THE TRANSLATORS
One of the first and most significant indications of the new
orientation of Muslim thought was the extensive production of Arabic
translations of works dealing with philosophical and scientific
subjects, with the result that eighty years after the fall of the
`Umayyads the Arabic speaking world possessed Arabic translations of
the greater part of the works of Aristotle, of the leading neo-Platonic
commentators, of some of the works of Plato, of the greater part
of the works of Galen, and portions of other medical writers and
their commentators, as well as of other Greek scientific works and
of various Indian and Persian writings. This period of activity in
translating falls into two stages, the first from the accession of the
Abbasids to the accession of al-Ma´mun (A.H. 132-198), when a large
amount of work was done by various independent translators, largely
Christians, Jews, and recent converts from non-Islamic religions; the
second under al-Ma´mun and his immediate successors, when the work of
translation mainly centered in the academy newly founded at Baghdad,
and a consistent effort was made to render the material necessary for
philosophical and scientific research available for the Arabic speaking
student.
The earlier translation work is especially associated with _`Abdullah
b. al-Muqaffa`_, a native of Fars and originally a Zoroastrian, who
made his profession of faith before a brother of Muhammad b. `Ali,
the father of as-Saffah, and became his secretary. Presuming on his
employer’s protection he ventured to make derisive and impertinent
remarks to Arab dignitaries and especially to Sufyan, the governor of
Basra, whom he used to salute with a lewd jest against his mother’s
chastity. It seems that men of Arab birth who held political office
under the early `Abbasids often had to put up with such insults from
the ex-serfs. After an unsuccessful attempt at revolt by another of the
Khalif’s uncles Ibn al-Muqaffa` was directed to prepare a draft letter
of pardon to be presented to the Khalif al-Mansur, who succeeded his
brother as-Saffah, for his official seal, but he drew up the letter
in such terms as to arouse the Khalif’s indignation; amongst other
things the letter said, “if at any time the Commander of the Faithful
act perfidiously towards his uncle `Abdullah b. `Ali, his wives shall
be divorced from him, his horses shall be confiscated for the service
of God (in war), his slaves shall become free, and the Muslims loosed
from their allegiance to him.” The Khalif enquired who had prepared
this letter and on being informed directed Sufyan to put him to death.
Pleased thus to gratify his personal rancour the governor of Basra
executed Ibn al-Muqaffa` with great cruelty, though the details differ
in different accounts, in A.H. 142 or 143.
Although conforming to Islam, Ibn al-Muqaffa` was generally regarded
as a _Zindiq_, a term properly signifying a Manichæan but used loosely
by the Arabic writers to denote a member of one of the Persian
religions who professed outward conformity to Islam, but secretly
adhered to his own creed, or as a term of abuse to denote a heretic
of any sort. The word itself is a Persian rendering of _siddiq_ or
“initiate,” a title assumed by full members of the Manichæan sect.
It implies the possession of esoteric knowledge and from this idea
rose the practice common amongst the Shi`ite sects of concealing
their real beliefs from general profession and assuming the external
appearance of orthodoxy. Masudi (viii. 293) states that “many heresies
arose after the publication of the works of Mani, Ibn Daysan, and
Marcion translated from Persian and Pahlawi into Arabic by `Abdullah
b. al-Muqaffa` and others.” Under al-Mansur and by his orders,
translations were made from Greek, Syriac, and Persian, the Syriac and
Persian books being themselves translations from Greek or Sanskrit. The
best known work of Ibn Muqaffa, was the translation of the _Kalila
wa-Dimna_ or “Fables of Bidpai” from the Old Persian which was itself
a translation from the Sanskrit. Ibn al-Muqaffa’s translation into
Arabic is generally regarded as a standard model of Arabic prose.
The Persian original is lost, but a version in Syriac made from it
by the Nestorian missionary Budh, about A.D. 570, is extant and has
been published (ed. Bickell and Benfey. 1876); the Sanskrit original
also is lost in what was presumably its earlier form, but we find
its material in a much expanded form in two Sanskrit books, (i) in
the _Panchatantra_, which contains the stories which appear as 5, 7,
8, 9, 10, 17, of de Sacy’s Arabic text, and (ii) the _Mahabharata_,
which contains chapters 11, 12, 13. Evidently the old Syriac of Budh,
a translation of the Persian translation of the original, is the best
representative of the older form of the text. The Arabic version of
Ibn al-Muqaffa` shows a number of interpolations and additions which
all, of course, appear in the derived versions, in the later Syriac,
the several mediæval Persian translations which are made from the
Arabic and not from the old Persian, and in the numerous Latin, Hebrew,
Spanish, Persian, and Greek versions. It was this Arabic translation
which gave to the book a wider circulation than possessed before or
than it could ever have had, and introduced it to the western world.
