CLASSICAL WISDOM IN ARABIC

This course falls within those related to or supplementary to the bachelor degree ‘Ancient Civilizations for the Contemporary World’ and belongs to the literary-linguistic area. It aims to provide the student with the first methodological tools in the historical-literary field concerning medieval, scientific and philosophical literature in Arabic. In fact, the Arab culture and society of the Abbasid period and its main characteristics as well as the interest of the Abbasid caliphs and rulers in science and philosophy allowed the development of the so-called “Arabic scientific literature”. The course, therefore, aims to introduce the student to this disciplinary area and to offer him the necessary knowledge in order to understand the importance of translating philosophy and sciences of the ancient worlds, Greek and Persian, into Arabic, their development by Arab scholars and their transmission in the Latin world through Spain (Andalusia) and other centers. Furthermore, the course aims to develop the ability of the student to read primary sources (in translation) and to use critically the bibliography concerning the dealt-with topics during the course, so he can reach an autonomous idea or position concerning various issues through exposing clearly different questions and integrating the knowledge he learned from this course and other courses offered by the degree program.

1. Knowledge and understanding: Knowledge of the periods, lines of development of the history of the Arab medieval civilization; Knowledge of the fundamental lines of development of the philosophical and scientific thought of the Arab medieval civilization.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: Ability to critically use the main bibliographic tools; Ability to read Arabic sources of philosophy and various sciences (in translation) and try to understand them in their context; Ability to discuss issues related to cultural heritage taking into consideration the relationship between, from one side, some cultural phenomena and expressions of Arab civilization, and from the other, their historical context in which they were developed; Ability to recognize the value of the complexity and multiplicity of interpretations of the philosophical and scientific sources of the medieval Arab world; Ability to understand, analyze and compare the various hypotheses in the scientific literature related to the development of the philosophical and scientific thought in the medieval Arab world.
3. Making judgments: Ability to form an autonomous, reasoned idea regarding the medieval Arab civilization without any influence of preconceived theories; Ability to critically intervene in a debate on the value and the role of medieval Arab civilization in the development and transmission of knowledge in order to understand the present world.
4. Communication skills: Ability to logically expose and explain in written and/or oral form (in English) the knowledge and skills learned during the course.
5. Learning skills: Ability to consult with autonomy the resources and tools necessary for obtaining knowledge concerning the historical and philosophical areas of the medieval Arab world; Development of the capacity for approaching a problem related to the history of medieval Arab civilization and its scientific literature with interdisciplinary and collaborative way; Autonomous ability to interpret the sources of medieval Arabic philosophy and to link them to their historical and religious context; Ability to develop questions in a clear and articulated way in order to deepen, complete and integrate the knowledge and skills learned in both this course and other courses of the degree.

Students who want to attend this course are not required to know Arabic language. For other requirements, please see what is established by the program of studies of the proper Degree.

The course deals with the translations of the treasures of knowledge, i.e. philosophy and sciences, of the Greek and Persian worlds into Arabic language during the Abbasid Caliphate (8th-13th century) and their development up to their transmission to the Latin world through Spain (Andalusia) during the 12th and 13th. In particular, the course focuses on the following points:

1) Historical introduction to the Arab and Islamic world and civilization up to the Abbasid Caliphate, with Baghdad as its capital.
2) An overview concerning the sciences and philosophy and their development in the Middle East before Islam: Greek-Byzantine element, Syriac-Semitic element and Persian element.
3) The translations of various scientific and philosophical works into Arabic during the golden age of the Abbasid Caliphate and the establishment of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
4) The legacy of the classics in the Arabic and Islamic world.
5) Philosophies and sciences in the medieval Arab Islamic world and their most important figures: the various currents and schools of thought, and the development of various sciences such as medicine, historiography, mathematics etc.
6) The development of Arab philosophy and sciences in Andalusia and its most important figures.
7) From Arabic into Latin: the transmission of philosophy and sciences to the medieval Latin world.
8) The importance of the transmission of knowledge and the challenges of the contemporary world.

Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture, The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Arabic Society (2nd – 4th/5th-10th c.), Routledge 1998.

John W. Watt, The Aristotelian Tradition in Syriac, Routledge 2019.

Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004 (selected chapters).

Jim al-Khalil, The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Sciences Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance, The Penguin Press, New York 2011.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu, The Abbasid House of Wisdom: Between Myth and Reality, Routledge, New York-London, 2023.

Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources, Translated with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary by Jon McGinnis and David C. Reisman, Hackett, Indianapolis-Cambridge 2007 (selected chapters).

Charles Burnett, Arabic into Latin in the Middle Ages: The Translators and their Intellectual and Social Context, Variorum Collected Studies 939, Ashgate Variorum, Famham, Surrey 2009 (selected chapters).

Cristina D’Ancona, “Greek Sources in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2022/entries/arabic-islamic-greek/> ;.

Student are required to write a short essay (minimum 3 pages) on a topic related to the course, which should be delivered in a written form by the end of the course. During one of the lessons dedicated to the essays each student should present his/her essay in class (oral presentation of 15/20 minutes). The final exam is written (duration approx. 2 hours), divided into four parts: 1) Multiple choice questions; 2) Correction of incorrect information; 3) Commentary on a scholar's opinion/statement; 4) Open-ended questions on the importance of knowledge transmission. Examples of questions will be given during the lessons. Through the essay and the final exam will be evaluated the students’ ability to expose clearly an argument; their ability to have own interpretation, well argued, and based on a critical dialogue with the scientific bibliography; and finally, their ability to develop questions, contextualize a problem and consider it within its historical-religious context.
The top grade is 30/30 with honors: 13 points for the written essay, 7 points for its presentation and 10 points for the final examination (passing grade: 18/30; See the grade scale below).
The same exam format applies to both attending and non-attending students.

oral

Regarding the grading criteria, scores will be assigned as follows:
18-22: awarded for a sufficient knowledge of the topics covered in class, a sufficient ability to write about a topic and present it orally, and a sufficient ability to express a judgment and an opinion.

23-26: awarded for a fair knowledge of the topics covered in class, a fair ability to write about a topic and present it orally, and a fair ability to express a judgment and an opinion.

27-30: awarded for a good or excellent knowledge of the topics covered in class, good or excellent ability to write about a topic and present it orally, and good or excellent ability to express a judgment and an opinion.

30 with honors: awarded for an outstanding and excellent knowledge of the topics covered in class, outstanding and excellent ability to write about a topic and present it orally, and outstanding and excellent ability to express a judgment and an opinion.

The course consists mainly of frontal and interactive lessons; during the lessons there will be a commented reading (in English) of some passages by great philosophers of the medieval Arab world; there will also be space for those students who want to present the obligatory essay explained in the session ‘Assessment methods and Criteria’ (see above).

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development