79 Hunain Ibn Ishaq
79 Hunain Ibn Ishaq
from the "Crises" ("De crisibus") and the "Critical Days" ("De diebus decretoriis")
Author(s): Glen M. Cooper
Source: Oriens, Vol. 44, No. 1/2 (2016), pp. 1-43
Published by: Brill
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ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43 =—=
It • »
ORIENS
BRILL brill.com/orie
Glen M. Cooper
Department of History, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, ca, usa
glenmcooper@gmaiicom
Abstract
The author shows, from Hunayn ibn Ishäq's translations of Galen's Crises and Critical
Days, and borrowing a scheme from Sebastian Brock, that Hunayn's translation style
was "reader-oriented," in which he added whatever he thought necessary to help his
readers understand the text and its complex subject matter, rather than "text-oriented,"
which adhered closely to the original. Using several examples classified in a working
typology, the author shows how caution must be used when deriving Greek textual
variants from Arabic. Moreover, the author considers how the Arabic translations
creatively distorted certain scientifically significant concepts.
Keywords
* Glen M. Cooper, Department of History, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, USA,
[email protected].
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2 COOPER
Introduction1
1 A preliminary version of this paper was read at the Sharing Ancient Wisdoms Conf
Kings College, London, June 3-4,2013. Many thanks to the anonymous reviewer whose
observations and suggestions for additional references have improved the present art
2 Dimitri Gutas, Theophrastus On First Principles (Known as his Metaphysics) (Leiden
2010), 93-101 (Appendix).
3 The compilations of M. Ullmann on the one hand, and G. Endress and D. Gutas on the
are troves of this sort of information. See Oliver Overwien, "The Art of the Translator, or
did Hunayn ibn Isljâq and his School Translate?" in Epidemics in Context: Greek Comme
on Hippocrates in the Arabic Tradition, ed. Peter E. Pormann (Berlin: De Gruyter, 201
Manfred Ullmann, Wörterbuch zu den griechisch-arabischen Übersetzungen des g. Jah
derts (Wiesbaden: Harrasssowitz Verlag, 2002); and Gerhard Endress and Dimitri Gu
Greek and Arabic Lexicon: Materialsfor a Dictionary of Medieval Translationsfrom Gree
Arabic (Leiden: Brill, 1992-).
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 3
but preserves the work of an earlier translator.4 Recently, E.A. Schmidt and
M. Ullmann have examined how the Arabic translation of the same Aristotelian
text can be used in the critical reconstruction of the Greek text, with implica
tions for Greco-Arabic philological method in general.5 The present author's
approach, though similar, was independently derived, and is intended to illus
trate the scientific and cultural implications of the transformations wrought
upon Greek texts in the process of translation.
Given that Hunayn ibn Ishäq (d. 873) is considered by many to represent the
highest standard of translation accuracy and philological method, the features
of his translations provide an important test case. Hunayn's translations have
occasioned many comments and isolated observations, but until recently there
have been few systematic or extended studies of his actual modus operandi
of translation. General features of his style has been observed, such as the
"hendiadys method" of rendering a Greek expression with two (or, on occasion,
more, i.e. hendiatris "one via three") Arabic words, to be discussed below.6 The
translation features surveyed here may be particular to Hunayn's style, or may
be features found in all responsible Greco-Arabic translations. In either case,
they can be ruled out by the editor as possible variants. The present article
samples only two of Hunayn's translations that offer interesting examples. Any
generalizations made here are for the sake of showing how care must be used
when employing any Arabic translation for Greek editions.
A byproduct of addressing the issue of procedures of translation is a better
understanding of how the Greek tradition was transformed as it entered Arabic,
conceptually as well as textually, which can lead to a better grasp of what were
truly original and creative conceptual developments in the Arabic tradition. In
some cases the Arabic translation itself added to or shifted key Greek concepts,
opening new possibilities for scientific theorizing, as has been shown in the
case of optics.7
4 Manfred Ulimann, Die Nikomachische Ethik des Aristoteles in arabischer Übersetzung, Teil 1:
Wortschatz; Teil 2: Überlieferung, Textkritik, Grammatik (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011-12).
5 Ernst A. Schmidt, Manfred Ullmann, Aristoteles in Fes: Zum Wert der arabischen Überlieferung
der Nikomachischen Ethikflir die Kritik des griechischen Textes (Heidelberg, 2012).
6 Discussed in: Glen M. Cooper, Galen, De diebus decretoriis, from Greek into Arabic: A Critical
Edition, -with Translation and Commentary, and Historical Introduction ofHunayn ibn Ishäq,
Kitâb ayyàm al-buhrän (London: Ashgate, 2011), 85 and 504. (Hereafter, references to this
work will be as follows: Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 85 and 504). See also discussion
in: Overwien, "The Art of the Translator," 153.
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4 COOPER
The present study attempts shed light on the main philological issue an
byproduct by inferring what the act of translation meant for Hunayn, th
comparing several passages from two treatises of Galen's and Hunay
bic translations.8 A preliminary scheme for Hunayn's translation style w
sketched, and some implications of particular translation choices will
cussed.
îo See Hunayn's own accounts, in Hunayn (ed. Bergsträsser), Risäla, 6-7, 24-5, a
Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Mov
in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-ioth Centuries) (London: Rou
1998), 142-4. Also discussed in: Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 85-6.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 5
In describing his translations of the Critical Days and the Crises in his Risäla,
Hunayn states that Sergios of Re§ Aynä (d. 536) had translated these works into
Syriac.14 Hunayn corrected this version for his teacher, Yühannä ibn Mäsawayh
(d. 857), and later he himself translated it into Arabic for Muhammad ibn
Müsä (d. 873), which occurred sometime before 856 ad.15 It is unclear from
this passage whether Hunayn translated it from Syriac into Arabic, or directly
from Greek. As S. Brock has shown, evaluation of ancient translations is more
sensibly done via a scheme that considers broader criteria than how "faithful"
they were to their source text. According to his useful dichotomy, a translation
is "text-oriented" if the translator attempts to convey every textual detail of
the source text into the target language, as if the revered source text were not
to be changed. With a "reader-oriented" translation, on the other hand, the
11 Galen classified these two works as among his prognostic works: De libris propriis, 19,32,2
3 K. These two treatises are usually bound together, along with De differentiisfebrium ("On
the Distinguishing Characteristics of Fevers"), in Greek and Arabic manuscript collections.
See Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 17. They were treatises numbers 13,14, and 15, the
semiotic textbooks, which dealt with recognizing relevant signs in the patient for therapy
and prognosis; Albert Z. Iskandar, "An Attempted Reconstruction of the Late Alexandrian
Medical Curriculum " Medical History 20 (1976): 235-58, esp. 237-9.
12 See, for example, William Cullen, First Lines of the Practice of Physic (Worcester, Mass.:
Isaiah Thomas, 1790). Sudhoff gave an historical survey that showed the persistence of
the critical days doctrine that is still useful: Karl Sudhoff, "Zur Geschichte der Lehre von
den kritischen Tagen im Krankheitsverlaufe," Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin
2i, no. 1-4 (1929): 1-22.
13 See, e.g.: Glen M. Cooper, "Rational and Empirical Medicine in Ninth-Century Baghdad:
Qustà ibn Lüqä's 'Questions on the Critical Days in Acute Illnesses'," Arabic Sciences and
Philosophy 24 (2014): 69-102; and Idem, "Approaches to the Critical Days in Late Medieval
and Renaissance Thinkers," Early Science and Medicine 18, no. 6 (2013): 536-65.
14 Hunayn (ed. Bergsträsser) Risäla, 15 11. 4-12; and see editor's discussion in Galen (ed.
Cooper), Critical Days, 15 et seq.
15 See editor's discussion of chronology in Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 82-3.
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6 COOPER
translator has the reader in the target language as his primary concern
intertextual commentary, definition, or exposition of the cultural cont
target language, to convey the meaning of the source text and to rend
useful as possible.16 The latter style of translation presents a greater
to the textual critic.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 7
Types of Transformation
In an attempt to outline a stylistic profile of Hunayn's translations, with no
claim of being exhaustive or comprehensive, I consider examples of several
general types of transformations, or tropes, that Hunayn wrought on Galen's
Greek as he translated it, in his efforts to produce a "reader-oriented" text.21
While these are elements of Hunayn's translations' stylistic profile, some of
them may not be particular to Hunayn, but may be shared with other trans
altors, since they may be necessary in any effort to produce accurate trans
lations between these two languages that differ widely in grammatical and
syntactical features. They include:
1. Expansions
2. Adding Context or Explanation
3. Defining a Term instead of Translating or Transliterating it
19 H alii ibn Aybak al-Safadî, al-Gayth al-musyjam (Cairo, 1887), 1,46. See Franz Rosenthal,
The Classical Heritage in Islam (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1975), 17-8.
20 Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture, 142-3.
21 My independently-derived scheme resembles generally those derived by other scholars:
see Overwien, "The Art of the Translator," 154-5, and Uwe Vagelpohl, "Cultural Accommo
dation and the Idea of Translation." Oriens 38 (2010): 168-84.
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8 COOPER
4. Deliberate (Mis)translation
5. Semantic Overlap and Shifting
Expansions: Hendiadys
22 Vivian Nutton, "Review of: 'Galen, On examination by which the best physicia
nized, edition of the Arabic version with English translation and commentary
Z. Iskandar, Corpus Medicorum Graecorum, Supplementum Orientale IV, Be
Akademie Verlag, 1988'," Medical History 33 (1989): 379-80. Peter Pormann prov
examples from the Arabic translation of Paul of Aegina, generally assumed to
by Hunayn or his school, in The Oriental Tradition of Paul ofAegina's Pragmate
Brill, 2004), 249.
23 Henry G. Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon. Ninth ed. (Oxfor
Press, 1996), 870. This word means both "beautiful" and "good" in the sense
upright, honorable."
24 Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 202-3.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 9
and throws off the expected pattern of crises in the critical day timeline, thereby
frustrating attempts to give an accurate prognosis, but which, however, in a safe
illness will have little dangerous effect. Here, mpiecvrjXÖTa ("to be surrounded,
i.e. protected") is rendered by as-saiäma wa-l-haläs ("(toward) recovery and
deliverance").
At 9,839,18 K,25 Galen stresses the depth of understanding a medical student
must gain, and how well he must know the signs of the crises and the critical
days, in order to be able to prognosticate the turns and outcomes of illnesses as
well as Hippocrates. The word cbcpißüq ("accurately, precisely") is rendered by
sahlh. wa-bayyin ("reliably and distinctly").
At 9,843,17 K,26 Galen, when discussing the regulating power of nature,
explains how all living beings have periods of growth and development that
are defined for individual species and cannot be transgressed, because nature
maintains these limits. The crucial term Teray^évaç ("are well-ordered") is
rendered by läzima li-tarïqin wähidin wa-nizämin wähidin ("adhere to one path
and to one system").
At 9,875,4 K,27 Galen recounts the "Golden Days" of medicine during Hip
pocrates' era (as he imagined it), when physicians cooperated in the medi
cal enterprise, to help it grow and improve, by sharing methods and newly
acquired knowledge. Galen contrasts this with his own day, when many phil
osophers and physicians were attempting to overthrow (in his view) what had
been established through proper scientific methods. As is clear from the rest
of the treatise, Galen is alluding to the Pyrrhonian Skeptical school and its
associated medical Methodism, whose aim, according to Galen, was to show,
through clever argument and paradoxes such as the sorites (to be discussed
later in this article), that no reliable knowledge is possible. Here, the crucial
term eûpr)|uévoiç ("discovered") is rendered by ustuhritfa wa-'urifa ("discovered
and known").
