Aristotle's logic first became known in the Middle East through the medium of the Syriac language at a time prior to the rise of classical Arabic philosophy. The present volume makes available for the first time the earliest Syriac translation (sixth century AD) of the Categories, which is here edited together with an English translation, analytical commentary, glossaries and indices. The availability of such an important early work will enable the beginnings of the Semitic Aristotelian tradition to be studied more comprehensively. This will open the way to a better understanding of both the...

The Letter before the Spirit contains original articles based on the papers given at the Huygens ING (The Hague, 2009) on the importance of text editions for the study of the transmission of Aristotle's works in the Semitico-Latin translations and their commentary tradition in the medieval world. Authors underline this importance in general overviews and theoretical outlines and present their own work on various text editions, ranging from Syriac and Arabic to Hebrew and (Graeco) Latin, and from Aristotle, Avicenna and Averroes to Plotinus, Michael Scot, William of Moerbeke, Judah...

Aristotle's Physics and Its Reception in the Arabic World presents a survey of what Arabic philosophers, as commentators of Aristotle's Physics, have contributed to philosophy and science in the Middle Ages. It investigates to what extent they influenced one another and to what extent they were influenced by previous Greek commentators. Besides Ibn Bājja's commentary on the Physics, which had up to now only partially been edited, the commentaries of Ibn as-Samḥ, Abū Bisr Mattā, Abū l-Faraj ibn aṭ-ṭayyib and Ibn Rusd are...

The physician and commentator Sergius of Reshaina (d. 536) composed two related texts in Syriac about the philosophy of Aristotle, chiefly dealing with themes discussed by Aristotle in his Categories, but also with his teaching on space as found in the Physics. This book presents a critical edition and English translation of the shorter of these texts. A survey of Sergius' life and works is given in the introduction and the intellectual context of his education in Alexandria is outlined, with focus on the medical and philosophical curricula of the Alexandrian school. Sergius'...

Aristotle’s Historia Animalium is one of the most famous and influential zoological works that was ever written. It was translated into Arabic in the 9th century CE together with Aristotle’s other zoological works, On the Generation of Animals and On the Parts of Animals. As a result, the influence of Aristotelian zoology is widely traceable in classical Arabic literary culture and thought. The Arabic translation found its way into Europe through the 13th-century Latin translation by Michael Scotus, which was extensively used by medieval European scholars. A critical edition of the Arabic...

Themistius’ (4th century CE) paraphrase of Aristotle’s Metaphysics 12 is the earliest surviving complete account of this seminal work. Despite leaving no identifiable mark in Late Antiquity, Themistius’ paraphrase played a dramatic role in shaping the metaphysical landscape of Medieval Arabic and Hebrew philosophy and theology. Lost in Greek, and only partially surviving in Arabic, its earliest full version is in the form of a 13th century Hebrew translation. In this volume, Yoav Meyrav offers a new critical edition of the Hebrew translation and the Arabic fragments of Themistius’...

Aristotle's De Animalibus was an important source of zoological knowledge for the ancient Greeks and for medieval Arabs and Europeans. In the thirteenth century, the work was twice translated into Latin. One translation was produced directly from the Greek by William of Moerbeke. An earlier translation, made available as a critical edition in the present volume for the first time, was produced through an intermediary Arabic translation (Kitāb al-Ḥayawān) by Michael Scot (1175 - c. 1232). Scot's translation was one of the main sources of knowledge on animals in Europe and widely used...