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Notes on the Edition of the Kitāb al-Nafs ascribed to Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
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Kitāb al-Nafs al-mansūb li Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn, published by Dr. Aḥmad Fu'ād al-Ahwāni along with the Talkhīṣ Kitāb al-Nafs of Ibn Rushd (Imprimerie Misr S.A.E., Cairo, 1950), appears to be the earliest extant Arabic commentary of the De Anima of Aristotle. The edition is based on the only known manuscript, in the Escorial Library of Madrid. Though the opening words of the text clearly indicate that it is the translation of Aristotle's De Anima, it is in fact a commentary and not a translation. Hartwig Derenbourg, the cataloguer of the Escorial Library, was misled by the opening words of the manuscript and has, therefore, ascribed it to Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn. Casiri, an earlier cataloguer, was equally wrong when he ascribes the work to Ibn Rushd. Terms and expressions clearly demonstrate that the work is either a maiden attempt of Isḥāq, or done by somebody who preceded him and was not associated with his school. Terms such as 
(form), 
(matter), 
(the final cause) and 
(the common sense), and the like which occur in the work were represented by Isḥāq and his school by expressions such as 
, and 
respectively. It is, therefore, difficult to accept the ascription of the work to Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1956
References
page 57 note 1 cf. Les Manuscrits Arabes de l'Escurial, vol. i, p. 457, 1884Google Scholar.
page 57 note 2 See his Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis, vol. i, p. 163, col. 2: “Averrois commentarius in Aristotelis libros de Anima.”
page 57 note 3 Ahwāni's edition: pp. 128, 131, 132, 137.
page 57 note 4 cf. Oriens, vol. 6, no. 1, 1953, p. 126, where Dr. R. Walzer refers to this edition in the following words: “Being a translation it has, without any convincing reason, been ascribed to lsḥāq ibn Ḥunain (who is credited with a translation of the complete De anima, whose editio princeps is under preparation by Ahwāni and father Anawāti, O.P.).”
page 57 note 5 The two MSS. are as follows: (a) Ind. Off. Lib. No. 1234 (E. 1812/ETC) contains among other works of Afḍal Kāshāni his Risāla Nafs mentioned as 
in fol. 3a. It consists of ff. 3b–21a, the written portion measuring 3½in. × 6½in., and each page containing twenty-two lines. It is written in beautiful nasta'līq. The handwriting of the Risāla looks older than that of other treatises which were transcribed by Ja'far Abū Ṭālib in a.h. 1179 at Murshidabād, India.
(b) Ind. Off. Lib. No. 706 (1921), ff. 51B–86A, written in beautiful nasta'līq, each page containing sixteen lines and the written portion measuring 2¾in. × 5½in. The colophon is as follows (fol. 219B):—
page 58 note 1 For the British Museum MSS. see Rieu. II, p. 834b, no. xxiii; see also p. 1055, no. 1921, 4.
page 58 note 2 See vol. i, p. 994.