The translation of Greek texts into Arabic, “Greco-Arabic translation” has been the subject of decades of study, focusing on the Abbasid Translation Movement that was centered in Baghdad. However, the reverse process, the translation of Arabic texts into Greek (“Arabo-Greek translation”), is a field still in its early stages. With that said, the topic has been the subject of increasing attention in recent years, with summary articles on the topic published by several eminent scholars in the field. Two workshops on Arabo-Greek in recent years brought together scholars working on different aspects of Arabo-Greek literature. The broad conclusion of these meetings has been that scholars who work on different genres of translation, whether scientific, philosophical, legal, or religious, need to come together, to begin to build methodology for interpreting these translations, and to historicize the multi-faceted and multi-century story of Arabo-Greek translation. This is a topic of utmost significance to scholars of Byzantine literature, seeing as these translations were almost entirely produced in Byzantium, included in Greek manuscripts, and integrated into the wider Byzantine intellectual tradition that was then continued and Greek and transmitted to the West. In this round table, we intend to bring together philologists and historians to consider some of the texts themselves that were translated, the translation techniques employed, and the historical contexts in which these Byzantine texts were produced.
This talk explores the pathways by which philosophical knowledge moved between Byzantium and the Islamicate world in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It goes beyond the conventional hunt for translations of narrowly defined philosophical texts from Arabic into Greek, considering additional channels, including Latin and Hebrew intermediaries, instances of oral exchange, and cases of direct…
A widespread historiographical view portrays Byzantium as an isolated society, reducing its role in the transmission of knowledge across the Mediterranean to the preservation of ancient Greek texts. By examining a corpus of unpublished works on astral science, translated from Arabic into Byzantine Greek between the eighth and fourteenth centuries, I aim to clarify the…
Kalila wa Dimna (in Greek: Stephanites and Ichnelates) is a mirror of princes, which tells animal fables with an edifying purpose. Originating in India between the fourth and sixth centuries, the text achieved widespread popularity across the medieval Eurasian world. It was translated and expanded in Persian and Arabic before reaching the Greek-speaking world through…