The case was exactly parallel with Aristotle and similar material:
Arabic became a medium of extremely wide transmission and the additions
made as material passed through Arabic received a wide circulation also.
Ibn Muqaffa` lived in the reign of al-Mansur and during that same
period we are told (Masudi. viii. 291-2) that Arabic versions were made
of several treatises of Aristotle, of the _Almagesta_ of Ptolemy, of
the book of Euclid, and other material from the Greek. About 156 A.H.
an Indian traveller brought to Baghdad a treatise on arithmetic and
another on astronomy: the astronomical treatise was the _Siddhanta_
which came to be known to the Arabic writers as the _Sindhind_, it
was translated by Ibrahim al-Fazari and opened up a new interest in
astronomical studies: some little time afterwards Muhammad b. Musa
al-Kharizmi combined the Greek and Indian systems of astronomy, and
from this time forth the subject takes a prominent place in Arabic
studies. The great Arabic astronomers belong to a later generation,
such as Abu Ma`shar of Baghdad, the pupil of al-Kindi, who died in A.H.
272 (= A.D. 885), known to the Latin mediæval writers as “Abumazar,”
and Muhammad b. Jabir b. Sinan al-Battani (d. 317 A.H. = A.D. 929) who
was known as “Albategnius.” The Indian work on arithmetic was even more
important as by its means the Indian numerals were introduced, to be
passed on in due course as “Arabic” numerals, and this decimal system
of numbering has made possible an extension of arithmetical processes
and indeed of mathematics generally which would have been difficult
with any of the older and more cumbersome systems.
Al-Mansur, after founding Baghdad in A.H. 148 (= A.D. 765) summoned a
Nestorian physician, George Boktishu`, from the school at Junde-Shapur
and established him a court physician, and from this time there was a
series of Nestorian physicians connected with the court and forming a
medical school at Baghdad. George fell ill in Baghdad and was allowed
to retire to Junde-Shapur, his place being taken by his pupil Issa b.
Thakerbokht, who was the author of a book on therapeutics. Later came
Bokhtishu` son of George who was physician to Harunu r-Rashid in 171
(= A.D. 787), and then Gabriel, another son of George, who was sent to
attend Ja`far the Barmecide in 175 and stood high in Harun’s favour:
he wrote an introduction to logic, a letter to al-Ma´mun on foods and
drinks, a manual of medicine based on Dioscorus, Galen, and Paul of
Aegina, medical pandects, a treatise on perfumes, and other works. In
medicine, as will be remembered, the Indian system had been introduced
at Junde-Shapur and combined with the Greek, but the latter clearly
predominated. Another important settler in Baghdad was the Jewish
Syrian physician John bar Maserjoye, who translated the _Syntagma_ of
Aaron into Syriac and presided over the medical school gathered in the
Muslim capital. For a long time the Arabic work in medicine was limited
to translation of the great Greek authorities and practice on the lines
learned in Alexandria. We have already referred to the unfortunate
influence derived from the Egyptian school which diverted both medicine
and chemistry into semi-magical lines, an evil tendency from which the
Arabic school never quite freed itself. A considerable time elapsed
before the Arabic speaking community produced any original writers on
medicine. About the end of the third century we find Abu l-Abbas Ahmad
b. Thayib as-Sarakhsi, a pupil of al-Kindi, who is stated to have
written a treatise on the soul, an abridgment of Porphyry’s _Isagoge_,
and an introductory manual of medicine (Masudi. ii. 72). At that time
medical studies were still very largely in Christian and Jewish hands,
and we find the Syriac physician John ben Serapion (end of 9th cent.
A.D.) writing in Syriac medical pandects which were circulated in two
editions, the latter of which was translated into Arabic by several
writers independently and long afterwards into Latin by Gerard of
Cremona.
The father of Arabic medicine proper was Abu Bakr Muhammad b.
Zakariyya ar-Razi (d. A.H. 311-320 = A.D. 923-932) who was known to
Latin mediæval writers as “Razes,” a student of music, philosophy,
literature, and finally medicine. In his medical pandects he uses both
Greek and Indian authorities, and the introduction of these latter
in subordination to the classic authorities used at Alexandria was
the really important contribution made by the Arabic students to the
progress of science. Unfortunately ar-Razi’s work suffered from the
defect that it greatly lacks order and arrangement, it is a collection
of more or less separate treatises, and so not at all convenient to
use. For this reason more perhaps than any other he was replaced by
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) whose work, if anything, errs in the opposite
direction and suffers from an extremely elaborate arrangement and
systematization. It will be noticed that with the Arabic writers,
as with their Syriac predecessors, the leading medical writers were
usually also exponents of logic and commentators on Aristotle as well
as Galen.
