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- Event Name: Discussion: Jens Ole Schmitt, Sleepy Animals in Barhebraeus (Virtual Forum)
- Start Date: Friday, November 13, 2020
- Start Time: 16:00
- Description: (copy from below)
- Category: Other
- Additional Details
- Cover Photo: from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jWQGOT3qlz0YpuPP_e0Wl_navMUfEoV3
- Event Settings
- Co-hosts: (you, me, Ronny Vollandt, naherundmittlererostenLMU)
- Show guest list: yes
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- Posts must be approved by a host or co-host: yes
- Let people ask you questions about this event over Messenger: yes
Co-hosts: (you, me, Ronny Vollandt) Post Permissions: Anyone can post, posts must be approved, people can ask questions, display guest list
Description:
REGISTER: https://lmu-munich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvdemopj0oHN0ucZmJhnM9HB6zMpjzFl2v
FULL PROGRAM: https://usaybia.net/forum2020.
SLEEPY ANIMALS: BARHEBRAEUS ON SLEEPING AND DREAMING ANIMALS Jens Ole Schmitt University of Munich (LMU)
Barhebraeus, the great Syrian Orthodox polymath and theologian (1226-1286), treats animals’ abilities to sleep and dream in his inedited Book on Animals of his philosophical summa Cream of Wisdom, a book that draws heavily on Avicenna, though also on Aristotle.
In comparison with his sources, however, he might be understood as allowing for more animals to have the ability to dream than Aristotle initially did, even though using Aristotle’s animal examples for viviparous quadrupeds, the primary group of animals able to dream for Aristotle.
The paper will, firstly, address the question which groups of animals are considered as being able to dream according to Aristotle, Avicenna, Barhebraeus, Albert the Great in the Latin West, who was also in particular influenced by Avicenna, as well as the Iraqi zoologist Ibn Abī al-Ashʿath, who stood more in the Galenic than Aristotelian tradition, and point to changes and ask whether these changes were intentional or just due to paraphrasing a given source.
Secondly, the paper will address the question which sources Barhebraeus had at his disposal and where. Though witnessing the very end of the Abbasid era, he still benefitted from translations begun during the early Abbasids. Especially the early combined Arabic transmission of three Aristotelian zoological works still had an impact on his Syriac Book on Animals.
Thirdly, the question of collaborating with other scholars shall be addressed, though this has to be done ex negativo for the composition of the Animals. While Barhebraeus is assumed to have met, for example, the Muslim scholar Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī in person at the Maragha observatory and academy, which had an influence on his astronomical works, and also a personal acquaintance with Ibn Kammūna, a philosopher of Jewish descent, has recently been assumed by Roggema regarding theological texts, this form of cooperation surprisingly doesn’t seem to be the case for his biological works, where he primarily relies on Aristotle and Avicenna. The paper will look into the reasons for that and argue tentatively that this assumed lack of a manifestation of a knowledge transfer by personal exchange in his biological works, in contrast to other works by him, might here be due to a neglect of zoological topics or a changed curriculum in post-classical Islamic philosophy, and that this lack of contemporary or at least post-Avicennan available texts led him to take recourse to Aristotle and Avicenna instead.
Jens Ole Schmitt is currently a postdoc at LMU Munich as part of Peter Adamson’s ERC group “Animals in Philosophy of the Islamic World.”
HOW IT WORKS The virtual forum is conceived as an opportunity to discuss the state of research on interreligious knowledge exchange. Half-hour project demos will showcase ongoing projects in the area, while one-hour research paper discussions are a chance to interact on a deeper level with researchers who are in the process of formulating approaches to the subject.
• Students, academics, and anyone else interested may register by clicking on any of the registration links. This will take you to a Zoom page, where you can select any or all of the nine sessions to attend virtually. The number of Zoom participants for each session is limited to 100. • Registered participants will be sent drafts of research papers to read and comment on ahead of time. We'll use the web tool Hypothes.is to do this collaboratively. You can get a free Hypothes.is account here, and you'll receive an email ahead of the session containing a link to read the paper and another link to join the private Hypothes.is group where you can comment or ask questions. • During the live Zoom sessions, you'll hear two presentations and, for research paper discussions, 1–2 responses from invited participants. The remainder of the time will be open for you to interact with the speaker, so come with questions! • Proceedings: Revised papers from the forum will be submitted to a special issue of medieval worlds: comparative & interdisciplinary studies, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ISSN 2412-3196).
All times are Central European Time (CET). Logistical support has been provided by Usaybia.net team members Vanessa Birkhahn and Malinda Tolay.
BACKGROUND From the eighth century to the thirteenth century and beyond, scholars in the Abbasid and neighboring realms pioneered study in medicine, mathematics, the astral arts, and many other disciplines. Scholarly treatises from that era together with biographical sources such as Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa's History of Physicians and documentary texts from the Cairo Genizah show that this scholarly activity was not isolated to a single community. Instead, it emerged from a rich exchange between scholars affiliated with many different communities: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Samaritan, and others. Sometimes this exchange occurred through books or letters while at other times it was face-to-face in formal, institutional settings, side-by-side in the workplace, or even mediated through patrons, servants, or family members.
