Dimitri Gutas ( el, Δημήτρης Γούτας; born 1945, in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
) is an American
Arabist
An Arabist is someone, often but not always from outside the Arab world, who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and culture (usually including Arabic literature).
Origins
Arabists began in medieval Muslim Spain, which lay on the ...
and
Hellenist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient ...
specialized in
medieval Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—falsafa (literally: "philosophy"), which refers to philosophy as well as logi ...
, who serves as
professor emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of
Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
.
Biography
Gutas studied classical philology, religion, history, Arabic and Islamic studies at Yale University, where he received his doctorate in 1974.
His main research interests are the classical Arabic and the intellectual tradition of the Middle Ages in the Islamic culture,
especially
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...
, and the ''Graeco-Arabica'', which is the reception and the tradition of Greek works on medicine, science and philosophy in the Arab-Islamic world (especially from the 8th to the 10th century in Baghdad ). In this field he is considered one of the leading experts. He is a co-editor in Yale's Project
Theophrastus
Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routledge ...
. He worked with Professor Gerhard Endress of
Ruhr University Bochum
The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...
in Germany to create the ''Greek and Arabic Lexicon''.
Gutas is a member of the advisory board of numerous journals, including the leading journal
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press)
and co-editor and contributors to the revision of the ''Ueberweg'', a comprehensive history of philosophy.
In 2011, the ''
festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
'' titled ''Islamic philosophy, science, culture, and religion: Studies in honor of Dimitri Gutas'' was published by
Brill Publishers
Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 27 ...
with articles by friends, colleagues, and students.
Publications
Monographs
* ''Greek Wisdom Literature in Arabic Translation. A Study of the Graeco-Arabic Gnomologia.'' (New Haven 1975)
* ''Avicenna and the Aristotelian tradition. Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works.'' (Leiden 1988; second revised and expanded edition 2014)
* ''Greek Thought, Arabic Culture. The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society.'' (2nd-4th / 8th-10th centuries) (London and New York, 1998) (translated into seven languages)
* ''Greek Philosophers in the Arabic Tradition'', (Aldershot, Ashgate 2000)
* ''Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism in Medieval Islam'', Dimitri Gutas & Richard M. Frank, London: Routledge, 2005
* ''Orientations of Avicenna's Philosophy: Essays on his Life, Method, Heritage'', (Aldershot, Ashgate 2014)
Books edited
* ''Theophrastus of Eresus. Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought and Influence.'' 2 volumes edited by WW Fortenbaugh, PM Huby, RW Sharples, and D. Gutas (Leiden 1992)
* ''Theophrastus, On First Principles (transmitted as his Metaphysics). Greek text and Medieval Arabic translation, edited and translated, with Excursus on Graeco-Arabic Editorial Technique.'' Leiden 2010
* (With Gerhard Endress): ''A Greek and Arabic Lexicon (GALEX): Materials for a Dictionary of Medieval Translations from Greek into Arabic.'' Brill 1992 - (Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section One: The Near and Middle East, Vol 11)
* ''Aristotle Poetics'' / editio maior of the Greek text with historical introductions and philological commentaries by Leonardo Tarán (Greek and Latin, and edition of the Greek text) and Dimitri Gutas (Arabic and Syriac). Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum; v. 338. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2012.
Articles
* ''The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. An Essay on the Historiography of Arabic Philosophy.'' In: British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 29 (2002) 5-25
* ''The Heritage of Avicenna: The Golden Age of Arabic Philosophy, 1000 - 1350.'' In: J. Janssen, D. De Smet (eds.): Avicenna and His Heritage (Leuven 2002), 81-97.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutas, Dimitri
1945 births
American Arabists
American Islamic studies scholars
American philosophers
Hellenists
Living people
Scholars of medieval Islamic philosophy
Yale University faculty