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DiversifyingtheTeachingoftheHistoryofRhetoricSeries:

ArabicInterpretationsofAristotle'sRhetoricin13thCenturyEurope

JordanLoveridge,AssistantProfessor,MountSt.Mary’sUniversity

ImportantFigures

al-Farabi(AbūNaṣrMuḥammadibnMuḥammadal Fārābī); Avicenna (Ibn Sina); Averroes (IbnRushd); Hermannus Alemannus (Herman theGerman); Roger Bacon; Thomas Aquinas;WilliamofMoerbeke;GilesofRome.

ImportantConcepts

Expanded Organon/Context Theory; ClassicalReception;TranslationandCommentary.

BackgroundInformation

Textsthatseektocoverrhetoric'sdisciplinaryhistorycommonlymisrepresenttheteaching,transmission,andtheorizationofrhetoricinthe EuropeanMiddle Ages. To fully numerate thesemisrepresentationswould require amuch longer essay, but suffice to say that many accessible overview's of rhetoric'sdisciplinary history frame the medieval period as one defined by lack (e.g. a lack ofappreciationforCicero's"mature"rhetoricalworksandthecompleteteachingofQuintilian,orofGreekdeliberativerhetoric),oralternativelyasaperioddefinedbythedevelopmentofafewuniquelymedievalgenres(e.g.arspoetria,arsdictaminis,arspraedicandi).

Neitherviewcanfullyaccountforthemedievalapproachtorhetoricaltheory.Ontheonehand, the first typeofmisrepresentationbothoverstates the importanceofancient texts,while also intensely delimitingwhich ancient texts areworth study. For instance, whilemedievalcultureonthewholewasnotfascinatedwithCicero's"mature"rhetoricalworkssuch as De oratore, De inventione was both commonly copied and considered a textfoundational to the teaching of rhetoric and argumentation. The latter type ofmisrepresentationoveremphasizestheimportanceofnovelty,assumingthatonlywhat isuniquelymedievalisworthyofteachingtoourstudents.

Attheriskofover-generalizing,Iwillsayonlythatmedievaltheoristsdidnotdefinenoveltyin this way. As Rita Copeland has persuasively argued in her foundational Rhetoric,Hermeneutics,andTranslationintheMiddleAges,actsasvariedastranslation,commentary,andadaptationwereallviewedasnewanduniqueintellectualcontributions.Theintellectual

Aristotle depicted in Arabic clothing, holding an astrolabe for students (Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, 3458).

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cultureofmedievalEurope,then,canneverbeunderstoodasonesolelyindebtedtothepast,norasonedefinedbyitsinnovations(understoodfromourcontemporaryperspective).Thisshouldofcourseseemobvious,butisnotalwaysapparentintextbookscommonlyassignedtograduatestudentsandinupper-divisionseminars.

One way to push back against some of these assumptions to emphasize the acts ofcommentaryandtranslationthroughthelensofclassicalreception.Manymoreresourcesexist for the teaching of classical reception, so Iwill leave the longer explanation of thisconcepttomorequalifiedscholars.Buthere,Iwilltrytomakesenseofhowthetransmissionandelaborationofrhetoricalconceptsthroughsuchmodesascommentaryandtranslationmight allow us to teach medieval rhetoric more accurately and more inclusively,emphasizingtheinterplaybetweenculturesandintellectualtraditionsthatischaracteristicofthe13thcentury.Todoso,IwanttogiveabriefoverviewofthetransmissionofAristotle'srhetoricalworksfromtheHellenisticperioduptothe13thcentury,showinghowthetextswerecopied,adapted,andretheorizedbyGreco-Roman,Syriac,Arabic,andmedievalLatincultures.

HowtheEuropeanMiddleAgesRe-discoveredAristotle'sRhetoric

Toadvancemyclaimabouttheinterplaybetweencultures,somebackgroundinformationisnecessary.I'minevitablysimplifyingandabridginghere,butthebroadstrokesarenecessarytomakesenseofthelatereventsthesuggestedreadingswillcoverinmoredepth.

Asisperhapsfamiliartoscholarsofrhetoric,afterAristotle'sdeath(322BCE),histeachingswere collected and organized by his students. His works were divided into differentcategories;themostimportantforourpurposesherearetheOrganon,orcoreworksonlogic,andEthics/PoliticsandRhetoric/Poetics.ScholarsintheAlexandrianschoolinEgypt(1stto5thcenturyCE),an importantcenterofHellenistic thought,eventuallycollapsedsomeofthese categories, adding the Rhetoric and Poetics to the Organon and considering thembranches of logic rather than entirely separate disciplines. The Alexandrian schoolinfluencedWesternEuropean thoughtdirectly through the theological teachingsof somescholars working there, but the complete works of Aristotle were not integrated intoEuropeanintellectualcultureatthistime.

Arabicthinkers,however,readilydrewfromtheAlexandrianschool,withal-Farabi(872-950CE),Avicenna(980-1037CE),andAverroes(1126-1198CE)producingtranslationsandoriginal scholarship dealing with Aristotelian thought, particularly rhetorical and poeticconcepts. This intellectual tradition has been studied extensively on its own terms; lessstudied,however,istheEuropeanreceptionandintegrationoftheseideasintotheuniversityteachingofdisciplinessuchasrhetoric,poetics,andlogic.Thisarearemainsopenforrichinquiry and can help to enrich the cultural exchanges that influenced the medievaldevelopmentofrhetoricaltheory.

