Syrian Translation School (V – X cent.)

There are two centers of education (and translation) in the East-Aramaic (Syriac) speaking Christian world – in Nisibis (founded by Mar Yaqub in 350 AD) and Edessa (founded by Mar Efraim in 363 after Nisibis fell to the Persians)

 

Prob, Qumi and Hibas of Edessa (5-th cent.)

• Prob of Antioch and Qumi translated Logic of Aristotle in 5-th century; Prob rendered also Isagoge (“Introduction”) of Porphyry the Philosopher.

• Hinas of Edessa also participated in this translation; besides, he translated the exegetical works of Theodore of Mopsuestia.

 

Sergius of Reshaina (died 536)

He translated 26 medical texts of the Greek physician Galen (129-216 AD), “The Categories” of Aristotle, “Introduction to the Categories” of Porphyry and some theological works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

 

Syrian translations from Greek (V-X cent.)

• Syrian (like Hebrew) belongs to the Semitic languages and has similar specificities in grammar and syntax.

• Some words were borrowed from Greek:

ܓܢܣܐ [gansā] – genus, from Greek γενος

ܐܣܛܘܟܣ [ʔisțōks] – elements, from Greek στοιχεια

• Some words were made as calque from Greek words:

ܟܝܢܐ [kīnā] – nature, for Greek φυσις

ܐܝܛܝܐ [ʔītyā] – essence, for Greek ουσια

• Syrian syntax underwent some changes which were caused with Greek (hypotactic) syntax.

From the Syrian translations of the Greek philosophers were made the Arabian translations (following the same translation technique)

Translations from Greek into Arabic (through Syriac) were made in the House of Wisdom (بيت الحكمة‎; Bayt al-Hikma), which was found in Bagdad by the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid (786-809) and culminated under his son Al-Mamun (reigned 813–833).

 

The first translators into Arabic were Syrians. There were two directions in the translation technique.

1) Literal translation word-for-word with transliteration of the special Greek terms with Arabic letters: Aby Yahya (Yohana) Ibn-Al-Batriq (working 796-806) and Ibn Naima Al-Himsi (early 9-th cent.)

2) Sense-for-sense Translation, for the special Greek terms were created Arabic (on the Semitic roots): Hunain Ibn Ishaq (809-837)

Aby Yahya (Yohana) Ibn-Al-Batriq (8-9-th cent.)

He translated for the Caliph Al-Mansur the major medical works of Galen and Hippocrates, and also translated Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos.

e compiled the encyclopedic Kitab sirr al-asrar, or the Book of the science of government: on the good ordering of statecraft, which became known to the Latin-speaking medieval world as Secretum Secretorum ("[The Book of] the Secret of Secrets") in a mid-12th century translation. Al-Batriq claims that it was translated from the Greek into Syriac and from Syriac into Arabic.

 

Ibn-Naima Al-Himsi

He translated The Theology of Aristotle (a paraphrase of Plotinus’ Six Enneads along with Porphyry’s commentary), Sophistical Refutations and Physics of Aristotle.

 

Hunain Ibn Ishaq (809-837) – “sheikh of the translators”

Unlike other translators in the Abbasid period, Hunayn opposed translating texts word for word. Instead, he would attempt to attain the meaning of the subject and the sentences, and then in a new manuscript, rewrite the piece of knowledge in Syriac or Arabic.

He translated from Greek into Arabic 18 treaties of Galen, Republic of Plato, Categories of Aristotle, 7 books of Galen’s anatomy, the Old Testament (LXX).

Examples of word formation by Hunain Ibn Ishaq

Greek terms in Arabic:

• Πολιτεια – سياسة [siyāsat] Republic

• Φυσις – طبيعة [tabi'iyat] Nature

• Κατηγοριαι – مقولات [maqūlat] Categories

 

Solomon Ibn-Gabirol (1021 - 1058)

Solomon Ibn-Gabirol (Abu Ayyūb Suleiman ibn Yahya ibn Jabirūl) was an Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher with a Neoplatonic bent. He attested the use of two approaches to translations in Spain and South Italy:

1. Literal (word-for-word) translation for the sacred texts;

2. Free translation for the secular texts (with many deliberate omissions/eliminations, additions, and paraphrases of their texts).