The Theology of Aristotle was a paraphrase of parts of Plotinus

Plotinus

Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition...

' Six Enneads

Enneads

The Six Enneads, sometimes abbreviated to The Enneads or Enneads , is the collection of writings of Plotinus, edited and compiled by his student Porphyry . Plotinus was a student of Ammonius Saccas and they were founders of Neoplatonism...

 along with Porphyry

Porphyry (philosopher)

Porphyry of Tyre , Porphyrios, AD 234–c. 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre. He edited and published the Enneads, the only collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. He also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics...

's commentary into Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

. It had a significant effect on early Islamic philosophy

Early Islamic philosophy

Early Islamic philosophy or classical Islamic philosophy is a period of intense philosophical development beginning in the 2nd century AH of the Islamic calendar and lasting until the 6th century AH...

, due to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic interest in Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

. Al-Kindi

Al-Kindi

' , known as "the Philosopher of the Arabs", was a Muslim Arab philosopher, mathematician, physician, and musician. Al-Kindi was the first of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers, and is unanimously hailed as the "father of Islamic or Arabic philosophy" for his synthesis, adaptation and promotion...

 (Alkindus) and Avicenna

Avicenna

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...

, for example, were influenced by Plotinus' works. The translator attempted to integrate Aristotle's ideas with those of Plotinus — while trying to make Plotinus compatible with Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 and Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 — thus, yielding a unique synthesis.

The Theology of Aristotle, with The Letter on Divine Science and The Sayings of the Greek Sage, a collection of fragments, together form the Plotiniana Arabica. They seem to have been adapted by Ibn Na'ima al-Himsi, a Christian, and edited by Al-Kindi, a Muslim.

There is also a longer version of the Theology, the authorship of which is uncertain. According to Shlomo Pines

Shlomo Pines

Shlomo Pines was a scholar of Jewish and Islamic philosophy, best known for his English translation of Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed.-Biography:...

, it may have been written by Isma'ili. Paul Fenton, on the other hand, thought it may have been derived from Egyptian Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

.

Just as there is an Arabic paraphrase of Plotinus' Six Enneads, blending it with Aristotle's thought, so also there is an Arabic paraphrase of Aristotle's De Anima, blending it with Plotinus' thought. Thus later Islamic philosophy and European philosophy which built on the Islamic texts were based on this Neoplatonic synthesis.

Text

• Badawi, Abdurrahman, Aflutin Ind Al’Arab. Plotinus Apud Arabes: Theologia Aristotelis Et Fragmenta Quae Supersunt, Kuwait (repr. 1977, 1995): Arabic original
• Franciscus Patricius, Mystica Aegyptiorum et Chaldaeorum: a Platone voce tradita, et ab Aristotele excepta et conscripta philosophia edente Francisco Patricio, Ferrara 1591: Latin translation
• H.-R. Schwyzer (ed.), Plotini Opera - Tomus II: Enneades IV-V . Plotiniana Arabica ad codicum fidem anglice vertit Geoffrey Lewis, Paris 1959: English translation

Secondary literature

• Peter S. Adamson, Arabic Plotinus: A Philosophical Study of the 'Theology of Aristotle (2002: London, Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.) ISBN 0715631632
• same, Before Essence and Existence: al-Kindi's Conception of Being, 2007
• D'Ancona, Cristina: Pseudo-"Theology of Aristotle", Chapter I: Structure and Composition. Oriens, 2001, pp. 78-112.
• Paul Fenton, "The Arabic and Hebrew Versions of the Theology of Aristotle" in Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages: The ‘Theology’ and Other Texts, Jill Kraye, Charles B. Schmitt and W. F. Ryan (1986: London) ISBN 085481065X, 241-264., Greek thought, Arabic culture : the Graeco-Arabic translation movement in Baghdad and early ʻAbbāsid society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries) (1998: London, Routledge) ISBN 0415061326
• Shlomo Pines
  Shlomo Pines
  Shlomo Pines was a scholar of Jewish and Islamic philosophy, best known for his English translation of Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed.-Biography:...
  
  , "La longue récension de la Théologie d'Aristote dans ses rapports avec la doctrine ismaélienne" in Revue des études Islamiques 22 (1954) 7-20
• Rowson, Everett K., Jill Kraye & W. F. Ryan & C. B. Schmitt: "The Theology of Aristotle and Some Other Pseudo-Aristotelian Texts Reconsidered" in Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages: The Theology and Other Texts. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Jul. - Sep., 1992, pp. 478-484.

The other works

, "Le néoplatonisme dans la pensée musulmane: état actuel des recherches", in Plotino e il neoplatonismo in Oriente e Occidente, Rome 1974 (contains text and translation of the "Letter on Divine Science")

• Rüdiger Arnzen, Aristoteles' De anima : eine verlorene spätantike Paraphrase in arabischer und persischer Überlieferung (1998: Leiden, Brill) ISBN 9004106995