Yahya ibn Adi

Abū Zakarīyā’ Yaḥyá ibn ʿAdī (John, father of Zachary, son of Adi) known as Yahya ibn Adi (893–974) was a Syriac Jacobite Christian^[1] philosopher, theologian and translator working in Arabic.

Biography

Yahya ibn Adi was born in Tikrit (modern-day Iraq) to a family of Syriac Jacobite Christians in 893.

In Baghdad he studied philosophy and medicine under Abu Bishr Matta ibn Yunus, who had also taught Al-Farabi.^[2]

He translated numerous works of Greek philosophy into Arabic, mostly from existing versions in Syriac.^[2] These include: Plato's Laws; Aristotle's Sophistical Refutations (from a Syriac translation by Theophilus of Edessa) and Topics (from a translation by Hunayn ibn Ishaq); and Theophrastus' Metaphysics.

He also composed a number of philosophical and theological treatises, the most significant being Tahdhib al-akhlaq and Maqala fi at-tawhid. He taught a number of Christian and Muslim students, including Ibn Miskawayh, Ibn al-Khammar and Ibn Zura. Ibn Zura made Arabic translations of Aristotle and other Greek writers from Syriac.

He died in 974 and is buried in the Syriac church of St Thomas in Baghdad.^[2][3]

References

1. Ira M. Lapidus, Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History, (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 200.
2. Nicholas Rescher, Studies in Arabic Philosophy, (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1968), 39.
3. Sidney Harrison Griffith, The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic: Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period, (Ashgate, 2002), 8.

External links

Works by Yahya ibn Adi

• (in French) Défense du dogme de la Trinité contre les objections d'Al-Kindi texte arabe de Ben Adi, traduction de Augustin Périer, in: Revue de l'Orient Chrétien 1920
• (in French) Petits traités apologétiques de Yahya ben Adi, texte arabe, traduction française de 9 traités par Augustin Périer, 1920
• On our saying “and became incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary” originally published by Paul Sbath, 1929
• On the Truth of the Gospel by Way of Reasoning from Proofs originally published by Paul Sbath, 1929
• On the Differences in the Expressions in the Gospels and their Meanings originally published by Paul Sbath, 1929
• (in Arabic) Twelve Apologetic Treatiese by Yahya ibn Adi Arabic manuscript, BNF

Works on Yahya ibn Adi

• (in French) Yahya ben 'Adî, un philosophe arabe chrétien du X^e siècle par Augustin Périer, 1920
• (in French) Les citations bibliques chez Yahya Ibn Adi par Monseigneur Paul Feghali
• (in French) Le traité sur l'unité de Yahya Ibn Adi et la troisième maqalah de la métaphysique du kitab al-sifa d'Avicenne : deux finalités différentes dans l'analyse de l'Un Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine par Olga Lizzini, Parole de l'Orient, 2003
• (in French) L'homme parfait dans le traité d'éthique de Yahya Ibn Adi Archived 2013-08-11 at the Wayback Machine par Samih Raad, Parole de l'Orient, 2003
• The trinitarian doctrine of Yahya Ibn Adi: an appraisal Archived 2016-06-24 at the Wayback Machine by Avril Makhlouf, Parole de l'Orient, 1981
• Yahya Ibn Adi's conception of the one Archived 2017-08-17 at the Wayback Machine by Kamal Bualwan, Parole de l'Orient, 2003.