Reason and Revelation in Byzantine Antioch: The Christian Translation Program of Abdallah ibn al-Fadl (Berkeley Series in Postclassical Islamic Scholarship) (Volume 3) - Hardcover

Roberts, Alexandre M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520343492 ISBN 13: 9780520343498

Publisher: University of California Press, 2020

Synopsis

What happened to ancient Greek thought after Antiquity? What impact did Abrahamic religions have on medieval Byzantine and Islamic scholars who adapted and reinvigorated this ancient philosophical heritage? Reason and Revelation in Byzantine Antioch tackles these questions by examining the work of the eleventh-century Christian theologian Abdallah ibn al-Fadl, who undertook an ambitious program of translating Greek texts, ancient and contemporary, into Arabic. Poised between the Byzantine Empire that controlled his home city of Antioch and the Arabic-speaking cultural universe of Syria-Palestine, Egypt, Aleppo, and Iraq, Ibn al-Fadl engaged intensely with both Greek and Arabic philosophy, science, and literary culture. Challenging the common narrative that treats Christian and Muslim scholars in almost total isolation from each other in the Middle Ages, Alexandre M. Roberts reveals a shared culture of robust intellectual curiosity in the service of tradition that has had a lasting role in Eurasian intellectual history.

About this title

About the Author

Alexandre M. Roberts teaches in the Department of Classics at the University of Southern California.

From the Back Cover

"Roberts provides the first comprehensive account of the intellectual and social milieu in Antioch during the Byzantine reconquest of the city, focusing on the outstanding theologian and translator Abdallah ibn al-Fadl. Much of Roberts’s analysis is completely fresh, often based on manuscripts that he has edited and translated for the first time. This book is a veritable tour de force."—Alexander Treiger, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Dalhousie University.

"A fascinating book revealing the importance of intellectual exchanges between Byzantium and the Islamic Empire. Ibn al-Fadl translated Greek religious and theological texts, but his notations highlight the impact of the Arabic Aristotelian philosophical tradition and its vocabulary. Roberts shows the unique role Antioch played in these exchanges, making a welcome contribution to an emerging area of research."—Thérèse-Anne Druart, Professor of Medieval Philosophy in Islamic Lands, The Catholic University of America

From the Inside Flap

"Roberts provides the first comprehensive account of the intellectual and social milieu in Antioch during the Byzantine reconquest of the city, focusing on the outstanding theologian and translator Abdallah ibn al-Fadl. Much of Roberts&;s analysis is completely fresh, often based on manuscripts that he has edited and translated for the first time. This book is a veritable tour de force."&;Alexander Treiger, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Dalhousie University.

"A fascinating book revealing the importance of intellectual exchanges between Byzantium and the Islamic Empire. Ibn al-Fadl translated Greek religious and theological texts, but his notations highlight the impact of the Arabic Aristotelian philosophical tradition and its vocabulary. Roberts shows the unique role Antioch played in these exchanges, making a welcome contribution to an emerging area of research."&;Thérèse-Anne Druart, Professor of Medieval Philosophy in Islamic Lands, The Catholic University of America

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520343492
• ISBN 13: 9780520343498
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376