Chapter Two. The Arabic Version

Abstract

Among other treasures, the manuscript ar. 2346 at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris contains the unique extant Arabic translation of Aristotle?s Rhetoric. In the Arabic Rhetoric, the large majority of marginal notes consist of glosses and explanations of single terms and variants and are, according to Georr, later additions. The copyist furthermore refers in several places to variants, both in another Arabic version and in the Syriac text. There is a consensus on the early, probably Umayyad date of the Rhetoric and its identification with Ibn al-Nadīm’s ?old? version. The reception of the Rhetoric in Syriac was in turn bound up with the transmission of Aristotle?s logical writings, the Organon. In the end, the textual evidence may be sufficient to make a Syriac intermediary ?likely?, but it does not amount to conclusive proof.Keywords: Arabic translation; Arabic version; Aristotle?s Rhetoric; Organon; Syriac text; Umayyad date