been derived from Marw, where his family had settled after removing from Balkh, and in his efforts he was ably assisted by Jibra'il of the Bukhtyishu' family [a famous Assyrian family which produced nine generations of physicians] and his successors from Jundi-Shapur. Thus the Nestorian heritage of Greek scholarship passed from Edessa and Nisibis, through Jundi-Shapur, to Baghdad. [page 72].

Chapter IV discusses the Monophysites (the "Jacobites", or the Syrian Orthodox Church).
A detailed history of Monophysitism is given. One of the most well known Monophysite translators was Sergius of Rashayn, "a celebrated physician and philosopher, skilled in Greek and translator into Syriac of various works on medicine, philosophy, astronomy, and theology". [page 83]. Other Monopysite translators were Ya'qub of Surug, Aksenaya (Philoxenos), an alumnus of the school of Edessa, Mara, bishop of Amid.

Chapters VII and VIII discuss the indian influence via sea and land routes, although this is small in comparison to the Nestorian and Monophysite contributions. As is the case with the Buddhist connection discussed in Chapter IX.

Chapters X and XI are historical and contain little in the way of how Greek knowledge was transmitted to the Arabs.

Chapter XII discusses the various early translators. These included:
Abu Mahammad Ibn al-Muqaffa', a Persian who converted to Islam, although many believed his conversion to be insincere. He translated from Old Persian to Arabic Kalilag wa-Dimnag, which was itself a translation of a Buddhist work brought back from India (along with the game of chess) by the Assyrian Budh.
Al-Hajjaj Ibn Yusuf Ibn Matar Al-Hasib, An Arab, judging from his name, who translated the Almagest and Euclid's Elements.
Yuhanna Ibn Batriq, an Assyrian, who produced the Sirr al-asrar.
Abd al-Masih Ibn 'Aballah Wa'ima al-Himse, also an Assyrian, who translated the Theology of Aristotle (but this was an abridged paraphrase of the Enneads by Plotinus).
Abu Yahya al-Batriq, another Assyrian, who translated Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos.
Jibra'il II, son of Bukhtyishu' II, of the prominent Assyrian medical family mentioned above, Abu Zakariah Yahya Ibn Masawaih, an Assyrian Nestorian. He authored a textbook on Ophthalmology, Daghal al-'ayn (The Disease of the eye).

Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, an Assyrian, son of a Nestorian druggist, was the foremost translator of his time; O'Leary states:
Most of the translators of the next generation received their training from Hunayn or his pupils, so that he stands out as the leading translator of the better type, though some of his versions were afterwards revised by later writers.

The complete curriculum of the medical school of Alexandria was thus made available for Arab students. This included a select series of the treatises of Galen:

1. De sectis
2. Ars medica
3. De Pulsibus ad tirones
4. Ad Glauconem de medendi methodo
5. De ossibus ad tirones
6. De musculorum dissectione
7. De nervorum dissectione
8. De venraum arteriumque dissectione
9. De elementis secumdum Hippocratem
10. De temperamentis
11. De facultatibus naturalibus
12. De causis et symptomatibus
13. De locis affectis
14. De pulsibus (four treatises)
15. De typis (febrium)
16. De crisibus
17. De diebus decretoriis
18. Methodus medendi

[pages 166-167]

Yet for all his contributions, Hunayn was not always treated well by the Khalifate. In one incident, the Khalif Mutawakkil ordered Hunayn to prepare a poison for the Khalif's enemies. When Hunayn refused the Khalif cast him into prison. [page 168].
Hunayn son Ishaq also contributed, as did his nephew Hubaysh Ibn Al-Hasan. Hubaysh translated the texts of Hippocrates and the botanical work of Dioscorides, "which became the basis of the Arab pharmacopoeia". [page 169].
Another one of Hunayn's pupils was 'Isa Ibn Yahya Ibn Ibrahim. Indeed, "almost all leading scientists of the succeeding generation were pupils of Hunayn". [page 170].

