ArOMa: our project, our research

Many accounts, be they of famed scholars or anonymous scribes, be they written in Latin or in Arabic, expand upon the image of the First Teacher: The Master I beheld of those who know/Sit with his philosophic family./ All gaze upon him, and all do him honour (Dante, Commedia, Inf. iv 131–133). Many earned men of the Middle Ages, whatever their religion and language, relied on Aristotle for a rational framework that could grant the foundations of their understanding of the universe. Aristotle became the authority in every branch of knowledge. Over time, Aristotle was credited with multifarious doctrines, texts, and ideas from a variety of sources, both ancient and new. Thus, from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages and beyond Aristotle has embodied the method of demonstrative science. Teaching the truth depends upon being in command of the causes of things. Many philosophers and scientists present themselves as following in his footsteps.

The Project ArOMa deals with the approach to Aristotle held in the Arabic-speaking world. The medieval reception of Aristotle can be summarized in the well-known saying that labels him as the “First Teacher”. This label implies that Aristotle established the system of sciences because he created the demonstrative method, a pattern remotely grounded in Alexander of Aphrodisias, inherited by the late ancient commentators and made universally known by the Arabic label “The First Teacher” (al-muʿallim al-awwal). Aristotle gives voice to the intellectual heritage of the Greeks viewed as compatible with the Islamic worldview. The impact of some of the works falsely attributed to Aristotle in the creation of this image has been noticed in the scholarship, but a complete assessment of the facets of the false Aristotle is still a desideratum. ArOMa sets for itself the task of filling this gap. This assessment calls for questioning the reception of Aristotle’s original writings and the Arabic pseudo-Aristotelica in parallel, simultaneously considering the changes introduced into Aristotle’s thought by Aristotle’s late antique commentators as reflected in the creation of new Arabic pseudo-Aristotelica.

Before this assessment can be made, it is necessary to solve the problem that has hitherto prevented its realisation: knowing how many and which are the Arabic Aristotle(s), at the same time, having all the data concerning the circulation in Arabic of the late antique commentary tradition. A work that is not a catalogue, but a philosophical analysis of multifarious Arabic sources including, published and unpublished works, biobibliographies, encyclopaedias, historical and literary works etc.

The payoff is unquestionable: revisiting a key-figure in the history of the human thought, Aristotle, established as the Teacher in the medieval Arab world and in the Universities allover in Europe, for more than 9 centuries and, in a sense, still today. Anyone who has once in their life seen Aristotle’s stone carving, in the Front west detail of the Royal Portal of Chartres Cathedral, will taste it. We know it is so, we still don’t really know how it got that way because a large part of the story is obscure: the virtual Aristotle is precisely the task of ArOMa.