The Arabic transmission of Plato’s works is sporadic, complicated, and as yet not systematically researched (for the history of research on the Arabic Plato, cf. Gutas forthcoming, first section; a collection of authentic fragments and pseudo-Platonica in Arabic has been edited by Badawi 1974). None of the works has been preserved in a complete translation; indeed, it is a matter of doubt whether there were ever any complete translations into Arabic (cf. Rosenthal 1940:393; Reisman 2004:264). The medieval bibliographers report the following translations: (1) Leges, translated by Hunayn b. Ishiaq and by Yahtya b. ‘Adi; (2) Respublica, translated or paraphrased by Hunayn b. Ishtaq; (3) Sophistes, translated by Ishiaq b. Hunayn together with the Commentary by Olympiodorus; and (4) Timaeus, translated by Yahiya b. al-Bitriq and corrected by Yahiya b. ‘Adi. Of the following dialogues, Arabic fragments of varying length and often of a paraphrastic nature have come down to us: Crito, Leges, Meno, Phaedo, Respublica, Symposium, Timaeus (for editions and studies cf. Daiber 1999, vol 2, 434-439; Gutas forthcoming).
From Hunayn b. Ishtaq’s own report, we know that he and his pupils translated Galen’s Summaries (lost in Greek) ofthe following eight works: Cratylus, Euthydemus, Leges, Politicus, Parmenides, Respublica, Sophistes, and Timaeus (cf. Bergstrasser 1925; Boudon-Millet 2000:455460). Of these translations, only the Arabic version of Galen’s Synopsis of the Timaeus is extant today (ed. Kraus and Walzer 1951; cf. Festugiere and Tonneau 1952).
In addition to these translations and summaries, a number of Greek exegetical works were known to the Arabs: (1) Galen’s Commentary on the medical contents of the Timaeus (cf. Schroder and Kahle 1934; Boudon-Millet 2000:459); (2) excerpts of Proclus’ Commentaries on Phaedo, Respublica, bk. X, and Timaeus (cf. Schmutte and Pfaff 1941; Endress 1973, 28f.; Rowson 1988); (3) a certain ‘‘Exposition’’ of the Timaeus by Plutarch (of Chaeronea?, cf. Pines 1936:90); and (4) Olympiodorus’ Commentary on the Sophistes (cf. above).
Furthermore, philosophers writing in Arabic themselves composed works discussing, summarizing, or commenting on the Platonic sources available to them. For example, al-Kindi dealt with the theories of numbers, solids, and harmonic proportions provided in Respublica and Timaeus (cf. Rescher 1967; Adamson 2007:160-180); al-Farabi and Ibn al-Tayyib composed expositions of the Leges; Abii Bakr al-Razi commented upon Plutarch’s
Exposition of the Timaeus; Thabit b. Qurra dealt with geometrical problems of the Meno and the Respublica; and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) wrote a paraphrase of the Respublica (cf. Gutas forthcoming).
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