Other translators included:
Yusuf al-Khuri al-Qass, who translated Archemides lost work on triangles from a Syriac version. He also made an Arabic of Galen's De Simplicibus temperamentis et facultatibus. Qusta Ibn Luqa al-Ba'lbakki, a Syrian Christian, who translated Hypsicles, Theodosius' Sphaerica, Heron's Mechanics, Autolycus Theophrastus' Meteora, Galen's catalog of his books, John Philoponus on the Phsyics of Aristotle and several other works. He also revised the existing translation of Euclid.
Abu Bishr Matta Ibn Yunus al-Qanna'i, who translated Aristotle's Poetica Abu Zakariya Yahya Ibn 'Adi al-Mntiqi, a monophysite, who translated medical and logical works, including the Prolegomena of mmonius, an introduction to Porphyry's Isagoge.
To these may be added Al-Hunayn Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Hasan Ibn Khurshid at-Tabari an-Natili, and the monophysite Abu 'Ali 'Isa Ibn Ishaq Ibn Zer'a.

The salient conclusion which can be drawn from O'Leary's book is that Assyrians played a significant role in the shaping of the Islamic world via the Greek corpus of knowledge.
If this is so, one must then ask the question, what happenned to the Christian communities which made them lose this great intellectual enterprise which they had established. One can ask this same question of the Arabs. Sadly, O'Leary's book does not answer this question, and we must look elsewhere for the answer.

Peter BetBasso

The Great Translator

Hunein Ibn Ishak
(809 - 877)
By Fred Aprim

It is written that it would be a rearity to find any Arabic translation of the most popular Greek medicine and philosophy publications without discovering that Syriac was the mean through which the translation took place. Most of the Greek work was translated to Syriac first and then from Syriac into Arabic language.

Hunayn bin (son of) Ishaq's (Iskhaq in Syriac / Isaac in English) outline of life and work are well known from his autobiography written in the form of letters to 'Ali bin Yahya. (Text from two manuscripts in the Aya Sofia Mosque at Istanbul, with translation by G. Bergestrasser, Leipzig, 1925) He was a native of Hira, near Baghdad, and the son of a Nestorian druggist (Pharmacist). He is endorsed by his name 'Abadi, which shows that he belonged to the subject people of Hira. Hunayn followed in the footsteps of other Nestorian physicians like Jirgis (Giwargis) bin Bakhtishu (ca. 771) the dean of the Jundi-Shapur hospital (south-western Persia). Jundi-Shapur was noted for its academy of Medicine and Philosophy founded about AD 555. Nothing is known though of the Bakhtishu who was the father of this Jirjis, but the name occurs several times in the course of the history of Baghdad.

In AD 765 the Caliph Al-Mansur, afflicted with a stomach disease which had baffled his physicians, summoned for Bakhtishu, who soon won the confidence of the caliph and became the court physician, though he retained his Nestorianism. Invited by the caliph to embrace Islam his retort was that he preferred the company of his fathers, be they in heaven or in hell. Bakhtishu became in Baghdad the founder of a brilliant family which for (6) or (7) generations, covering a period of (2 1/2) centuries, exercised an almost continuous monopoly over the court medical practice. Jibril (Gabriel) bin Bakhtishu, in AD 801 became chief physician of the Baghdad hospital under the Caliph Al-Rashid and in AD 805 the caliph's private physician until his death in AD 829. The Bakhtishu family played an important part in the cultural education of the Arabs.

Hunayn in AD 857 as a youth began as a dispenser to Yahya (Youkhanna) Bin Massawayh, the great doctor and pupil of Gabriel bin Bakhtishu. Massawayh, is said, having been fed up with Hunayn's continuous questioning, have said to him:"What have the people of Al-Hira have to do with medicine?--go and change money in the bazaar." (read Ibn al-'Ibri, p. 250) The young Hunayn left the service of Masawayh in tears, but challanged himself to study Greek in "the land of the Greeks" where he stayed for (2) years and obtained a sound knowledge of the Greek language and familiarity with textual criticism such as had been developed in Alexandria. Later he settled for some time at Basra and attended the popular school of Al-Khalil bin Ahmad (Al-Faraheedi) and there he became fluent in Arabic before returning to Baghdad in AD 826. He was then introduced by Gabriel bin Bakhtishu (now physician-in-ordivary to caliph Al-Ma'mun) to Musa bin Shakir and his sons, known as "Sons of Musa", wealthy patrons of learning. Subsequently this caliph founded a library-academy which he called the "House of Wisdom" (Dar Al-Hikma) and appointed Hunayn as its superintendent. In this capacity Hunayn had charge of all the scientific translation work, in which he enjoyed the collaboration of his son Ishaq bin Hunayn and his nephew Hubaysh bin Al-Hasan, whom he trained. Hunayn's ability as a traslator may be attested by the report that when in the service of the sons of bin Shakir he and others received about 500 dinars (about £ 250) per month and that Al-Ma'mun paid him in gold the weight of the books he translated.

