The lemmata of Averroes' commentary bear the traces of this history: the translations which he had at his disposal were made by several translators, active in different stages of the Greek-Arabic translation movement which took place under the ‘Abbāsids. The Metaphysics has been repeatedly translated into Arabic. What Father Bouyges has granted access to is not only Averroes’ magnum opus, but also Aristotle’s Metaphysics in Arabic. Thus, the Arabic translation of the Metaphysics, in itself lost to us, is almost completely available thanks to the lemmata quoted by Averroes, and it is sometimes the case that one can compare two Arabic renderings of a Greek sentence. To the lemmata the formula “ qāla Ārisṭū, Aristotle said” is usually premitted in his explanations, Averroes at times quotes alternative translations.

Each unit is commented upon ( commentum). Aristotle’s text is splitted into units: the so-called lemmata ( textus, in the Latin version). Only books Κappa, Μu, and Νu are missing from his commentary.Īs it is the case with several Greek commentaries from the Imperial age and Late Antiquity, Averroes’ commentary is lemmatized, i.e. Averroes quotes almost literally eleven of the fourteen books of the Metaphysics. 1692) edited between 19 by Father Maurice Bouyges S. One among Averroes’ latest works, the Tafsīr has come down to us only through the MS Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Or.

We owe our knowledge of the Arabic translation of the Metaphysics chiefly to Averroes’ Long Commentary ( Tafsīr Mā ba‘d al-ṭabī‘a, lit. D.) wrote many commentaries on Aristotle’s works, which were available to him in Arabic.

The translation of this work into Arabic was momentous for the intellectual elite of the Arabic-speaking world, from early ‘Abbāsid times, when the earliest translation was done on the demand of al-Kindī,to later periods and distant places. The transmission of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, no matter at what time or into which language, is a crucial issue for the history of philosophy. See the collection: Bibliotheca Arabica Scholasticorum OnlineĪverroes' Long Commentary on the Metaphysics is the first issue of the ' Bibliotheca Arabica Scholasticorum Online'. By: Cecilia Martini Bonadeo, University of PisaĪverroes’ Long Commentary on the Metaphysics Online by Cecilia Martini BonadeoĪ License Agreement between the Publisher Dar el-Mashreq and 'Greek into Arabic' grants access to the volumes of the series Bibliotheca Arabica Scholasticorum (photos: Dr.

Aristotle metaphysics greek