DOCSLIB.ORG

8. the Aim and Structure of Steinschneider's Die Hebraeischen Übersetzungen Des Mittelalters. the Historiographic Underpinnin

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
8. the Aim and Structure of Steinschneider's Die Hebraeischen Übersetzungen Des Mittelalters. the Historiographic Underpinnin 8. THE AIM AND STRUCTURE OF STEINSCHNEIDER’S DIE HEBRAEISCHEN ÜBERSETZUNGEN DES MITTELALTERS. THE HISTORIOGRAPHIC UNDERPINNINGS OF A MASTERPIECE AND THEIR UNTOWARD CONSEQUENCES* Gad Freudenthal Moritz Steinschneider’s Die Hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters of 1893 is a monumental work from all points of view and has probably done more for the advancement of our knowledge of medieval Jewish intellectual history than any other single scholarly book. Even today, more than one hundred years after its publication, no research on medieval Hebrew learning is possible without constantly referring to Die Hebraeischen Übersetzungen. And yet, I will suggest that the work’s structure follows from an implicit historiographic agenda that has had untoward consequences on historical scholarship, which a different structure would have guided onto fruitful and still largely neglected avenues of research. 1. Identifying the Question to which Die Hebraeischen Übersetzungen Is the Answer Let us begin by asking: What is the question to which Steinschneider’s work is the answer? Our point of departure is the structure of Die Hebraeischen Übersetzungen:1 * I am grateful to Reimund Leicht for his very pertinent suggestions on an earlier version. 1 The following Table of Contents is detailed in the beginning and less so after- ward; it would have been cumbersome and not necessarily very useful to present it in all detail. 192 gad freudenthal [INTRODUCTION:] General Considerations PART ONE: PHILOSOPHY Chapter 1: The Greeks Aristotle: A. Logic: al-Fârâbî; Averroes: a. Short commentaries on the Organon (including all commentators); b. Middle commentary on the Organon (including all commentators); c. Long commentary on the Organon (including all commentators). B. Physical writings: I. Physics: Averroes: a. Short commentary (including all commentators); b. Middle commentary (including all commentators); c. Long commentary (including all commentators). II. De caelo: Themistius; Averroes: a. Short commentary (including all commentators); b. Middle commentary (including all commenta- tors). III. De gen. et corr.: Averroes: a. Short commentary (including all commentators); b. Middle commentary (including all commentators). IV. Meteorologica: Samuel Ibn Tibbon; Averroes: a. Summa (includ- ing commentators); Short commentary (including all commentators); b. Middle commentary (including all commentators). V. De minera- libus. VI. De plantis: Nicolaus of Damascus, Averroes. VII. De ani- malibus. VIII. De anima: Averroes: a. Short commentary (including all commentators); b. Middle commentary (including all commenta- tors); c. Long commentary (including all commentators); Alexander of Aphrodisias. IX. Parva naturalia. C. Metaphysics: al-Fârâbî; Aristotle translated from Latin; Aver- roes: a. Short commentary (including commentators); b. Middle commentary (including all commentators); c. Long commentary; Themistius. D. Questiones. E. Ethics. F. Pseudo-Aristotle. Chapter 2: Arabs Averroes; Avicenna; Bataljusi; Qusta Ibn Luqa; al-Fârâbî; al-Ghazzali; Ishaq Ibn Hunayn; Ali Ibn Ridwân; Ibn al-Saig; Tabrizi; Ibn Tufayl. Chapter 3: Jews Abraham Ibn Daud; Bahya Ibn Paqudah; David Ibn Marwan al-Qumsi; Ibn Gabirol; Isaac Israeli; Judah Halevi; Judah ben Nissim; Joseph Ibn Aqnin; Joseph Ibn Zaddik; Moses Abulafia; Moses Ibn Ezra; Maimonides; Saadiah; Ps.-Abraham Ibn Ezra. Karaites: Joseph al-Qirqisâni; Joseph b. Abraham; Jeshua b. Judah. Chapter 4: Christians Adelard of Bath; Aegidius; Albertus Magnus; Boethius; Th. Bricot; Marsil- ius ab Ingen; William of Ockham; Petrus Hispanus; Piccolomini; Raymund Lull; Robert of Lincoln; John Duns Scotus; Michael Scot; Thomas Aqui- nas; Versor; Vincent of Beauvais. Excerpts prepared by Judah Romano. Appendix: Logical writings..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Recent Developments in the Study of Arabic Philosophy and Its Impact on the West