Al-Ma'mun died in AD 833 and was succeeded by Al-Mu'tasim, who found it difficult to control the populace of Baghdad and formed a guard of Turkish slave-soldiers. But this body-guard, holding a privileged position, soon became insubordinate and many complaints were made about their conduct. At last Al-Mu'tasim removed himself and his court to Samarra (north of Baghdad) in AD 836, and there the caliphs reigned until AD 892. These disorders affected scholarship adversely and the "House of Wisdom" fell into decay which was not checked during the brief reign of Wathiq (AD 842-847). The next Caliph was Al-Mutawakkil (847-861), although he was bigoted, fanatical, and sadistic, he was a generous patron of scientific research and is generally reckoned as having reopened the "House of Wisdom". It was during this Caliph's reign where Hunayn reached the summit of his glory not only as a translator but as a practitioner when he was appointed by the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil as his private physician. Al-Mutawakkil, however, once committed him to jail for a year for refusing the offer of rich rewards to concoct a poison for an enemy. When brought again before the caliph and threatened with death his reply was:
"I have skill only in what is beneficial, and have studied naught else".
Asked by the caliph, who then claimed that he was simply testing his physician's integrity, as to what prevented him from preparing the deadly poison, Hunayn replied:
"Two things: my religion and my profession. My religion decrees that we should do good even to our enemies, how much more to our friends. And my profession is instituted for the benefit of humanity and limited to their relief and cure. Besides, every physician is under oath never to give anyone a deadly medicine." (read Ibn al-'Ibri, pp251-252)

In AD 861 Al-Mutawakkil was murdered by his Turkish guards at his son's instigation. Hunayn enjoyed the favour of that son Al-Montasir (AD 861-862), and his successors Al-Mosta'in (AD 862-866), Al-Mo'tazz (AD 866-869), Al-Muhtadi (AD 869-870), and Al-Mu'tamid (AD 870-892), and was engaged in making a translation of Galen's De constitutione artis medicae at the time of his death, which took place in 873 according to the Fihrist, or 877 according to Ibn Abi Usaibi'a.

Of the numerous works ascribed to Hunayn, some should undoubtedly be credited to his two assistants, his son and nephew, and to other students of his school, such as 'Isa bin Yahya bin Ibrahim (Essa Youkhanna Oraham), and Musa (Moshe) bin Khalid. Almost all the leading scientists of the succeeding generation were pupils of Hunayn like Staphanos bin Basilos, who translated the Dioscorides into Syriac, and this Syriac version was then translated into Arabic by Hunayn himself for the "Sons of Musa". In many cases Hunayn evidently did the initial translation from Greek into Syriac and his colleagues took the second step and translated from Syriac into Arabic.
Aristotle's Hermeneutica, for instance, was first done from Greek into Syriac by Hunayn, the father, and then from Syriac into Arabic by the son Ishaq, who was the better in Arabic and who became the greatest translator of Aristotle's works.
Altogether Hunayn translated into Syriac (20) books of Galen, (2) for Gabriel Bakhtishu's son, (2) for Salmawaih bin Bunan, (1) for Gabriel Bakhtishu, and (1) for bin Massawayh, and also revised the (16) translations made by Sargis Al-ras'ayni of Ras Al-'ayn on the Khabur River, who translated the famous "Corpus Galena".

