Al-Hasan Ibn Musa Al-Nawbakhti, Commentary on Aristotle 'De Generatione Et Corruptione' : Edition, Translation and Commentary

This book contains a new edition and English translation of the oldest commentary on Aristotle written in Arabic and preserved to this day, together with an extensive commentary. It is a compendium on the treatise De generatione et corruptione , written by the Imamite theologian and heresiographer Hasan b. Mūsā al-Nawbakhtī (fl. ca. 900). To this day, apart from the title of more than forty works and numerous fragments-taken mainly from his magnum opus, the Book of the Doctrines and Religions (Kitāb al-ārā’ wa-al-diyānāt)-only a single treatise of his, the Book of Shî’î Sects (Kitâb firaq al-shî’a), was known to us. The text sheds new light in several ways: firstly, on the the Arabic philosophical tradition, since it was composed during the obscure period between al-Kindī and al-Fārābī (roughly, the 2 nd half of the 9 th c.); secondly, on the Greek tradition, since the author makes extensive use of Alexander’s lost commentary on De generatione; thirdly, on the formative period of shī’ism, since it helps us to reconstruct how the author borrowed from the Aristotelian tradition the tools necessary to build up a new anthropology compatible with the doctrine of the Occultation which he inaugurated at the time.

This book contains a new edition and English translation of the oldest commentary on Aristotle written in Arabic and preserved to this day, together with an extensive commentary. It is a compendium on the treatise De generatione et corruptione, written by the Imamite theologian and heresiographer Hasan b. Mūsā al-Nawbakhtī (fl. ca. 900). To this day, apart from the title of more than forty works and numerous fragments-taken mainly from his magnum opus, the Book of the Doctrines and Religions (Kitāb al-ārā’ wa-al-diyānāt)-only a single treatise of his, the Book of Shî’î Sects (Kitâb firaq al-shî’a), was known to us. The text sheds new light in several ways: firstly, on the the Arabic philosophical tradition, since it was composed during the obscure period between al-Kindī and al-Fārābī (roughly, the 2nd half of the 9th c.); secondly, on the Greek tradition, since the author makes extensive use of Alexander’s lost commentary on De generatione; thirdly, on the formative period of shī’ism, since it helps us to reconstruct how the author borrowed from the Aristotelian tradition the tools necessary to build up a new anthropology compatible with the doctrine of the Occultation which he inaugurated at the time.

CONTENTS I. TEXT AND TRANSLATION Introduction to the Critical Edition Sigla Summary of the Book On Generation and Destruction Section Section Section Section Section Section Section Section Section Section Section Section Section Section II. COMMENTARY Introduction of the Work Section 1: On Generation, Destruction and the Categories Section 2: On Generation, Non-Being and Matter Section 3: On Matter, Form and Generation and Destruction Section 4: On Generation, Substance and Accidents Section 5: On the Different Changes and the Change According to Place Section 6: On Growth Section 7: On Nutrition Section 8: On Contact Section 9: On Action and Passion Section 10: On Mixing Section 11: On the Elements Section 12: On the Reciprocal Change of the Elements Section 13: Formation of Homoeomers Section 14: Generation and Destruction and the Celestial Bodies III. AL-ḤASAN IBN MŪSĀ AL-NAWBAḪTĪ The author of the treatise: al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā al-Nawbaḫtī 1. Pars destruens: the author is not Avicenna 2. Pars construens: the author is al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā al-Nawbaḫtī Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā al-Nawbaḫtī as a philosopher Bibliography Index of Arabic words Index nominum Index locorum This book presents the oldest commentary on Aristotle written in Arabic, a compendium of De Generatione et Corruptione. Its author was the Imamite theologian Ibn M?s? al-Nawbakht? (fl. ca. 900), of whom a single work (among more than forty ones recorded) was known to be extant. This new text sheds light both on the Greek tradition – the author makes extensive use of Alexander’s lost commentary – and on the formative period of Shi’ism