Aristotle from York to Basra An investigation into the simultaneous study of Aristotle’s Categories in the Carolingian, the Byzantine and the Abbasid worlds by Erik Hermans A dissertation submitted in partial ful@illment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Institute for the Study of the AnCient World New York University May, 2016 _________________________ Robert Hoyland © Erik Hermans All Rights Reserved, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the produCt of a new and interdisCiplinary graduate program at the Institute for the Study of the AnCient World (ISAW) at New York University. Without the vision and generosity of Leon Levy and Shelby White ISAW would not have existed and this dissertation would not have been written. I am therefore greatly indebted to these philanthropists. At ISAW I was able to Create my own graduate CurriCulum, whiCh allowed me to expand my horizon as a ClassiCist and explore the riChness of Western Europe, Byzantium and the Middle East in the early medieval period. My aCademiC endeavors as a graduate student would not have been successful without the reliable, helpful and impeCCable guidanCe of Roger Bagnall. Without him AmeriCan aCademia would still be a labyrinth for me. I Consider myself very fortunate to have an interdisCiplinary Committee of supervisors from different institutions. Helmut Reimitz of PrinCeton University and John Duffy of Harvard University have voluntarily Committed themselves to the supervision of both my Comprehensive exams and my dissertation. I would like to thank them deeply for their time and assistanCe. However, I am most indebted to my primary advisor, Robert Hoyland. He introduCed me to the wealth of Middle Eastern Yiii history and Comparative history as well as the beauty of GreCo-ArabiCa. His original analyses and humor have improved the quality of this dissertation immensely. Conversations with different friends and Colleagues in both Nijmegen (NL) and New York City have helped me shape my thoughts and sharpen the analyses that lie at the roots of this dissertation. In Nijmegen, I would like to thank Roald Dijkstra, Leon Groenewegen and Olivier Hekster in partiCular for their Comments and ideas. My time at ISAW would not have been the same without two of my fellow graduate students, Jonathan Valk and Randolph Ford, whose ideas, Comments, and humor have in@luenCed almost every aspeCt of this dissertation as well as my views as a historian in general. I would also like to thank my parents, Eke Hermans-Stoop and Frank Hermans, whose ideas have always meant muCh to me. The same is true for my mother-in-law, Cahide Cayir. Most importantly, the way this dissertation and my life as a graduate student have evolved would not have been conceivable without the endless support and love of my dearest wife, Sezgi Hermans. East Village, New York City November 14 2015 Yiv ABSTRACT In the eighth and ninth centuries CE intellectuals in three different societies were studying the same ClassiCal text in three different languages. In Western Europe, Carolingian intellectuals were studying the Categories of Aristotle in Latin, while in Byzantium Contemporary sCholars were reading it in Greek and in the Middle East Abbasid sCholars did so in ArabiC. My dissertation addresses the question of why the Categories was studied at the same time in these three different Culturo-politiCal worlds. The primary sourCes that I use inClude paraphrases and translations of the Categories that are found in the works of John of DamasCus and Photius in the Byzantine world, AlCuin and John SCottus Eriugena in the Carolingian world and Ibn Al-Muqaffaʿ and Al-Kindī in the IslamiC world. Rather than providing an analysis of the philosophiCal interpretations of the Categories by any of these intelleCtuals, I explore the possible explanations of the simultaneous study of the Categories, such as direct contact between these scholars, movement of manuscripts and CoinCidenCe. I ConClude that the most likely explanation is that the late Roman eduCational CurriCulum whiCh was established by the sixth Century and whiCh inCluded Aristotle’s Categories, continued to exert its inluence in all three cultural zones. As a result, I argue that early medieval sCholars living as far apart as England and Iraq had a similar intelleCtual horizon in whiCh exposure to Aristotelian logiC in sChools played an important role. Yv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iii AbstrAct v List of TAbles vii Introduction 1 A remarkable similarity 2 A holistiC approaCh to the early Middle Ages 4 Methodology 13 The Categories in Antiquity 20 ChApter I: IntellectuAls Around 750 CE 30 John of DamasCus 31 Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ 45 What was happening in Western Europe? 77 ChApter II: IntellectuAls Around 800 CE 83 The council of 787 84 AlCuin 94 NiCephorus, Theodore the Studite 114 What was happening in the Caliphate? 