H. CONDYLIS-BASSOUKOS, Stéphanitès kai Ichnélatès, traduction grecque (XIe siècle) du livre Kalīla wa-Dimna d'Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (VIIIe siècle). Étude lexicologique et littéraire

Abstract

Abstract Graeco-Arabic studies, or the study of the translations of classical Greek works into Arabic during the early ‘Abbāsid caliphate of the Arabs (ca. 750–1000), is a field that is well known; it has been cultivated, with significant results for the study of medieval Islamic civilization, for more than a century and a half now. What is less well known is the opposite trend of translations from Arabic into (Byzantine) Greek, which began after the Photian renaissance — as a direct result, I have claimed, of the Graeco-Arabic translation movement — and is of comparable significance for the study of Byzantine civilization. For reasons that it might be interesting to investigate at some point, Byzantinists have shied away from Arabo-Greek studies, to the great detriment of a deepened study of Byzantine writings, especially the scientific literature. The book by Dr. Hélène Condylis under review here, a study of the Greek translation of the famous Arabic book of fables Kalīla wa-Dimna (originally of Indian provenance), finally breaks open this unduly neglected area and makes a most impressive first contribution to Arabo-Greek studies that will, in years to come, be considered as pioneering.