EASTWARD AND WESTWARD TRANSMISSION OF CLASSICAL RHETORIC

Abstract

In a volume concerned with, inter alia, the transmission of knowledge between the cultures epitomised by Alexandria, Baghdad, and Paris, a communication on classical rhetoric may appear to be in a somewhat anomalous position. This chapter presents evidence which shows that rhetoric, like philosophy, continued to be studied in various forms in all three societies. In the sixth century, however, when the Syrians began to translate Greek philosophical and medical works, many Syrians knew Greek and had received a Greek education. The use of classical rhetorical figures has been noted in a work of a quite different genre, the Arabic version of Aetius by the Christian translator. Thus, like the study of different aspects of classical rhetoric in general, Aristotle's treatise on the subject eventually found application in diverse ways in pre-modern times in the Syro-Arabic Orient, the Greek East, and the Latin West. Keywords: Christian translator; classical rhetoric; Greek education; Syrians