Doxographies, Graeco-Arabic

Abstract

Due to the predominance of Aristotle in Arabic philosophy, there was a limited interest in his predecessors and the other philosophical schools of antiquity. Among the Greek doxographies available in translation were the Placita philosophorum ascribed to a certain Aetius, Hippolytus’ Refutatio omnium haeresium, and a History of the Philosophers ascribed to Porphyry of Tyrus, known only in quotations, but very influential on similar Arabic compositions as the Chest of Wisdom, ascribed to Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī, al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik’s Choicest Maxims and Best Sayings, al-Shahrastānī’s Book of Religions and Sects and al-Shahrazūrī’s Promenade of the Souls and the Garden of Rejoicing in the History of Philosophy. Some Muslims with a positive attitude towards the Greek heritage tried to find their belief in the creation of the world and the hereafter already represented by the ancient Greek thinkers, what resulted in outright falsifications, which became in their turn mingled with the information found in the translations from the Greek. The standard of the Arabic doxographies was also impaired by the inclusion of material from the so-called gnomologies, where the ascription of anecdotes and wise sayings to the various philosophers was even more confused than in the Greek tradition.