132 ChApter III: IntellectuAls Around 850 CE 137 al-Kindī 138 Photius 159 John SCottus Eriugena 173 Chapter IV: The Categories from York to BAsrA 186 Answering the primary questions 187 Hypothesis I: exChange of texts 189 Hypothesis II: simultaneous renaissanCes 202 Hypothesis III: a Common eduCational CurriCulum 208 ConClusion 233 BibliogrAphy 236 Yvi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The Fourfold Classi@iCation 21 Table 2: The Tenfold Classi@iCation 21 Table 3: The Categories in the Manṭiq 68 Table 4: The Tenfold Classi@iCation in the Manṭiq 72 Table 5: The Tenfold Classi@iCation in AlCuin’s De Dialectica 106 Table 6: The Tenfold Classi@iCation in Al-Kindī’s On the Quantity (…) 155 Table 7: Photius’ Clear Summary 170 Table 8: The Tenfold Classi@iCation in Eriugena’ Periphyseon 182 Yvii INTRODUCTION Y1 A REMARKABLE SIMILARITY In the middle of the ninth Century three different intelleCtuals were studying the same text at the same time. A trained historian who reads the previous sentenCe might think that starting one’s dissertation with suCh a seemingly trivial observation is an odd ChoiCe. After all, one of the fundamental CharaCteristiCs of intelleCtuals in most historiCal soCieties is their aCtive inquiry into texts and manusCripts. Moreover, the faCt that Contemporary intelleCtuals were studying the same text is not a speCial phenomenon either: intelleCtuals who were part of the same disCourse often shared an interest in the same texts. SuCh intelleCtual disCourses took plaCe among individuals who either spoke the same language or who were part of the same Community. However, the three ninth-century intelleCtuals in question were not part of the same Community. They did not interaCt with eaCh other and they did not even know about eaCh other’s existenCe. More importantly, they lived in different states where different languages were used. Consequently, the faCt that they were still studying the same text at the same time is not trivial, but, instead, remarkable. The three intelleCtuals were John SCottus Eriugena, Photius and Al-Kindī. Eriugena (Ca. 815 - Ca. 877) was aCtive in the Carolingian Empire and wrote all of his works in Latin. Photius (Ca. 810 - Ca. 893) lived in Constantinople, the Capital of the Byzantine Empire, and wrote in Greek. Al-Kindī (Ca. 801 - Ca. 873) Composed his oeuvre in ArabiC and worked all his life in Baghdad, the Capital of the Caliphate. In Y2 others words, these three scholars were active in three different worlds that were separated by political, geographical and linguistic boundaries. It is therefore not surprising that they were eaCh part of separate intelleCtual Communities in whiCh different texts were studied and produced. Nevertheless, what is surprising is the faCt that, despite these differenCes, they eaCh studied the same ClassiCal text: a treatise by the anCient philosopher Aristotle (384 - 322 BCE), known as the Categories. Eriugena used the Categories to de@ine the attributes of God in his treatise the Periphyseon. At the same time in Constantinople, Photius deCided that the Categories was the only ClassiCal text worthy of being paraphrased in its entirety as part of his theological work the Amphilochia. Several hundred miles southeast, Al- Kindī was writing a short primer that explained to his students whiCh texts they had to read in order to beCome philosophers. The one text to whiCh Al-Kindī gave most prominenCe in this primer was also the Categories of Aristotle. Furthermore, Eriugena, Photius and Al-Kindī were not the only ones in their language tradition to study this treatise. In the generations before them sCholars like AlCuin, John of DamasCus and Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ had studied the same treatise in Latin, Greek and ArabiC. The simultaneous interest in the Categories of Aristotle in three different early medieval soCieties is remarkable and requires an interdisCiplinary investigation that has not yet been ConduCted. This dissertation aims to @ill that gap in scholarship. Y3 A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES From Ancient unity to eArly medievAl frAgmentAtion In this dissertation, I will inquire into the eighth and ninth century study of Aristotle’s Categories in an interdisciplinary fashion. My investigation will cover the Carolingian, the Byzantine and the Abbasid worlds equally. I will use primary sourCes in Latin, Greek and ArabiC and inClude intelleCtuals that lived as far apart as York in the British Isles and Basra in Iraq. This Comprehensive approaCh forCes me to transCend the boundaries of Conventional historiCal disCiplines. Nevertheless, a study that includes regions as far as apart as the British Isles and Iraq is not neCessarily interdisCiplinary. For example, a dissertation on the provinCial struCtures of the Roman Empire in the third Century, whiCh stretChed from Iraq to The British Isles, would not be Considered interdisCiplinary: the Roman Empire is studied as a whole within the modern disCiplines of ClassiCs and AnCient History. The study of the early Middle Ages, however, is more Compartmentalized.