Rainer Degen, of Marburg wrote a paper on the oldest known Syriac Manuscript of the greatest Nestorian translator and physician Hunayn bin Ishaq, after his return from a trip to Paris in 1973, and Baghdad in 1974, where he attended the great festivals in commemoration of the 1100th year of the death of this great Nestorian. Anton Baumstark wrote so much about Hunayn in Aristoteles bei den Syrern vom V. - VIII. Jahrhundert. Syrische Texte. 1. Band: Syrisch-arabische Biographien des Aristoteles / Leipzig 1900, and classified him as "der gröBte aller syrischen Gelehrten des Mittelalters".
Degan writes; "Not a single paper about Ishaq's Syriac works was read in both Paris and Baghdad, where various aspects of Hunayn's life and work were treated by the learned speakers, the Syriac part of his works played only a minor role. (Read the presented papers in Baghdad under a volume entitled "Ephraim Hunayn Festival. Baghdad 4-7/2/1974, published by Al-Ma'arif Press, 1974)."
What would we expect from the authorities in Iraq? A government which has adopted the policy of Arabization in all aspects of the Christians' life, But to have the same happen in Paris is the part we find hard to believe!
Degen started in 1971 to collect all the available information about the remains of Syriac medical texts for the planned 'Corpus Medicorum Syriacorum,' and he got a microfilm from the Vatican Library in which he found that what the two S.E. & J.S. Assemani had written in "Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae codicum manuscriptorum catologus, partis Iae t. 3, complectens, reliquos codices chaldaicos sive syriacos," Rome 1759, p. 409, Vatican Syriac 192, describing the content of the work of Paul of Aegina's misleading titled "Syntagma medicum" was totally wrong. The book " Syntagma medicum" is not a translation from a Greek original, but the oldest Arabic manuscript of the famous "Book of Medical Questions for the Beginners" [widely known in Arabic as 'Kitab al-Masa'il al-Ttibbiyah'] by Hunayn bin Ishaq. This book was used in the 16th century as the best introductory work in medicine.
One of the oldest Syriac manuscripts is to be found in the Mingana Collection in the Selly Oak Colleges Library, Birmingham. Its number is Mingana Syriac 661. The Catalogue does not say from where Alphonse Mingana acquired the manuscript, but in a note on page XXI somebody, perhaps Dr. Gottschalk, mentioned after Mingana's death that "Dr. Mingana was also convinced that the Syriac MSS. Nos. 628-662 came from Mount Sinai." According to A. Mingana this manuscript is "written in an early East Syrian [Assyrian] hand bordering on a West Syrian [Assyrian] sirta of about AD 1100."
Degen asks: But, from where do we know that the text of the leaves is Hunayn's?
Because Degen found the contents of that manuscripts in a similar Syriac manuscript in Mingana's Collection: Syriac 594 which is a modern copy of a likewise modern manuscript in Alqosh. When Degen got the microfilm of the Arabic manuscript Khudabakhah 2142/1 (preserved in the Oriental Public Library, Patna / India), he was able to identify the author of the Syriac work. The mentioned Arabic manuscript is the only one that preserved a once widespread and famous treatise -- the book of Nourishment (Kitab al-Aghdiya) -- of Hunayn bin Ishaq.

Some of Hunayn's Translations:
1. A selected series of the Treatises of Galen
- De sectis
- Ars medica
- De pulsibus ad tirones
- Ad Glauconem de medendi methodo
- De ossibus ad tirones
- De musculorum dissectione
- De nervorum dissectione
- De venarum arteriumque dissectione
- De elementis secundum Hippocratem
- De temperamentis
- De facultibus naturalibus
- De causis et symptomatibus
- De locis affectis
- De pulsibus (four treatises)
- De typis (febrium)
- De crisibus
- De diebus decretoriis
- Methodus medendi
2. Hippocrates and Dioscorides.
3. Plato's Republic (Siyasah).
4. Aristotle's Categories (Maqulas), Physics (Tabi'iyat) and Magna Moralia (Khulqiyat).
5. Seven books of Galen's anatomy, lost in the original Greek, have luckily been preserved in Arabic.
6. Arabic version of the Old Testament from the Greek Septuagint did not survive.
7. Many published works of R. Duval in Chemistry, like the two transcripts at the British Museum:
a. Wright. Catalogue, P. 1190 - 1191, MV
b. Coll' orient, 1593
represent basically translations of Hunayn's work with very minor reading differences.
8. In Chemistry again we have a book titled ['An Al-Asma'] meaning "About the Names", which did not reach the researchers but was used in "Dictionary of Ibn Bahlool" of the 10th century.
9. "Kitab Al-Ahjar" or the "Book of Stones".

Referrences
De Lacy O'Leary, "How Greek science passed to the Arabs"
Phillip Hitti, "History of the Arabs"
Nina Bigholeeviskaya (Dr. Khalaf Al-Jarrad translator), "Thaqafat al-Siryan fi al-'Aisoor al-WisTta"
Nineveh magazine, 2nd quarter 1984

Pensée grecque, culture arabe

par Dimitri Gutas

J'ai eu l'occasion de relire ce livre que j'avais lu en 1998 en anglais (Greek Thought, Arabic Culture) et qui m'avait fait bonne impression à l'époque. C'est une heureuse surprise qu'il soit finalement sorti en français (en 2005, soit il y a environ deux ans) car même si, à force, j'ai pris l'habitude de lire en anglais tout ce qui existe sur le domaine gréco-arabe (soyons honnête, plutôt tout ce que j'arrive à trouver), c'est agréable de lire dans sa langue.

