CC License

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

The Arabic Islamic Consummatum in Translation and Cultural Dialoge: From Baghdad to Toledo by Ahmed Etman, 2013 (posthumously)


It seems to me that the late Ahmed Etman has left us a very powerful message. You have to read only the title of the book written by him and published posthumously. The book is entitled " The Arabic Islamic Consummatum in Translation and Cultural Dialoge: From Baghdad to Toledo" and published by the Egyptian General Writers` Association 2013.  I'm eager to know what did Ahmed Etman state about the translation movement between Greek, Latin and Arabic.

I don't have a copy of it now to give the table of contents, but I will seek to have it of course.
[Thanks to Belal Sobhy of the reference]


Saturday, December 6, 2014

Galen. Commentary on Hippocrates' Epidemics Book I


Vagelpohl, Uwe

Galeni In Hippocratis Epidemiarum librum I commentariorum I-III versio Arabica /
Galen. Commentary on Hippocrates' Epidemics Book I

Edidit, in linguam Anglicam vertit, commentatus est

The present volume offers the first critical edition of Book I of the medieval Arabic translation of Galen's Commentary on the Hippocratic Epidemics produced by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. ca. 870). The edition is based on all extant Arabic textual witnesses, including the Arabic secondary transmission.
The translation of this text became a crucial source for the development of medicine in the Islamic world, especially in the nascent field of clinical medicine; the number and extent of quotations in later Arabic medical works and the wide range of didactic writings created on the basis of this translation attest to its importance.
The English translation, which aims to convey some of the favour of the Arabic translation, comes with extensive notes on the differences between the Greek original and the Arabic translation. A thorough comparison between the two versions of the commentary provided important insights into the translation style and terminology of Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his associates.

for more see here.

Arabic into Latin in the Middle Ages


Charles Burnett (2009)Arabic into Latin in the Middle Ages, Ashgate Variorum

This collection of Charles Burnett's articles on the transmission of Arabic learning to Europe concentrates on the identity of the Latin translators and the context in which they were working. The articles are arranged in roughly chronological order, beginning with the earliest known translations from Arabic at the end of the 10th century, progressing through 11th-century translations made in Southern Italy, translators working in Sicily and the Principality of Antioch at the beginning of the 12th century, the first of the 12th-century Iberian translators, the beginnings and development of 'professional' translation activity in Toledo, and the transfer of this activity from Toledo to Frederick II's entourage in the 13th century. Most of the articles include editions of texts that either illustrate the style and character of the translator or provide the source material for his biobibliography.


Contents: Preface; King Ptolemy and Alchandreus the philosopher: the earliest texts on the astrolabe and Arabic astrology at Fleury, Micy and Chartres; Physics before the Physics: early translations from Arabic of texts concerning nature in MSS British Library, Additional 22719 and Cotton Galba E IV; Adelard of Bath and the Arabs; Antioch as a link between Arabic and Latin culture in the 12th and 13th centuries; 'Magister Iohannes Hispalensis et Limiensis' and Qusta ibn Luqa's De Differentia Spiritus et Animae: a Portuguese contribution to the Arts curriculum?; John of Seville and John of Spain, a mise au point; The coherence of the Arabic-Latin translation program in Toledo in the 12th century; Michael Scot and the transmission of scientific culture from Toledo to Bologna via the court of Frederick II Hohenstaufen; Master Theodore, Frederick II's philosopher: Addenda and corrigenda; Indexes.


About the Author: Charles Burnett is Professor of the History of Islamic Influences in Europe at the Warburg Institute, University of London, UK

Look at the content from. here

Friday, December 5, 2014

Creative Commons license

Creative Commons (CClicense is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwisecopyrighted work. A CC license is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, they might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of their own work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.

This is from Wikipedia, to know more see here.