At 9,912,19 K,28 Galen scolds those who want to distract him from the aim
of his inquiry, which is to show how the lunar phases are connected with the
critical days and can thereby be used to predict and characterize the crises that
occur in them. They do this by insisting that he delve into natural philosophy
and explain the full causal scenario of the critical days. That, he explains,
would force him to deviate from his intention, which is more practical than
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10 COOPER
There are numerous passages in the Critical Days where, in an effort to trans
late the cultural context as well as the mere plain sense, Hunayn provided
explanations or amplifications that seem to be absent in the original. Such
insertions reveal his familiarity with the Greek medical corpus, the Greek lan
guage, and Greek culture. In these passages, Hunayn attempts to match the
spirit of the original, on the basis of his knowledge of other Galenic works. An
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 11
expected times, and how this can render accurate prognosis more difficult,
Hunayn adds: "and knowledge of this is derived from the Method of Healing."33
In that treatise, Galen indeed describes a situation where the prognosis can be
upset by harm (v) ßX<4ßv)) caused by the putrefaction or inflammation of the
humors, and the prognosis must be adjusted accordingly.34 Furthermore, at
Critical Days 9,828,1 K, Hunayn adds: "and knowledge of it (i.e. how to adjust the
prognosis) is found in the Crises."35 There are, in fact, many such passages in the
Crises that Hunayn might have cited. In yet another passage (9,872,5 K), Hunayn
correctly elaborates the Greek demonstrative pronoun èxslvoiç ("in these") from
context, as "in the Prognostic and in the Aphorisms," specifying where the Hip
pocratic author describes and enumerates the most significant of the critical
days.36
31 Hunayn evidently felt he knew Galen well enough to recognize an error in the text, and to
correct it.
32 Overwien, "The Art of the Translator," 154 n. 21. See also Galen (Max M. Meyerhof and
Joseph Schacht eds.): Galen über die medizinischen Namen (Berlin: Abhandlungen der
preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse Nr. 3,1931):
17, line 30-18, line 4 (Arabic).
33 Wa-ma'rifatu dâlika tu'hadu min kitäbi hilati l-bur'i. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 200
1.
34 10,693,16 seq. K. Galen, MethodofMedicine. Books 10-14. Edited and Translated by I. Johnston
and G.H.R Horsley (Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press, 2011), vol. hi, 48-51
35 Wa-ma'rifatuhu fikitâbi l-buhrâni. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 202-3.
36 Fi kitâbi taqdimati l-ma'rifati wa-kitäbi l-fii$üli. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 276
7
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12 COOPER
37 Fa-idâ anta ra'ayta l-marada qad sakana min gayri an yakûna qabla suküni
dayni s-say'ayni. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 96-7.
38 Li-Uadlnayanzurünafi d-dabä'ihi. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 212-3.
39 See, e.g., Derek Collins, "Mapping the Entrails: The Practice of Greek Hepato
icari Journal of Philo fogy 129 (2008): 319-45.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 13
word for "crisis" itself, buhrän, which was adopted directly from Syriac. In
other passages, Hunayn gives a translation followed by "which the Greeks call,"
or "which in Syriac is," and occasionally adds a Persian équivalent. Most of
these passages are concerned with describing the colors or other empirical
features of bodily fluids necessary for classifying crises. Because précision in
recognizing these features is crucial to the entire diagnostic and therapeutic
scheme, Hunayn was more concerned with conveying the meaning rather than
producing a "faithful" translation that corresponds closely to the original Greek,
and some of these technical terms were already part of the Persian and Syriac
médical vocabulary that had not already been adopted into Arabie. Here, there
is the same paradox we encountered in the case of hendiadys translation: the
very striving for accuracy results in obscuring the original text. As before, the
implication for Greco-Arabie philology is that the textual editor must use the
translation cautiously.
An example passage from the Crises illustrâtes how Hunayn expands on
the Greek in this way to clarify the meaning.40 Galen is discussing the causes
of, and the différences between four diseases: phrenitis, lethargy, pneumonia,
and pleurisy. After providing an expanded translation including définitions,
Hunayn adds a translitération of the Greek word corresponding to the disease,
and in the case of phrenitis, he includes the Persian équivalent.
170,7-12 A (9,707,8-i4)41
7 κρίνει δέ καΐ φρενίτιν ίδρώς χρηστός, καΐ μάλλον ε! έκ της κεφαλής πολύς και
θερμός έκρέοι σύμπαντος ίδρουντος τοΰ σώματος, αλλά και δι' αιμορραγίας της
έκ (ίηνών έστιν δτε φρενίτις έκρίθη βεβαίως, ίο ού μην λήθαργος ή περιπνευμονία
χαίρουσιν αίμορραγίαις. n έν μέσω δ' αύτών έστι πλευρίτις.
7 κρίνει... σώματος (1.9) om. L 8 καΐ (pr.) om. ELV || πολύ A πολλής Ε g έκρέει,
ss. καΐ χρηστός, 11| του άλλου σώμ. ALV του 8λου σ. Ε ίο αίμορρ. τε BQ || τής: τάς Α ||
καΐ φρεν. 11| Ικκρίθην Ε || ήδέως βεβαίως Ε π χαίρ. in ras. 11| αίμορρ.: αιμορραγίας,
deïnde ras. 7-8 litt., I comp. Β || έν μέσω... αίμορρ. (1.13) in marg. I.
40 Galen (ed. Bengt Alexanderson), Galenos Peri Kriseon: Überlieferung und Text (Göteborg:
Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, 1967): 169, line 20-171, line 17 (9,706,14-709,14 Κ). The
sigla key for his apparatus criticus is found in the Appendix to the present article.
41 "170,7 A" indicates De crisibus, Alexanderson édition, page 170, line 7. Here, the line number
indicates the line where the Greek sentence begins, and is a convenient referencing
system between Greek and Arabie versions. The apparatus criticus included here is from
Alexanderson's édition.
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14
COOPER
7 إيممبؤ شطيارف نوحمانولا امسم قلا خلا شو غلمدنا يراح مرو ع* زا تتاك نإو
رحمك ءش قرلا س سأرا نع ىرج نإايّ ال يوحم قرمب بارحم نوكي دق امار سرغلا
مات نارجب فاعراي العلا هده ي نوكي دقو هلةَ ندلا قرو زاح10 فاعرلا لكامب سمنو
[ ح نوكث قلا زاms. L, 6or] و دراي مرو،نونانولا اينعم قلا ■؛مسا شو غامدلا ي ص
مرو ع»نوكت قلا زا اضيا فاعرلا لكاتيالو ناسل نم مألا اده قاقتشاو سوغراثيل
ةئرلا تاذ يا اوموامر؛ف نوينانويلا إيمس قا العلا يو أثرا11 عم نوكت قلا زا اتاو
تاذ يا سطرروا نويئوٍلا اهنمب قلا شو عالضالل نطتلا ءاثغلا ي ضرم مرو
نلاخلا ني ةطسوتم ىهن بجلا
Ms. L 6or and Ms. E io6r v
42 φρενΐτις.