Commençons par le commencement. Badawi, dans son livre La transmission de la philosophie grecque au monde arabe (qui a connu deux éditions successives: 1968 et 1987, il est édité chez Vrin et en dépit de toutes les inexactitudes qu'il contient, c'est un classique en français, Richard Walzer dit que c'est le livre le plus étrange qu'il ait lu sur le sujet, je ne lui donne pas tort ), n'hésitait pas à dire: "On s'intéressait à Aristote par pure curiosité scientifique, pour l'amour de la science désintéressée. Voilà ce qui rehausse la valeur de l'entreprise du calife al Ma'mûn, comparée à celle de ses prédécesseurs à partir d'Abu Ja'afar al Mansûr qui ne s'intéressait qu'aux sciences utiles: médecine, astronomie et mathématiques". C'était une opinion largement répandue que les arabes s'étaient intéressé à la philosophie grecque par amour du savoir (on invoquait par exemple à l'appui de cette thèse le fameux hadith qui demande au croyant d'aller chercher le savoir jusqu'en Chine s'il le faut). Or, évidement, si une telle thèse pouvait paraître séduisant car idéalisant le monde arabe médiéval (littéraire, cultivé, ouvert à toutes les traditions et les autres religions), elle ne résiste pas longtemps à ce soupçon que forcément, il devait y avoir un intérêt quelque part là dessous. Encore fallait-il le montrer.

C'est chose faite avec cet ouvrage de Dimitri Gutas qui explore justement les facteurs qui ont joué un rôle majeur dans le mouvement des traductions gréco-arabes. On retiendra particulièrement la démonstration que le bayt al hikma (la fameuse "maison de la sagesse" de Bagdad ) n'est pas cette bibliothèque mythique où les chrétiens, les juifs et les musulmans traduisaient tous les textes du savoir grec (lesquels, justement s'y seraient trouvés). Par une relecture scrupuleuse d'Ibn Nadim (entre autres), Gutas montre qu'aucun élément sérieux dans les textes ne vient étayer le mythe de ce bayt al hikma qui avec le recul semble plus de l'ordre de la propagande abbasside qu'autre chose (laquelle propagande obéissait à une logique chez al Ma'mun et al Mansûr contrairement à ce que disait Badawi dans la citation donnée plus haut). Le pouvoir abbasside a certes favorisé le mouvement de traduction gréco-arabe nous explique Gutas mais c'est pour des raisons politiques: d'abord pour s'attirer le soutien du monde sassanide zoroastrien (al Ma'mûn) puis en réaction au monde byzantin qui rejetait l'héritage grec au profit du christianisme, le calife al Mansûr a misé sur le philhéllénisme. Si le bayt al hikma n'était pas une bibliothèque contenant tous les livres et les manuscrits grecs, syriaques et ses traductions arabes, cela a pour conséquence importante que les traductions faites durant le début de l'ère abbbassides étaient dues à des commandes privées. C'est par exemple les médecins du calife qui seraient ainsi à l'origine réelle des traductions d'Hippocrate et de Galien. Soucieux de rester à un bon niveau de science, ces médecins auraient payé des traducteurs syriaques pour avoir accès aux oeuvres des médecins grecs.

Un éclairage intéressant est rapporté par Gutas: dans la mesure où les traductions étaient le fait de commandes privées, les traducteurs traduisaient le texte non sans le rectifier au passage selon le destinataire de la commande. On a ainsi l'exemple de la Théologie d'Aristote (en fait texte qui correspond aux trois dernières Ennéades de Plotin) où Dieu et les anges apparaissent, se substituant aux dieux traditionnels grecs. Une fois les traductions faites dans la langue arabe, les arabes purent constituer leur philosophie et leur science, ce qui explique non pas un déclin mais un arrêt progressif et quasi complet des traductions faites. Dernière chose: le tableau des pages 273 à 276 récapitule la liste de textes byzantins recopiés en minuscule grecque et il est instructif car il correspond aux textes traduits en arabe, ce qui montre que le monde byzantin n'était pas, contrairement à une idée reçue, fermé au monde arabe et qu'au contraire pour des raisons financières évidentes, il s'était de nouveau intéressé aux manuscrits grecs qu'il possédait.

