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The Book of Natures
Joseph Simon Assemani (1687–1768), known for his catalogs of Oriental manuscripts at the Vatican and his encyclopedic work on Syriac (and Christian Arabic) literature, Bibliotheca Orientalis, is, in the words of the great German Orientalist Georg Graf, “for all time the pride of the Maronite nation.” This volume contains, in Garshuni (Arabic language written in Syriac letters), a manuscript of Assemani’s philosophical work entitled The Book of Natures (Kitāb al-Ṭabī‘īyāt), divided into 30 sections (maqālāt). The work is numbered as pages (not folios), but only the odd ...
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Holy Spirit University of Kaslik
Book of the Conversation of Wisdom, and Other Works
The major part of this 18th-century manuscript is taken up by the text of Ktaba da-swad sofia (Book of the conversation of wisdom), a philosophical work by the famous Syriac Orthodox bishop and author, Gregory Bar ‘Ebraya (also seen as Bar Hebraeus, 1226–86). Of special interest is the fact that the work was copied here not only in Syriac, but also in Garshuni (Arabic written in Syriac script) in a parallel column on each page. The manuscript contains numerous marginal and interlinear annotations in both Garshuni and Arabic. After ...
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Near East School of Theology
The Incoherence of Philosophers
Abu-Hamid Al-Ghazali (also known by the Latinized version of his name, Algazel, 1058–1111 AD, 450–505 AH) was born into a modest family in Tus, Khorasan, in present-day Iran. He went on to become one of the most prominent Sunni religious scholars of all time. His main fields were jurisprudence, philosophy, theology, and mysticism. Tahafut al-falasifa (The incoherence of the philosophers) is one of his major works. In this book, he opines that philosophers, both Greek and Muslim, should not try to prove metaphysical knowledge through logic, as the ...
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Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The Book of Compilation
Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi (also known by his Latinized name, Alpharabius, circa 870–950 AD) was a Muslim philosopher and scientist, who also had interests in political philosophy, logic, cosmology, music, and psychology. Although his origin is unconfirmed, it is generally agreed that al-Farabi was of Persian origin and that he was born either in Faryab in present-day Afghanistan or in Farab in present-day Kazakhstan. He was called the “Second Teacher,” a deferential reference suggesting he was second in philosophy only to Aristotle. Shown here is Kitab Al-majmu' (Book of ...
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Bibliotheca Alexandrina