Pseudepigrapha

The vast genre of Arabic pseudo-Platonica comprises three main corpora. The first and most remote group in terms of authenticity is formed by treatises on occult and hermetic sciences. Prominent examples of alchemical works are the so-called Summa Platonis, the Book of Tetralogies (Kitab al-Rawabt) in dialogue form, and the Kitab MusaJiJiaJiat Aflatun, which forms part of the Corpus Jabirianum and introduces a certain Timaeus into the secrets of alchemy (cf. Singer 1946; Ullmann 1972,155f.; Thillet 2005). Other works of this corpus deal with astrology, occult practices performed on living and dead animals, or magic art based on symbolisms of numbers and letters or spells (cf. Ullmann 1972:287, 365, 452; Pingree 1993). Many of these treatises were translated into Latin during the Middle Ages (cf. Hasse 2002).

A second group of pseudo-Platonica is constituted by works aiming at moral refinement and political education, for example, a number of Platonic Testaments, various epistles, and the so-called Exhortation Concerning the Education of Young Men, which adopts neo-Pythagorean concepts of economics, pedagogy, and politics (cf. Rosenthal 1941b). Another influential work of this group is the Book of the Laws (Kitab al-Nawam1s, obviously alluding to Plato’s Leges) which treats the relationship between religion, philosophy, and sociopolitical issues (cf. Tamer 2005).

Finally, there is the rather disparate group of extracts from the Arabic Plotiniana and Procliana. Sections falsely attributed to Plato include excerpts of the Liber de Causis, an Arabic adaptation based primarily on Proclus’ Elementatio theologica, as well as excerpts of the Arabic adaptations of Plotinus’ Enneads IV-VI (cf. D’Ancona and Taylor 2003; D’Ancona 2004). This group of pseudo-Platonica forms the main source of inspiration for the post-Suhrawardian Arabic Platonism without Plato.

See also: > AbU Bakr al-RazI, Muljammad ibn Zakarlya’ (Rhazes) > al-BIrUnI, Abu Rayljan > Doxographies,

Graeco-Arabic > al-FarabI, Abu Nasr > al-Kindl, AbU Yusuf Ya'qub ibn Isljaq > al-Mubashshiir ibn Fatik > PolitIcal Philosophy, Arabic > al-ShahrastanI, Muljammad ibn 'Abd al-KarIm > al-SuhrawardI, Shihab al-Din Yaljya al-MaqtUl > Translations from Greek into Arabic > Yahiya Ibn 'AduI