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"Arabic literature Translations into German"
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A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ILLUMINATIONIST PHILOSOPHY: SUHRAWARDĪ'S \NŪR MUJARRAD\ AND HUSSERL'S REDUCTION
In Suhrawardī's Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq we find an Arabic phrase nūr mujarrad, translated by Walbridge and Ziai as \"incorporeal light,\" and by Corbin as \"immaterial light,\" a principle that \"cannot be pointed to, nor be located in a body, nor have spatial dimensions.\" (112) The adjective mujarrad, which is past participle of the verb jarrada (\"to strip away, remove the outside covering, peel off the shell\"), does not mean \"incorporeal.\" Why does Suhrawardī choose this interesting term, and what does he mean by it? Presented here is a detailed exposition of philosophical evidence in Part 2 of the Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, showing that Suhrawardī operates in the phenomenological attitude and applies tajrïd (action noun from jarrada, \"to strip away,\" etc.), which in this case is a reduction to pure subjectivity resembling Husserl's analytic approach in his theory of intentionality. Synchronie phenomenological analysis shows how the founder of Illuminationism generates his intuitive metaphysics out of the gestalt of pure subjectivity signified by the term nūr mujarrad. A different translation of nūr mujarrad, as \"light made bare\" or \"denuded light,\" is proposed, as direct (non-metaphorical) signification versus the just-mentioned translations. This new translation also leads to a different reading of other central terms of Illuminationism, such as dhāt, \"self-essence,\" and barzakh, \"barrier.\" The phenomenological approach corrects a crucial interpretive error in translations of Suhrawardī's corpus, and suggests a reading of Illuminationist philosophy in its own terms, through the lenses of phenomenological ontology versus previously applied rationalistic or idealistic frameworks.
Journal Article
Snake to Monster: Conrad Gessner’s Schlangenbuch and the Evolution of the Dragon in the Literature of Natural History
Dragons, in the original sense of the word, are real animals. These iconic monsters of European folklore are the literary descendants of ordinary snakes that evolved through the centuries with much help from the discipline of natural history. Classical authors applied the term dragon to large snakes such as Aesculapian snakes and pythons. Over time, so many fabulous traits accrued in the descriptions of these animals that by the Renaissance dragon descriptions strained credulity, and eighteenth-century scientists dismissed dragons as mythical. Particularly important among dragon descriptions in the literature of natural history is that of Conrad Gessner in the snake volume of his animal encyclopedia Historiae animalium. Published in 1587, it incorporates a more comprehensive review of dragon lore and literature than any previous work. This makes it an important reference for describing the conceptual evolution of the dragon from an ordinary snake into a fabulous monster. The volume was first published in Latin, then in German in 1589 under the title Schlangenbuch. Here we use Schlangenbuch's sources to trace the evolution of the dragon in the literature of natural history, with comments on the dragons of folktales, myths, and legends. We also present the first English translation of the dragon section of Schlangenbuch, annotated to identify Gessner's sources and their contributions to the conceptual evolution of the dragon. In addition we present, similarly annotated, the first English translation of the dragon section of Ibn Slna's Canon of Medicine, a source that Gessner repeatedly cited.
Journal Article
Denys Johnson-Davies: The Translator Who Rushed in Where Angels Feared to Tread
The purpose of this article is to outline Denys Johnson-Davies's translation career as told in his autobiography, give a general appreciation of his unparalleled role in translating and promoting Arabic literature in the English-speaking world, shed light on his adapting numerous Arabic folktales for children, and touch upon his translations of canonical Islamic texts. However, it would not be possible to fully appreciate his monumental contributions in this intercultural dialogue without examining, albeit briefly, some of the intractable odds against which he strove. In other words, had he been a French- or German-English translator, his would have been a completely different story, and perhaps not worth being voluble about. To achieve this goal, I will highlight certain relevant incidents in his career that illustrate both his tireless efforts and his attachment to Arabic literature, Arab authors, and Arab customs, for it is through this “spiritual affinity” that Johnson-Davies fulfills Schlegel's condition for a good authentic translation.
Journal Article
Albert the Great on Mathematical Quantities
Albert the Great presented a theory of mathematical practice strongly guided by Al-Naiziri’s commentary on Euclid’s Elements. Although a strong influence of Boethius’ view on Mathematics as a separated from movement science would be expected in a thirteenth-century philosopher, Albert had provided a relevant role for the moving point, at least apparently in the mathematical construction stage. Therefore, one may observe Albert trying to reconcile Boethius’ mathematical view with Al-Naiziri’s movement role in constructing mathematical objects.
Journal Article
Scholasticism Is a Daughter of Judaism
This article retells the surprising discovery of a considerable Jewish influence on Christian scholasticism in the Middle Ages. While most students of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas knew that both had read Jewish philosophy, only the rediscovery of especially Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed by Jewish philosophers in the nineteenth century showed the whole extent of the scholastics' dependence on Jewish predecessors - especially where they do not refer to them specifically. This Jewish discovery naturally faced Catholic resistance, if not denial, and turns thus into an interesting chapter in the history of theological ideas.
Journal Article