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Empedocles (Albino Nagy, Di alcuni scritti attribuiti ad Empedocle, Rendiconti della Reale Academia dei The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Lincei. Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filo- Empedocles (c. 490–430 B.C.E.) was logiche, ser. 5, 1901, 10:307–20, 325–44). known in the Muslim world as Anbaduqlīs One of our main sources for this ps.- (his name appears in other variants, includ- Empedocles, probably the oldest one, is ing Ambīduqlīs, Ibn Duqlīs, Anfāriqlūs, the “Book by Ammonius on the opin- and even Benīdīdīs). Authentic fragments ions of the philosophers” ( Kitāb Amūniyūs of Empedocles’ poems were transmitted fī ārā al-falāsifa, ed. Ulrich Rudolph, Die in Arabic through citations in the works Doxographie des Pseudo-Ammonius. Ein Beitrag of Aristotle and his commentators. The zur neuplatonischen Überlieferung im Islam , translations were often very defective, Stuttgart 1989). Presenting Empedocles as Arab translators generally felt uneasy as one of the seven “pillars of wisdom” with Greek verse. The Arabs had some (asāīn al-ikma) —distinct from the famous knowledge of Empedoclean doctrines also Seven Sages of Greece—along with other through Greek doxographies, such as the pre-Socratics, such as Pythagoras, Thales, Placita philosophorum of Aetius (Hans Dai- and Heraclitus, this work appears to be ber, Aetius Arabus. Die Vorsokratiker in arabis- an Islamicised paraphrase of a lost dox- cher Überlieferung , Wiesbaden 1980), but the ography of Late Antiquity, in which ele- Arabic Empedocles was mainly a “Pseudo- ments borrowed from the Refutatio omnium Empedocles.” Arabic works belonging to hæresium of Hippolytus (d. c. 235 C.E.) are various genres—doxography, history of combined with a Neoplatonic interpreta- philosophy, Shīī-Ismāīlī theology, ūfism, tion of pre-Socratic philosophy. The dox- heresiography, and magic—ascribe to ography of ps.-Ammonius (d. c. 520 C.E.) Anbaduqlīs Neoplatonic doctrines mixed was used extensively by al-Shahrastānī with Islamic elements. They are said to be (d. 548/1153), who copied almost the taken from a book written by Empedocles, entire text in his Kit āb al-milal wa-l-nial . for which various titles are given, none His chapter on Empedocles, however, of which is known from Greek tradition also contains additional ps.-Empedoclean empedocles 143 material, probably taken from a longer ver- ter arising from an itacist rendering of sion of ps.-Ammonius or directly from the νεῖκος (strife), in the Empedoclean dyad latter’s source (al-Shahrastānī, Livre des reli- φιλία–νεῖκος, as νῖκος (victory)—which gions et des sectes, trans. Daniel Gimaret and determine all events in the sublunary Guy Monnot, 2 vols., Leuven and Paris world. The human soul is part of the uni- 1986–93, 2:193–200). Closely related to versal soul fallen into matter. Through ps.-Ammonius is the section on the history the teaching of divine messengers, the of philosophy in the Kitāb al-amad alā l-abad soul may remember its celestial origin, by Abū l-asan al-Āmirī (d. 381/992). be purified of the corruption of the mate- According to al-Āmirī, Anbaduqlīs was a rial world, and survive after the death of disciple of the Qurānic sage Luqmān and the body. This doctrine of Anbaduqlīs a contemporary of the prophet Dāwūd reflects a late Neoplatonic interpretation (David). In Syria he learned philosophy of Empedocles’ philosophy, close parallels from “the niche of prophecy” (mishkāt al- to which are found in the works of Proclus nubuwwa) , and he introduced this philo- (d. 485 C.E.), Simplicius (fl. c. 530 C.E.) sophical teaching subsequently in Greece and John Philoponus (d. c. 570 C.E.). (Everett K. Rowson, A Muslim philosopher Ps.-Empedocles also influenced Mus- on the soul and its fate. Al-Āmirī’s Kitāb al- lim philosophers belonging to the Ishrāq amad alā l-abad , New Haven 1988, 70). (Illuminationism) tradition—in particu- Because no text attributed to Anbaduqlīs lar, al-Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191) and has survived in Arabic, we have only indi- al-Shahrazūrī (d. after 687/1288)—and rect reports about his doctrine, but David to the Shīī “School of Isfahan” (of which Kaufmann (Studien über Salomon Ibn Gabirol , Mullā adrā, d. c. 1050/1640, was the Budapest 1899) discovered in three Jewish leading philosopher; cf. Daniel De Smet, Le works of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- souffle du Miséricordieux (Nafas ar-Ramān) . turies large fragments from a “Book on the Un élément pseudo-empédocléen dans la five substances” ascribed to Empedocles. métaphysique de Mullā adrā aš-Šīrāzī, These Hebrew fragments, translated from Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medi- Arabic, propound the same doctrine as do evale 10, 1999, 467–86), as well as medi- the Muslim reports on ps.-Empedocles. aeval Jewish philosophers (the Fons vitae Professing the absolute unity of God of Ibn Gabirol [Avicebron], d. c. 1058 (tawīd) and His remoteness from cre- C.E.; ed. and trans. Marienza Benedetto, ated being, Anbaduqlīs thought that God Fonte della vita , Milan 2007). A direct influ- created (abda a) by His will (irāda) Prime ence of ps.-Empedocles on the Andalusian Matter ( unur), out of which emanate, mystic Ibn Masarra (d. 319/931), claimed in a descending hierarchy, four cosmic by Miguel Asín Palacios ( Abenmasarra y principles—Intellect, Soul, Nature, and su escuela, Madrid 1914, trans. Elmer H. Secondary Matter—and the four elements Douglas and Howard W. Yoder, The mys- of the sublunary world. Every principle is tical philosophy of Ibn Masarra and his follow- moved upwards by the desire to return to ers, Leiden 1978), is difficult to establish, the cause of its existence and ultimately in the absence of strong textual evidence to the First Cause. This cosmic process (Samuel Miklós Stern, Ibn Masarra, fol- is animated by two opposing forces, love lower of Pseudo-Empedocles. An illusion, (maabba) and victory (ghalaba) —the lat- Actas do IV Congresso de Estudos Árabes e 144 empedocles

Islâmicos (Leiden 1971), 325–37; De Smet, cal philosophy in al-Andalus. Ibn Masarra Empedocles Arabus , 17–9; J. Vahid Brown, and his Epistle on contemplation, JSAI 36, Andalusī mysticism. A recontextualiza- 2009, 201–53, esp. 207–11). tion, Journal of Islamic Philosophy 2, 2006, 69–101). Nevertheless, both share a ver- Bibliography sion of Islamic Neoplatonism that may Daniel De Smet, Empedocles Arabus. Une lecture derive from common sources (Sarah néoplatonicienne tardive , Brussels 1998 ; Fuat Stroumsa, Ibn Masarra and the begin- Sezgin (ed.), (Pseudo-) Empedocles in the Ara- bic tradition. Texts and studies , Frankfurt am nings of mystical thought in al-Andalus, Main 2000 (contains reprints of the works in Peter Schäfer, ed., Wege mystischer Got- of Kaufmann, Nagy, and Asín Palacios cited teserfahrung. Judentum, Christentum und Islam , in the article). Munich 2006, 97–112; Sarah Stroumsa Daniel De Smet and Sara Sviri, The beginnings of mysti-