Digital Averroes Research Environment

Access here.
The Digital Averroes Research Environment (DARE) collects and edits the works of the Andalusian Philosopher Averroes or Abū l-Walīd Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Rušd, born in Cordoba in 1126, died in Marrakesh in 1198.
DARE makes accessible online digital editions of Averroes's works, and images of all textual witnesses, including manuscriptsincunabulaand early prints. Averroes's writings and the scholarly literature are documented in a bibliographical database.
At the same time, DARE is a research platform, giving scholars who work on Averroes the opportunity to present their research and to discuss questions related to Averroes's thought in theForum. A collaborative, evolving, and open-ended project hosted by DARE is the Averroes Encyclopaedia, designed to document Averroes's philosophical, scientific and technical vocabulary.
Launched by the Thomas-Institut in February 2010, DARE will continue to evolve during the next years before reaching the complete documentation and digitization of Averroes's works that is intended. DARE is funded by DFG.

Brief Bibliographical Guides in Medieval Islamic Philosophy and Theology

see here.

Greek Sources in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Open Access)

To some extent, scholars disagree about the role of the Greek sources in Arabic and Islamic philosophy (henceforth falsafa, the Arabic loan word for φιλοσοφία). While acknowledging the existence of a Greek heritage, those who consider the Qur’an and the Islamic tradition as the main source of inspiration for falsafa claim that the latter did not arise from the encounter of learned Muslims with the Greek philosophical heritage: instead, according to them falsafa stemmed from the Qur’anic hikma (“wisdom”). As a consequence, the Greek texts in translation are conceived of as instruments for the philosophers to perform the task of seeking wisdom. read more from here.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Master of Arts (M.A.) in Ancient Civilization Studies (Altertumswissenschaften); Saarland's Example !


See here how a German an Ancient Civilization Studies MA look like !

Here is a brief description:

Venus of Willendorf, the prince's grave in Gommern, Homer's epics, Martial's epigrams, Greek statues, Pompeian homes, the Greek city-states and the Roman empire are just some of the many facets of early European art, literature and history explored by students on the M.A. programme "Ancient Civilization Studies" at Saarland University. The programme is unique in Germany, offering students a combination of ancient history, classical archaeology, classical philology, prehistory and early history to provide them with insight into the early phases of Europe and its cultures.


The Master's degree programme "Ancient Civilization Studies" follows on from the more broad-based Bachelor's programme and provides students with the specialist skills needed for challenging professional positions. Students select one of the four core subject areas as their main subject. Depending on their choice, they focus on the analysis and interpretation of Greek and Latin texts, or of pictorial and visual sources, or of material culture. Excursions, practical training and archaeological excavations complete the M.A. programme. Students will develop and deepen their understanding of their chosen fields and the associated scientific and academic methodologies. The Master's programme enables them to earn a specialized qualification that reflects their individual interests, while at the same time specifically encouraging interdisciplinary learning and research. In addition to their main subject, students also select a subsidiary subject either from the field of ancient civilization studies or from another subject area.


Students should choose a combination of subjects that reflects the career areas in which they later wish to work. By combining a core subject area with individual areas of specialization, graduates can prepare themselves for museum work, curating exhibitions, working on archiving projects or on the preservation of archaeological sites, or for work in journalism, publishing, adult education, tourism, or cultural and public relations. Graduates with a good Master's degree can of course also go on to study for a doctoral degree and a career in academic

Roger D. Woodard (ed.) The Ancient Languages of Europe, Cambridge 2008.


Roger D. Woodard (ed.) The Ancient Languages of Europe, Cambridge 2008.




This book, derived from the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, describes the ancient languages of Europe, for the convenience of students and specialists working in that area. Each chapter of the work focuses on an individual language or, in some instances, a set of closely related varieties of a language. Providing a full descriptive presentation, each of these chapters examines the writing system(s), phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of that language, and places the language within its proper linguistic and historical context. The volume brings together an international array of scholars, each a leading specialist in ancient language study. While designed primarily for scholars and students of linguistics, this work will prove invaluable to all whose studies take them into the realm of ancient language.


