Download PDF | [Studies in Islamic Philosophy] Peter Pormann_ Syed Nomanul Haq_ Peter Adamson - The Philosophical Works of Al-Kindi, Oxford University Press, USA, 2012.
444 Pages
FOREWORD BY THE GENERAL EDITOR
For no less than a decade we have waited rather anxiously for this welcome volume on al-Kindi, the monumental "Philosopher of the Arabs." And now that it is in our hands all our anxieties seem well worth it. Here we have for the first time in the history of modern scholarship the whole range of al-Kindi's philosophical œuvre appearing in an idiomatic English translation, all collected under a single cover. Indeed, while it ought to be recognized that most of the texts thus rendered have been translated into English or other contemporary languages before, all translations in this volume are altogether new; they could therefore draw nourishment from the fresh research that has been done in the meantime.
This is particularly so since the translators, established researchers in their own right, have worked under the inspired scholarship of two leading experts of medieval philosophical transmission, Charles Burnett and Fritz Zimmermann. And more, the translations are lucid, flowing, and elegant, and therefore highly accessible and engaging. In view of all this, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that this work of Peter Adamson and Peter E. Pormann-the fruit of a protracted collaborative process of consultations, revisions, and reflections-marks an important event in the scholarly world of the history of philosophy. The work is particularly valuable for those of us who are involved in teaching or presenting Arabo-Islamic philosophy to an audience not trained in classical Arabic, something Arabists are having to face more and more these days. But even for the Arabist this book promises to serve as a cherished resource due to its elucidations and explications, frequently resolving al-Kindi's technical terminology Into its primitive elements. Thus the translations also constitute a kind of ta'wil that operates as a very useful aid in making sense of the incipient Arabic recasting of the multi-stream and complex Greek philosophical legacy. At the same time, the authors have written an extensive general introduction that stands out for its jargon-free clarity, coherence, and scope.
They have also compiled an updated bio-bibliography of al-Kindi, identified all modern editions and earlier translations of the philosophical texts here translated de novo, and provided brief but comprehensive introductory notes to each of these texts. One of the chief virtues of this work is that it manages to integrate al-Kindi into the wider context of the history of philosophy, the history of a specific discipline, that is, whose vicissitudes embody a linkage and continuity between three grand cultural domains-Hellenistic, Arabo-Islamic, and Latin. In other words, the operative milieu for Adamson and Pormann is effectively the milieu of world culture. We recall that just as there exist many Greek texts which have survived only in Arabic, there happen to be writings of al-Kindi, too, and this is not the sole case, that have not been preserved in their original Arabic, but only in Latin. The Hellenized Arab philosopher al-Kindi, then, cannot be fully reconstructed in isolation from the Latin West; nor can Europe's story of its intellectual history be complete without recourse to the Arabic legacy, or rather to the Graeco-Arabic legacy in which al- Kindi looms large.
Our two authors explain with eloquent simplicity the grounds for the claim that their sage does loom large in the Graeco-Arabic legacy. Unlike Greek philosophy, Adamson and Pormann write in their introduction, Arabic philosophy was born in broad daylight. Here al-Kindi marks "the exciting beginning of a tradition that revolutionized thinking not only in the Arab and Muslim world, but also the Latin West, Renaissance Europe, and beyond" (p. xxiii). We are also reminded by the pair of translators that al-Kindi played a central role in the Graeco-Arabic translation movement of the ninth century-that sustained activity whose importance in world intellectual history can hardly be overemphasized.
An authority such as Dimitri Gutas, for example, exhorts us to inscribe this translation movement in our historical consciousness as an event comparable in significance to Pericles Athens, the Italian Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution. To the al-Kindi circle of translators we owe the famous so-called Theology of Aristotle, a paraphrastic Arabic translation of books iv-vi of the Enneads of Plotinus (d. 270) in his student Porphyry's (d. c.305) arbitrary arrangement. This falsely attributed text is of decisive importance in Arabo-Islamic philosophy and the creative and assimilative manner in which it was put into Arabic dress is explained very nicely by Adamson and Pormann. Here they provide us ample evidence that the Greek text cannot be recovered by a back translation from the Arabic; this is, to be sure, generally the case with the Greek into Arabic translations, and here is an instance grounded upon unchallengeable evidence. I must thank the two authors for their painstaking effort all these years.
And, as always, I remain grateful to my three colleagues- Michael Cook of Princeton, Everett Rowson of New York University, and Robert Wisnovsky of McGill-who sit on the Editorial Committee, and without whose support and advice this series could have hardly moved forward. Ghousia Ghofran Ali of Oxford University Press ought to be recognized for her graceful patience and uncompromising professionalism. Finally, the world of scholarship would join me in the sense of gratitude that I must express to Ameena Saiyid, OBE. She understands in its fullness the fact that the publishing house she so ably leads is indeed a university press, and must promote theoretical scholarship. Syed Nomanul Haq Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) February, 2012.