In the framework of the project "Communities of Knowledge" (funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), we are hosting a series of discussions on the topic of person-to-person knowledge exchange among Near Eastern communities during Abbasid rule.
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15:50 meet & greet 16:00 forum introduction, Zoom tips (send chat message), introduce presenter 16:05 presentation 1 16:20 response 1 16:25 follow-up 16:30 response 2 16:35 follow-up 16:40 general discussion 17:00 feedback poll 17:00 introduce presenter 17:05 presentation 2 17:20 response 1 17:25 follow-up 17:30 response 2 17:35 follow-up 17:40 general discussion 18:00 feedback poll
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Dear All,
Our series now takes a philosophical turn, and we invite you to register now for the Nov. 13 research paper discussions by Jens Ole Schmitt and Pavel Basharin as part of the virtual forum Jews, Christians, and Muslims as Colleagues and Collaborators in the Abbasid Near East. Respondents will include Florian Jäckel and Alexander Treiger. Registrants can read and comment on the papers that will be discussed during the live Zoom session. Please see https://usaybia.net/forum2020 for the full program of the virtual forum (now through December).
Friday, November 13, 2020
16:00 CET Research Paper Discussion
Sleepy Animals: Barhebraeus on Sleeping and Dreaming Animals
Event info and registration: https://usaybia.net/forum2020/index.html#7-schmitt
Jens Ole Schmitt University of Munich (LMU)
Barhebraeus, the great Syrian Orthodox polymath and theologian (1226-1286), treats animals’ abilities to sleep and dream in his inedited Book on Animals of his philosophical summa Cream of Wisdom, a book that draws heavily on Avicenna, though also on Aristotle.
In comparison with his sources, however, he might be understood as allowing for more animals to have the ability to dream than Aristotle initially did, even though using Aristotle’s animal examples for viviparous quadrupeds, the primary group of animals able to dream for Aristotle.
The paper will, firstly, address the question which groups of animals are considered as being able to dream according to Aristotle, Avicenna, Barhebraeus, Albert the Great in the Latin West, who was also in particular influenced by Avicenna, as well as the Iraqi zoologist Ibn Abī al-Ashʿath, who stood more in the Galenic than Aristotelian tradition, and point to changes and ask whether these changes were intentional or just due to paraphrasing a given source.
Secondly, the paper will address the question which sources Barhebraeus had at his disposal and where. Though witnessing the very end of the Abbasid era, he still benefitted from translations begun during the early Abbasids. Especially the early combined Arabic transmission of three Aristotelian zoological works still had an impact on his Syriac Book on Animals.
Thirdly, the question of collaborating with other scholars shall be addressed, though this has to be done ex negativo for the composition of the Animals. While Barhebraeus is assumed to have met, for example, the Muslim scholar Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī in person at the Maragha observatory and academy, which had an influence on his astronomical works, and also a personal acquaintance with Ibn Kammūna, a philosopher of Jewish descent, has recently been assumed by Roggema regarding theological texts, this form of cooperation surprisingly doesn’t seem to be the case for his biological works, where he primarily relies on Aristotle and Avicenna. The paper will look into the reasons for that and argue tentatively that this assumed lack of a manifestation of a knowledge transfer by personal exchange in his biological works, in contrast to other works by him, might here be due to a neglect of zoological topics or a changed curriculum in post-classical Islamic philosophy, and that this lack of contemporary or at least post-Avicennan available texts led him to take recourse to Aristotle and Avicenna instead.
Jens Ole Schmitt is currently a postdoc at LMU Munich as part of Peter Adamson’s ERC group “Animals in Philosophy of the Islamic World.”
Friday, November 13, 2020
17:00 CET Research Paper Discussion
The Ideas of Pseudo-Empedocles in Baghdad Mysticism of the 9th–10th Centuries: An Influence of Nestorian Intellectual Tradition
Event info and registration: https://usaybia.net/forum2020/index.html#8-basharin
Pavel Basharin Russian State University for the Humanities
The early ʻAbbasid epoch was famous for adaptation of Greek science through the intellectual work of Syrian scholars. The Nestorian center of learning and intellectual work, the monastery Dayr Qunnā near Baghdad had a special patronage. In the ʻAbbasid epoch this center trained personnel for the state administration. The most eminent figure in Islamic tradition, who probably was influenced by Dayr Qunna, was the eminent Baghdad Sufi master al-Ḥallāj. Some researchers even found him to be a hidden Christian. Really some points of al-Ḥallāj’s teaching about divine love, annihilation of the human spirit in God and incarnation (ḥulūl) of the divine nature (lāhūt) in the human nature (nāsūt), and unity with God (ittiḥād) have clear parallels with Syrian Christianity. His cosmological doctrine has a number of parallels with ideas of pseudo-Empedocles that gained popularity in Syrian monasteries. The crucial points of al-Ḥallāj’s cosmology were promoted by Abū ’l-Ḥasan ʻAlī al-Daylamī in the Kitāb ʿaṭf al-alif al-maʾlūf ʿalā l-lām al-maʿṭūf. Al-Daylamī was a disciple of Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī and belonged to the tradition that cultivated the cosmological ideas of pseudo-Empedocles. In the ʿAbbasid epoch this tradition comes from Dayr Qunnā. The Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics written by Mattā b. Yūnus, the eminent representative of the local scientific tradition shows this tendency. We can reconstruct the crucial points of the Arab partisans of pseudo-Empedocles according to several texts of al-Shahrastānī, Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī, al-Daylamī and al-Ḥallāj. For example, the presence of five emanations and four elements which are moved by love and hostility, and passionate love as the most important divine attribute. The materia prima appeared through this attribute.
