Arabic Vitae of Plato

Details about the life of Plato, whose Arabicized name is Aflatun, were known through translations of Greek sources based on the reports by Theon of Smyrna, Pseudo-Plutarch, Porphyry’s History of Philosophy, and other, unidentified biographical sources (cf. Walzer 1960:235; Peters 1979:31). Most of these Arabic vitae, dating from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, emphasize the (allegedly) symbolic-allegorical or even cryptic style of Plato’s writings. Among the teachers of Plato, Socrates, Timaeus, the Athenian stranger of the Laws and the Eleatic stranger of the Sophist are mentioned. According to the philosopher al-'jmirl, Plato excelled Socrates and Pythagoras in his knowledge of mathematics and natural science (cf. Rowson 1988:72-75, 203-213). In al-Mubashshir b. Fatik’s Mukhtar al-hikam wa-mahiasin al-kalim and al-ShahrastanI’s Kitab al-milal wa-l-nthal, Plato is portrayed as a descendant of the mythological

Asclepius. Other prominent biographical topics are Plato’s journeys to Sicily and Egypt, his foundation of the Platonic Academy, and his intellectual relationship with Pythagoras and Aristotle. Apart from the sources already mentioned, the most detailed accounts of Plato’s life are found in (Pseudo-?)Hunayn b. Isliaq’s Nawadir al-falasifa, Ibn al-Nadim’s Fihrist, al-Shahrazuri’s Nuzhat al-arwahi wa-rawdat al-afraJi, Ibn al-Qifti’s Tdrtkh al-Jiukama, Ibn Abi Usaybi'a’s ‘UyUn al-anba ft tabaqat al-atibba, and the anonymous Muntakhab Siwan al-Mkma (for translations and studies, cf. Gutas forthcoming).