PREFACE
In the beginning, there was al-Kindi. As the first author in the Islamic world to engage in philosophy, he laid the foundation for generations of thinkers to come. His age offered many opportunities: born at the beginning of the ninth century AD into the aristocracy of Iraq, he enjoyed the patronage of the 'Abbasid caliphal court at the height of its intellectual ambition. The caliphs and other patrons of this period are justly celebrated for sponsoring a massive translation movement that rendered Greek works of philosophy and science into Arabic. During this Renaissance of Hellenic learning in a new, Islamic context, al-Kindi counts as one of the leading Renaissance men.
He made himself indispensable to his powerful masters by co-ordinating and correcting the efforts of (mostly Christian) colleagues who produced the translations. In his own independent writings, he explored and built upon the ideas that emerged from those translations. Like Michelangelo fashioning sculptures inspired by just-discovered classical artworks, al-Kindi reacted to the new philosophical corpus in Arabic as he helped to compile it. Al-Kindi's great curiosity led him to many subjects, but he is rightly known as the 'philosopher of the Arabs' for his works in this area.
In his writings, he explored themes ranging from the eternity of the world and divine providence to the structure of the universe, the human soul, and the good life. The philosophical fruits of his labours, insofar as they have survived, are here translated into English-many appearing in this language for the first time. Al-Kindi thus becomes easily accessible, not only because his writings are rendered into idiomatic English, but also because they are elucidated in a variety of ways. The reader will find here an introduction to al-Kindi's life and contribution to philosophy. Moreover, all the individual chapters have introductory sections that prepare the reader for the subsequent arguments, and explain the salient features of al-Kindi's thought. As this thought is at times complex and even baffling to the uninitiated, we have provided a relatively large amount of this supportive material.
Finally, the index will provide a quick guide to the key subjects with which al-Kindi grappled throughout his philosophical endeavours. We have cast a fairly wide net, so to speak, when selecting the works to be included here. A few works by al-Kindi, however, do not appear here despite having some relevance for his philosophy. For instance, we have translated only one of his numerous works on meteorology-the one with the most overtly philosophical content- and passed over his mathematical, medical, musical, astrological and optical works entirely. Still, the volume does what its title promises: read it, and you will have read what survives of al-Kindi's philosophy. This volume results from an encounter at the Warburg Institute in 2001, more than a decade ago. Fritz Zimmermann and Charles Burnett, to whom we dedicate this volume in profound gratitude, had been organising an Arabic reading class there for many years.
When Peter Adamson (PA) came to the Philosophy Department at King's College London, he joined this reading class. At that time, Peter E. Pormann (PEP) was replacing Philip J. van der Eijk in Newcastle, but spent long weekends in London for personal reasons; on most Fridays, he went to the Warburg, and took part in this famous Arabic reading class. Very soon, PA and PEP decided that they would like to work jointly on an Arabic text. PA had just turned his PhD thesis into a book; it dealt with the so-called Theology of Aristotle, a translation of Neo-Platonic material produced in al- Kindi's circle. He therefore became more interested in al-Kindi and his own philosophical thought. PA therefore suggested to PEP that they work on this topic, and the latter was immediately enthusiastic. Much enthusiasm was indeed required to bring this project to fruition. PA had already produced some rough drafts of certain texts, and the two began to revise each others' translations.
Until 2008, the process took place largely on paper. One would send the other a draft translation which the other would revise on paper; the text thus revised would be sent back, and the corrections entered into the electronic word document. In this way, we translated. revised, and further revised each other's work over the course of some seven years. When we looked back at our translations, however, we found that they were still of quite varying style and quality. As we matured as scholars (one might say), we became less and less comfortable with very literal translations which often hide the sense of the underlying original more than they reveal it. Therefore, we embarked on a second course of revisions, this time by exchanging and changing the electronic documents directly. In this process, it was not uncommon that the same translation would change hands three, four, or even five times. The revisions during this second wave were naturally most profound for the earliest translations that we had produced in 2001 or '02. But we went through everything again with a fairly fine comb. For us, this long and protracted process of revision brought a two-fold benefit. The first advantage, we hope, is the improvement of our translations that we suppressed 'until the ninth year', to speak with Horace.
