February 2012 – Page 2

book saves ape?

An eminent teacher of wisdom declared that those who increase knowledge, increase sorrow. Decide for yourself:

Jurjah ibn Zakariyā, a chief from Nubia, arrived at Samarra in Ramadan of the year 221/836 and brought al-Mu`tasim many gifts, among which there was a she-ape. I was visiting Yūhannā on the second day of Shawwāl of the same year and blaming him for delaying his presence at the court at that time, when I saw that Salmawayhi, Bakhtīshū` and al-Juraysh the physicians were already there. While we were talking, there came one of the special Turkish slaves with one of those apes sent by the King of Nubia, the biggest I have ever seen, and said to Yūhannā: ‘The Emir of the Faithful orders you to mate this ape with your Hamāhim.’ Now, Yūhannā had a she-ape named Hamāhim without which he could not bear to be for a moment. He fell silent, grieved by this message, and then said to the youth: ‘Tell the Caliph that I have adopted this ape for a different reason than that which he has in mind. My plan is to dissect it and write a book about the dissection like the one Galen wrote, and dedicate it to the Emir of the Faithful. This ape has a rarity in its body, for its arteries, veins and nerves are quite small, and I would not like to sacrifice its specialty by diluting its nature with something so huge that it will become big and rough. If the Caliph takes this ape away, let him know that I shall write him a book which would have no equal in the whole Islamic world.’ The ape was taken away, and Yūhannā wrote a very fine book, which won the approval of his enemies and friends alike. [1]

By increasing knowledge with his book did Yūhannā alleviate potential sorrow and save his beloved ape?

Some of the historical facts in this story can be verified. Zacharias was the name of several rulers of Makuria, a Nubian kingdom. One Zacharias plausibly ruled Makuria about 836. That was during the reign of Caliph al-Mu`tasim. Al-Mu`tasim moved his capital from Baghdad to Samarra in 836, hence his place in the story is historically accurate. The reference to “special Turkish slaves” is a historically appropriate reference to ghilman. Exchanges of extraordinary gifts among rulers was a common practice for establishing and maintaining friendly relations.

Writing a medical book based on the dissection of an ape is plausible. Galen dissected and studied Barbary apes (Barbary Macaques) and used the resulting knowledge in writing books about anatomy. Yūhannā in the above account is the physician Yūhannā ibn Māsawayhi. He served al-Mu`tasim. Yūhannā wrote a medical book dedicated to al-Ma’mūn, the caliph preceding al-Mu`tasim.[2] Yūhannā also wrote another book that Ibn Abi Usaibia describes as “‘The Demonstration,’ in thirty chapters.” Demonstration to Galen meant, among other subjects, a dissection-based discussion of anatomy.

Despite these historical realities, Yūhannā writing a book to save his beloved she-ape almost surely was a courtly fable. According to this story, writing the book required Yūhannā to dissect his beloved ape. Why would Yūhannā have offered to do that? Other aspects of the story are also peculiar. The King of Nubia’s gift was a she-ape. Yūhannā’s beloved ape was also a she-ape. Why did the Caliph seek to have a she-ape mate another she-ape? Yūhannā’s she-ape had the name Hamāhim. That means in Arabic mumbling, muttering, and inarticulate utterances.[3] Hamāhim is thus an onomatopoeic name. According to Ibn Abi Usaibia’s account, Yūhannā was on occasions cantankerous and crude.[4] Some of his enemies may well have figured him as a person who was like an ape and would love an ape. The story of the ape and Yūhannā’s book makes most sense as a humorous, denigrating explanation of Yūhannā’s motivation to write a book about dissection and anatomy.[5]

If that explanation causes you sorrow, I’m sorry. But I think it’s true.

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Notes:

[1] HP p. 341. Ibn Abi Usaibia presents this story as a quotation prefaced by “Said Yūsuf:”. Yūsuf refers to Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Dayā (“son of the wet nurse”), who was one of Yūhannā’s contemporaries and a servant of Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mahdī (HP p. 351). Al-Mahdi was caliph from 817-819 and then spent the rest of his life as a court poet and musician. Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm was thus well-positioned to record courtly anecdotes. He apparently recorded such stories in his book Akhbar al-Atibba.