    Recent Developments in the Study of Arabic Philosophy and Its Impact on the West: with special reference to South Italy and Sicily from Alfanus to Frederick nn Charles Burnett In respect to Arabic/Islamic philosophy, the time seems to be ripe for making syntheses. As has often been observed before, there is a major problem as to whether the subject that one is dealing with should be called 'Arabic' or 'Islamic'. The choice of adjective reflects different attitudes to the subject matter, as is exemplified in two major works in preparation. In Turkey Alparslan Acikgenc is writing a history of Islamic philosophy, in the conviction that a philosophical attitude and the basics of philosophical terminology are established already in the Meccan surahs of the Qur'an, and was developed in the Medinan surahs. This native Islamic philosophy can be seen in the kalam (dialectical theology), and it was the preexistence of lively philosophical interest and discussion that made Arabic scholars inquisitive about Greek philosophy. Greek philosophy, which they referred to as (quot­ ing Acikgenc) 'falsafa' was merely an episode, a subsection, of Islamic philosophy: the word was 'reserved exclusively for the manner of Greek, more specifically, Aristotelian philosophizing' whereas 'within Islamic civilization kalam was used to refer to what we call today philosophy'. On the other hand Richard Taylor and Peter Adamson are preparing 'the Cambridge Companion to Arabic philosophy.' This is conspicuous for its lack of contributers from the Islamic world (the nearest
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded File
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329572822 Interpretation in Muslim Philosophy Book · January 2012 CITATIONS READS 0 323 1 author: Abduljaleel Alwali United Arab Emirates University 3 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Abduljaleel Alwali on 11 December 2018. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Interpretation in Muslim Philosophy By Prof. Abdul Jaleel Kadhim Al Wali Philosophy Department Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences United Arab Emirates University Al Ain Abu Dhabi UAE Phone: +971-50-663-6703 [email protected] Abstract Muslim philosophers had been preoccupied with the question of interpretation since the Islamic Philosophy was first developed by its founder Al Kindi till its interpretative maturity by Ibn Rushd who represents the maturity of rationalism in Islamic Arab philosophy. Rational option was the most suitable for Arab Muslim civilization as it expresses the vitality of civilization and its ability to interact with other contemporary civilizations and trends. Islamic philosophy interpretation themes are various as they adopted the following terms: 1. Interpreting the approval of the Greek philosophy in Muslim culture. 2. Interpreting the relationship between religion and philosophy. 3. Interpreting the relationship between Mind and Mind ( Plato and Aristotle ) 4. Interpreting the relationship between nature and Metaphysics. The goals of interpretation for Muslim philosophers are different as Al Kind pointed that they are oriented towards the Greek philosophy in general and towards religion and philosophy in particular while Al Farabi pointed that they are oriented towards the Greek philosophy in general and towards Plato and Aristotle.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Arabic Sciences: a Selected Bibliography
    THE HISTORY OF ARABIC SCIENCES: A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Mohamed ABATTOUY Fez University Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin A first version of this bibliography was presented to the Group Frühe Neuzeit (Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin) in April 1996. I revised and expanded it during a stay of research in MPIWG during the summer 1996 and in Fez (november 1996). During the Workshop Experience and Knowledge Structures in Arabic and Latin Sciences, held in the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin on December 16-17, 1996, a limited number of copies of the present Bibliography was already distributed. Finally, I express my gratitude to Paul Weinig (Berlin) for valuable advice and for proofreading. PREFACE The principal sources for the history of Arabic and Islamic sciences are of course original works written mainly in Arabic between the VIIIth and the XVIth centuries, for the most part. A great part of this scientific material is still in original manuscripts, but many texts had been edited since the XIXth century, and in many cases translated to European languages. In the case of sciences as astronomy and mechanics, instruments and mechanical devices still extant and preserved in museums throughout the world bring important informations. A total of several thousands of mathematical, astronomical, physical, alchemical, biologico-medical manuscripts survived. They are written mainly in Arabic, but some are in Persian and Turkish. The main libraries in which they are preserved are those in the Arabic World: Cairo, Damascus, Tunis, Algiers, Rabat ... as well as in private collections. Beside this material in the Arabic countries, the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, the Biblioteca del Escorial near Madrid, the British Museum and the Bodleian Library in England, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Süleymaniye and Topkapi Libraries in Istanbul, the National Libraries in Iran, India, Pakistan..