Table of Contents

Editor's foreword Roger D. Woodard
1. Language in ancient Europe: an introduction Roger D. Woodard
2. Attic Greek Roger D. Woodard
3. Greek dialects Roger D. Woodard
4. Latin James P. T. Clackson
5. Sabellian languages Rex E. Wallace
6. Venetic Rex E. Wallace
7. Etruscan Helmut Rix
8. Continental Celtic Joseph F. Eska
9. Gothic Jay H. Jasnoff
10. Ancient Nordic Jan Terje Faarlund
Appendix 1. Indo-European Henry M. Hoenigswald, Roger D. Woodard and James P. T. Clackson
Appendix 2. Full table of contents from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages.
More about this book and a link to buy it from here.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Hungarian Contributions and Arabic Contributions to international scholarship in Classics: A Diagnostic Contrast


I'm not trying here to give a detailed diagnostic contrast between the Hungarian contributions to the international scholarship in the field of classics. My aim is to give a link to an interesting article that I've recently found online, about the Hungarian contributions in this field. The article is Rttook, Zsigmund. (1997) "The contribution of Hungary to international classical scholarship" Hungarian Studies, 12. Archived here.

The Hungarian case is very informative in many ways; first its language, like the Arabic, is not a modern science language. Nevertheless the Hungarian contributions has been recognizing internationally, cf. e.g. and I quote p. 12 of this article "At the centre of Gyula Moravcsik's interests stood the relationship of Byzantium and the Turcic peoples. (Turcic in the broadest sense of the word, more or less as Byzantine historians used the word, so even Hungarians were included.) His  monumental Byzantino-turcica remains an indispensable instrument for all who  deal with Byzantine history and with Turcic languages because the first volume of the work gives a detailed survey with a full bibliography of all Byzantine histo­rians who mention some Turcic people. The second volume contains all refer­ences to Turcic peoples and records of their languages on the basis not only of  printed texts, but also on the examination of the manuscript tradition. It was he,  further, who produced the standard edition of Constantine Porphyrogennetus' work De administrando imperio."

This monumental work appeared first in Hungarian Budapest 1942 & 1943 then in Berlin 1958 as a second edition in German. This in my opinion is a true case in which the genuine work recieves recognition even if it was composed in a language not considered as a science language.  

Homer's Iliad into Arabic Prose by Ahmed Etman et alli

Homer's Iliad is translated into Arabic prose by Ahmed Etman and alii. The translation was published by the NTC in 2008.


The Clouds (Νεφέλαι Nephelai) of Aristophanes into Arabic by Ahmed Etman

The clouds of Aristophanes was translated into Arabic by Ahmed Etman in 2011 (2nd Edition). The pdf file is available through the website of the classical department in Mansoura Univeristy from this link.


Saturday, November 8, 2014

Œdipe (Oedipus)1931 and Thésée (Theseus) 1946 of André Gide into Arabic by Taha Hussein

Even though it is not an original Greek plays, but there are important to have them in Arabic. Taha Hussein has translated two of the works of André Gide, the famous French author and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947, into Arabic. The first is his play Œdipe (Oedipus)1931 and the second is his novel Thésée (Theseus) 1946. The Arabic translation is available as an open source in Hindawi Foundation's website through this link


De Generatione et Corruptione or Περὶ γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾶς into Arabic by Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed

A translation of  De Generatione et Corruptione or Περὶ γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾶς a philosophical treatise by Aristotle is available in Arabic as an open source through Hindawi Foundation. The translation was done by  Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed (15 January 1872 – 5 March 1963), the first director of Cairo University. The translation is done through the French, as the Arabic translator didn't use the original Greek edition, but used the French translation of this treatise; Traité de la production et de la destruction des choses d'Aristote ; suivi du Traité sur Mélissus, Xénophane et Gorgias by J. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire (Paris, 1866). The french translation is to be free of charge found in this link, while the Arabic translation is to be found in Hindawi Foundation's website as usual and again free of charge.

go to this link to have the Arabic translation.