43 λήθαργος.
44 Following ms. Ε. Ms. L has färbaflümüniyä. The Greek has περιπνευμονία, which is différent
from the Arabie translitération, and is discussed below.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 15
which is some sort of affection of the lungs.45 u As for the fever that is
accompanied by a swelling that occurs in the deep membrane attached to
the ribs, which the Greeks call balürifis,46 which is some sort of affection
of the pleura, it is midway between the two conditions.
unambiguous Arabie term for it. Galen's writings contributed to the problem,
since they are not always entirely clear about how to distinguish between ill
nesses. Phrenitis was transliterated into Arabie as farànltis, as here, but was
soon read as qaränltis, when the initial ß' was confused for a qäf (there is
one dot distinguishing them), as it appeared in al-Râzï, Ibn Sïnâ, and oth
ers.51 Birsäm ("ehest pain") was consistently used in translations of Hippocratic
works and Byzantine médical authors from early on. But then birsäm was fre
45 Dâtu r-ri'a.
46 πλευρίτις.
47 This is in text in Ms. E, but appears as a marginal note in Ms. L.
48 Persian sar = "head": Francis Joseph Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictio
nary, Including the Arabie Words and Phrases tobe met with in Persian Literature ( London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963), 664; sarsâmï = "stupidity, delirious;" sarsäm = "Stupefied;
frenzy, delirium," Idem, 674. See also al-öawäliqi, al-Mu'arrab, 133.
49 Galen (ed. Cooper), CriticalDays, 316-7 and 476.
50 For a discussion of how the Greek for the diseases in Paul of Aegina were rendered in
Arabie, see: Pormann, The Oriental Tradition, 246-7.
51 Michael Dois, Majnün: TheMadman in MédiévalIslamic Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1992), 57-8·
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16 COOPER
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 17
can arise from inflammations that are shared between the liver and the spleen.
Here, the translation is longer than the original, because Hunayn explains each
of the fevers—and in this case, he improvises meanings. As should be clear
from comparing the translations, which I have made explicit below, Hunayn
has probably not understood the original, or he was attempting to explain these
swellings on the basis of his own knowledge of medicine. He translitérâtes
φλεγμονή as flagmûnï ("inflammation; swelling"),63 which is a Greek word that
also appears in Hunayn's translation at 143 A/667 K. There it is defined as "a
swelling that occurs from the blood," (al-waramu lladlyakünu mina d-dami). As
will be seen, Hunayn's translation ends up conveying a rather différent meaning
from Galen's Greek.
143,4-8 A (9,667,13-15 K)
4 όμοίως γαρ τοις πυρετοίς οί πεπονθότες τόποι τήν μίξιν ϊσχουσιν, ή διαφε
ρόντων μορίων ίδιον έκατέρου πυρετόν έξάπτοντος οίον σπληνός εί τύχοι καΐ
ήπατος, ή διαθέσεως μικτής οίον φλεγμονής έρυσιπελατώδους ή έρυσιπέλατος
φλεγμονώδους ή φλεγμονής σκιρρώδους ή σκίρρου φλεγμονώδους
4 For the affected places hold the mixture similarly to the fevers, either
a particular fever of each that is connected to the différent parts, such as
if it should be connected to the spleen or the liver, or a fever of a mixed
disposition, such as 1) a swelling that has the nature of an erysipelas, or 2)
an erysipelas64 that has the nature of a swelling, or 3) of a swelling that has
the nature of a tumor,65 or 4) of a tumor that has the nature of a swelling.
٧٥،^؛، بيكما نم لتحت دث ةمراولا ءاضعألاU ثدح اممر هنا كلذو تاخا هلمتحت
قلا زادض ز امم* دحاو لك ثدحأو دكلاو لاحطلا لثم يفلحم يضع ي مرولا
اممر هنا كلذ لاثم بكر مرو دحاولاوضخلا ي ثدح امبرو رنالا امدحن، نم أكِم
ىذلا مرولا.ءارفصلا س لوكُينلا مرونا سو قوشن دويانولا هنمب يذلا مدلا س نوك
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18 COOPER
مماي ىمسم هيلع بلغا نعوكا دحا لوكيف مرولا اده ىصرعي ام اريكؤ هرمخ ا هل لام يللا
رغألا عٍما ما فصوئؤ بلغألا- مرولاو مدلا ن* ثدمب يذلا مرولا س ناك امبرو
And I maintain that the swollen organs sufferwhatever mixture the fevers
permit. This is because sometimes the swelling occurs in two different
organs, such as the spleen and the liver, and each of these two produces
a fever that is different from the fever that the other produces. And
sometimes a similar composite swelling occurs in the one organ, such
as when it sometimes is composed of l) the swelling that arises from the
blood, which the Greeks call flagmunl, and 2) from the swelling that arises
from the yellow bile, which is called erysipelas (ihumra). Often whenever
this swelling occurs 3) one of the two kinds predominates, and it is called
by the name of the predominant one, and is described by the name of
the other kind. Sometimes 4) it is mixed from the swelling that arises
from the blood and the swelling that arises from the phlegm or the black
bile.
There are four types of ailments listed in this passage. It is difficult to know
what Galen actually means by them, since he inverts the subject and pred
icate elements of each descriptive phrase, features that are not conveyed by
Hunayn, although for the third part Hunayn seems to recognize that Galen has
done this. There, Hunayn states: "The swelling in which one of the two kinds
predominates, and it is called by the name of the predominant one, and is
described by the name of the other kind." Here, "is called by" refers to what I call
the subject element, and "is described by" referes to what آcall the predicate
element. The Greek and Arabic versions align as follows: l) ،pXsYHOvv؛؟ فpuol7آة
AaraSou"( ؟swelling that has the nature of an erysipelas") Arabic: "The swelling
that arises from the blood, which the Greeks call flagmUni" 2) ؟0؛َآ0آه7جمتأ
<pX£Y|_5ou"( ؟an erysipelas that has the nature of a swelling") Arabic: "The
swelling that arises from the yellow bile, which is called erysipelas [humra)."66
66 The apparent contradiction here between red (the root h-m-r "red" ofhumra) and yellow
arises from the yellow bile sometimes being called "red" or "fiery" in the Greek tradition:
Trupp،( ؟Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1559).