    [Show full text]
  • NICOLA POLLONI Gundissalinus and Avicenna
    NICOLA POLLONI Gundissalinus and Avicenna : Some Remarks on an Intricate Philosophical Connection Dominicus Gundissalinus is a peculiar figure in the twelfth-century cultural landscape. Born in the Iberian Peninsula between 1115 and 1125, he received his philosophical education in Chartres possibly under Thierry of Chartres and William of Conches as many traces in his original productions indicate1. At least since 1148, Gundissalinus was archdeacon of Cuéllar, a village not far from Segovia, where supposedly he was resident until 11612. Then, he moved to Toledo, where he was based from 1162. This fact is to be linked to the presence, in the Castilian town, of the Jewish philosopher Abraham ibn Daud. As pointed out by Bertolacci3, Ibn Daud’s translation of the prologue to Avicenna’s Liber sufficientiae — i.e., the Kitāb al-Šifāʾ — is to be seen as an invitation to the Toledan archbishop, John II, to sponsor and support a series of translations into Latin of Avicenna’s work. As a result, Gundissalinus arrived in Toledo, his presence probably required there by the same archbishop with the purpose of collaborating with Ibn Daud on the ‘Avicenna project’, the first accomplishment of which was the Latin translation of Avicenna’s De anima, realized before 11664. 1 SISMEL. EDIZIONI DEL GALLUZZO Cf. N. HÄRING, Thierry of Chartres and Dominicus Gundissalinus, « Mediaeval Studies », 26, 1964, pp. 271-286 ; K. M. FREDBORG, The Latin Rhetorical Commentaries by Thierry of Chartres, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto 1988 ; EAD., The Dependence of Petrus Helias’ Summa super Priscianum on William of Conches’ Glosae super Priscianum, « Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen Âge grec et latin », 11, 1973, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • The Islamic Connection
    THE ISLAMIC CONNECTION CONTRIBUTIONS MADE BY THE ARABS TO MATHEMATICS by John E. Sasser, Ph.D. COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2007 by John E. Sasser. All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. 2 The Arab Contribution to Mathematics CONTENTS Foreword...............................................……............... 4 Dedication..................................................…….......... 5 Preface........................................................…….......... 7 Map............................................................…….......... 9 List of Illustrations…………………………………... 10 Introduction..................................................……........ 11 The Search for Knowledge.....................…................. 23 Antiquity and the European Renaissance: Translations. Geometry: Geometric Constructions……………….. Trigonometry Direction Time NumberTheory: ……………………………………. The Hindu-Arabic Numeration System. Astronomy and the Calendar: Algebra: Conclusion..........................................……................. References........................................……................... Glossary……………………………………………... Index......................................................…….............. 3 The Arab Contribution to Mathematics FOREWORD This paper describes selected principal contributions to mathematics and the Arabs. Selection of appropriate examples to illustrate
    [Show full text]
  • Qusṭā Ibn Lūqā Al‐Baʿlabakkī
    From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 948-949 Courtesy of http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_1138 Qusṭā ibn Lūqā al‐Baʿlabakkī Elaheh Kheirandish Alternate name Costa ben Luca Born Baʿlabakk, (Lebanon), probably circa 820 Died (Armenia), probably circa 912–913 Qusṭā ibn Lūqā (Constantine, son of Loukas), a scholar of Greek Christian origin working in Islamic lands in the 9th century, did work in astronomy that included translations of Greek astronomical works and original compositions. In addition, he composed and translated mathematical, medical, and philosophical works. Qusṭā's scholarly reputation extended far and wide, and he was noted for his scientific achievements (especially in medicine, where his authority surpassed Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq according to the bibliographer Ibn al‐Nadīm [died: circa 990]). He reportedly collected Greek scientific manuscripts from Byzantine lands; his translations and revisions of these formed an important part of his scholarly activities. Qusṭā was fluent in Greek (as well as Syriac), as demanded by his scientific translations, and he also mastered Arabic, a language in which he produced many original scientific compositions. Qusṭā's scholarly career, which was centered in Baghdad, is notable for his association with numerous patrons, who are particularly important for establishing his biography as well as the chronology of his work. These include various members of the ʿAbbāsid caliphal family, government officials, and a Christian patriarch; the most likely interpretation of the evidence places the bulk of his work in the second half of the 9th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Civilization: Astronomers, Mathematicians, Geographers
