Nemesius' "On the Nature of Man": Edition, Translation, and Study of the Arabic Version

内梅西乌斯的《论人的本质》：阿拉伯文版本的编辑、翻译和研究

• 批准号: AH/J006246/1
• 负责人: Simon Swain
• 金额: $ 41.83万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FJ006246%2F1
• 关键词: Nemesius; Nature; Man; Edition; Translation

Large parts of Greek science and philosophy were translated into Arabic between the 8th and 10th c. At its height this 'translation movement' was directly supported by the Abbasid caliphate. The legacy of Greek learning quickly acted as a spur to authors writing in Arabic to adapt and further the ideas of 'the ancients'. Their achievements encouraged Europeans in the late Middle Ages to learn Arabic and translate Arabic works into Latin. The claim that Islamic culture started the European renaissance is not unjustified, and continuing awareness in the Middle East that the intellectual inheritance of Greco-Roman antiquity is as much 'eastern' as 'western' has ramifications beyond academia.The need to continue studying the Islamic transmission and usage of Greek culture is of critical importance. There are, however, fewer and fewer scholars with the command of Greek and Arabic that is needed for Greco-Arabic research. Every new project delivers major impact.The current proposal hopes to make a substantial contribution to the field. It will present the full Arabic translation of one of the mostly widely read scientific-philosophical works of the Middle Ages, On the Nature of Man, which was written in Greek at the end of the 4th c. by Nemesius of Emesa (Hims in Syria). Nemesius offered readers a comprehensive account of the great problems of life: how the body worked, its relation to the soul, the operation of feelings and emotions, the choices open to us in a universe under God's direction. He summarized the views - and quoted the words - of the major philosophical and scientific authors of pagan antiquity like Aristotle and Galen. His success in building this knowledge into a Christian framework made his book immensely popular and it was translated into most of the main languages of medieval culture (Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Latin, Syriac). Two major versions are known in Arabic. The first is early and incomplete. It survives incorporated in a famous esoteric treatise, The Secret of Creation, which played an important part in the development of alchemical science. The second, full version, which is the primary focus of this project, is so far unpublished. It is ascribed to Ishaq ibn Hunayn (d. 910/11), a distinguished philosopher and translator who was the son of the greatest of the translators, Hunayn (d. 873), but it was probably done by Hunayn himself for its first known reader is no less a figure than al-Kindi, 'the Philosopher of the Arabs', who died before ca.870. The current tensions in the Middle East make it difficult to appreciate the intellectual openness of the Abbasid period, which is today often called the 'Renaissance' of Islam. Arabic functioned as a lingua franca for various cultures and denominations. Many of the translators were, like Hunayn, Christians working with Greek, Arabic, and Syriac, the Middle Eastern Semitic language whose culture of translation was of great importance in establishing the expectation of transferring knowledge. Many translators were, like Hunayn and his son, well connected at court.On the Nature of Man is unusual among the translations because it is a work of Christian philosophy. The Hunayn version adds Christian references, and three of its four major MSS were copied in Christian circles. While the first Arabic translation found in The Secret of Creation was stripped of Christianity, the Hunayn version appealed also to Muslims like Kindi and the philosopher/translator al-Dimashqi. The oldest manuscript is a famous 12th-c. collection of Greek and Islamic philosophy copied by a Muslim gentleman for private use. Nemesius, then, offers important testimony of the culture of inter-faith cooperation that characterized the intellectual life of Islam in the Middle Ages. The edition, translation, and study of this text will make it available to all those interested in exploring cultural translation alongside the common roots of Islamic and western culture.

大部分的希腊科学和哲学在公元8世纪到10世纪之间被翻译成阿拉伯语。在其高度这一'翻译运动'是直接支持阿巴斯哈里发。希腊学习的遗产很快就刺激了阿拉伯语作家的写作，以适应和进一步的“古人”的思想。他们的成就鼓励了中世纪晚期的欧洲人学习阿拉伯语，并将阿拉伯语作品翻译成拉丁语。伊斯兰文化开启了欧洲文艺复兴的说法并非没有道理，中东地区持续意识到希腊-罗马古代的知识遗产既是“东方”的，也是“西方”的，这一点的影响超出了学术界。继续研究伊斯兰文化的传播和希腊文化的使用至关重要。然而，越来越少的学者掌握希腊语和阿拉伯语，这是希腊-阿拉伯语研究所需要的。每一个新的项目都会产生重大的影响。目前的提案希望对该领域做出实质性的贡献。它将提供中世纪最广泛阅读的科学哲学作品之一的完整阿拉伯语翻译，论人的本质，这是在公元4世纪末用希腊语写的。由Emesa的Nemesius（叙利亚的希姆斯）。尼密修斯为读者提供了一个关于生命的重大问题的全面描述：身体如何工作，它与灵魂的关系，感觉和情感的运作，在上帝的指导下，我们在宇宙中的选择。他总结了古代异教哲学和科学的主要作者，如亚里士多德和盖伦的观点，并引用了他们的话。他成功地将这些知识构建成基督教框架，使他的书非常受欢迎，并被翻译成中世纪文化的大多数主要语言（阿拉伯语，亚美尼亚语，格鲁吉亚语，拉丁语，叙利亚语）。在阿拉伯语中有两个主要版本。第一个是早期和不完整的。它保存在一个著名的深奥的论文，创造的秘密，这在炼金术科学的发展发挥了重要作用。第二个完整版本是该项目的主要焦点，迄今尚未出版。它被认为是伊沙克·伊本·胡纳恩（Ishaq ibn Hunayn）（d. 910/11），一位杰出的哲学家和翻译家，他是最伟大的翻译家Hunayn的儿子。873），但它可能是由Hunayn自己的第一个已知的读者是不低于一个数字比基地Kindi，“阿拉伯人的哲学家”，谁死前约。目前中东的紧张局势使得人们很难理解阿巴斯王朝时期的思想开放，这一时期今天通常被称为伊斯兰教的“文艺复兴”。阿拉伯语是各种文化和教派的弗兰卡。许多译者都是基督徒，像Hunayn一样，他们使用希腊语、阿拉伯语和叙利亚语（中东闪族语言），这些语言的翻译文化在建立传递知识的期望方面非常重要。许多翻译家都像胡奈恩父子一样，在宫廷里有很好的关系。《论人的本质》在翻译中是不寻常的，因为它是一部基督教哲学的作品。Hunayn版本增加了基督教的参考，其四个主要MSS中的三个在基督教圈子里被复制。虽然《创世的秘密》中的第一个阿拉伯语译本被剥夺了基督教的内容，但胡奈因译本也吸引了像金迪和哲学家/翻译家大马士革这样的穆斯林。最古老的手稿是著名的12世纪。一位穆斯林绅士为私人使用而抄写的希腊和伊斯兰哲学集。因此，尼迈修斯为宗教间合作文化提供了重要的证据，这种文化是中世纪伊斯兰教思想生活的特征。本书的编辑、翻译和研究将使所有有兴趣探索伊斯兰和西方文化共同根源的文化翻译的人都能读到。