The second is that we have both learned a great deal in the process. We come, by inclination and training, from quite different backgrounds. PA is a philosopher, with expertise in the history of ancient philosophy and its further developments in the Arabic tradition. PEP is a medical historian with strong interests in the history and philosophy of science; but he also went through a rigorous philological training in Classics and Arabic (the latter under the strict eye of his esteemed teacher Manfred Ullmann). As we were revising each other's translations, we found that our weaknesses were not only complemented by each other's strengths, but also mitigated by what we were able to learn from each other. Although the translations presented here went through numerous revisions, we are still acutely aware of their shortcomings and idiosyncrasies. Undoubtedly, attentive readers will find inconsisten- cies (that they may, perhaps, excuse in view of the genesis of this work). Not all such 'inconsistencies', however, result from error or inadvertence. For we contend that it would often be wrong to render the same Arabic word with the same English one in all, or even most. cases. For instance, where in good and idiomatic Arabic, an author may introduce quotation after quotation with qala ('he said'), translating it by strings of 'he said would be tedious in English.
More importantly, it would also convey the wrong impression about al-Kindi's style. To be sure, at times his repetitions and formulaic arguments seemed laborious even to his contemporaries, as we know from various parodies. But on occasion, we can discern a real effort on his part to render his prose melodious. This is certainly the case in the highly rhetorical opening and concluding paragraphs of his epistles, but these tendencies also show up elsewhere in his writing, sometimes quite unexpectedly. We therefore endeavoured to render al-Kindi's prose into real, idiomatic, modern English, whilst trying to preserve the specific style of al-Kindi's prose. Given that al-Kindi is the first, and certainly one of the most important Arab and Muslim philosophers, it is astounding that no one before us has tried to provide an easily accessible translation of his philosophical works into English.
This said, most of the individual texts collected and translated here had been rendered before into various European languages, among then English. Where such versions existed, we always consulted them; we therefore owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to previous scholars that we are eager to acknowledge here. Likewise, we consulted the secondary scholar- ship about al-Kindi's œuvre. At the end of the introductory sections, we record the editions, translations, and studies that we used. Yet, in all cases, the translations included here are our own, and often depart from previous interpretations. We are indebted not only to previous scholarship, but also to many friends, colleagues, and institutions. PA was able to devote time to the translation project, and to his earlier monograph on al-Kindi, thanks to the generosity of the Leverhulme Trust. More recently he was able to take sabbatical time with the support of the School of Advanced Study, and some of this time was devoted to these translations. More generally, the stimulating environment at King's-both in the philosophy department and the Ancient Commentators Project-and London generally has been a constant inspiration for PA's research.
When PEP began to work on al-Kindi's philosophical works, he benefited from a congenial environment at Newcastle's Classics department where he taught not only Greek language and literature, but also philosophy and history of medicine. He then moved to Merton College, Oxford, where he spent three happy years (2001-4), and later joined the Warburg Institute as a Frances Yates research fellow (2004-6). In 2006, he took up his post as'a Wellcome Trust University Award holder in the department of Classics and Ancient History at Warwick, and still continues to enjoy the generosity of the Trust. As al Kindi was not only a philosopher, but also a medical man, PEP hopes that the Trust will not view this work with an unfavourable eye; in any case, it was mostly carried out in his spare time. Without the support of these institutions, we would not have been able to work on this project, but we are equally grateful to a large number of individuals.
Our greatest debt of thanks is due to Charles Burnett and Fritz Zimmermann. These two scholars embody the best traditions of the Warburg Institute: profound and meticulous scholarship coupled with great humanity and generosity of spirit. These giants never failed to lend a helping hand to young scholars at the beginning of their career, as we were when starting to work on al-Kindi. We often consulted them about individual points of interpretation, and they readily helped us with their advice. It is with great pleasure and gratitude that we dedicate this volume to them. Other friends and colleagues lent their support in various ways.
They are too many to name here, but it would be remiss not to mention at least Anna A. Akasoy, David Burrell, Cristina D'Ancona, Philip J. van der Eijk, Gerhard Endress, Dimitri Gutas, Rotraud Hansberger, Dag N. Hasse, Verity Harte, Pauline Koetschet, Inna Kupreeva, MM McCabe, Marwan Rashed, Richard Sorabji, Tony Street, Richard C. Taylor, Manfred Ullmann, Uwe Vagelpohl, Maude Vanhaelen, Elvira Wakelnig, and Raphael Woolf. We are greatly indebted to John McGinnis and Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt, the external readers, for their numerous comments and corrections. Hinrich Biesterfeldt in particular went above and beyond the call of duty: he read the entire manuscript carefully, and compared it to the Arabic source text, thus saving us from many errors and omissions.
For their patience with this long-awaited volume, we would like to thank Nomanul Haq and Oxford University Press. Manal Shakir and Shahla Naqvi, our desk editors at OUP, saw the book through a complicated production process; and Aileen Das compiled the index. We are grateful to them for their excellent work. And we also thank those whose forbearance was tested on a more daily basis: our wives Ursula and Zakia. PA, London, Straubing PEP, Hamburg
Link
Press Here
0 التعليقات :
إرسال تعليق