The texts that the medieval Arabs used to translate ancient Greek scholarly texts were not always the original Greek, and due to the different ways of obtaining them, these texts were mainly divided into three languages:
1. The original Greek version was obtained through Byzantium
This includes books collected by the Arabs when they occupied the former Byzantine territories such as Egypt and Syria, and books purchased by the Arabs from the Byzantines when there was no war between Arabs and Byzantium.
Byzantine Greek manuscripts of the 10th century AD
It is worth mentioning that medieval Arabic history refers to both the ancient Romans and the Byzantines as al-Rūm (Romans), while the inhabitants of Western Europe of the same period are called al-'Faranj, al-'Ifranj or al-'Afranj, that is, "Franks".
2. Obtaining a Syrian translation through Syrian Christians
The Aramaic Christians in Syria have a long academic tradition of translating many ancient Greek texts from Greek to Syriac before the arrival of the Arabs.
Classical Syriac manuscript from the 11th century AD found on Mount Sinai, Egypt
Classical Syriac is a branch of Aramaic, the religious and academic language of the Syrian Church.
Various names for "Classical Syriac"
The Syrian language refers to itself: Leshanā Sūryayā
Hebrew: הלשון הסורית / ha-Lāshōn ha-Sūrīt
Arabic: al-Lughat al-Suryāniyyah
By the time of the Arab Empire, scholars from the Syrian Church had become the main force in translating ancient Greek texts, such as Honain ibn Ishaag, Sahel ibn Bishal and others mentioned later.
The Syrian translations of ancient Greek texts were also one of the important ways for medieval Arabs to understand ancient Greek scholarship, and most of these Syriac translations were translated into Arabic by scholars. The modern Iraqi linguist Ibrāhīm al-Sāmarrā'iyy, in his book Dirāsāt fī al-Lughatayn al-Suryāniyyat wal-'Arabiyyah) states:
The Aramaic people had a great influence on Arab culture, and they were the transmitters of Greek thought. The classical Syrian language spoken by the Aramaic people served as a source of knowledge, nourishing Muslims and acquainting themselves with the philosophers of ancient Greece. So what kind of language is this?
(Ibrahim Samarrai, Studies in the Classical Syrian-Arabic Language, p. 7)
3. Obtaining Middle Persian translations through Persia
Byzantium's policy of persecuting "paganism" and "heresy" led some local scholars to leave Byzantium and take refuge in the relatively relaxed Sassanid Persian Empire. They were settled in Jundīshābūr (present-day Gundīshāpūr, southwestern Iran), which was then a large city.
The scholars who took refuge continued their academic activities in Jundi Shapur, and under the patronage of the Persian emperor, they translated their texts from Greek and Syriac into Middle Persian (Pahlavi).
Middle Persian manuscripts
After the fall of Jundishapur by the Arabs in the 7th century, these Greek academic texts in Middle Persian were transferred to the Arabs and translated into Arabic.
It is worth mentioning that the Arabs inherited the model of official sponsorship of scholarly translation by Jundi Shapur, and in 832 AD, the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mūn established the famous Bayt al-Ḥikmah, which hired scholars to study and translate classical texts.
A library in Baghdad in the 13th century AD, which can be described as a gathering of scholars (picture from the Internet)
