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The Theme of the Universal Library in the Arabic Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
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The Letter of Aristeas, a text written in Greek by a Jewish author of the Alexandrian diaspora, probably in the second century b.c., traces the circumstances under which a Greek translation of the sacred book of the Jews, the Pentateuch, was commissioned by King Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The letter situates this undertaking in the broader context of the foundation of the Library of Alexandria on the advice of Demetrius of Phalerum, who instigated the plan to gather together all the world's books, both those in the possession of the Greeks and those “of other peoples.”
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- Copyright © 1997 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
Notes
1. This article reproduces chapter 4, "La tradizione araba," of Luciano Canfora's most recent book, Il Viaggio di Aristea (Bari: Laterza, 1996), pp. 33-46. Thanks are due to Mr. Laterza, who authorized the French translation upon which this English version was based.
2. See Part I, chapters II-XXIV
3. Chronique de Abou-Djafar-Mohammedben-Djarir-ben-Yezid-Tabari, trans. from the Persian version by Hermann Zotenberg, Paris, 1867/1874, vol. 1, pp. 14-72.
4. See for example Basil the Great, Letters 231-236, all of which are addressed to Amphilochios of Iconion with a view to resolving his doctrinal questions; or again, the 313 answers given by Photius to the questions of Amphilochios of Cyzicus: the Amphilochia.
5. The importance of the "table talk" portrayed by Aristeas led Johannes Dru sius, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, to insert this part of the Letter in Book II of the Apophtegmata Hebraeorum, Franeker, 1591, and in a larger collection of Apophtegmata Hebraeorum atque Arabum.
6. Das sogennante Religionsgespräch am Hof der Sasaniden, "Texte und Unter suchungen," N.F., 4, 3, Leipzig, 1899.
7. The Fihrist of Al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, ed. and trans. Bayard Dodge, New York, 1970), vol 1, pp. 1-2.
8. Abu Sahl tells of the initiative to collect books, but attributes it to the Sassan ian (Fihrist, vol. 2, 575). This is a concise history of Persia, starting with its occupation by Alexander the Great - a history of oppression and divisions until "Ardashir ibn Babak of the lineage of Sasan … became master of their land" and "did away with their schisms, assuming for himself the sover eignty." According to Al-Nadim's transcription, Abu Sahl continues: "Then he sent to India and China for the books in those directions, and also to the Greeks. He copied whatever was safeguarded with them, even seeking for the little that remained in al-Iraq … Shapur, his son, followed his example, so that there were transcribed into Persian all of those books, such as the ones of Her mes the Babylonian, who ruled Egypt; Dorotheus the Syrian; Phaedrus the Greek from the city of Athens, famous for learning; Ptolemy [Ptolemaeus Alexandrinus]; and Farmasib the Indian. They explained them [the books], teaching the people about them in the same way that they learned from all of those books" (vol. 2, 575). The list of learned men who had been brought from various parts of the world to "explain" these books coming from all over the world provides a specific parallel to one element of the tradition that had been formed on the basis of Aristeas (from Epiphanes to Tzetzes): according to this tradition, Ptolemy Philadelphus had summoned to Alexandria transla tors who were competent in each of the languages represented in the books he had gathered together in his Alexandrian library.
9. This page is cited from the translation by Giuseppe Furlani, "Giovanni il Filo pono e l'incendio della Biblioteca di Alessandria," Bulletin de la Société archéologique d'Alexandrie, no. 21, N.S. VI, 1, 1925, pp. 60-61.
10. Pelletier translates as follows: "besides a few others, we are missing the books of the Law of the Jews"; Clara Kraus's version is more to the point: "Along with a small number of others, we are missing the books containing the Law of the Jews."
11. The expression "Prosèggeltai," among others, refers to information received by the librarian from abroad.
12. This is the only account of the Arab tradition derived from Aristeas that is included in Wendland's compilation.
13. "L'incendie de la bibliothèque d'Alexandrie par les Arabes," Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 1923, pp. 163-166.
14. This is the same condottiere whom the conqueror of Alexandria, Amr, asks what fate should be accorded the books.
15. Throwing the books in the river is a theme that recurs again in the same Ibn Haldun's writings, in connection with the sacking of Baghdad by the Mon gols, in 1258, and also in the Thousand and One Nights as a nightmare that causes the Baghdad city gates to be closed each night "to prevent heretics from taking science books and throwing them in the Tiger."
16. Historia Compendiosa Dynastiarum, Latin trans. Pococke, Oxford, 1663, p. 160.
17. I have drawn upon the translation by Johann Heinrich Hottinger, Bibliothecar ius quadripartitus, Tiguri, 1664, p. 248, reproduced unaltered by Fabricius in volume XIII of his Bibliotheca Graeca, Hamburg, 1725, p. 261 and by Giuseppe Simone Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, Rome, 1725, Vol. 3, 1, pp. 501-502.
18. "Abstinentes ab eo cui praecipue inhiant Sinenses et Turcae."
19. Sima Qian, Mémoires historiques de Sseu-Ma Ts'ien, trans. E. Chavannes, Paris, 1985, pp. 171-174.
20. This was the dynasty to which the current sovereign belonged.
21. He adds "the Turks," because he had time to see, or to hear accounts of, the sacking of Baghdad: in 1258, when the conquerors pillaged the libraries of Baghdad (among other things), and the Euphrates, according to Ibn Haldun, turned black with ink.
22. The Chinese title is Wen xin diao long.
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