Socrates in Medieval Arabic Literature.

• Author: Rosenthal, Franz

Although this is a short book, it represents a large undertaking. The name of Socrates reverberates through Muslim civilization from early times until today, as it does from classical antiquity throughout the entire history of Christianity and the West. Materials for a picture of Socrates as a historical figure and as an idea show up in practically any context. Socrates is thus ideally suited for the daring attempt offered here to illustrate the meaning for Islam of its Classical heritage as it evolved by accretion around a single individual. Scholars usually discuss Greek influences in Islam as contributing to our knowledge of classical antiquity or as significant ingredients in the process that has molded Muslim civilization. There is some of this also in Alon's volume, but it is incidental. Its purpose is to show why and how a particular Greek figure was burnished into a widely cherished symbol of both Hellenism and Islam. The author contends convincingly that the fundamental driving force that propelled Socrates to an eminent position in the Muslim view of the world was that he "played a role of legitimizing authority in the religious controversies between Christians and Muslims on the one hand, and between the more rationalistic minded Muslims and the more traditionalistic ones, on the other hand" (p. 11). It thus makes no difference whether the Socratic connection is genuine in the sense that its origin can be traced back to the classical tradition or was merely conceived or invented as Socratic by one or another medieval author. It also is largely irrelevant whether attributions to Socrates rested on what we can see were obvious errors, including cases of misreading of Greek names almost identical in Arabic script such as Hippocrates and Isocrates (whose Arabic sayings had earlier been collected by Alon in Israel Oriental Studies 6 [1976]: 224-28). All of it has value for seeing Socrates as medieval Muslims saw him.

In two long chapters, Alon deals separately with the biographical tradition and the teachings of Socrates. The biographical tradition is quite solidly relatable to the Greek sources. In the complicated process of transmission, it managed to retain its original poetical, inspiring, and didactic force. Where there are differences, they practically never suggest the positing of some Greek original; they may, of course, have resulted from ignorance or carelessness, but they usually can be recognized, and often admired, as...