    Selected Astronomers, Mathematicians, Geographers, and Cartographers in Islamic Civilization A website list of astronomers, mathematicians, geographers and cartographers within Islamic civilization is compiled below, whose cultures came from the Middle East, Central Asia, Spain and North Africa during and after the classical age of Islam, with Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or Sabean faith backgrounds. The SALAM Library also has resource books with encyclopedic articles or essays about the topic. A more comprehensive glossary of scientists including the names below appears in Jim Al- Khalili’s The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance. New York: Penguin, 2011. Astronomers: Al- Battani - https://www.famousscientists.org/al-battani/ Al- Biruni - https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Biruni Al- Fadl ibn Nawbakht - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Fadl_ibn_Naubakht Al- Farghani - http://www.muslimheritage.com/scholars/al-farghani Al- Fazari - http://www.muslimheritage.com/scholars/ibrahim-al-fazari Ibn al- Haythem - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ibn-al-Haytham Masha’Allah (Manasseh) - http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/843096 Ibn al- Shatir- http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095955504 http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ibn_al-Shatir_BEA.htm Al-Shirazi -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qutb_al-Din_al-Shirazi Ibn Sina - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Avicenna Nasr al-Din al-Tusi- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nasir-al-Din-al-Tusi al –Urdi- http://www.muslimheritage.com/scholars/al-urdi
    [Show full text]
  • Development of a Science and a Profession
    LEGACY OF ARABIC MEDICINE Medieval Islamic Pharmacy Development of a science and a profession – Written by David W. Tschanz, USA No one knows when the first medicine various effects; natural history more than lost, especially in the field of health. Medical was made in the hopes of curing an illness, ‘pharmacy’ as we understand it today. practitioners were driven by a hadith of the only that it was so long ago the answer By the start of the 7th century CE, Europe Prophet: is lost in the mists of prehistory. What is and much of the Near East was mired “Allah never inflicts a disease unless he known is that the development of medicines in a morass of intellectual stagnation. makes a cure for it” pharmaceuticals has continued without The ravages of the barbarian hordes had This placed the responsibility for interruption, though with many fits and destroyed the libraries and irreplaceable discovering these cures and restoring health starts, since then. manuscripts collected over the centuries. on the skills and development of medical In the pre-Islamic West and Middle East The achievements of a thousand years of practitioners. early medicine was primarily a fusion of Hellenistic civilization in the arts, sciences Greek, Indian, Persian and later Roman and humanities were erased in a paroxysm THE RISE OF PHARMACY STUDIES attention that had slowly progressed over of destruction. Within a century of the death of the the better part of a millennia. Texts on By mid-century the rise of Islam and Prophet, a systematic approach to the medications were common but most of its hallmark thirst for knowledge and study of poisons and some drugs was being these materia medica were simply lists openness to discovery began the saving and undertaken at the Umayyad court.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Islamic Science
    History of Islamic Science George Sarton‟s Tribute to Muslim Scientists in the “Introduction to the History of Science,” ”It will suffice here to evoke a few glorious names without contemporary equivalents in the West: Jabir ibn Haiyan, al-Kindi, al-Khwarizmi, al-Fargani, Al-Razi, Thabit ibn Qurra, al-Battani, Hunain ibn Ishaq, al-Farabi, Ibrahim ibn Sinan, al-Masudi, al-Tabari, Abul Wafa, ‘Ali ibn Abbas, Abul Qasim, Ibn al-Jazzar, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, Ibn Yunus, al-Kashi, Ibn al-Haitham, ‘Ali Ibn ‘Isa al- Ghazali, al-zarqab,Omar Khayyam. A magnificent array of names which it would not be difficult to extend. If anyone tells you that the Middle Ages were scientifically sterile, just quote these men to him, all of whom flourished within a short period, 750 to 1100 A.D.” Preface On 8 June, A.D. 632, the Prophet Mohammed (Peace and Prayers be upon Him) died, having accomplished the marvelous task of uniting the tribes of Arabia into a homogeneous and powerful nation. In the interval, Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, the whole North Africa, Gibraltar and Spain had been submitted to the Islamic State, and a new civilization had been established. The Arabs quickly assimilated the culture and knowledge of the peoples they ruled, while the latter in turn - Persians, Syrians, Copts, Berbers, and others - adopted the Arabic language. The nationality of the Muslim thus became submerged, and the term Arab acquired a linguistic sense rather than a strictly ethnological one. As soon as Islamic state had been established, the Arabs began to encourage learning of all kinds.