Pavel Basharin (Ph.D., Philosophy) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern East of the Faculty of History, Political Science and Law and Director of the Centre for Iranian Studies at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow.
How it works
The virtual forum is conceived as an opportunity to discuss the state of research on interreligious knowledge exchange. Half-hour project demos will showcase ongoing projects in the area, while one-hour research paper discussions are a chance to interact on a deeper level with researchers who are in the process of formulating approaches to the subject.
All times are Central European Time (CET). Logistical support has been provided by Usaybia.net team members Vanessa Birkhahn and Malinda Tolay.
Background
From the eighth century to the thirteenth century and beyond, scholars in the Abbasid and neighboring realms pioneered study in medicine, mathematics, the astral arts, and many other disciplines. Scholarly treatises from that era together with biographical sources such as Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa's History of Physicians and documentary texts from the Cairo Genizah show that this scholarly activity was not isolated to a single community. Instead, it emerged from a rich exchange between scholars affiliated with many different communities: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Samaritan, and others. Sometimes this exchange occurred through books or letters while at other times it was face-to-face in formal, institutional settings, side-by-side in the workplace, or even mediated through patrons, servants, or family members.
In the framework of the project "Communities of Knowledge" (funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), we are hosting a series of discussions on the topic of person-to-person knowledge exchange among Near Eastern communities during Abbasid rule.
All best,
(on behalf of) Nathan Gibson
Nathan P. Gibson, Ph.D. Principal Investigator, Communities of Knowledge/Wissensgemeinschaften (usaybia.net) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten
Associated Projects: Syriaca.org, Biblia Arabica
Text for H-Net Announce
Title: Sleepy Animals in Barhebraeus / Pseudo-Empedocles in Baghdad Mysticism (Live Discussions, Virtual Forum) Type: Event Country: Germany Date: November 13, 2020
Contact Info Nathan P. Gibson, Ph.D. Principal Investigator, Communities of Knowledge/Wissensgemeinschaften (usaybia.net) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten
Associated Projects: Syriaca.org, Biblia Arabica
Contact Email: [mine] URL: https://usaybia.net/forum2020 Announcement Description: Copy and paste the below with formatting:
Register now for the Nov. 13 research paper discussions by Jens Ole Schmitt and Pavel Basharin for the virtual forum Jews, Christians, and Muslims as Colleagues and Collaborators in the Abbasid Near East.
Friday, November 13, 2020
16:00 CET Research Paper Discussion
Sleepy Animals: Barhebraeus on Sleeping and Dreaming Animals
Jens Ole Schmitt (University of Munich (LMU))
Barhebraeus, the great Syrian Orthodox polymath and theologian (1226-1286), treats animals’ abilities to sleep and dream in his inedited Book on Animals of his philosophical summa Cream of Wisdom, a book that draws heavily on Avicenna, though also on Aristotle.
In comparison with his sources, however, he might be understood as allowing for more animals to have the ability to dream than Aristotle initially did, even though using Aristotle’s animal examples for viviparous quadrupeds, the primary group of animals able to dream for Aristotle. read more
17:00 CET Research Paper Discussion
The Ideas of Pseudo-Empedocles in Baghdad Mysticism of the 9th–10th Centuries: An Influence of Nestorian Intellectual Tradition
Pavel Basharin (Russian State University for the Humanities)
The early ʻAbbasid epoch was famous for adaptation of Greek science through the intellectual work of Syrian scholars. The Nestorian center of learning and intellectual work, the monastery Dayr Qunnā near Baghdad had a special patronage. In the ʻAbbasid epoch this center trained personnel for the state administration. The most eminent figure in Islamic tradition, who probably was influenced by Dayr Qunna, was the eminent Baghdad Sufi master al-Ḥallāj. Some researchers even found him to be a hidden Christian. read more
Subject Fields: Intellectual History, Islamic History / Studies, Middle East History / Studies, Jewish History / Studies, Medieval and Byzantine History / Studies