Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus al-Qunnāʾī (; c. 870-20 June 940) was an

Arab Christian Arab Christians () are the Arabs who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who live in the Middle East was estimated in 2012 to be between 10 and 15 million. Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world, bu ...

philosopher who played an important role in the transmission of the works of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

to the Islamic world. He is famous for founding the Baghdad school of

Aristotelian philosophers Aristotelian may refer to: * Aristotle (384–322 BCE), ancient Greek philosopher * Aristotelianism, a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle * Aristotelian ethics * Aristotelian logic, an approach to formal logic that began with ...

Biography

Abu Bishr was trained at the ''dayr Qunnā'' monastery (hence the

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

"al-Qunnāʾī"), a

Nestorian Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian ...

institution not far from

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, which supplied the government of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

with many high-ranking officials. He then taught in Baghdad where the Muslim philosopher

Al Farabi thumbnail, 200px, Postage stamp of the USSR, issued on the 1100th anniversary of the birth of Al-Farabi (1975) Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi (; – 14 December 950–12 January 951), known in the Latin West as Alpharabius, was an early Islamic ...

and the

Syriac Christian Syriac Christianity (, ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a branch of Eastern Christianity of which formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expressed in the Classical Syriac language, a vari ...

philosopher

Yahya ibn Adi Abū Zakarīyā’ Yaḥyá ibn ʿAdī (''John, father of Zachary, son of Adi'') known as Yahya ibn Adi (893–974) was a Syriac Jacobite Christian philosopher, theologian and translator working in Arabic. Biography Yahya ibn Adi was born in Tikr ...

were among his pupils.

Works

Abu Bishr is best known for his Arabic translations of Aristotle and of his Greek commentators. Most of these translations were made from Syriac to Arabic but the famous Arabic bibliography ''

Kitab al-Fihrist The () (''The Book Catalogue'') is a compendium of the knowledge and literature of tenth-century Islam compiled by Ibn al-Nadim (d. 998). It references approx. 10,000 books and 2,000 authors.''The Biographical Dictionary of the Society for th ...

'' mentions a translation of Aristotle's ''

Sophistical Refutations ''Sophistical Refutations'' (; ) is a text in Aristotle's ''Organon'' in which he identified thirteen fallacies.Sometimes listed as twelve. According to Aristotle, this is the first work to treat the subject of deductive reasoning in ancient Gree ...

'' from Greek to Syriac. These Arabic translations of the Aristotelian corpus were continued by his students (especially Yahya ibn Adi) and were used by later Arabic philosophers such as

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...

. Abu Bishr wrote several commentaries of his own on Aristotle but they are all lost.

Translations

Aristotelian Corpus

* ''

Posterior Analytics The ''Posterior Analytics'' (; ) is a text from Aristotle's '' Organon'' that deals with demonstration, definition, and scientific knowledge. The demonstration is distinguished as ''a syllogism productive of scientific knowledge'', while the de ...

'' from

Hunayn ibn Ishaq Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi (808–873; also Hunain or Hunein; ; ; known in Latin as Johannitius) was an influential Arab Nestorian Christian translator, scholar, physician, and scientist. During the apex of the Islamic Abbasid era, he worked w ...

's Syriac version, * Book Lambda of Aristotle's ''

Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

'' with commentary by

Alexander of Aphrodisias Alexander of Aphrodisias (; AD) was a Peripatetic school, Peripatetic philosopher and the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek Commentaries on Aristotle, commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria and liv ...

and

Themistius Themistius ( ; 317 – c. 388 AD), nicknamed Euphrades (, "''eloquent''"), was a statesman, rhetorician and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian and Theodosius I, and he enjoyed the favo ...

' epitome. * ''

On Generation and Corruption ''On Generation and Corruption'' (; ), also known as ''On Coming to Be and Passing Away'' is a treatise by Aristotle. Like many of his texts, it is both scientific, part of Aristotle's biology, and philosophic. The philosophy is essentially emp ...

'' with commentaries by

and by

Olympiodorus the Younger Olympiodorus the Younger (; born , died after 565) was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astrologer and teacher who lived in the early years of the Byzantine Empire, after Justinian's Decree of 529 AD which closed Plato's Academy in Athens and other p ...

. * '' Sense and Sensibilia'' * ''

Poetics Poetics is the study or theory of poetry, specifically the study or theory of device, structure, form, type, and effect with regards to poetry, though usage of the term can also refer to literature broadly. Poetics is distinguished from hermeneu ...

'' * Part of De Caelo with commentary by

* Commentaries by

and

on the ''

Meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

Other Translations

* The ''Lesser Compendium'' of Johannes Serapion the Elder * ''On Providence'' by

Debate on the merits of logic and grammar

Abu Bishr was reported to have had a debate with the Muslim theologian and grammarian,

Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi Abu or ABU may refer to: Aviation * Airman Battle Uniform, a utility uniform of the United States Air Force * IATA airport code for A. A. Bere Tallo Airport in Atambua, Province of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia People * Abu (Arabic term), a ku ...

, on the merits of logic and grammar, during an audience with the

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

in Baghdad in 932. Accounts of the debate are considered to be biased towards al-Sirafi, but the debate appeared to have gone in al-Sirafi's favour, who attacked the concept of logic as only applicable to the Greeks and not useful for Arabic speakers. Al-Sirafi also managed to confound Abu Bishr with a series of Arabic grammatical riddles. Abu Bishr's younger colleagues,

Al-Farabi file:A21-133 grande.webp, thumbnail, 200px, Postage stamp of the USSR, issued on the 1100th anniversary of the birth of Al-Farabi (1975) Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi (; – 14 December 950–12 January 951), known in the Greek East and Latin West ...

and

would later offer additional arguments to support his case.

References

{{Authority control 10th-century philosophers Aristotelian philosophers Christian philosophers Syriac–Arabic translators 10th-century Arabic-language writers Writers of lost works Nestorians in the Abbasid Caliphate Year of birth uncertain 940 deaths Syriac writers Arabic-language commentators on Aristotle