Voilà, j'espère avoir fait un compte rendu fidèle de l'ouvrage de Gutas qui mérite d'être lu pour comprendre pourquoi et comment Bagdad entre le 8ème et le 10ème siècle a été au coeur d'un mouvement de transmission a priori improbable entre le monde grec et le monde arabe.

Averroes : Incoherence of the Incoherence

Ibn Rochd
TAHAFUT AL TAHAFUT
Translated from arabic with introduction and notes
By Simon Van Den Bergh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Al-Ghazali : Incoherence of the Philosophers

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Averroes: Books

Averroes's Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics:

This volume contains a translation into English of Averroes's Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics, an introduction to the translation in which the arguments of both Averroes and Aristotle are sketch out and their differences from Plato and other important thinkers explored, an outline analysis of the order of Averroes's commentary, annotations to the text, a bibliography, and a glossary of important terms with their English translations.

Aristotle's Poetics has held the attention of scholars and authors through the ages, and Averroes has long been known as "the commentator" on Aristotle. His Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics is important because of its striking content. Here, an author steeped in Aristotle's thought and highly familiar with an entirely different poetical tradition shows in careful detail what is commendable about Greek poetics and commendable as well as blameworthy about Arabic poetics.

Heretofore, non-Arabic readers have had to depend upon Hermannus Alemannus's Latin translation of Averroes's Middle Commentary or on its English version. Both are inadequate. They incorrectly render Averroes's various arguments and make his beautiful poetic citations read like doggerel. Moreover, they provide inaccurate and incomplete information about the sources of those citations and consequently portray Averroes's text as a curious compilation of relics from some exotic but not very learned horde.

The present translation is based on a sound, critical Arabic edition prepared by the translator. Not only is it the first English translation from the Arabic original, but also the first translation of the Arabic text into any language other than medieval Hebrew or Latin. The translation is literal and eloquent, albeit more literal when eloquent when sense demands such a sacrifice. Throughout the commentary, the same English word is used for the same Arabic word unless an exception is noted. The renditions of the poetic citations are somewhat freer without reaching to unwarranted innovations.

Questions leading to a more accurate grasp of Averroes's argument are explored in the introduction, and the basic themes of his interpretation of Aristotle are laid bare. Thus, Butterworth takes issue with many of the prevalent beliefs about medieval Arabic poetics and explores the philosophical contention that poetry belongs to the art of logic. In doing so, he also points to the way that position allows both Averroes and Aristotle to revise Plato's attack on poetry and the significance of their revision.

The Decisive Treatise & Epistle Dedicatory:

Tran. by Charles E. Butterworth.

Averroës (Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198) emerged from an eminent family in Muslim Spain to become the first and last great Aristotelian of the classical Islamic world; his meticulous commentaries influenced Christian thinkers and earned him favorable mention (and a relatively pleasant fate) in Dante's Divina Commedia. The Book of the Decisive Treatise was and remains one his most important works and one of history's best defenses of the legitimate role of reason in a community of faith. The text presents itself as a plea before a tribunal in which the divinely revealed Law of Islam is the sole authority; Averroës, critical of the anti-philosophical tone of the Islamic establishment, argues that the Law not only permits but also mandates the study of philosophy and syllogistic or logical reasoning, defending earlier Muslim philosophers and dismissing criticisms of them as more harmful to the Islamic community than the philosophers' own views had been. As he details the three fundamental methods the Law uses to aid people of varied capacities and temperaments, Averroës reveals a carefully formed and remarkably argued conception of the boundaries and uses of faith and reason.

The Book of the Decisive Treatise, Determining the Connection Between the Law and Wisdom & Epistle Dedicatory.

THE BOOK OF THE DECISIVE TREATISE, DETERMINING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LAW AND WISDOM

". . . The Law makes it obligatory to reflect upon existing things by means of the intellect, and to consider them; and consideration is nothing more than inferring and drawing out the unknown from the known . . ."

"You ought to know that what is intended by the Law is only to teach true science and true practice. True science is cognizance of God (may He be blessed and exalted) and of all the existing things as they are, especially the venerable ones among them; and cognizance of happiness in the hereafter and of misery in the hereafter. True practice is to follow the actions that promote happiness and to avoid the actions that promote misery; and cognizance of these actions is what is called 'practical science.'”