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1 43
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 19
67 Diogenes Laertius, Vitae PhUosophorum. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Books i-ii. 108
(Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press, 1972), 236-7.
68 I.e. a certain man says he is lying. Is he telling the truth?
69 On the sorites paradox in ancient medicine in general, see the recent: Miira Tuominen,
"Heaps, Experience, and Method: On the Sorites Argument in Ancient Medicine," History
of Philosophy Quarterly 242, no. 2 (2007): 109-25.
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20 COOPER
9,780,1-6 Κ
70 See Jon Moline, "Aristotle, Eubulides, and the Sorites," Mind 78 (19
sorites continues to be of interest to modem philosophers, e.g. Délia Graf
Continua and the Sorites,"Mind 110, no. 440 (2001): 905-35.
71 Glen M. Cooper, "Hagar Banished: Anti-Arabism and the Aldine Edition
Days," Earty Science andMedicine 17, no. 6 (2012): 604-42; here, 612-3.
72 I am in the process of editing the Greek text of the Critical Days, so here
tentative results of the collation. As near as I can determine, the eleven ex
belong to two major families, with four significant branches, which are
manuscripts Β, H, M, and Ρ (see Appendix for détails). It is also notew
Venetian M is virtually identical to Kühn's Greek édition (1825), which st
that it was the exemplar for the original Aldine édition (1525), which was
Venetian Aldine Publishing house, of which Kühn's édition is a direct des
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HUNAYN IBN !SHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 21
1 Consequently, it is clear that the whole (argument) falls into the fallacy
of the heap. For if something of what I said should be present, and some
thing absent, then the things present would be equal to the things that
are absent, or a certain thing would surpass the other things by a small
margin—then it is clear that we are settled in a quandary about this kind
of day, whether it must be called a critical day or not.
وا درت قلا ءايئالا عمب ي ضرمم قلا لثاملا صٍوء نارحلا مايا ما ف عقن لتاف ئ
ضم ناك وا امودع»هضعبو ادوجو• اتوّد ام ضم لاك ق* هنا كلذو أليلت اللق صقت
إرُا نم كث ي امتو اريسد الحم صم ض لصفن ابضمب ناكوا دجون رل امل انؤام دجونام
1 صفتواL ؛صقهوE II 2 هضموE: امسوL I ضم أداكواE ؛ أذاكوL | أذأك وا3 أL (١١
"or") ؛ناكوE I امسE ؛صمبL
Hunayn does not use the Arabic term, sabib "heap" in his Critical Days trans
lation, but renders crwpiTija] aTropfa ("sorites impasse")74 using a periphrastic
explanatory expression: gamV l-asyä' Uatl tatazayyadu aw tatanaqqasu qalllan
qatilan ("everything that increases or decreases little by little").75 It is useful
to compare how the sorites concept is rendered in another Arabic translation
from Hunayn's school, that of Galen's On Medical Experience, by his nephew,
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1 43
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22 COOPER
9.895.1-3 Κ
ι Χρή δέ είδέναι καθόλου περί των τοιούτων απάντων ώς δ σα ποσού τίνος εις
μόρια διαιρουμένου γίνεται, έχει τήν σωριτικήν άπορίαν έπομένην.
ι And one must know in général about everything of this sort, that as many
things that anse, when a certain magnitude is divided into parts, have the
impasse of the sorites that follows as a conséquence.
ءازجألا نم هبU يكلا لإ بمب ءيق همسقي نوكنام لك نا رلم نا ىنس الحيايو4لإ
76 Galen, On Medical Experience: First Edition of the Arabic Version with English Transla
tion and Notes. Edited by Richard Walzer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947), 38-43
(Arabic); 115-9 (English). See also: Gerhard Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum:Bibliographie der
galenischen undpseudogalenischen Schriften (Tübingen: Institut fur Geschichte der Medi
zin, 2011), 107-8.
77 Galen, On Medical Experience, Introduction, ed. Walzer, 1.
78 Galen, On Medical Experience, ed. Walzer, 38 (Arabic); 115 (English).
79 Jonathan Barnes, "Medicine, Experience, and Logic," in Science and Speculation: Studies in
Hellenistic Theory and Practice, ed. J. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, M. Burnyeat and M. Schofield,
24-68 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 32 n. 16. Several contexts are listed.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHAq'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 23
1 In general, you must know that in the case of everything in which some
thing connected with magnitude divides into the parts of which it is com
prised, there will occur in it a necessary obscurity (i.e. an unavoidable
difficulty of understanding) due to the diminishing or increasing grad
ually.80
9.773.16-774.2 Κ
ι6 άλλα τήν μέν τούτων άμαθίαν τε καΐ φιλονεικίαν ούδ' αν αύτός δ Ζεύς
έξιάσαιτο, καί μοι καΐ ταύτα πλε(ω τοΰ δέοντος ε'ίρηται πρδς αύτούς. ι8 δσοις δ'
80 Galen (ed. Cooper), CriticalDays, 312-3. Note that this is a corrected version of this passage.
In my édition I mistranslated the passage slightly, due to my having transcribed part of the
Arabie incorrectly.
81 Uwe Vagelpohl. "The Prior Analytics in the Syriac and Arabie Traditions," Vivarium 48,
no. 1-2 (2010): 134-58. See also: Joep Lameer, "The Organen of Aristotle in the Médiéval Ori
ental and Occidental TraditionsJournal of the American Oriental Society 116, no. 1 (1996):
90-8; Daniel King, "The Genesis and Development of a Logical Lexicon in the Syriac Tradi
tion," in Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in LateAntiquity: TheAlexandrian Commentary
Tradition Between Rome andBaghdad, edited byJ. Watt and J. Lössl (Farnham, Surrey: Ash
gate, 2011), 225-38.
