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The Arabic Hermes from Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science

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The Arabic Hermes from Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science The Arabic Hermes oxford studies in late antiquity Series Editor Ralph Mathisen Late Antiquity has unifi ed what in the past were disparate disciplinary, chronological, and geographical areas of study. Welcoming a wide array of methodological approaches, this book series provides a venue for the fi nest new scholarship on the period, ranging from the later Roman empire to the Byzantine, Sasanid, early Islamic, and early Carolingian worlds. The Arabic Hermes From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science Kevin van Bladel 1 2009 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bladel, Kevin Thomas van. The Arabic Hermes : from pagan sage to prophet of science / by Kevin van Bladel. p. cm.—(Oxford studies in late antiquity) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-537613-5 1. Hermes, Trismegistus. 2. Hermes, Trismegistus—Appreciation—Arab countries. 3. Theosophy. 4. Gnosticism. 5. Science, Ancient. I. Title. BF1598.H5B53 2009 135'.45—dc22 2008050497 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Preface This is the fi rst in-depth study devoted to Hermes Trismegistus—the legendary ancient Egyptian sage to whom numerous works on astrology, alchemy, talismans, medicine, and wisdom were attributed—as he is represented in early Arabic litera- ture. By comparison with the now-standard work on the ancient Greek Hermetica (Fowden a), built on decades and even centuries of modern research, this book is a foray into relatively uncharted territories. Readers who are already familiar with the ancient Greek and Latin Hermetica (works attributed to Hermes) will be aware that they played a signifi cant role in the development of late antique thought, both pagan and Christian, and later formed part of the very foundation of medieval, Renaissance, and modern occultism in Europe. The substantial and widespread Arabic tradition of Hermetica, however, has never received much attention, despite a general awareness among Arabists that these Arabic Hermetica did exist and were infl uential. For specialists in Greek and Latin who have little interest in Arabic tradi- tion as such, the Arabic Hermetica promise to contain important information related to and bearing on their own subjects. The myth of Hermes Trismegistus also serves as a prime example of the complicated and wide-ranging adaptation of ancient Greek learning in early Arabic that commenced in the eighth century. The project began with simple questions. Who did early Arabic writers think Hermes Trismegistus was, and how did they arrive at this concept? What is the rela- tionship of the numerous works attributed to Hermes surviving in Arabic manu- scripts to the better-known Greek and Latin Hermetica? Are the Arabic Hermetica in fact translations of Greek works, or are they inventions in Arabic? In the latter case, what motivated their authors to attribute these texts to Hermes? No deter- mined and comprehensive attempt had hitherto been made to answer these ques- tions, despite the scholarly interest and even popularity of the ancient Hermetica among European and American scholars for several centuries. With a number of important exceptions, I have found mostly speculation about the Arabic Hermetica in scholarly literature. As the project developed, it became clear that the edition, translation, and study of the still mostly unpublished Arabic Hermetica, upon which vi Preface basis several of these questions could be answered—if they could ever be answered— would also require extensive prolegomena. Many preliminary problems required attention before a direct study of the Arabic Hermetica would be feasible. Some of these problems were already present in early Arabic literature, but others were the result of unintentionally misleading modern scholarship. My attempts to obtain a clear basis of understanding have resulted in this book. A second book, well into preparation, is to follow this one, including an inven- tory of the actual texts attributed to Hermes in Arabic, most of which are still in manuscript, an outline of their chronology, and descriptions of the contents of the majority of them. In short, the work to follow will be a study of the Arabic Hermetica, whereas the present book is a study of the Arabic Hermes, the legendary author and his myth, and the conduits through which Hermes became known in Arabic literary tradition. Acknowledgments It is my sincere pleasure to thank the many individuals and institutions that have helped me in this project. Thanks fi rst to Ralph Mathisen for accepting the book in his series, to Stefan Vranka of Oxford University Press for facilitating the entire process, and to the copy editors at the press for their careful work. For various assis- tance by supplying bibliographical or primary source references or discussing with me matters dealt with herein, I am grateful to Mohsen Ashtiany, Persis Berlekamp, Vahid Brown, John Darnell, Racha El-Omari, Garth Fowden, Beatrice Gruendler, Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, Stephan Heilen, Tariq Jaffer, Richard Jasnow, Aaron Johnson, Todd Krulak, Martin Mulsow, Na‘ama Pat-El, David Porreca, Annette Reed, David Reisman, Gabriel Reynolds, Ramzi Rouighi, Shaul Shaked, Isabel Toral- Niehoff, Paul E. Walker, Steven Wasserstrom, Edward Watts, Christian Wildberg, Witold Witakowski, and all who attended the Yale Arabic Colloquium on December , . I would like to single out for special thanks Emilie Savage-Smith for provid- ing detailed information about several Hermetic manuscripts that had escaped my attention; Shawkat Toorawa for his successful search on my behalf, in the middle of his own research and restrictions of time, in the Asafi yah library in Hyderabad; and Hossein Kamaly for his invaluable delivery of reproductions of Hermetic manu- scripts in Iran, also while pressed by his own research and time limits. The anony- mous readers for the press deserve thanks of their own for helpful suggestions on drafts of the book. Some of these colleagues will see the full fruit of their assistance not in this book, but in the one to follow. The late Franz Rosenthal from the outset gave his encouragement and allowed me to photocopy the relevant section of his handwritten and unpublished edition of al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik’s Muhtār al-ḥikam (on this abortive edition see Rosenthal –), which helped my work on the wise sayings of Hermes. Paolo Lucentini introduced me to current European scholarship on Hermetic traditions by gener- ously facilitating my visit to the Convegno Internazionale sulla Tradizione Ermetica dal Mondo Tardo-Antico all’Umanesimo in November of . I thank him again for his hospitality then. Everett Rowson, Charles Burnett, and Alexander Treiger viii Acknowledgments deserve special thanks for reading different drafts of the manuscript very closely and offering numerous critical suggestions for improvement and crucial bibliographic assistance. Most of all, I am grateful to Dimitri Gutas, whose historical understand- ing and linguistic expertise made him an ideal mentor for me as I wrote the PhD dissertation from which this book has grown (Hermes Arabicus, Yale University ). His demand for precision and his eye for detail saved me from countless mistakes. Despite the assistance of so many friends and teachers, this book remains my own, along with all the errors lingering in it. My gratitude is also due to the Beinecke Rare Book Library for a summer fellow- ship and to the Yale Graduate School for support with a John F. Enders Fellowship and a Robert M. Leylan Fellowship in the early stages of the work. A National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend awarded in helped me to collect quite a few more reproductions of Arabic Hermetic texts in manuscript. Any views, fi ndings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily refl ect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. A semester as a member in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, in the fall of , and my term as a Visiting Research Scholar at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World beginning in January of , made for excellent conditions for thoroughly revising and increasing substantially what I had written. Shilarna Stokes, my wife, has helped to make my life a better one than it was when I began this project. Without her encouragement and patience this would have taken even longer to publish. Her suggestions to improve the clarity of the text have touched on many pages. And to my parents, who never dissuaded me from a career in such arcane matters, I dedicate the work. Contents Note on Documentation
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