A Re-examination of al-Fāribī's Neoplatonism

A Re-examination of al-Far bi's Neoplatonism MIRIAM GALSTON IT IS A COMMONPLACE among students of Islamic philosophy that Ab~ Nasr al-F-ffr~bT(870-950 A.D.), one of the great Muslim commentators on Aristotle, was a Neoplatonist in the tradition of the philosophers who flourished in Alexandria in the fifth and sixth centuries A.DY This assessment of al-F-ar~bTclaims that his understanding of Aristotle was distorted, in the first place, by his acceptance of the pseudoAristotelian Theology (a summary of Books 4-6 of the Enneads of Plotinus) as a genuine work of Aristotle.2Moreover, according to this interpretation, al-F-~r~bTwas thoroughly familiar with and therefore influenced by many of the Neoplatonic commentaries on the Aristotelian corpus. These commentaries, translated into Arabic and studied before and during al-F-ar~bTs lifetime, presupposed the Theology Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy (New York, 1970), p. 125: deLacey O'Leary, Arabic Thought and its Place in History (London, 19581, p. 146, and How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs (l_xmdon, 1957), p. 178; Henri Corbin, Histoire de la philosophie islamique (Paris, 1964), pp. 216-217; Richard Walzer, "AI-F~r~bi," Eno, clopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.; T. J. deBoer, "AI-F~ir~ibi,"Encyclopaedia oflslam, 1st ed. For a contrary view, see Paul Kraus, "Plotin chez les Arabes. Remarques sur un noUveau fragment de la paraphrase des Enn6ades,'" Bulletin de rlnstitut d'Egypte, 23 (1941). T. J. deBoer, "Aristfmilis," Enc.vclopaedia of Islam, 1st ed., and references above, n. 1. The first to identify the pseudo-Aristotelian Theology, known in Islam as the UthMg~ghi.ra,as a paraphrase of parts of Plotinus's Enneads was Valentin Rose (Deutsche Lit.-Zeitung, 1883, Col. 843-846). See also Raymond Klibansky, The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition in the Middle Ages (London, 1939), p. 16, and Kraus, "Plotin chez les Arabes," p. 267. For the history of this work and the scholarship relating to it, see the Kraus article; A. Badawi, Plotinus apud Arabes (Aflf~tin 'ind ab'Arab), 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1966L pp. i-lxvi (editor's introduction, in Arabic): and Georges Anawati, "Le N6oplatonisme dans la pens6e musulmane: 6tat actuel des recherches," in ~tudes dephilosophie musulmane (Paris, 1974), pp. 155-156, 160-167. The Arabic text of the Theology was first published by Fr. Dieterici, Die sogennante Theologic des Aristoteles. aus arabischen Hand~chriften zum ersten Mal herausgegeben (Leipzig, 1882) and translated by him into German as Die sogennante Theologic des Aristoteles aus dem Arabischen iibersetzt (Leipzig, 1883). It was re-edited by A. Badawi in Plotinus apud Arabes, pp. 1-164. There is an English translation by Geoffrey Lewis in Plotini Opera, edited by Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer (Paris and Brussels, 1959), II, 39-45, 63-81, 135-149, 177-189, 199-211, 219-231, 243-251, 263-275, 285-297, 375-395, 401-409, 431-473, 486-488. Both Arabic editions are of a text substantially shorter than the Latin translation made from the Arabic in the sixteenth century by Pierre Nicolas and Carpentarius (Anawati, l~tudes, p. 160). In 1929 the long version of the Arabic text was discovered in the Soviet Union by A. Borisov ("L'original arabe de la version latine du trait~ dit Thbologie d'Aristote"[in Russianl, in ZapiskiKollegii Vostokovedov V~1930I, Leningrad [=M~langes I. Kratchkovski], pp. 83-98). The complete Arabic text has never been published; the fragments that were published have been translated into French by S. Pines. "La Iongue rbcension de la Thbologie d'Aristote dans ses rapports avec la doctrine ismarlienne,'" Revue des ~tudes islamiques, 22 (1954). 7-20. The Arabic translation was done by 'Abd al-Mas~ ibn N~i'imah al-.Hims~(ofEmessa, Syria) and revised by Abfa YfJsuf Ya'q~lb ibn Is.h~q aI-Kindi (d. 864 A.D.I. Two other pseudo-Aristotelianworks not mentioned by name by al-F~ir~ibiwhich may have been in circulation at the time are Kit~b al-tufffih, a (Book of the Apple, Latin Liber de pomo), a dialogue on the immortality of the soul, and Kitfib al'khavr al-mah, c...