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Europeanscholarseventuallyencounteredthetexts, translations,andtheoriesassociatedwith Arabic centers of learning. Around the middle of the 13th Century, HermannusAlemannus(or,HermantheGerman),ascholarworkingattheToledoSchooloftranslatorsinSpain,completedseveraltranslationsofArabictexts.Theseincludedanearlycompleteversion of Aristotle's Rhetoric, which also included elements of Averroes's "MiddleCommentary"andshortsectionsfromworksofal-FarabiandAvicennaaswell.Hermannusalso produced a translation of al-Farabi's short introductory work, orDidascalia on theRhetoric,aswellasatranslationofAverroes'"MiddleCommentary"onthePoetics.Herman,then,representsjustoneofmanypossibleentrypointsforunderstandingculturalexchangespertinenttothedevelopmentofrhetoricaltheoryinWesternEurope.

Hermannus'sworkswereimportant,butnotalwayswell-received.RogerBacon,forinstance,foundHermannus'stranslationoftheRhetorictobeunreadable,andinsistedthatsomeonewhounderstoodlogicneededtowriteabetterversion.Bacon'swishwouldlatercometrue,byway of the theologian Thomas Aquinas requestingWilliam ofMoerbeke, a respectedtranslator of Aristotle's other works, to create a new version form the Greek. This wasimportant,asearlierversionshadpassedthroughalongchainoftranslation(fromGreek,toSyriac, to Arabic, and then into Latin). While Moerbeke's translation was much betterreceived than Hermannus's (as attested by metrics such as the number of survivingmanuscripts), many of the ideas central to Arabic interpretations of Aristotle originallyintroduced toEuropebyHermannus, especially the ideaof theexpandedOrganon,stuckaround:wecanseetheinfluenceofthesereadingsevenintheworkofAquinas,especiallyhisExpositiolibriPosteriorumAnalyticorumorExpositionoftheBookofPosteriorAnalytics.Later still, Aquinas's student Giles of Romewouldwrite one of themore influential andwidely-copiedcommentariesonAristotle's text.A translationofbothAquinasandGiles'stextscanbefoundinRitaCopelandandInekeSluiter'sMedievalGrammarandRhetoric.

Mygoalinthisshortmodule,then,isnottodescribe,summarize,orinterpretthesetexts.Rather, I offer them as starting points for others, windows into an area of medievalintellectualcultureoftenoverlookedbyhistoriansofrhetoric,especiallyinourteaching.Bystudying the transmission, interpretation, and receptionof ancient texts, thedisciplinaryhistoryofrhetoriccanbestudiedbothmoreaccuratelyandinclusively.

PrimarySources:

CharlesE.Butterworth.Averroës’ThreeShortCommentariesonAristotle’sTopics,Rhetoric,andPoetics.StudiesinIslamicPhilosophyandScience.Albany:StateUniversityofNewYorkPress,1977.ElyazghiEzzaher,L.(2008).Avicenna’sBookofRhetoric:AnArabic-EnglishTranslationofAvicenna’sCommentaryonAristotle’sRhetoric.AdvancesintheHistoryofRhetoric,11/12,133-158.

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Ezzaher,LachenE.(2008).“Alfarabi’sBookofRhetoric:AnArabic-EnglishTranslationofAlfarabi’sCommentaryonAristotle’sRhetoric.”Rhetorica:AJournaloftheHistoryofRhetoric26.4,347-91.Ezzaher,LachenE.(2015).ThreeArabicTreatisesonAristotle’sRhetoric:TheCommentariesofal-Farabi,Avicenna,andAverroes.Carbondale:SIUP.HermanntheGerman.(1988).“TranslationofAverroes’‘MiddleCommentary’onAristotle’sPoetics:Extracts,”A.J.MinnisandA.B.Scott,MedievalLiteraryTheoryandCriticismc,1100—c.1375:TheCommentaryTradition.Oxford:ClarendonPress,289-307,294.RitaCopelandandInekeSluiter.(2009)."HermannusAlemannus,Al-Farabi'sDidascaliaonAristotle'sRhetoric,1256,"inMedievalGrammarandRhetoric,eds.RitaCopelandandInekeSluiter,Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,735-752.746.

SecondarySources:

Black,DeborahL.(1990).LogicandAristotle’sRhetoricandPoeticsinMedievalArabicPhilosophy.Leiden:Brill.Boggess,WilliamF.(1970).“AlfarabiandtheRhetoric:TheCaveRevisited.”Phronesis15.186-90.———.(1972).“HermannusAlemannus'sRhetoricalTranslations.”Viator2:227–50.Borrowman,Shane.(2008).“TheIslamizationofRhetoric:IbnRushdandtheReintroductionofAristotleIntoMedievalEurope.”RhetoricReview27.4341-60.Butterworth,CharlesE.(1998).“Averroës’PlatonizationofAristotle’sArtofRhetoric.”InLaRhétoriqued’Aristote:traditionsetcommentairesdel’AntiquitéauXVIIesiècle,editedbyGilbertDahan,andIrèneRosier-Catach,227-40.Paris:J.Vrin,Cameron,Margaret,andJohnMarenbon.“AristotelianLogicEastandWest,500-1500:‘OnInterpretation’and‘PriorAnalytics’inTwoTraditions:Introduction.”Vivarium,vol.48,no.1/2,2010,pp.1–6.Celli,Gaia.“SomeObservationsaboutHermannusAlemannus'CitationsofAvicenna's‘BookoftheRhetoric.’”Oriens,vol.40,no.2,2012,pp.477–513.Copeland,Rita.(2014).“LivingwithUncertainty:ReactionstoAristotle'sRhetoricintheLaterMiddleAges.”UncertainKnowledgeScepticism,Relativism,andDoubtintheMiddleAges,eds.DallasGeorgeDenery,KantikGhosh,andNicoletteZeeman,115–34.Turnhout:Brepols.

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