    [Show full text]
  • The Birth of the Science of Weights
    The Arabic Transformation of Mechanics: The Birth of the Science of Weights IMPORTANT NOTICE: Author: Prof. Dr. Mohammed Abattouy Chief Editor: Prof. Dr. Mohamed El-Gomati All rights, including copyright, in the content of this document are owned or controlled for these purposes by FSTC Limited. In Production: Savas Konur accessing these web pages, you agree that you may only download the content for your own personal non-commercial use. You are not permitted to copy, broadcast, download, store (in any medium), transmit, show or play in public, adapt or Release Date: November 2006 change in any way the content of this document for any other purpose whatsoever without the prior written permission of FSTC Publication ID: 615 Limited. Material may not be copied, reproduced, republished, Copyright: © FSTC Limited, 2006 downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way except for your own personal non-commercial home use. Any other use requires the prior written permission of FSTC Limited. You agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any of the material contained in this document or use it for any other purpose other than for your personal non-commercial use. FSTC Limited has taken all reasonable care to ensure that pages published in this document and on the MuslimHeritage.com Web Site were accurate at the time of publication or last modification. Web sites are by nature experimental or constantly changing. Hence information published may be for test purposes only, may be out of date, or may be the personal opinion of the author. Readers should always verify information with the appropriate references before relying on it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn Al-Nafīs
    PULMONARY TRANSIT AND BODILY RESURRECTION: THE INTERACTION OF MEDICINE, PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION IN THE WORKS OF IBN AL-NAF ĪS (D. 1288) A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Nahyan A.G. Fancy ________________________________ Phillip R. Sloan, Director ________________________________ Ahmad Dallal, Director Graduate Program in the History and Philosophy of Science Notre Dame, Indiana December 2006 PULMONARY TRANSIT AND BODILY RESURRECTION: THE INTERACTION OF MEDICINE, PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION IN THE WORKS OF IBN AL-NAF ĪS (D. 1288) Abstract by Nahyan A.G. Fancy Traditionally, historians of science have only been interested in Islamic science because of its relationship to Greek science, and in the ways in which it was instrumental in transporting Aristotle, Ptolemy and Galen to the West. Moreover, the successes and failures of Islamic science have been judged according to the metric of the Scientific Revolution. As such, the actual context of the works of Islamic scientists and physicians has been overlooked, thereby producing a skewed picture of science in Islamic societies. This dissertation seeks to correct this picture by placing Islamic medicine firmly within its context. In the process, it provides a new framework with which to understand the relationship between reason and revelation in Islamic societies, and suggests new ways to revisit the entire problem of the decline of Islamic science. The dissertation specifically examines the corpus of writings of an Egyptian physician-jurist, Ibn al-Naf īs (d. 1288), best known to Western historians of science as the discoverer of the pulmonary circulation of blood.
    [Show full text]
  • Development of Sciences in Muslim Spain T
    DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCES IN MUSLIM SPAIN ABSTRACT *<>£ TNESIS SubiviiTTEd FOR TNE DEQREE of itftttfr nf piftl000jrijB i» ISLAMIC STUDIES Sy Aicm Malifi %han UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. M. SALIM KIDWAI T- S*°3° DEPARTMENT OF ISLAMIC STUDIES ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 1997 Spain had remained a part of Muslim world with its conquest by the Muslims in 711 A.D. till the downfall of their rule in 149? A.D. During this period of about eight hundred years many dynasties established there and rul«»d either on the whole peninsula or a part of it. Muslim Spain is also remarkable for the contributions of its scholars to various fields of learnings. These include the Islamic Sciences, the language and literature and other sciences, such as mathematics, medicine, geography, botany, agronomy, astronomy and others. Earlier, various nations, civilizations and races had worked on either all or some of them. However, having become in need of their development they continued to work and made inventions and discoveries. The Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the Romans, Mayas, the Hindus and the Japanies are the most important civilizations and nations among them. The beginning of these sciences is traced back to about 2700 B.C. when, it is said that the Babylonians started contributing to the field of mathematics. All these civilizations produced various scholars who worked on different fields. With the establishment of Muslim society they also started contributing to all the branches of learning. The development of sciences in Muslim Spain is said to be started with the introduction of the Rasa'il of Ikhwan 2 al-safa' by al-Majriti.
    [Show full text]