Annals of Science · 2011 · 13 citations · 0 references
Summary Syriac translations and Syriac scholars played an important role in the transmission of the sciences, including the mathematical sciences, from the Greek to the Arabic world. Relatively little, unfortunately, remains of the translations and original mathematical works of earlier Syriac scholars, but some materials have survived, and further glimpses of what once existed may be gained from works of later authors. The paper will provide an overview of the earlier materials that have survived or are known to have existed. This will be followed by an account of some of the later materials, which will include an example illustrating how further earlier materials can be recovered from the writings of later authors, and a mention, by way of an epilogue, of an instance where a Syriac scholar was involved in a major historical and scientific event in the West, namely the reform of the calendar by Gregory XIII. Notes 1Among recent scholars looking mainly at the philosophical materials, Gutas, for example, gives the Syriacs a minimal role as initiators and promoters of the translation movement under the Abbasids, while acknowledging their role in providing the technical skills necessary for it (Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture (London, 1998), 20–22; cf. id., ‘Origins in Baghdad’, in Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge, 2010), 11–25), whereas Watt, as a Syriacist, would give the Syriacs a more active role in initiating and determining the course of that translation movement (John Watt, ‘Syriac Translators and Greek Philosophy in Early Abbasid Iraq’, Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies, 4 (2004), 15–26; id., ‘The Strategy of the Baghdad Philosophers: the Aristotelian Tradition as a Common Motif in Christian and Islamic Thought’, in Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam, edited by J. J. van Ginkel, H. L. Murre-van den Berg and T. M. van Lint (Louvain, 2005), 151–65). Saliba, as a science historian, takes a somewhat different approach and sees in the competition among the bureaucrats, many of them Syriacs, the initial driving force behind the development of the Arabic sciences (George Saliba, ‘Revisiting the Syriac Role in the Transmission of Greek Sciences into Arabic’, Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies, 4 (2004), 27–31; cf. id., Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (Cambridge, MA, 2007), 58–64). 2On this point, which has, of course, long been known but has been brought more clearly into light by recent studies, see, for example, Henri Hugonnard-Roche, La logique d'Aristote du grec au syriaque. Études sur la transmission des textes de l’Organon et leur interprétation philosophique (Paris, 2004), 10; id., ‘Textes philosophiques et scientifiques’, in Nos sources: arts et littératures syriaques (Sources syriaques 1) (Antélias, 2005), 405–33 (here 405–13). 3The term ‘West Syrian’ is used here to refer to the group that has traditionally been called ‘Jacobite’; the term ‘East Syrian’ will be used below for the group traditionally referred to as ‘Nestorian’. 4On Sergius and his works, see S. P. Brock, ‘Sergius of Resh‘aina’, in The Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of Syriac Heritage [= GEDSH], edited by S. P. Brock, A. M. Butts, G. A. Kiraz and L. Van Rompay (Piscataway, forthcoming), with the literature cited there; especially Hugonnard-Roche, La logique d'Aristote (note 2) 123–42, = id., ‘Notes sur Sergius de Reš‘ainā, traducteur du grec en syriaque et commentateur d'Aristote’, in The Ancient Tradition in Christian and Islamic Hellenism, edited by G. Endress and R. Kruk (Leiden, 1997), 121–43, which includes a list of Sergius’ works. 5Published in Eduard Sachau, Inedita syriaca. Eine Sammlung syrischer Übersetzungen von Schriften griechischer Profanliteratur (Vienna, 1870), 101–24; cf. Hugonnard-Roche, La logique d'Aristote (note 2), 126–27; id., ‘Textes philosophiques et scientifiques’ (note 2), 413. 6Sachau, Inedita syriaca (note 5), 125–26. For the identification as a translation of Paul of Alexandria, see George Saliba, ‘Paulus Alexandrinus in Syriac and Arabic’, Byzantion, 65 (1995), 440–54; cf. id., Islamic Science (note 1), 8. 