The Khalif al-Mansur was the patron who did most to attract the
Nestorian physicians to the city of Baghdad which he had founded, and
he was also a prince who did much to encourage those who set themselves
to prepare Arabic translations of Greek, Syriac, and Persian works.
Still more important was the patronage given by the Khalif al-Ma´mun
who in A.H. 217 (= A.D. 832) founded a school at Baghdad, suggested
no doubt by the Nestorians and Zoroastrian schools already existing,
and this he called the _Bayt al-Hikma_ or “House of Wisdom,” and this
he placed under the guidance of Yahya b. Masawaih (d. A.H. 243 = A.D.
857), who was an author both in Syriac and Arabic, and learned also in
the use of Greek. His medical treatise on “Fevers” was long in repute
and was afterwards translated into Latin and into Hebrew.
The most important work of the academy however was done by Yahya’s
pupils and successors, especially _Abu Zayd Hunayn b. Ishaq al-Ibadi_
(d. 263 A.H. = A.D. 876), the Nestorian physician to whom we have
already referred as translating into Syriac the chief medical
authorities as well as parts of Aristotle’s Organon. After studying at
Baghdad under Yahya he visited Alexandria and returned, not only with
the training given at what was then the first medical school, but with
a good knowledge of Greek which he employed in making translations
in Syriac and Arabic. With him were associated his son Ishaq and his
nephew Hubaysh. Hunayn prepared Arabic translations of Euclid; of
various portions of Galen, Hippocrates, Archimedes, Apollonius, and
others, as well as of the Republic, Laws, and Timæus of Plato, the
Categories, Physics, and Magna Moralia of Aristotle, and the commentary
of Themistius on book 30 of the Metaphysics, as well as an Arabic
translation of the Bible. He also translated the spurious Mineralogy
of Aristotle, which long served as one of the leading authorities on
chemistry, and the medical pandects of Paul of Aegina. His son, besides
original works on medicine, produced Arabic versions of the Sophist of
Plato, the Metaphysics, _de anima_, _de generatione et de corruptione_,
and the Hermeneutica of Aristotle which Hunayn had translated into
Syriac, as well as some of the commentaries of Porphyry, Alexander of
Aphrodisias, and Ammonius. A little later we find the Syrian Christian
Questa b. Luqa, a native of Ba`albek, who had studied in Greece,
prominent as a translator.
The fourth century A.H. was the golden period of the Arabic
translators, and it is worth noting that, although the work was done
chiefly by Syriac speaking Christians, and inspired by Syriac tradition
a very large number of the translations were made directly from the
Greek, by men who had studied the language in Alexandria or Greece;
very often the same scholar made Syriac and Arabic translations from
the Greek text. There were also translators from the Syriac, but
these usually come after the translators from the Greek. Amongst the
Nestorian translators from Syriac was _Abu Bishr Matta b. Yunus_ (d.
328 A.H. = A.D. 939), who rendered into Arabic the Analytica Posteriora
and the poetics of Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias’ commentary on
the _de generatione et de corruptione_, and Themistius’ commentary on
book 30 of the Metaphysics, all from the existing Syriac versions. He
was also the author of original commentaries on Aristotle’s Categories
and the Isagoge of Porphyry.
The Jacobite translators come on the scene after the Nestorians.
Amongst the Jacobites translating from Syriac to Arabic we find _Yahya
b. Adi_ of Takrit (d. 364), a pupil of Hunayn, who revised many of the
existing versions and prepared translations of Aristotle’s Categories,
Sophist. Elench., Poetics, and Metaphysics, Plato’s Laws and Timæus,
as well as Alexander of Aphrodisias’ commentary on the Categories and
Theophrastus on the Moralia. The Jacobite _Abu `Ali Isa b. Zaraah_
(d. 398) translated the Categories, the Natural History, and the _de
partibus animalium_, with the commentary of John Philoponus.
This is a convenient place to summarize briefly the range of
Aristotelian material available to Arabic students of philosophy. The
whole of the logical Organon was accessible in Arabic, and in this were
included the Rhetoric and Poetics, as well as Porphyry’s _Isagoge_.
