Plato

Yahiya ibn ‘Adi is credited in the K. al-Fihrist (p. 246.5 F) with the translation of Plato’s Laws. This translation is lost.

Aristotle (An. po., Soph. el., Topics, Rhetoric, Poetics, De caelo, De gen. et corr., De sensu et sensato, Book Lambda of the Metaphysics with some commentaries)

As we have seen before, Hunayn b. Isliaq translated into Syriac the Posterior Analytics: on the basis of this translation, Abii Bishr Matta produced the Arabic version that has come down to us (edition: Badawl 1980). In addition to the old translation of the Sophistici elenchi done by ‘Abd al-Maslli ibn Na‘ima al-HimsI within the ‘‘circle of al-Kindl’’ (see above), two other Arabic versions of this Aristotelian work are extant, that can be traced back to the circle of Baghdad directed by Abii Bishr Matta. The information given by Ibn al-NadIm in the K. al-Fihrist does not match the account provided by Ibn Suwar, the ‘‘editor’’ of the so-called Organon of Baghdad (see the details in Hugonnard-Roche 1989:526-528; see also the entry on Ibn Suwar in this volume). For the purposes of the present survey, it will suffice to say that both Abut Bishr Matta and Yahiya ibn ‘Adi did deal with the Soph. el., either by translating it or by correcting previous translations. As for the

Topics, Yaliya ibn ‘Adi made an Arabic version on the basis of Ishiaq’s Syriac text: this translation, mentioned in the K. al-Fihrist (p. 249.15-249.16 F), is quoted in the marginal notes of the ‘‘Organon of Baghdad’’ (see Endress 1977:26). A pupil of YaJiya ibn ‘Adi, Ibn al-Samli (see the entry on Ibn al-Samhi in this volume) corrected the old version of the Rhetoric, dating from the early ‘Abbasid age (edition: Lyons 1982; see Aouad 1989c:457). Abut Bishr Matta translated into Arabic the Poetics, possibly from the Syriac version made by Hunayn: this translation is edited (Tkatsch 1928), and the mention of a translation by Yaliya ibn ‘Adi in the K. al-Fihrist (p. 250.4-250.5 F) possibly points to YaJiya’s correction of Abut Bishr Matta’s translation (Hugonnard-Roche 2003b:211). A partial translation of the De caelo is attributed to Abu Bishr Matta (p. 250.29 F). As we have seen before, Hunayn corrected the old version by Ibn al-Bitriq, and one of the three Arabic translations that are extant in the MSS might be the correction, either by Hunayn or by Abut Bishr Matta, of the old version (one of the three versions is edited: Badawi 1961). The reference work on the Arabic De caelo is Endress (1966); see also the up-to-date status quaestionis by Hugonnard-Roche (2003a). Abut Bishr Matta is credited also with the translation of the De gen. corr. (p. 251.4 F), but this information might point to the lemmas of the commentary by Alexander of Aphrodisias (see below, and Rashed 2003:305). As for the De sensu et sensato, the wording of Ibn al-Nadim is controversial and points either to Abu Bishr Matta, or to another translator, Abut ‘Amr al-Tabari, a pupil of Yahiya ibn ‘Adi (see Hasnaoui 1996). Abu Bishr Matta was particularly interested in Book Lambda of Aristotle’s Metaphysics: the K. al-Fihrist credits him with the translation of this book, accompanied by the commentaries of Alexander of Aphrodisias and Themistius (p. 251.28-251.30; see below). Among the pseudoAristotelian works translated by the scholars of this group, there is the Arabic version from Syriac of the De virt. etvit. (edition: Kellermann-Rost 1961) and Economics (see Zonta 2003a:249), as well as the Arabic version of a compendium of the Nicomachean Ethics, known as Summa Alexandrinorum (see Dunlop 1974, 1976).