7Grigory Kessel, personal communication, Oct. 2010–Feb. 2011; also G. Kessel, ‘The Syriac Epidemics (MS Damascus Syr. Orth. Patr. 12/25) and its Relation to the Commentary of Galen’, paper presented at the conference ‘Epidemics in Context: Hippocrates, Galen and Hunayn between East and West’, The Warburg Institute, 12–13 November, 2010. On the earlier, evidently false, identification of the work in the manuscript, see Rainer Degen, ‘Galen im Syrischen: eine Übersicht über die syrische Überlieferung der Werke Galens’, in Galen: Problems and Prospect, edited by V. Nutton (London, 1981), 131–66 (here 151). For one further piece of evidence for Sergius’ interest in the mathematical sciences, see E. Fiori, ‘L’épitomé syriaque du Traité sur les causes du tout d'Alexandre d'Aphrodise attribué à Serge de Reš‘aynā’, Le Muséon, 123 (2010), 127–58 (here 145, paragraph VI); cf. Daniel King, ‘Alexander of Aphrodisias’ On the Principles of the Universe in a Syriac Adaptation’, Le Muséon, 123 (2010), 159–91 (here 166, with note 30). 8On Severus, see G. J. Reinink, ‘Severos Sebokht’, in GEDSH (note 4), with the literature cited there; on his astronomical works in particular, Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (Leiden, 1967–2010), VI.111–12 (also V.211–13); Henri Hugonnard-Roche, ‘La scienza siriaca. IV. Matematica e astronomia’, in Storia della scienza, IV. Medioevo Rinascimento, ed. S. Petruccioli (Rome, 2001), 36–41, 69–70 (here 36–38); id., ‘Textes philosophiques et scientifiques’ (note 2), 414–18; John M. McMahon, ‘Severus Sebokht’, in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, edited by T. Hockey, V. Trimble, T. R. Williams, K. Bracher, R. A. Jarrell, J. D. Marché, F. J. Ragep, J. Palmeri and M. Bolt (New York, 2007), 1044–45; for all of Severus’ astronomical works mentioned here, as well as the two ‘astronomical’ letters of George of the Arabs, we await the new edition and study being undertaken by Edgar Reich (see further note 17 below). 9For a detailed description of the manuscript, which in its first part contains a Syriac translation of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos (cf. below), see François Nau, ‘La cosmographie au VIIe siècle chez les Syriens’, Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 15 [= 2e sér. 5] (1919), 225–54. Some of the same material is also found in Mss. British Library, Add. 14,538 (ca. 10th c.) and Berlin, Petermann 26 (1556 A.D.). 10Published on the basis of the Berlin manuscript by François Nau, ‘Le traité sur l'astrolabe plan de Sévère Sabokt’, Journal asiatique, 9e sér. 13 (1899), 56–101, 238–303; English translation in Robert Theodore Gunther, The Astrolabes of the World (Oxford, 1932), vol. 1, 82–102 (translation made not from Nau's French as stated by McMahon (note 8), but from the Syriac by Mrs. Margoliouth [= Jessie Payne Smith]; see ibid., preface, vii). 11The attribution of this piece to Severus requires further study, since, although it is attributed at its end to Severus, a marginal note ascribes the second chapter (on the lunar eclipse) to George of the Arabs. 12Translated by François Nau, ‘Le traité sur les «constellations» écrit, en 661, par Sévère Sébokt évêque de Qennesrin’, Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 27 [3e sér. 7] (1929/30), 327–420, 28 [3e sér. 8] (1931/32), 85–100; excerpts (parts of chapters XVII and XVIII) edited from the London manuscript (Add. 14,538) in Sachau, Inedita syriaca (note 5), 127–34. 13The letter was for long known to the academic world only through the excerpts quoted by François Nau (‘Notes d'astronomie syrienne’, Journal asiatique, 10e sér. 16 [1910], 219–27 [here 225–27]; ‘La cosmographie’ (note 9), 248–52; ‘Le traité sur les «constellations»’ (note 12), 332–33); for the text of the whole letter with a German translation, see now Edgar Reich, ‘Ein Brief des Severus Sēḇbōkt’, in Sic itur ad astra. Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften. Festschrift für den Arabisten Paul Kunitzsch zum 70. Geburtstag, edited by M. Folkerts and R. Lorch (Wiesbaden, 2000), 478–89; cf. a partial English translation in Takahashi, ‘Between Greek and Arabic: The Sciences in Syriac from Severus Sebokht to Barhebraeus’, in Transmission of Sciences: Greek, Syriac, Arabic and Latin, edited by Haruo Kobayashi and Mizue Kato (Tokyo, 2010), 16–39 (here 21–23). 