Of the works on natural science they had the _Physica_, _de coelo_,
_de generatione et corruptione_, _de sensu_, the _Historia animalium_,
the spurious _Meteorologia_, and the _de anima_. On mental and moral
science they had the _Metaphysics_, the _Nicomachæan Ethics_ and the
_Magna Moralia_. Strangely enough the _Politics_ was not included in
the Aristotelian canon, its place being taken by Plato’s _Laws_ or
_Republic_. Besides these the Arabic students accepted as Aristotelian
a _Mineralogy_, of which we have no knowledge, and a _Mechanics_.
Of these the logical Organon always remained the basis of a humane
education, side by side with the indigenous study of grammar, and this
essentially logical basis of education seems to have been influenced
by the example of the existing system developed amongst the Syrians,
although it must be remembered a similar system was developed quite
independently in Latin scholasticism prior to the earliest contact
with the Arabic writers. The Aristotelian logic has always remained
an orthodox and generally accepted science. The philosophical and
theological controversies and the developments produced by the Arabic
philosophers centred mainly in questions of metaphysics and psychology,
and so were particularly concerned with the 12th book of _Metaphysics_
and the treatise _de anima_, more especially the 3rd book. As we have
already noted the psychology of Aristotle was interpreted in the light
of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ commentary, and thus received a theistic
and supernatural colouring which receives its fuller development in
neo-Platonic teaching.
Most important in the fuller development of this neo-Platonic doctrine
was the so-called _Theology of Aristotle_ which appeared in Arabic
about 226 A.H. It was in fact an abridged paraphrase of the last
three books (iv-vi) of the _Enneads_ of Plotinus made by Naymah of
Emessa, boldly circulated and generally received as a genuine work of
Aristotle. It might be regarded as a literary fraud, but it is quite
possible that Plotinus was confused with Plato whose name appears in
Arabic as _`Aflatun_, it seems indeed that this particular confusion
was made by some other writers, and the translators accepted the
current belief, maintained by all the neo-Platonic commentators, that
the teaching of Aristotle and that of Plato were substantially the
same, the superficial appearances of difference being such as could be
easily explained away. By means of this _Theology_ the fully developed
doctrine of the neo-Platonists was put into general circulation and
combined with the teaching of Alexander of Aphrodisias and thus
exercised an enormous influence on the philosophy of Islam in several
directions. In the hands of the philosophers properly so called it
developed an Islamic neo-Platonism which received its final form at the
hands of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), and in this form
exercised a powerful influence over Latin scholasticism. Transmitted
in another atmosphere it affected Sufism or Muslim mysticism, and was
mainly responsible for the speculative theology which that mysticism
developed. In a modified form some of the resultant principles gathered
from these two sources finally entered into orthodox Muslim scholastic
theology.
The main points of this neo-Platonic doctrine as it figures in Muslim
theology present the teaching of the active intellect of _`aql fa``al_,
the Agent Intellect of Alexander Aph. as an emanation from God, and the
_`aql hayyulani_ or passive intellect in man only aroused to activity
by the operation of this Agent Intellect, which is substantially the
doctrine of Alexander Aph.: the aim of man is to attain a union or
_ittisal_ in which his intellect becomes one with the Agent Intellect,
although the means of attaining this union and the nature of the union
differ in the doctrines of the philosophers and the mystics, as we
shall see in due course.
Next to philosophy proper medical science is the most important
heritage received by the Arabic world from Hellenism. But this
science derived through an Alexandrian medium had a serious defect
in the accretions which the later Egyptian school had added to the
pure teaching of Galen and Hippocrates. As we have already noted
this accretion is of a quasi magical character and shows itself in
talismans, etc., and theories which are based on ideas which are now
classed as “sympathetic magic.”
The real impetus came ultimately from transmitted Hellenism,
but this influence was derived immediately from the Nestorians in
philosophy proper, and from the Nestorians and the Zoroastrian school
at Junde-Shapur in medicine. A good deal later comes the influence of
the pagan school at Harran, which also had a neo-Platonic tendency.
