Why Translate Science?

Documents from Antiquity to the 16th Century in the Historical West (Bactria to the Atlantic)
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-90-04-47263-1
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 160, 764 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1408 g

Reihe: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East

From antiquity to the 16th century, translation united culturally the peoples in the historical West (from Bactria to the shores of the Atlantic) and fueled the production and circulation of knowledge. The Hellenic scientific and philosophical curriculum was translated from and into, to mention the most prevalent languages, Greek, Syriac, Middle Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin.

To fill a lack in existing scholarship, this volume collects the documents that present the insider evidence provided in contemporary accounts of the motivations and purposes of translation given in the personal statements by the agents in this process, the translators, scholars, and historians of each society. Presented in the original languages with an English translation and introductory essays, these documents offer material for the study of the historical contextualization of the translations, the social history of science and philosophy in their interplay with traditional beliefs, and the cultural policies and ideological underpinnings of these societies.

Contributors

Michael Angold, Pieter Beullens, Charles Burnett, David Cohen, Gad Freudenthal, Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Anthony Kaldellis, Daniel King, Felix Mundt, Ignacio Sánchez, Isabel Toral, Uwe Vagelpohl, and Mohsen Zakeri.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gutas, Dimitri

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Philosophie & Wissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Nicht-Westliche Philosophie Islamische & Arabische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

Dimitri Gutas

Latin Translations of Greek Science and Philosophy: Some Relevant Passages

Felix Mundt and David Cohen

Translations from Greek into Middle Persian as Repatriated Knowledge

Mohsen Zakeri

Why the Syrians Translated Greek Philosophy and Science

Daniel King

Why Do We Translate? Arabic Sources on Translation

Uwe Vagelpohl and Ignacio Sánchez

The Nabatean Agriculture by Ibn Wa?shiyya, a Pseudo-Translation by a Pseudo-Translator: The Topos of Translation in the Occult Sciences

Isabel Toral

Translations into Greek in the Byzantine Period

Anthony Kaldellis

The Statements of Medieval Latin Translators on Why and How They Translate Works on Science and Philosophy from Arabic

Charles Burnett

Latin Translators from Greek in the Twelfth Century on Why and How They Translate

Michael Angold and Charles Burnett

Why did Latin Translators Translate from the Greek in the Thirteenth Century and Later?

Pieter Beullens

Why Translate? Views From Within: Egodocuments by Translators from Arabic and Latin into Hebrew (Twelfth–Fourteenth Centuries)

Gad Freudenthal

Renaissance Scholars on Why They Translate Scientific and Philosophical Works from Arabic into Latin

Dag Nikolaus Hasse

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dimitri Gutas, PhD. (1974), Yale University, is Professor Emeritus of Arabic at Yale. He has published on the medieval Graeco-Arabic translation movement, the transmission of Greek philosophical texts into Arabic (most recently Aristotle’s Poetics, Brill, 2012), and Arabic philosophy (most recently, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 2nd ed., Brill, 2014).

Charles Burnett, PhD. (1976), Cambridge University, is Professor of the History of Arabic/Islamic Influences in Europe at the Warburg Institute, University of London. His research centres on the transmission of texts from the Arab world to the West in the Middle Ages.

Uwe Vagelpohl, PhD. (2003), Cambridge University, is a research fellow at the Warburg Institute, University of London. His research centers on the reception of antique learning in the medieval Islamic world.

Contributors

Michael Angold, Pieter Beullens, Charles Burnett, David Cohen, Gad Freudenthal, Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Anthony Kaldellis, Daniel King, Felix Mundt, Ignacio Sánchez, Isabel Toral, Uwe Vagelpohl, and Mohsen Zakeri.