14Cf. Sebastian Brock, ‘From Antagonism to Assimilation: Syriac Attitude to Greek Learning’, in East of Byzantium: Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period, edited by N. G. Garsoïan, T. F. Mathews and R. W. Thomson (Washington, 1982), 17–34 (here 23–4); Hugonnard-Roche, ‘Textes philosophiques et scientifiques’ (note 2), 414–15. It is rather ironic, and indicative, at the same time, of the ‘supranational’ nature of Syriac, that this Syriac ‘nationalist’ bears a distinctively Persian (sē-bōxt, ‘saved by three’, i.e. ‘by the Trinity’, cf. Philippe Gignoux, Noms propres sassanides en moyen-perse épigraphique [Vienna, 1986], 157), as well as an originally Latin, name. 15 qadmūt Reich (a form unknown to lexica); qaddī¯mūt Nau, ‘Notes d'astronomie syrienne’ (note 13), 248. 16The phrase, which is taken from one of the definitions of philosophy in the text of the letter (‘knowledge of those things that are in so far as they are’, īda‘tā d-hālēn d-ītayhōn b-hāy d-ītayh¯n, Reich (note 13), 481, l. 3), derives, of course, from Aristotle's definition of metaphysics as knowledge of being qua being (Metaphysics, Γ1, 1003a 21). 17Viktor Ryssel, ‘Die astronomischen Briefe Georgs des Araberbischofs’, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 8 (1893), 1–55; German translation in id., Georgs des Araberbischofs Gedichte und Briefe (Leipzig, 1891), 112–29; cf. Sezgin (note 8), VI.112–14; Saliba, ‘Paulus Alexandrinus’ (note 6), 444–47; Hugonnard-Roche, ‘La scienza siriaca’ (note 8), 38. More generally on George and his letters, see Jack Tannous, ‘Between Christology and Kalām? The Life and Letters of George, Bishop of the Arab Tribes’, in Malphono w-Rabo d-Malphone. Studies in Honor of Sebastian P. Brock, edited by G. A. Kiraz (Piscataway, 2008), 671–716; and a new edition and translation of the letters being prepared by Tannous (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, forthcoming). 18Sebastian P. Brock, ‘Two Letters of the Patriarch Timothy from the Late Eighth Century on Translations from Greek’, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 9 (1999), 233–46 (here 236, 240–41). As a recent study on Timothy and his scholarly activities, see Vittorio Berti, Vita e studi di Timoteo I ( +823), patriarca cristiano di Baghdad: Ricerche sull’ epistolario e sulle fonte contigue (Paris, 2009). 19Joseph Simonius Assemanus, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana (Rome, 1719–28), vol. III/1, 162. 20See Julius Ruska, ‘Studien zu Severus bar Šakkû's Buch der Dialoge’, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete, 12 (1897), 8–41, 145–61 (here 9); Rubens Duval, La littérature syriaque, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1907), 278; Berti, Vita e studi di Timoteo I (note 18), 279–80; Anton Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluß der christlich-palästinensischen Texte (Bonn, 1922), 217, n. 9, cf. ibid., 363, s.v. ‘Astrologische Texte’; Hugonnard-Roche, ‘Textes philosophiques et scientifiques’ (note 2), 423: ‘… et il écrivit à propos d'astronomie (peut-être contre l'astrologie).’ 21See Ibn al-Qiftī's Ta'rīḫ al-hukamā’, edited by Julius Lippert (Leipzig, 1903), 112.11–12: ‘He [Thābit] wrote this book in Syriac, since he was more proficient in it … A disciple … translated it into Arabic, and Thābit corrected the Arabic.’ 22 Gregorii Barhebræi Chronicon syriacum, edited by Paul Bedjan (Paris, 1890), 168–69; cf. Ibn al-Qiftī's Ta'rīḫ al-hukamā’ (note 21), 120.14–21; Takahashi, ‘Thābit ibn Qurra’, in GEDSH (note 4). 23See A. I. Sabra, ‘Thābit ibn Qurra on Euclid's Parallels Postulate’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 31 (1968), 12–32; and Roshdi Rashed and Christian Houzel, ‘Thābit ibn Qurra et la théorie des parallèles’, in Thābit ibn Qurra: Science and Philosophy in Ninth-Century Baghdad, edited by Roshdi Rashed (Berlin, 2009), 27–73. 24According to a count made by Gérard Troupeau, ‘Le rôle des syriaques dans la transmission et l'exploitation du patrimoine philosophique et scientifique grec’, Arabica, 38 (1991), 1–10 (here 4), among the total of 61 translators named in the bibliographical works of Ibn al-Nadīm and Ibn Abī Uṣaibi‘a, there are 48 Syriacs (38 East Syrian, 9 West Syrian and 1 Maronite), eleven Melkites, one ṣābian and one Persian. 