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A reconstruction of the medical instruction of the iatrosophists in Alexandria (5th–7th century) faces serious problems, because the sources provide us with no information on either their organisation or the biographies of their teachers. Nonetheless, some key points can be established that were characteristic of the teaching of the iatrosophists. These include the medical curriculum, the textbooks used, the type of lectures, the practical training, and the teaching units on philosophical themes. Further, it seems that Gessius initiated this type of teaching, and in the process made numerous borrowings especially from his philosophy teacher Ammonius. Ultimately, the rise in the teaching of the iatrosophists can be explained by different innovations in educational politics that can also be detected in other parts of the Roman Empire at the same time.

The present article deals with the role of the Syriac intermediary within Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s working process. In its first part I aim to show that the Syriac translation of the Hippocratic Aphorisms (ed. Pognon) was produced by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq. Since this is the first Syriac translation of an ancient medical text which can be definitely ascribed to Ḥunayn, we are now in a better position to understand his working method. In its second part I compare therefore samples of his Syriac translaton with the Greek Vorlage on the one hand and his Arabic version of this Hippocratic text on the other.

It is well known that Ibn Hindū used many ancient sources for his Miftāḥ al-ṭibb . This article deals with the second, third, fifth and sixth chapters of his work. Their content displays remarkable similarities with what the Alexandrian medical teachers, i.e. the so-called iatrosophists (5th–7th centuries AD ), taught in their medical classrooms. A closer comparison with the preserved witnesses of their teaching shows that greater parts of the Miftāḥ al-ṭibb are based on a (lost) Arabic translation of a lecture on Galen’s De sectis which was held in Alexandria in late antique times.

There are two versions of Aristotle’s will. One of them is found in Diogenes Laertios’ account of Aristotle in his Lives of the Philosophers, the second one is preserved (only) in an Arabic translation as a part of Ptolemy’s biography of Aristotle. A comparison of these two versions shows that the Arabic translation is a faithful rendering of a lost Greek version. This Greek version, furthermore, is not based on that preserved in Diogenes Laertios, but is rather an independent second version, whose function inter alia was to support the case of Aristotle’s son Nikomachos within inheritance disputes.

Manfred Ullmann: Die Nikomachische Ethik des Aristoteles in arabischer Übersetzung. Teil 1. Wortschatz. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011. 440 S. 124 €.

Several ancient texts treat Diogenes’ life, or at least central aspects of it. The present article gives a survey of some of the most important passages dealing with the question for which purposes Diogenes was used in these texts: In the Sale of Diogenes and in Epistle 7 he serves as a Cynic role model. Cercidas venerates him in a funeral poem as a celestial dog, and Dion of Prusa uses him for a political statement. Furthermore, for Maximos of Tyre Diogenes symbolizes the Golden Age, while Lucian depicts him as a deterrent philosopher whose teaching has no value for human life. For emperor Julian the Cynic finally is a true representative of the old pagan religion. Some biographical data are only preserved in the oriental tradition. They originate from Greek sources, i.e. they were part of the introductions to the philosophy of Aristotle which were read in the late antique universities like Athens or Alexandria. From this we may infer that the life and teaching of Diogenes itself was part of the late antique curricula, a fact, for which the Greek tradition gives no evidence.