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24 COOPER
εστί [9,77
προτεθέντ
ι τε: θ' άμ
ι6 But no
and these
18 But f
medicine
ال بسحا
نأ مممب
ه؛لإجاحم س
لك
1 باحمكاي
3 حمهاوا
6أ Nevert
rant that
for this
I directed
who [9,77
will expla
Galen sar
ing that n
for confli
extant G
ered the e
deity her
ther that
for the b
Galen wa
healing, r
82 Galen (e
83 On Ask
ORI
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 25
reports of personal religious experiences with the god, the most famous exam
ple of which occurs in his treatise, On Therapeutic Bloodletting. Galen was
himself ill, and he received two divine dreams in which Asklepios instructed
him where to cut his vessels to effect a cure. The god told him to open a vein
between the index finger and thumb of his right hand, and after draining a cer
tain amount of blood, he was cured.84 Furthermore, Galen refers occasionally
to the famous Asklepieion healing temple of Pergamon.85
Had Galen been addressing fellow physicians, he might have used Askle
pios. However, as I have argued elsewhere, the Critical Days is a Stoic-oriented
treatise, directed to those with a "popular," basic understanding of Stoicism, as
reflected by his quoting the Phainomena of the popular Stoic poet, Aratus.86
In that work, Zeus is presented as the power that holds the universe together,
guaranteeing its smooth operation. The opening lines extol Zeus as the begin
ning of all things, as present everywhere—in human highways, marketplaces,
ships and harbors, and that mankind needs him in all things.87 Moreover—and
this is the point of Aratus's poem, and why Galen quotes him—Zeus provides
all natural signs: astronomical, medical, meteorological, etc. for the benefit of
mankind (for planting, harvesting, healing, predicting the future, etc.). In sum,
Zeus is the world-mind, the personification of reason, and the guarantor of cos
mic order. Since Galen was addressing readers who were sympathetic to the
Stoic view, then Zeus would be a more appropriate choice than Asklepios.
If Zeus was in Hunayn's Greek exemplar, as I believe to have been the case,
then why would Hunayn choose to change it? Asklepios as a healing deity was
certainly more obvious than Zeus, and thus would have been less confusing to
Hunayn's readers. G. Strohmaier's discussion of the Arabic translation of the
Hippocratic Oath gives a clue. The translation of the Arabic version of the Oath
reads: "I swear by God, Master of life and death, giver of health and creator of
healing and every cure, and I swear by Asclepius, and I swear by all God's saints,
male and female, and I call on all of them as witnesses that I will fulfill this oath
ledge, 2013), 104-5; W9-10; 162-3. Pergamum also had the famous Asklepieion healing
temple.
84 De curandi ratione per venae sectionem, sect. 23,11,314-5 K. For other experiences with
Asklepios, see: Galen, De libris propriis 2 (19,18-9 K) and De usu partium 10.12 (3,812-4 K).
See also Susan P. Mattem, The Prince of Physicians: Galen in the Roman Empire (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013), 38.
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26 COOPER
and this condition."88 Strohmaier notes that, although the gods Apollo, Hy
Panaceia, and "all the gods and goddesses," present in the Greek vers
the Oath, are omitted—replaced with "all God's saints, both male and fem
(bi-ccwliyä'i llähi mina r-rigäli wa-n-nisä'igamVan), Asklepios is retained.8
notes, moreover, that this transformation (French: "effacement") of trac
paganism is characteristic of the Syriac and Arabic translations from Gre
Asklepios was less threatening in the oath context as a lesser pagan deity
Apollo, and in the present context, than Zeus. Moreover, in other transla
Strohmaier observed that Hunayn rendered the names of the Greek gods
Islamic terms to accommodate Islamic sensibility, or omitted them entire
In the Critical Days, however, several other Greek deities are mentioned b
Asklepios: Athena, Artemis, and Apollo at 9,934,16-17 K.91 So, it seems lik
that Hunayn has here removed the more powerful and more threatening
Zeus, and replaced him with a lesser god, Asklepios, who was, anyway
closely connected with healing than Zeus.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 27
original, significantly narrowed the semantic field, thus losing one network of
senses, and adding new ones to the basic concept. Such shifting may be more or
less significant for the transmission of the scientific ideas of the text, but they
are certainly less helpful for reconstructing a Greek text—unless one has estab
lished a translator's habitual word choices, and can rule them out as possible
variant readings. Three such cases, "scientific conjecture," "making a mistake,"
and "seeking causes" are considered here: The first, scientific conjecture, is a
good match that reveals underlying semantic associations that imply a broader
conceptual metaphor ("applying a theory is shooting an arrow at a target") in
understanding how scientific knowledge is both attained and applied. The lat
ter two cases lose important senses of the original in translation. However, as I
will show, in the case of making a mistake, the Arabic adds a sense that is con
sistent with the "applying a theory is shooting an arrow at a target" metaphor,
that is not present in Greek.
92 στόχος, "a post to aim at." Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1650.
93 στοχαστικός, from στοχάζομαι. Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1650.
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28 COOPER
94 Hadastu bi-sahmin: ramaytu, "to hurl an arrow" is the equivalent of "to shoot a bow"Lisän
al-'Arab (Cairo: Där al-Ma'ärif, 1981), vol. 6, p. 47; cited in: Lane. Arabic-English Lexicon, 531.
95 From coniecto, literally, "to hurl (together)." However, it already had the metaphorical
sense of inference, guesswork, and even to interpret dreams, in classical Latin. P.G.W.
Glare, ed. Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 407.
96 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1980).
97 Galen, De crisibus, 644-5 K (Alexanderson ed., 128-9).
98 For a lengthy discussion of this tradition, see: Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna,
and Averroes, on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Inteäect, and Theories
of Human Intellect (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 166-86. Also, Dimitri Gutas,
Avicenna and the AristoteUan Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical
Works. Second, Revised and Enlarged Edition, Including an Inventory of Avicenna's Authentic
Works (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 179-201.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 29
9,838,11-12 Κ
έπΐ μέν της δευτέρας τετράδος εστι που στοχαζομένω πλατύτερον, άκριβέστε
ρον δ' έπΐ της τρίτης.