25See Gotthelf Bergsträsser, Ḥunain ibn Isḥāq über die syrischen und arabischen Galen-Übersetzungen (Leipzig, 1925), Arabic text 24.4, 24.24, 49.13–14, translation 19–20, 40; cf. Herman Teule, ‘The Transmission of Islamic Culture to the World of Syriac Christianity: Barhebraeus’ Translation of Avicenna's Kitāb al-ishārāt wa l-tanbīhāt. First Soundings’, in Redefining Christian Identity. Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam, edited by J. J. van Ginkel, H. L. Murre-van den Berg and T. M. van Lint (Louvain, 2005), 167–84 (here 168). 26Gotthelf Bergsträsser, Ḥunain ibn Isḥāq über die syrischen und arabischen Galen-Übersetzungen (note 25); and id., Neue Materialien zu Ḥunain ibn Isḥāq's Galen-Bibliographie (Leipzig, 1932). A new edition and translation of the letter are being prepared by John Lamoreaux, Hunayn Ibn Ishaq on His Galen Translations (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, forthcoming). 27See Gad Freudenthal and Tony Lévy, ‘De Gérase à Bagdad: Ibn Bahrīz, Al-Kindī, et leur recension arabe de l’Introduction arithmétique de Nicomaque, d'après la version hébraïque de Qalonymos ben Qalonymos d'Arles’, in De Zénon d'Elée à Poincaré. Recueil d’études en hommage à Roshdi Rashed, edited by R. Morelon and A. Hasnawi (Louvain, 2004), 479–544; cf. Moritz Steinschneider, ‘Die arabischen Uebersetzungen aus dem Griechischen. Zweiter Abschnitt: Mathematik’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 50 (1896), 161–219, 337–417 (here 352); Sezgin (note 8), V.164–65; Hugonnard-Roche, ‘La scienza siriaca’ (note 8), 39; id., ‘Textes philosophiques et scientifiques’ (note 2), 422. On Ibn Bahrīz (‘Abdīshō‘ bar Bahrīz), East Syrian bishop, it is worth noting in this context, of Ḥarrān before becoming metropolitan of Mosul, see B. Roggema, ‘ ‘Abdisho‘ bar Bahrīz’, in GEDSH (note 4), with the literature cited there. 28See Julius Ruska, Das Quadrivium aus Severus bar Šakkû's Buch der Dialoge (Leipzig, 1896). 29Published by Giuseppe Furlani, ‘Bruchstücke einer syrischen Paraphrase der ‘Elemente’ des Eukleides’, Zeitschrift für Semitistik, 3 (1924), 27–52, 212–35. 30See Sezgin (note 8), V.88–90; Hugonnard-Roche, ‘La scienza siriaca’ (note 8), 40; id., ‘Textes philosophiques et scientifiques’ (note 2), 422; Saliba, ‘Revisiting the Syriac Role’ (note 1), 29 (who may be a little too hasty in deciding in favour of Barhebraeus’ authorship); Takahashi, Barhebraeus: a Bio-Bibliography (Piscataway, 2005), 85. 31A note about the omission of difficult passages in the Syriac version is quoted in Ms. Istanbul, Fatih 3414 (dated 1277/8); see Sezgin (note 8), V.129. 32The relevant passage in Qifṭī's Ta'rīkh al-ḥukamā’ (note 21, 195.18–19) is not altogether transparent, but seems to say that corrections were made by Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurra to a partial translation from Syriac into Arabic by Yūsuf al-Qass; cf. Steinschneider (note 27), 175; Heinrich Suter, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke (Leipzig, 1900), 52, 224; Sezgin (note 8), V.135; Hugonnard-Roche, ‘La scienza siriaca’ (note 8), 39, and id., ‘Textes philosophiques et scientifiques’ (note 2), 422 (identifying the work, without explanation, as De mensura circuli). 33 Ibn al-Qiftī's Ta'rīḫ al-hukamā’ (note 21), 321.16–17; cf. Steinschneider (note 27), 196; Sezgin (note 8), V.159. 34See Paul Kunitzsch, ‘Über einige Spuren der syrischen Almagestübersetzungen’, in Πρισµατα. Naturwissenschaftliche Studien. Festschrift für Willy Hartner, edited by Y. Maeyama and W. G. Saltzer (Wiesbaden, 1977), 203–10; cf. id., Der Almagest. Die Syntaxis Mathematica des Claudius Ptolemäus in arabisch-lateinischer Überlieferung (Wiesbaden, 1974), 7–9; see also George Saliba, ‘The Role of the Almagest Commentaries in Medieval Arabic Astronomy: A Preliminary Survey of Ṭūsī's Redaction of Ptolemy's Almagest’, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, 37 (1987), 3–20 (here 10), reporting a quotation said to be from a Syriac version in a marginal note to Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī's redaction of the Almagest (TaḤrīr al-Majisṭī). 35 The Fihrist of al-Nadīm: a Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, translated by Bayard Dodge (New York, 1970), 640; Ibn al-Qiftī's Ta'rīḫ al-hukamā’ (note 21), 98.15; cf. Ernst Honigmann, Die sieben Klimata und die Πoλϵις ϵπισηµoι. Eine untersuchung zur Geschichte der Geographie und Astrologie im Altertum und Mittelalter (Heidelberg, 1929), 116, who thinks the reference may be to the Skariphos. 