EXEGETICAL CULTURES 1 | 147putatiousness, the Prophet himself can be said to have lived near the fringes
of Aristotle’s sphere of influence.^91 It was also Syriac scholars who did the
spadework of the Arabic translation movement, and gave Arabic speakers
access to Greek learning and Muslims the possibility of articulating their
faith philosophically like Christians. The story of how Greek philosophy
survived the “end of Antiquity” is more of a piece than appears at first sight,
or is acknowledged in much scholarship.^92 Syriac Aristotelianism was to be as
closely related to the later but overlapping Arabic Aristotelianism of Bagh-
dad as it had been to the earlier but overlapping Greek Aristotelianism of
Alexandria. This point deserves further development. It is central to our un-
derstanding of the First Millennium as a periodization based on ideas and
spiritual/intellectual movements.
Sergius of Reshʿaina, who inaugurated Syriac Aristotelianism in the early
sixth century, studied at Alexandria. Paul the Persian’s writings reveal an in-
timate knowledge of the late Alexandrian curriculum. Jacob of Edessa, who
was born c. 633 on the eve of the Arab conquest of Syria, and died in 708,
was one of the last students who made his way to Alexandria. He acquired
profound knowledge of Greek literature both philosophical and Christian,
and on returning to Syria fell foul of monks who loathed the language and all
it represented.^93 If there was at once such an admiration for things Greek—
and for philosophy—among Syriac scholars, and a parallel anti- intellectualism
(such as that deployed against Sergius) capable of distracting even men who
now lived in the shadow of Islam,^94 we may doubt their conquerors remained
unaware of such passions.^95 Greek learning’s passage through the Syriac mi-
lieu into Arabic came to exercise a considerable fascination over at least some
Arabic- speaking intellectuals, who formulated a schematic account of it.
According to what I shall call the Alexandria to Baghdad narrative^96 (al-
ready evoked at the end of the last chapter), Aristotle died at Alexandria—
91 While itself untouched by Aristotle, the Qurʾān was subjected to logical analysis as soon as Ar-
istotle became known in Arabic: C. Schöck, Koranexegese, Grammatik und Logik (Leiden 2006); and cf.
R. W. Gwynne, Logic, rhetoric, and legal reasoning in the Qurʾān (Abingdon 2004), esp. X, 98–105,
152–69.
92 D. Gutas, Greek thought, Arabic culture (London 1998), a superb account of the Arabic transla-
tion movement, seriously underplays the role of Syriac translators and translations: cf., e.g., Watt, in Fürst
(ed.), Origenes [5:78] 222–23.
93 Michael the Syrian, Chronicle [ed. and tr. (French) J.- B. Chabot (Paris 1899–1924)] 11.15 (tr.
2.471–72).
94 Brock, Syriac perpectives [5:1] V.23–24; Hugonnard- Roche, Logique d’Aristote [3:8] 169, 173–
75; A. H. Becker, Fear of God and the beginning of wisdom: The School of Nisibis and Christian scholastic
culture in late antique Mesopotamia (Philadelphia 2006) 169–203.
95 Cf. Gutas, in Pasnau (ed.), Cambridge history of medieval philosophy [5:72] 19.
96 D. Gutas, “The ‘Alexandria to Baghdad’ complex of narratives,” Documenti e studi sulla tra-
dizione filosofica medievale 10 (1999) 155–93 (versions set out in parallel columns; I use Gutas’s transla-
tions); C. D’Ancona, “La filosofia della tarda antichità e la formazione della “falsafa,”” SFIM 41–44.