Thursday, November 6, 2014

Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία into Arabic by Taha Hussein (1921)

The  Ἀθηναίων πολιτεία or  the Constitution of the Athenians the text which is contained in two leaves of a papyrus codex discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in 1879, was translated into Arabic by Taha Hussein in 1921. Now the Hindawi Foundation is publishing this book, free of charge, in PDF, Kindle and epub formats.  The book can be downloaded from this link.

The Second International Conference on Christian Egypt Historiography in Christian Egypt 284-641 AD.

This is the announcement arrived to my inbox from Prof. Dr. Tarek M. Muhammad

The Second International Conference on Christian Egypt

Historiography in Christian Egypt 284-641 AD.

Dear colleague(s),

I have the pleasure to invite you to attend the conference “Historiography in Egypt 284-
641 AD.: Historical, Ecclesiastical, Documentary, and Archaeological Evidence " which will 
be held on 5th– 7th May 2015 and will be organized by History Dept., Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams 
University, Cairo, Egypt in collaboration with “The Annual Symposium of Medieval History, Ain 
Shams University”.


You can find more information on this through this  link.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

The Qatar Digital Library (QDL) ! WOW !

It is amazing to see something like this in the Arabic World. I didn't believe that this would exist some day in our region, but I was wrong. I think this is a good start in Libraries , manuscripts  and collection management. So, Go ahead QDL !



Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī's editions of the Arabic versions of ancient Greek mathematical texts


First part of a collection of Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī's (نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي; d. 1274) editions (تحارير) of the so-called intermediate books (متوسطات), Arabic versions of ancient Greek mathematical texts and responses to them which were meant to be read after Euclid's Elements and in preparation for Ptolemy's Almagest . The second part of this collection is found in manuscript IO Islamic 923.

The script, ornamentation and binding of the volume indicate that it is part of a set comprising also manuscripts IO Islamic 923 and IO Islamic 924. Since the latter was transcribed in 1198/1784, probably for Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal from 1772 to 1785 (see front paper iirecto ), the collation notes in this manuscript dated to the month of Jumādá I without indication of the year probably refer to 1198 (March-April 1784).

Contents:
(1) Euclid (أقليدس), Data (تحرير كتاب المعطيات لإقليدس; ff. 1v-35r);
(2) Euclid (أقليدس), Optica (تحرير المناظر لإقليدس; ff. 36v-56r);
(3) Euclid (أقليدس), Phenomena (كتاب ظاهرات الفلك لأقليدس; ff. 57v-86r);
(4) Autolycus (أوطولوقس), De ortibus et occasibus (كتاب أوطولوقس في الطلوع والغروب; ff. 87v-110r);
(5) Hypsicles (إبسقلاوس), Anaphoricus (كتاب في المطالع; ff. 111v-116r);
(6) Archimedes (أرشميدس), De sphaera et cylindro (كتاب الكرة والأسطوانة; ff. 118v-231v);
(7) Archimedes (أرشميدس), Dimensio circuli (مقالة أرشميدس في تكسير الدائرة; ff. 231v-238r).

The book is extremely beautiful ! see from here.

Ancient Greek online Grammar course for Arabic Students

I and my colleauge Ahmed Abdalazem (Menoufia University) have begun an online Ancient Greek grammar Course for the Arabic students. The audio series are posted regularly online on the channel of Ahmed Abdalazem on Youtube. The text book used in this series is Hardy Hansen and Gerald M. Quinn, Greek : An Intensive Course, 1992 Fordham University press.

We hope that a lot of students will find the series useful for them to catch up, revise, or intensive what they already know of this language.



Tuesday, October 21, 2014

List of Publications of Magda El-Nowieemy

I've to record my admiration of what Prof. Dr. Magda El-Nowieemy are doing in her Academia.edu page. She is very active. Most recently she has put a list of her publications on the website. I do have a problem collecting material concerning academic publications of Egyptian and Arabic scholars of classics, but if all the Arabic scholars inside and outside Egypt followed the example of Magda El-Nowieemy, I would not have any problem at all. So, thanks you !

Her is the link to the file containing her publications: Publications-Magda-El-Nowieemy.