36This was studied by J. P. N. Land, ‘Aardrijkskundige fragmenten uit de syrische literatuur der zesde en zevende eeuw’, Verslagen en Mededeelingen der k. Akad. van Wetenschappen. Afd. Letterkunde, 3. reeks, 3 (1887), 164–93; cf. Sezgin (note 8), V.213; Witold Witakowski, ‘Geographical Knowledge of the in The in at University from a at the University edited by and 2007), (here in Syriac to the University of 2008), and now also the English translation in Robert R. and The of and in Late University Press, which I have not Die des der Geographie des und Texte (Wiesbaden, cf. (note and for a study more generally of the scientific materials in the ‘La scienza siriaca. Le in Storia della scienza, (note 8), account was used by later Syriac authors, as bar and bar see (note cf. Takahashi, on Journal of Syriac Studies (note the used by in his of see Takahashi, (note Nau, ‘La cosmographie’ (note 9), cf. H. P. of Syriac and a of the Sezgin (note 8), Saliba, Islamic Science (note 1), On a quotation from the found in Barhebraeus’ of the (a passage in as an from the in see François Nau, syriaque de de du Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 28 [3e sér. 8] (1931/32), cf. id., ‘La cosmographie’ (note 9), Le des de (Paris, Gregorii Barhebræi Chronicon (note cf. Takahashi, ‘Between Greek and (note 13), in see Herman Teule, bar the of and the Syrian in on Medieval Christian edited by J. P. (Piscataway, 2007), with the literature cited there; also bar id., bar (2010), Das Quadrivium (note an of the used in the and of the of which include the Syriac version of the De and the Syriac of by of more recent Arabic works, see Takahashi, al-Dīn and The A of Syriac and Studies, works on the sciences, see Takahashi, (note id., Gregory in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, edited by T. Hockey, V. Trimble, T. R. Williams, K. Bracher, R. A. Jarrell, J. D. Marché, F. J. Ragep, J. Palmeri and M. Bolt (New York, 2007), are for example, that Barhebraeus’ Arabic work on was at the of the Muslim scholars in Chronicon edited by and are also by that al-Dīn one of Ṭūsī's an of the Almagest at Barhebraeus’ et a ben edited by e di della di N. A Syriac Encyclopedia of Aristotelian of and (Leiden, wa (here and cf. id., The in and its in the History of the Takahashi, (note 48 Chronicon (note are with the Syriac used with its of in many of its to Arabic 50 of of First Philosophy, Ms. l. the passage at the end of the of quoted at Takahashi, Aristotelian in of and (Leiden, 2004), and translated by François Nau, Le de de sur la du et de la d'astronomie en par (Paris, Le de (note Takahashi, ‘The and Arabic of Barhebraeus’ and in Journal of Christian Studies, (2004), (here id., ‘Between Greek and (note 13), personal communication, to I also the about the of the of the Takahashi, Aristotelian (note Le de (note text translation On the evidence for the of Severus’ on the in work of of see Takahashi, zum Buch der des Barhebraeus’, in Die und ihre in edited by M. and A. 2005), (here id., ‘Between Greek and (note 13), Aristotelian (note Ibn La et edited by and Le de de edited by translation here on A History of Ancient (Berlin, same passage of was also used by in his Chronicon by note and of the by Nau, note For further see Takahashi, Aristotelian (note zu Berlin, and and Library, Syriac Eduard Sachau, der syrischen der zu Berlin (Berlin, and Takahashi, to Mss. Syriac in Islamic Philosophy, Culture, and Studies in Honor of Gutas, edited by D. and F. (Leiden, cf. id., from the of Patriarch I in Mss. Berlin and Syriac in The Syriac of the of the and Translations of the of the 1), edited by (Piscataway, 2010), of the manuscript are on the of the and A further of the letter was once in the of the Syrian I and may be in the manuscript of the Syrian (see I The translated by edition n. 4). is unknown to Syriac but is from Patriarch in see della la S. il di and for the role he played in the calendar ‘The of a of the in of the edited by G. V. M. A. and (note the original text of the passage referred see Nau, Le de (note text translation The the which between the and the and the are by personal communication, on his paper ‘Le et à la du presented at the d’études cf. (note