". . . The link between the physician and the health of bodies is [the same as] the link between the Lawgiver and the health of souls . . ."
This health is what is called 'piety.'”

". . . Injuries from a friend are graver than injuries from an enemy – I mean that wisdom is the companion of the Law and its milk sister. So injuries from those linked to it are the gravest injuries – apart from the enmity, hatred, and quarreling they bring about between both of them. These two are companions by nature and lovers by essence and instinct."

EPISTLE DEDICATORY:

". . . Existence is the cause and reason of our knowledge, while eternal knowledge is the cause and reason of existence."

Biographies

Philosophes et Penseurs d'Andalous:
* Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126–1198)
* Ibn Tufail (1105–1185)
* Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)
* Maimonides (1138-1204)
* Al-Tutili (?-1126)
* Ibn Abd Rabbih (860-940)
* Abou Madyane (1126-1198)
* Al Mutamid Ibn Abbad (1040-1095)
* Abu Abdullah al-Bakri (1014-1094)
* Ibn al-Kattani (951-1029)
* Ibn al-Khatib (1313-1374)
* Abu al-Qasim (936-1014)
* Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi (?-1388)
* Ibn al-Yayyab (1274-1349)
* Ibn Amira (1186-1251/1259)
* Ibn Ammar (c.1031–c.1086)
* Ibn Arabî (1165-1240)
* Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) (?-1138)
* Ibn Baqi (-1145 or 1150)
* Moses ibn Ezra (c.1058-c.1138)
* Salomon ibn Gabirol (1021-1058)
* Ibn Hazm (994-1064)
* Ibn Jubayr (1145-1217)
* Ibn Juzayy (1321-1357)
* Ibn Khafaja (1058-1138/9)
* Al-Fath ibn Khaqan (-1134)
* Ibn Sahl of Sevilla (1212-1251)
* Ibn Said al-Maghribi (1213-1286)
* Ibn Quzman (1078-1160)
* Ibn Zaydun (1003-1071)
* Ibn Zamrak (1333-1394)

Philosophes et Penseurs du Maroc:
* Léon l'Africain (1488-1554)
* Mohammed Akensous (-1877)
* Idriss al-Amraoui (-1879)
* Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqaoui (1760-1823)
* Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi (1256-1321)
* Mohammed al-Baydhaq (c.1150)
* Nur Ed-Din Al Betrugi (-1204)
* Abou Hassan al-Chadhili (1196-1258)
* Abd al-Rahman al-Fasi (1631-1685)
* Isaac Alfasi (1013-1103)
* Abd al-Aziz al-Fishtali (1549-1621)
* Mohammed al-Harraq (1772-1845)
* Sulayman al-Hawwat (1747-1816)
* Mohamed al-Idrisi (1099-1165)
* Mohammed al-Ifrani (1670-1745)
* Muhammad al-Jazuli (?-1465)
* Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi (1185-?))
* Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari (c. 1591-1632)
* Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri (1835-1897)
* Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi (1553-1616)
* Muhammad al-Qadiri (1712-1773)
* Mohammed ibn Amr al-Ribati (?-1827)
* Ibn Abbad al-Rundi (1333-1390)
* Salih ben Sharif al-Rundi (1204-1285)
* Al-Suhayli (1114-1185)
* Abu Ali al-Hassan al-Yusi (1631-1691)
* Abu al-Qasim al-Zayyani (1734-1833)
* Muhammad Awzal (1670-1749)
* Abdeslam Ben Mchich (1140-1227)
* Ayyad ben Moussa (1083-1149)
* Abderrahman El Majdoub (-1569)
* Edmond Amran El Maleh (1917– ?)
* David Hassine (1722-1792)
* Ibn Abi Zar (?-1315)
* Ahmad ibn Ajiba (1746-1809)
* Ismail ibn al-Ahmar (1387-1406)
* Muhammad Ibn al-Habib (1876-1972)
* Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi (1553-1616)
* Ibn al-Wannan (?-1773)
* Ibn Bajjah (?-1138)
* Ibn Battuta (1304–1377)
* Ibn Hirzihim (-1164)
* Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Fasi (1760-1837)
* Ibn Juzayy (1321-1357)
* Mohammed ibn Tumart (c.1080-1130)
* Ibn Zaydan (1873-1946)
* Muhammad al-Muqri (1851-1957)
* Abi Mohammed Salih (1153-1234)
* Ibn Abi Zar (?-1315)
* Ahmad Zarruq (1442-1493)

