The Myth of Bryson and Economic Thought in Islam

Abstract

The inspiration for the present note comes primarily from a statement in the old edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. In its volume four on page number 595, Heffening (1934) states that to Helmut Ritter 'the whole economic literature of Islam can be traced to economics of Neo- pythagorean Bryson' (emphasis added). In 1917 the German writer Ritter edited and translated Abu Jafar al-Dimashqi's treatise Kitab al-Isharah ila Mahasin al-Tijarah. In his introduction of the book he noted the said remark. It is this unqualified statement that we dispute here. Later in 1928 another German author Plessner tried to show Bryson's influence on Islamic economic thought by making a review of all the Arab-Muslim literary works that concerned themselves even remotely with Bryson's text (Heffening 1934, Vol.4, p. 595). His assertion of Bryson's influence was later taken up by many other writers. Now who is this Bryson? It is said that he was a Greek philosopher whose personality was 'unidentified' and 'whose work was unknown to the West' (Spengler, 1964, p. 276 footnote). It may be noted that there is no mention of Bryson in Schumpeter's encyclopedic work History of Economics Analysis which presents minute details of the history of the intellectual efforts 'from the earliest discernible beginning' (Schumpeter, 1997, p. 3). Bryson's name came from an Arabic translation of an unknown manuscript entitled Kitab Tadbir al-Manzil (the book of household management). Its author and the translator both are obscure. There is no consensus on the correct form of his name. It is guessed to be a Latin or Greek name such as 'Barses', 'Brasius', 'Beresius', 'Bersius',