[2] HP p. 351 lists among Yūhannā ibn Māsawayhi’s books one entitled, “The Composition of Man, his Members, the Number of his Major and Minor Bones, Joints, Arteries; How to Know the Causes of Pain: A Book Dedicated to al-Ma’mūn.”

[3] See entry for “hamhama” in Wehr (1976) p. 1035.

[4] Ibn Abi Usaibia records stories and is not judgmental. His harshest personal criticism in History of Physicians is directed at Yūhannā:

he was a man without manliness and had neither faith nor belief. He was not a Muslim, but did not have any respect even for his own {Christian} religion … no sensible man should approach and no resolute person rely upon a man who has no faith to cling to.

HP p. 349. In Ibn Abi Usaibia’s account of Yūhannā, Yūhannā’s vexing lack of piety seems to have been more failing to adhere to decorum, than a lack of theistic belief.

[5] For an insightful account of courtly verbal entertainment in the early Islamic world, see Swain (2006) pp. 408-10.

Reference:

HP: Ibn Abi Usaybi’ah, Ahmad ibn al-Qasim. English translation of History of Physicians (4 v.) Translated by Lothar Kopf. 1971. Located in: Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 294. Online transcription.

Swain, Simon. 2006. “Beyond the Limits of Greek Biography: Galen from Alexandria to the Arabs,” in Brian McGing and Judith Mossman (eds.), The limits of ancient biography. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales.

Wehr, Hans. 1976. Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 3rd ed.

wisdom across cultures and authorities

The Instruction of Amenemope (Egyptian), the Book of Proverbs (Hebrew), and Hippocrates’ Aphorisms (Greek) have survived from more than 2400 years ago to the present. While these collections of maxims, proverbs, and aphorisms have specific attributions, wise sayings historically have been highly mobile across cultures and authorities.

In ninth-century Baghdad, Hunayn ibn Ishaq wrote a collection of aphorisms of philosophers and scholars. Among those aphorisms were a set of sayings inscribed on philosophers’ rings:

The stone of Hippocrates’ signet-ring bore the inscription: “A patient who feels a desire has, in my opinion, better chances than a healthy person who feels no desire for anything.”
The seal of Socrates’ ring was engraved with the words: “Whoever lets his mind be carried away by his passion is dishonored.”
The seal of Plato’s ring was engraved with the words: “It is easier to move that which is at rest than to stop that which is moving.”
The stone in Aristotle’s ring was engraved with the inscription: “He who admits ignorance of what he does not know is more learned than he who affirms what he knows.”
The stone in Galen’s ring was engraved with the inscription: “He who conceals his malady will never be cured.” [1]

These sayings don’t highlight a prominent feature of the corresponding philosopher’s life or thought. Moreover, the sayings cannot be found in the corresponding philosopher’s writings. Such attributions apparently were a Persian literary device for conveying wisdom.[2] The ancient Greek authorities invoked suggest that the leading ancient Greek authorities in Sassanid Persia were the same as those in Western thought today. Nonetheless, attribution of a saying to a particular ancient sage has often been whimsical in wisdom literature.

In another section of Hunayn’s text, Aristotle speaks a stream of wisdom to a king within a Persian courtly fable. The king had placed his son under Plato’s tutelage, but the son had a poor mind. Aristotle, in contrast, quickly memorized Plato’s philosophy and literary discourse. Presented to the king’s court to display his learning, the king’s son failed to produce any learning and collapsed into Plato’s arms. Aristotle, stepping forward in ragged clothes, delivered a lengthy discourse covering all of Plato’s philosophy and science. The fable ends with Aristotle speaking a stream of wisdom to the king and court:

I am Aristotle the son of Philip, the orphan serving Nitaforos, the son of the great king. I have learnt to praise and worship God the Just, the First Cause. O my hearers, men are distinguished by their minds, not by their origin. I learnt from Plato the Sage that philosophy is the fountainhead of the sciences and the arts, the source of all understanding and the mind’s attainments. Penetrative thought leads to sound opinion, patience paves the way to one’s goal, and pleasant speech perpetuates friendship in the heart. Humility is the means to success, good manners beautify our lives and perfect our joys. Science is dignity, and logic enhances our importance and honor. Honesty is the key to our relations with others, and modesty augments love. Forgiveness purifies our actions, and virtue leads to masterly performance. Justice conquers our enemies and wisdom wins us many supporters. Pity tends the heart and mercy is the essence of goodness. Benevolence is true dignity and giving is the hallmark of brotherhood. Charity is virtue and kindliness is worthy of imitation. … [3]

Much of this wisdom can be traced to a Persian text translated into Arabic early in the ninth century.[4] A closely related section of text has been traced to the Zoroastrian Mobed Mihr Adharjushnasp, probably writing in the Sassanid Empire under Khosrau I (Anushirwan) in 531-579.[5] Ancient Greek characters transmitted both Greek wisdom and Persian wisdom.