When the second Abbasid Khalif al-Mansur passed by Harran on his way
to fight against the Byzantine Emperor he was astonished to observe
the strange appearance of some of the citizens who came out to meet
him, wearing their hair long and having close fitting tunics. When the
Khalif asked whether they were Christians, Jews, or Zoroastrians, they
replied that they were neither. He then enquired if they were “people
of a book,” for it was only those who possessed written scriptures
who could be tolerated in Muslim dominions; but to this they returned
such hesitating and ambiguous replies that the Khalif at length felt
convinced that he had discovered a colony of pagans, as was the case,
and he ordered them to adopt some one or other of the “religions of
the book” before his return from the war, or to suffer the penalty of
death. At this they were greatly alarmed: some of them became Muslims,
others Christians or Zoroastrians, but some declined to desert their
traditional beliefs. These latter naturally had the most anxious time,
wondering how they could contrive to evade the Khalif’s demands. At
length a Muslim lawyer offered to show them a way out of the difficulty
if they paid him a substantial fee for doing so. The fee was paid and
he advised them to claim to be Sabians, because Sabians are mentioned
in the Qur´an as belonging to a religion “of the book,” but no one
knew who the Sabians were. There is a sect known as _Sabiyun_ or
_Sabaean_, whose religion is a strange mixture of ancient Babylonian
state worship, Christian Gnosticism, and Zoroastrianism, living in the
mashe lands near Basra, but they had always been careful to keep their
religious beliefs secret from all outsiders, and although they were no
doubt the sect mentioned in the Qur´an under the name of _Sabiyun_ or
_Sabians_, none could prove that the pagans of Harran were not also
comprised under this term. The Khalif never did pass back by Harran,
the pagans who had assumed the name of Sabian continued to use it,
those who had become Christians or Zoroastrians reverted to their old
faith and submitted to its new name; those who had become Muslims were
obliged to remain so as the penalty of death lay upon any who became
renegades from that religion.
The most distinguished of the _alumni_ of Harran was Thabit b. Qurra
(d. 289 A.H.), a scholar familiar with Greek, Syriac, and Arabic, who
produced many works on logic, mathematics, astrology, and medicine, as
well as on the ritual and beliefs of the paganism to which he remained
faithful. Following in his footsteps were his son Abu Sa`id Sinan, his
grandsons Ibrahim and Abu l-Hasan Thabit, and his great grandsons Ishaq
and Abu l-Faraj. All these specialized in mathematics and astronomy.
It seems that we ought to associate with Harran _Jabir b. Hayyan_
a perfectly historical character but of somewhat uncertain date, but
believed to have been a pupil of the `Umayyad prince Khalid, who
distinguished himself by his researches in chemistry. Many chemical
treatises bear the name of Jabir and a great proportion of these are
probably quite authentic. M. Berthelot in the 3rd volume of his _La
chimie au moyen age_ (Paris, 1893) has made a careful analysis of the
Arabic chemists and regards the whole material capable of division
into two classes, the one a reproduction of the investigations of
the Greek chemists of Alexandria, the other as representing original
investigations, though based upon the Alexandrian studies in the
first place, and all this original material he regards as due to the
initiative of Jabir who thus becomes in chemistry very much what
Aristotle was in logic. Berthelot publishes in this book six treatises
claiming to be by Jabir, and these he regards as representative of
all Arabic chemical material, the later investigators continuing in
the lines laid down by this first investigator. For a long time the
main object in view was the transmutation of metals, but at a later
period chemistry enters into closer connection with medical work though
never losing the metallurgical character which we imply when we speak
of “alchemy.” The object in view of the Arabic students of alchemy
does not appeal to the modern scientist, although the possibility of
transmuting elements is no longer regarded as the impossible dream
which it appeared to the chemists of the nineteenth century: and, at
the same time, it is perfectly clear that with admitted limitations,
the Arabic chemists were bona fide investigators, though not
understanding correctly the results of the experiments they made.
All the texts published by M. Berthelot begin with the warning that the
contents are to be kept strictly secret, and often contain a statement
that some essential process is omitted in order that the unenlightened
student may not be able to perform the experiments successfully, lest
the wholesale production of gold should be a means of corrupting the
whole human race. Undoubtedly the Arabic chemists did claim to have
attained a knowledge of the means of transmuting the baser metals into
gold but the histories contain various references which show that these
claims were adversely criticised by many contemporary thinkers, and
that a great many of the Arabic writers regarded chemistry, as it was
then understood, as a mere imposture. More than once it was noted that
the philosopher al-Farabi, who fully believed that it was possible to
change other metals into gold and wrote a treatise on how it might be
done, himself lived and died in great poverty, whilst Ibn Sina, who did
not believe in alchemy, enjoyed modest comfort and could have commanded
wealth had he been willing to accept it.
In the course of the middle ages various treatises by Jabir were
translated into Latin, where his name appears as Geber, and exercised a
considerable influence in producing a western school of alchemy. Before
long many original alchemical works were produced in Western Europe and
a considerable proportion of these were published under the name of
Geber but are pure forgeries. As a result the personality of Geber took
a semi mythical character and attempts have been made to account for
the diverse and contradictory statements about his life and death, and
about the country and century in which he lived by supposing that there
were several persons who bore the name; but the fact seems to be that
he early attained a position of great prominence as a chemical writer,
and that later ages fathered on him a number of apocryphal productions.
Berthelot considers that the best evidence associates him with Harran
in the early part of the second century of the Hijra.