Averroès: la Religion et la Science

Cité dans P.Guichard,
L’Espagne et la Sicile musulmanes aux XIe et XIIe siècles.
Lyon, PUF, 1990

Le Coran et la science :
Un hadîth du Prophète rapporte : "Recherche la science, même en Chine".
L’islam est dès le début très ouvert à la science. La quête du savoir fait partie des préceptes du Coran. Entre le VIIIe et le XIIe siècle, une somme considérable de recherches et de découvertes fut effectuée dans les universités islamiques. La bibliothèque du calife à Cordoue contient 400 000 volumes ; le philosophe Averroès (1126-1198) y enseigne ; on y transmet la science grecque, indienne, persane. Les sciences arabes s’élaborent à partir de la traduction systématique des grands traités grecs de philosophie, mathématique, astronomie, physique, chimie, médecine, pharmacologie, géographie, agronomie. Des œuvres persanes et des ouvrages indiens de mathématiques et d’astronomie sont également recueillis. Les savants enrichissent alors tout cet héritage par des observations, des expériences, des innovations, en particulier dans le domaine des mathématiques (création d’une nouvelle arithmétique, développement de la géométrie et de la trigonométrie, invention de l’algèbre). De nouveaux traités de médecine (de Rhazès à Avicenne), de géographie, d’astronomie sont écrits et circulent en Occident, grâce aux "plaques tournantes du savoir" que sont l’Espagne et la Sicile.

L'entrevue au palais :
l'attitude des chefs religieux à l’égard de la science
récit, rapporté par un chroniqueur arabe, met en scène une entrevue entre Averroès et le sultan almohade, Abu Ya’qub Yusuf. Averroès, philosophe, médecin et savant du XIIe siècle est une figure emblématique de la science en pays d’islam. Auteur d’une véritable somme philosophique, son objectif est de concilier la foi révélée et le savoir du grand philosophe grec Aristote. Pour lui, chaque croyant doit acquérir une connaissance rationnelle lui permettant d’interpréter le Coran dans son sens à la fois figuré et littéral et d’accéder ainsi à la double compréhension d’une même vérité qui est la Parole de Dieu.

"Lorsque je fus en présence de l’Emir des Croyants, Abû Ya’qûb, je le trouvais seul avec Abû Bakr Ibn Tufayl. Ce dernier commença à faire mon éloge, mentionnant ma famille et mes ancêtres, et incluant dans son exposé des faits supérieurs à mes propres mérites. Après m’avoir demandé le nom de mon père et ma généalogie, la première chose que me dit l’émir des Croyants fut : "Que pensent-ils du ciel ? – en se référant aux philosophes – est-il éternel ou créé ?". La confusion et la crainte s’emparèrent de moi, et je commençai à inventer des échappatoires et à nier que la philosophie m’ait jamais intéressé, car je ne savais pas ce qu’Ibn Tufayl lui avait dit à mon sujet. Mais l’Emir des Croyants, comprenant ma crainte et ma confusion, commença à commenter ce qu’il m’avait demandé, mentionnant ce qu’avaient dit Aristote, Platon et tous les philosophes, et présentant en outre les objections des penseurs musulmans contre eux ; je me rendis compte qu’il avait une mémoire (et connaissance) telle que je n’aurais pas cru que l’on puisse en trouver, même chez ceux qui se consacrent exclusivement à ce thème. Il poursuivit en me tranquillisant de cette façon jusqu’à ce que je parle et me mis à exposer ce que je pensais de la question ; et lorsque je me retirai, il ordonna qu’on me fasse don d’une somme d’argent, de vêtements d’apparat et d’un coursier."

Averroès dialogue avec Porphyre

Monfredo de Monte Imperiali, Liber de herbis.
Manuscrit sur parchemin (35 x 25 cm). Italie, 1^re moitié du XIV^e siècle. BNF, Manuscrits (Latin 6823 fol. 2)
Monfredi de Monte Imperiale imagine une conversation entre Averroès (XII^e siècle) et le philosophe néoplatonicien Porphyre (III^e-IV^e siècles)

Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect (Ibn Rochd)