Wisdom isn’t bound to specific authorities or contained within political boundaries. The Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope shares a section with the Hebrew Book of Proverbs. Hippocrates’ Aphorisms was probably studied at the Academy of Gondishapur in Persia in the sixth and seventh centuries. Hunayn ibn Ishaq’s anecdotes and aphorism of ancient sages almost surely included Persian material — the philosophers’ ring inscriptions and the story of Aristotle and the king’s son as good and bad students of Plato — as well material from the Greek tradition of Alexander romance (pseudo-Callisthenes). Al-Ansari’s work, Adab al-falasifa, was probably a compilation that included some of Hunayn ibn Ishaq’s work, some of Hunayn’s son’s work, and some of al-Rayhani’s work.[6] It was translated into Hebrew and Spanish in the thirteenth century, and subsequently into Latin and Ethiopian.[7] Wisdom of ancient Greek philosophers in medieval Europe came through cultures from North Africa to Persia.

Communication networks much less technologically advanced than the Internet have in the long run circulated wisdom widely. That shared wisdom has been continually embedded in new contexts and put to particular local uses.

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Relevant work: The Sharing Ancient Wisdoms project promises to collect, analyze, and make available online historical collections of ancient wisdom sayings.

Notes:

[1] HP pp. 55, 91, 99, 113, 170. Ibn Abi Usaibia gives various titles for Hunayn’s work containing the sayings: “Anecdotes of Philosophers and Savants,” “Aphorisms of Philosophers and Physicians,” “Anecdotes of Philosophers and Physicians,” “Anecdotes of Great Philosophers and Physicians,” “Anecdotes of Great Philosophers,” “The Aphorisms of the Learned Philosophers and Maxims of the Ancient Scholars” and “The Book of Unique Reports about the Philosophers and Savants and the Habits of the Ancient Teachers.” Philosophers, savants, physicians, scholars, and teachers were all closely associated. The various titles may imply a work of several sections. Hunayn’s son Ishaq’s similar work includes 16 such ring inscriptions, but the inscriptions differ in order and attribution. al-Ansari’s Adab al-falasifa includes twenty-six ring inscriptions. That section was apparently transmitted to al-Mubashsir ibn Fatik’s Mukhtar al-hikam and to the Spanish and Hebrew translations of Adab al-falasifa. al-Rayhani’s earlier Jawahir includes anonymously ten of these twenty-six sayings. See Zakeri (2004) p. 180. Ibn Abi Usaibia, who cites ibn Fatik’s Mukhtar al-hikam explicitly and repeatedly, attributed the ring sayings to Hunayn. Ibn Abi Usaibia more generally commonly includes sayings attributed to the physician-scholar for whom he is giving an account.

[2] Swain (2006) p. 410 states the ibn al-Washsha’s tenth-century Kitab Al-Muwashsha (“Book of Brocade”) included such ring inscriptions. in a description of courtly etiquette. Hunayn’s ninth-century record of such inscriptions probably comes from a Persian source, according to Zakeri (2004) p. 180. Adrados (2009) p. 274 describes these sayings as involving “arbitrary attributions to various philosophers.” That’s a generally recognized pattern in wisdom literature. The prologue to al-Ansari’s Adab al-falasifa includes Hunayn stating that he is translating the text from Greek (see Adrados (2009) p. 15). However, that’s apparently not true for all of Hunayn’s text. The ring inscriptions include at least one Christian figure (Gregory) and one Arab-Islamic figure (Lokman).

[3] HP pp. 120-4. The stream of aphorisms placed in Aristotle’s mouth continues much longer.

