Aristotle One and Many. The Arabic Pseudepigrapha

The present project is focused upon a group of seminal sources, part and parcel of the formation of intellectual discourse in the Middle Ages, and forming a common basis of understanding between the cultures on both sides of the Mediterranean, until the today.

One of the prominent features of Medieval Aristotelianism, both Arabic and Latin, is the fact that Aristotle has been credited with writings that, albeit different in origin and sometimes of differing philosophical affiliations, circulated under his name. The Project Aristotle One and Many.

The Arabic Pseudepigrapha (ArOMa) is focused on the works falsely attributed to Aristotle in the Arabic philosophical literature translated or forged in the 9th-10 cent. The corpus of Pseudo-Aristotelica Arabica includes two categories of texts: A. Arabic versions of works falsely attributed to Aristotle already in Greek.

B. Medieval Arabic forgeries. To these will be added: C. Commentaries on such works (including abridgements, paraphrases etc.).

The aim is to provide a new insight into the Arabic Aristotle through the first overall treatment of the Arabic Pseudo-Aristotelica, including an inventory of the manuscript sources, editions and translations of the most relevant items, tools and studies towards a better understanding of Aristotles reception in the Arabic-speaking world.

Also the Latin versions of such pseudepigrapha will be taken into account.

It is still uncertain how many works falsely attributed to Aristotle are mentioned in the Arabic sources, how many have survived or have been lost. Few have been edited or translated. ArOMa fills this gap, adding a new dimension to the standard historiographical accounts.

We expect to provide a more complex, and unorthodox image of Aristotles facets presenting an engaging and thorough history of the Aristotelian philosophy during the centuries which correspond to the Latin Middle Ages.