By Kevin van Bladel
This is often the 1st significant examine dedicated to the early Arabic reception and adaption of the determine of Hermes Trismegistus, the mythical Egyptian sage to whom have been ascribed quite a few works on astrology, alchemy, talismans, drugs, and philosophy. earlier than the extra well-known Renaissance ecu reception of the traditional Greek Hermetica, the Arabic culture approximately Hermes and the works lower than his identify were constructing and flourishing for seven-hundred years. The mythical Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus used to be popular in Roman antiquity as an historical sage whose teachings have been represented in books of philosophy and occult technological know-how. The works in his identify, written in Greek by way of Egyptians residing below Roman rule, as a consequence circulated in lots of languages and areas of the Roman and Sasanian Persian empires. After the increase of Arabic as a prestigious language of scholarship within the 8th century, money owed of Hermes identification and airtight texts have been translated into Arabic besides the loads of alternative works translated from Greek, heart Persian, and different literary languages of antiquity. Hermetica have been in reality one of the earliest translations into Arabic, showing already within the 8th century. This booklet explains the origins of the Arabic delusion of Hermes Trismegistus, its assets, the explanations for its atypical personality, and its diverse value for the traditions of Hermetica in Asia and northern Africa in addition to Europe. It indicates who pre-modern Arabic students notion Hermes used to be and the way they got here to that view.
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Extra info for The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity)
Sample text
2–5, citing al-Aṣma< ī (d. 828) and “books of the life-stories (siyar) of the Iranians” (652). 52. Stern 1972: 447–448 and 454; see more on this below. 53. Vahman 1986: text 76–77, trans. 191. 54. The epithet “Egypt-dwelling,” Muzrāyīg-mānišn, may reflect a report derived from the Middle Persian translation of the Alexander Romance, which gives Alexander a Pharaonic genealogy, and which mentions Alexander’s burial in Egyptian Alexandria at the end of the story (Alexander Romance, ed. Budge, text 252, trans.
On the Middle Persian antecedent to the Syriac Alexander Romance, see van Bladel 2007a: 61–64. 55. To inhabitants of the Sasanian Persian Empire, the Western lands were “Roman” regardless of the period. Hermes in Sasanian Iran 10. Šahristānīhā ī Ērān56 (MP): Alexander destroyed the Avesta, which was stored in writing at Samarqand. 11. @amza al-Iṣfahānī, wr. 96157 (Arabic on the basis of eight collated translations of the MP ¢wadāy Nāmag and the account of Mu-sā ibn <Īsā al-Kisrawī): Alexander, jealous of the unparalleled knowledge of the Persian nation, first translated what he needed from Persian, then destroyed the rest, killing the Magi, too.
His son and successor, Šāpu-r I, continued the effort. r). luhā bi-Bābil) were studied and taught in Persian. Later, the Sasanid emperor ¢usro¯ I (r. 531–579) again renewed interest in the sciences. Thus ends Ibn Nawbaxt’s history, the earliest extant history of science in Arabic. The translation of works of Hermes of Egypt into Middle Persian is specifically said to have been effected by the early Sasanid Šāpu-r I, along with astrological works of other Greek authors. In this account, the Egyptian Hermes is originally from Babylon.