[4] Twenty of the inscriptions are also found in ‘Ali b. ‘Ubayda al-Rayhani’s Jawahir al-kalim, which translates sayings from Persian into Arabic. Zakeri (2004) p. 182-3, Zakeri (2007).

[5] Adab al-falasifa (“Aphorisms of the Philosophers”), written by al-Ansari in the eleventh century and attributed to Hunayn ibn Ishaq, apparently contains much of Hunyan’s work. So too does al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik’s eleventh-century book, Mukhtar al-hikam (“Choice Maxims and Best Sayings”). Both contain a section of sayings associated with an unknown figure Mihraris or Mahadharijis. Zakeri (1994) identified that section with work of the Persian Mobed Mihr Adharjushnasp.

[6] Zakeri (2004) pp. 185-90. HP, p. 387, list among the works of Ishaq ibn Hunayn, “The Habits of the Philosophers and Interesting Reports about Them.” Zakeri (2004) p. 179, translates Ibn Abi Usaibia’s reference to this title as “Teachings of the philosophers and their apophthegms.”

[7] The Spanish translation is titled Libro de los buenos proverbios. Bandak (2007) surveys available manuscript sources and provides a critical text.

References:

Adrados, Francisco Rodríguez, and Joyce Greer. 2009. Greek wisdom literature and the Middle Ages: the lost Greek models and their Arabic and Castilian translations. Bern: Peter Lang.

Bandak, Christy, and Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq al-ʻIbādī. 2007. Libro de los buenos proverbios: estudio y edición crítica de las versiones castellana y árabe. Zaragoza: Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo.

Zakeri, Mohsen. 1994. “ʿAlī ibn ʿUbaida ar-Raiḥānī: A Forgotten Belletrist (adīb) and Pahlavi Translator.” Oriens, vol. 34, pp. 76-102.

Zakeri, Mohsen. 2004. “Ādāb al-falāsifa: The Persian content of an Arabic collection of aphorisms.” Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph, vol. 57, pp. 173-190.

Zakeri, Mohsen. 2007. Persian wisdom in Arabic garb: ʻAlī b. ʻUbayda al-Rayḥānī (d. 219/834) and his Jawāhir al-kilam wa-farāʾid al-ḥikam. Leiden ; Boston: Brill.

progress in indecency regulation

In the ongoing case FCC v Fox Television Stations, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the following questions:

1. Whether the court of appeals erred in invalidating a finding by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that a broadcast including expletives was indecent within the meaning of statutory and regulatory prohibitions on indecent broadcasts, on the ground that the FCC’s context-based approach to determining indecency is unconstitutionally vague in its entirety.

2. Whether the court of appeals erred in invalidating a finding by the FCC that a broadcast including nudity was indecent within the meaning of statutory and regulatory prohibitions on indecent broadcasts, on the ground that the FCC’s context-based approach to determining indecency is unconstitutionally vague in its entirety.

These contentious legal issues and the voluminous arguments in this case should not obscure the great progress that has been made in indecency regulation.

About 1800 years ago, indecency regulation was much less well-developed. Galen then described “these birds in the city of Rome which we see being led around by their masters in order to mount female (birds) for a price.”[*] Surely everyone today would agree that street vendors displaying for a fee animals copulating is indecent. That sort of activity just isn’t a major public issue today. Put differently, current indecency regulation is quite effective and unintrusive.

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[*] See Rothschild, Clare K, and Trevor W. Thompson (2011), “Galen: ‘On the Avoidance of Grief.’” Early Christianity, vol. 2, pp. 110–129. Quotation above is from para. 62.

Wednesday's flowers

Galen on books, reading, and writing in second-century Rome

Galen’s newly recovered treatise, On the Avoidance of Grief / Avoiding Distress, vividly portrays the vibrant book economy in Rome about the year 193. Galen describes having copied many books “by my own hand,” declares that he wrote a new book by dictating it “as is my custom,” and expresses concern about being able to “keep up with what is said when someone reads a book to me.” He complains that a decaying papyrus roll is difficult to unroll, and laments a precious parchment codex that has been burned. He describes as necessary splitting large books whose length exceeds four thousand hexametric verses.[1]

Galen recognized the difficulties that scriptio continua creates. He describes:

books that, after correction, had been written by me onto a pure text, books with unclear and errant readings throughout the texts – planning to produce my own edition. The writings were worked to (the point of) accuracy so that neither was something added nor words taken away, not even a paragraphos – single or double, or a coronis – (a siglum) appropriately placed between books. What is there to say about the period or comma? As you know, they are very valuable in unclear books, so that one who pays attention to them does not need an interpreter.[2]

A paragraphos is a paratextual marker that typically marked the end of a sentence; a coronis typically marked the end of a work or a major section of a work. Galen’s concern for punctuation and textual correctness points to Galen’s wide-ranging scholarly attention to books apart from any school supporting oral recitation.