ι στοχαζομένω: στοχαζομένων BP
"... and to you who are conjecturing about the second four-day period, it
is somewhat wide (of the mark), but it is more accurate in the case of the
third four-day period."
مايألا ي م قث هوجول المحم اممض نوكن عاملا لإ عارا ن* قلا مايألا ي كسدحو
ةرمك اهوجو لتمب ال نا ن* برثاو أما كملح نوكيرقص يداخلا لإ عئاملا س قلا
Your conjecture about the days from the fourth day to the seventh day is
weak, permitting various interpretations. Afterward, however, in the days
from the seventh to the eleventh day your conjecture is more reliable, and
does notpermit many interpretations ء، is more likely that ء،
9,885,9-10 K
٣٤٧ ه؟0ءوحماvchto xai؛،9o ؛مانءس،م0؛(ءآT، TOIOUXOV dvspwravTi xal auTt ]٠ a ةأ ةأاإ
Xiipwv S،a،p0p0tT0 ة
ابيط كم لالدتسا وا هلاح نع ىمريل هتع كتلثمب ءايثالا ْذه ى»ء يتل ترعث نإف
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30 COOPER
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÂQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 31
The following passage from the Critical Days illustrâtes how πλημμελέω
fonctions in context, when Galen memorably describes the conséquences of
practicing medicine without proper éducation:
9,789,6-10 Κ
6 καΐ ταύτα ποιούσιν ëvioi των ιατρών είς τοσούτον ή διαλεκτικής, ή γραμμα
τικής, ή Ρητορικής έπαΐοντες είς δσον ovo ι λύρας. 8 οδτοι μέν ουν καΐ τά των
106 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1418-419. Literally, it is formed of πλην ("ex
cept") and μέλος ("limb"). "Limb" is a metaphor for an articulated part of a harmony,
namely a "melody", and means "out of tune; out of harmony."
107 Form IV of hati'a, meaning "to commit an error." Lane, Arabic-Engtish Lexicon, 761.
108 See discussion at: Galen, Critical Days, ed. Cooper, Introduction, 73-4.
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32 COOPER
:Tpwv،؛، BITWV ؟transp. BII 2 iniyßlvTe [؟؛ypa_T،)d ١١؛؟SiaXsxTixr ٩ ا1 fwoi: Ivia p
اB أ0أل£أءأحهرع£وع0آ£إل:آلهأ£إع،حه،ام£وع0آ£ زعTMU p I سHII 3 post __v add ٩٥٧ ؛٥٧!
vB<؛Exarepa: _T£p
6 راجلا مهف حلةَةءأللاورحلاو قطنلا نم مهمهف غلمو ءاطألا سرحمك كلذ لضر
إلا س, عامب8 نع ثحلا اوكر"منا امهدحا نهجو س ءالؤه اطفن١٠ ءاطالا ئ بحم
This word 7 ميالالحمافمسis significant within the Platonic tradition, parts ofwhich
Galen sought to emulate. For example, Galen uses a related word,أمأألمنذ
("mistake, error"), in a manner similar to how Plato criticized the skilled crafts
men (0آفثمهأ0ء،ة/ )أfor claiming knowledge outside their areas of expertise.110
The Platonic writings, however, were less translated and hence less known in
the Arabic tradition than, say, Aristotle and Galen, and so the musical associ
ations of this word might have failed to resonate. Hunayn himself, although
he probably grasped etymologically the word's musical connections, might not
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 33
have been familiar with its Platonic contexts, or ifhe did, he considered them
irrelevant. If we did not already know that Hunayn's habit was to render πλημ
μελέω as the simpler ahta'a, then we could not reliably guess what Greek word
lay behind this Arabie expression when attempting to reconstruct the Greek
text. Conceptually, the loss may be less significant, for enough of Galen's grand
scheme of natural harmony remains in the translation, although on a less sub
tle level.
As noted, although ahta'a does not convey the sense of "playing a wrong
note," it is consistent with the archery conceptual metaphor of hadasa already
discussed. This sense is illustrated in a passage from the Täj al-'arüs dictionary,
cited by Lane: ahta'a r-râml l-garada ("The archer, or thrower, missed the
mark; or failed of hitting it").111 Moreover, ahta'a is sometimes used by the
Arabie translators to render άμαρτάνω ("to miss the mark"), a word with clear
archery connections in Greek, including Hunayn in his translation of Galen's
Commentaria in Hippocratis De officina medici.112 This raises another question:
Why didn't Galen use άμαρτάνω or σφάζομαι instead of πλημμελέω, since either
of these seems to be a more straightforward expressions of making an error
than πλημμελέω?113I suppose it was because that for Galen making an error in
treating a patient was more disruptive of a harmonious relationship between
natural and human factors than merely "missing the mark." His choice of
πλημμελέω was also consistent with his Stoic-inclined audience, for whom
cosmic harmony was an important concem. It seems, however, that Hunayn
intended for his translation to pivot conceptually on these two archery words:
one for shooting at a target (hadasa), and the other for missing it (ahta'a).
Therefore, Hunayn has given his translation a conceptual coherence that is not
found in the Greek.
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34 COOPER
901.8-13
8 τφ λόγω δ' έξιχνεύουσιν ήμίν τάς τούτων αιτίας έφαίνετο δύο αρχάς θέσθαι
χρήναι τάς πρώτας απάντων των γινομένων, άτακτον μέν την έκ της ένταΰθ'
ϋλης όρμωμένην, έν τάξει δέ τινι και κόσμω προϊουσαν άεί τήν έκ των κατ'
ούρανόν, δπαντα γάρ τα τήδε πρός έκείνων κοσμείται.
2 δύο αρχάς θέσθαι χρήναι: χρήναι δύο άρχάς θέσθαι Β Ρ (Transp) || άτακτον: "neither
adhering to a single system nor to a single path" add. Ar. (gayru läzimin li-nizämin
wâhidin wa-tarlqatin wähidatiri) || μέν: μέντοι Β 3 ένταΰθ': ένταΰθα Η || τινι: om.
Μ Ρ Κ προϊουσαν: προσοΰσαν Η 4 κατ' ούρανόν: κατ" ουρανών Μ : κατά τό ούρανόν
Β II γαρ: δέ Μ τά: om. Μν4 || έκείνων: Ar. adds "bodies" [clarifying] al-ajrâm 5
κοσμείται: κοσμεΐσθαι Η.
