Rôle des syriaques dans la transmission de la philosophie grecque aux arabes

Role played by the syriacs in the passing of greek philosophy onto the arabs

• Auteur / Autrice : Georges Iwaz
• Direction : Armand Abécassis
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Philosophie
• Date : Soutenance en 1994
• Etablissement(s) : Bordeaux 3

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Philosophie arabe

Manuscrits grecs

Manuscrits syriaques

Résumé

C'est en mesopotamie, surtout a bagdad et du temps du califat abbaside que 63 traducteurs syriaques s'acharnerent a porter de platon, d'aristote et de plotin, d'abord du grec en syriaque, puis directement en arabe, plus de 200 ouvrages tres varies, etonnant le monde par leur sens de haute responsabilite et la finesse de leur esprit critique. Inevitablement influences, les arabes imiterent d'abord les maitres grecs mais il vinrent ensuite a donner du neuf avec des courants tels que les freres de la purete, le soufisme, le kalam. Des penseurs tels que al-faraby, avicenne, al-ghazaly, al-maarry et plus tard ibn bajah, ibn toufayl, ibn rouchd et ibn khaldoun parvinrent a attirer l'attention des erudits de trois grandes civilisations : hebraique, hispanique et latine. Ces derniers se mirent, etonnes a traduire en leur langues bon nombre des ecrits des premiers, a les imiter meme, ravis de decouvrir une pensee originale et tres variee. Les syriaques jouerent un si grand role dans la transmission de la philosophie grecque aux arabes que plusieurs critique ont avoue : "sans les syriaques, les gens auraient oublie les philosophes grecs. Sans eux, les arabes n'auraient pas pu jouer ce grand role dans l'histoire du monde". Ce n'est pas pour rien d'ailleurs que les syriaques furent appeles "peres de la culture" et leur langue, "mere de la civilisation".

It is mesopotamia, mainly in bagdad, and in the days of the abbaside caliphate, that 63 syriac translators worked hard to translate at first from greek into syriac, and then directly into arabic, texts from plato, aristotle and plotin. They worked on more than 200 manuscripts - all different - astonishing the world by their high sense of responsibility and by the sharpness of their mind. Inevitably influenced, the arabs first imitated the greek masters but they quickly started to bring new currents such as ikhwan al-sfa, soufism, and kalam. Thinkers such as al-faraby, ibn sina, al-ghazaly, al-maary, and later ibn bajah, ibn toufayl, ibn rouchd and ibn khaldoun succeedeed in drawing the attention of three important civilisations -hebraic, hispanic and latin - which, amazed, began to translate into their own language several of those written works, even to imitate them, glad as they were to discover an original and varied way of thinking. Syriacs played and important part in the passing of the greek philosophy onto the arabs that many critics had to admit that "without the syriacs, people would have forgotten the greek philosophers. Without them, the arabs would not have been able to play such a great part in the history of the world". It was not without cause that the syriacs were called "the fathers of culture", and their language qualified as "the mother of civilisation".