Libraries played an important role in disseminating books. Galen refers to “all the libraries on the Palatine,” libraries by the Temple of Peace, and the Tiberian house “in which there was also a library full of many other books.” These libraries had broad collections: rare books, common books, works of contemporary or near-contemporary authors, as well as “copies of books from many ancient grammarians were kept, also those of rhetoricians, physicians and philosophers.” The libraries had catalogs. Galen complains of books listed in a catalog but missing in the library, disparages readers “robbing” books from the libraries, and states that some bibliographic information in the catalogs is incorrect. Galen acquired some books by copying books in libraries. Galen made copies of his books at the request of friends who sought the books for a public library in Galen’s hometown, Pergamum. Galen observed that other friends had “already placed many of my works {in public libraries} in other cities.”[3]

Galen treatise describes how to avoid grief using his personal example of his recent loss that included many valuable books. These books burned in a major fire in Rome, probably in 192.[4] Other scholars and book-lovers suffered intense grief from the destruction of books in that fire:

when his books perished in the fire, Philides the grammarian – wasting away from discouragement and distress – actually died. And, for a long time, one after another went out in black garments, thin and pale like mourners.[5]

The phrase “one after another” suggests that those with large personal libraries were quite numerous. Their grief is a poignant counterpart to what must have been earlier much joy in books.

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Notes:

[1] The text of the treatise, which takes the form of a letter to a friend, was found in 2005 at the Vlatadon Monastery, Thessaloniki. The English translation of Rothschild & Thompson (2011) uses the traditional title for this work, On the Avoidance of Grief. Id. p. 110, n. 1 observes that this isn’t the best translation. Vivian Nutton’s forthcoming translation and commentary will title the work Avoiding Distress. The work is dated to 193 GC. On copying “by my own hand”, see Rothschild & Thompson (2011) trans. paras. 6,16, 19 (RT 6, 16, 19); dictating books, RT 84; reading books to Galen, RT 78b; decaying papyrus roll, RT 19; parchment codex, RT 33; four thousand verses, RT 28. Parchment was significantly more expensive than papyrus. Parchment was typically used only for more valuable books. Bagnall (2009) pp. 52-59, 79.

[2] RT 14. Words in parentheses RT added to clarify the translation.

[3] On libraries in Rome, RT 12b, 18; on collection scope, RT 13; on catalogs, cataloging mistakes, missing books, and book robbers, RT 16-18; on Galen copying library books, RT 12b, 17; on requests of friends for books for public libraries in other cities, RT 21. Galen’s On the Composition of Medications by Type (1.1) refers to “great libraries on the Palatine.” Cited and trans. in Houston (2003) p. 45.

[4]. A date of 191 is also possible, but less probable. On the date, see Houston (2003) p. 45, n. 3.

[5] RT 7. Nutton (2009) p. 19, n. 5, provides other relevant Galenic references that support a reading of Callistus the grammarian, rather than Philides. Nutton, reviewing Galen’s literary references, concludes that Galen’s range of knowledge was comparable to Plutarch’s. The books that Galen lost probably had such a range.

References:

Bagnall, Roger S. 2009. Early Christian books in Egypt. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Houston, George W. 2003. “Galen, His Books, and the Horrea Piperataria at Rome.” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, vol. 48, pp. 45-51.

Nutton, Vivian. 2009. “Galen’s Library.” Ch. 1 in Gill, C., Wilkins, J. and Whitmarsh, T. (eds) Galen and the World of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press.

RT: Rothschild, Clare K, and Trevor W. Thompson. 2011. “Galen: ‘On the Avoidance of Grief.'” Early Christianity, vol. 2, pp. 110–129.