Fragments of Commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics from the David Kaufmann Genizah Collection, by Ibn Daud and Others (?)

This paper reports on the doctrinal content of a fragment from the end of Ibn Da’ud’s commentary on the Physics and has nothing to say about the identity of Avendauth. The fragment addresses the transmission of motion downwards through the cosmos. An emanation is needed to jump the transcendental chasm that separates the deity from the material cosmos; but from then on down, transmission is mechanical. Two other passages (not necessarily by Ibn Da’ud) are discussed: one concerning the possibility that motion is the “necessary existent,” the other addressing the problem of action at a distance.