8 But to us who are hunting down the causes of these things by reason, it
seemed necessary to attribute the causes of these things to two principles,
which are the first causes of everything that exists. The one is disordered
and dépendent upon earthly matter, and the other always cornes forth
from the heavens (bodies) in a certain arrangement and order, since
everything here (on earth) is ordered by their influence.
ءإاهذرلغنلا تدجو ءايثالا هده لط نع ثحلا ي هتلمعتسا نف سايقلا انأو1 ,درطيؤ قش
تعضو طا اذإ: عيلu ةدحاو ةميمطو لحاو ماظنل مزال ريغ برطضم امهدحا نلصا نوكي
عمب ذا كلذو ةؤاملا ماربألا لن سU ماجالا كلت لم نم ماظنلا هما ار؛إاندتء
هنا اممإ اتلحم ام عم ذا ثللذو4 |اE ؛دحاو قشوL ا ةدحاو ةقؤطوL ؛ضالاوE ضألا3
E2L: om. E مارجألا كلئ لق س ماظلا
115 Al-baht 'an 'ilali "searching for the causes": Galen, Critical Days, ed. Cooper, 320 n. 943,
(9,901,8 K). See also 9,917,2 K, where the Greek usage and Arabic translation are nearly
identical.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 35
The verb bahata 'an was also used by other translators to render more common
Greek expressions for seeking, such as ζητέω and σκέπτω.116 Galen could have
used a simpler word here for seeking, such as one of these or σκέψις. As it
is, however, Galen uses έξιχνεύω in only four contexts in his entire oeuvre.117
Three of these concern the seeking out of causes, and the fourth concerns the
diagnosis of a puise when some of its main attributes are obscured: in that case,
the puise must be tracked out via reason (λόγος), in other words, by inferring
from the visible signs to an unseen state of affairs.118
It is worth noting that, although Galen emphasizes reason (λόγος qiyäs) here
as a tool of scientific discovery, he is not a médical Dogmatist, since empirical
data is important to him as well. Neither is he an Empiricist, since the data of
experience alone is insufficient for him. Rather, in the CriticalDays treatise and
elsewhere, Galen stresses that both reason and experience (εμπειρία tajriba)
must be used together to arrive at scientific médical theories.
The word έξιχνεύω has several contexts in Vettius Valens (2nd c.), one of the
most important Greek astrologers, where he describes how the astrologer must
"track out" an astrological factor in explaining a natal chart. Given Galen's astro
logical leanings in the Criticai Days, there is perhaps a contextual connection
here. However, as tempting as it may be to conclude from Galen's usage of this
term that he was developing a revolutionary philosophy of science, he may sim
ply have been using the language poetically. Hunayn evidently thought that the
poetic sense of this verb was irrelevant to, and possibly distracting from, the
clear meaning of this passage.
117 F°r example, Galen, De usu partium, 4,180,1 Κ: ού την πρώτην Ιτι και κυριωτάτην αίτίαν
έξιχνεύουσιν ("they do not seek the first and most dominant cause"). Note the use of
έξιχνεύω here.
118 De dignoscendis pulsibus, 8,901,10 K.
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36 COOPER
Conclusion
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 37
but a full inquiry into the history of the concept of sin in Christian Arabic must
be the subject of other research. At present, it seems possible that Christian
Arabic continued the conceptual metaphor.
It would seem, from the foregoing discussion and other studies, that Hunayn
would not have shared the modern, post-Lachmannian ideal of reconstructing
textual archetypes through a scientific method. Rather, Hunayn's purpose was
to produce texts that were as useful as possible to his associates and his patrons,
and this meant expanding or contracting them, as needed.121 Features of his
general approach to texts and his translation style were shared by other trans
lators. The very freedom of the Arabic translators with their texts fell under
censure by the Renaissance humanists who, contrary to much of the history of
the transmission of scientific texts, aimed at a source Greek text that was as
pure as possible.122 And, as we have seen, Kühn's Latin translation from these
"purified" Greek texts was consistent with that ideal.
For the purposes of reconstructing a Greek source, where there are differ
ing readings between Greek and Arabic, we must in many instances remain
uncertain whether the differences represent true variant readings, or are the
product of the translator's interventions, or arising from differences between
the languages. One of the only cases where we can confidently apply the usual
principles of textual criticism is when the Arabic text corroborates a variant
reading in the Greek tradition, in which case, the common reading must have
been present in the archetype from which both that Greek manuscript and
the non-extant Greek manuscript on which the Arabic translation was made,
derived.123 In most other cases, as we have seen, the difference could have been
the result of Hunayn's expansions or judicious alterations as he prepared a
reader-oriented text, or even a translation that "guesses" at an obscure mean
ing. Such differences are certainly important to the study of how the text was
received and used in Arabic, but that's a different issue than textual reconstruc
tion. A comprehensive Graeco-Arabic apparatus, however, should register all
such differences, noting their probable origin.124 What actually ends up in the
Greek edition must, as always, be the result of the editor's careful judgment,
taking all of the textual evidence into consideration.
121 Cf. Overwien, "The Art of the Translator," 169. On page 155, he eloquently states: "The text
of the Greek original was not sacrosanct to Hunayn."
122 See: Cooper, "Hagar Banished."
123 Paul Maas, Textual Criticism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), 2-9.
124 As was done in G. Cooper's edition of the Critical Days, Appendix One, 503-28.
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38 COOPER
Appendix
Sigla
For the collation of the Greek De diebus decretoriis (ed. G. Cooper)
Arabic Tradition
*F The (inferred) Greek original from which Hunayn made his Arabic trans
lation
k C.G. Kühn, Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia, vol. 9, Leipzig: C. Knobloch, 1825,
pp. 769-943 (reprint, Hildesheim, 1965).
Arabic
h Hunayn's Arabic translation: Galen, Critical Days from Greek into Arabic:
A Critical Edition, with Translation and Commentary, and Historical Intro
duction of Hunayn ibn Ishäq, Kitäb ayyäm al-buhrän, London: Ashgate,
2011.
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HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 39
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