Skip to main content

Aristotle, Arabic: Physics

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy
  • 17 Accesses

Abstract

The Physics deeply influenced Arabic philosophy and science. It was translated into Arabic several times in the ninth and tenth centuries, but only the version by Isḥāq b. Ḥunayn (d. 910) survived. Many Greek commentaries were known as well. The most important center for the study of the Physics was the Baghdad school of Yaḥyā Ibn ‘Adī (d. 973) and his pupil Ibn al-Samḥ (d. 1027). The Physics was studied and commented by the most important Muslim philosophers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 999.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 849.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Bibliography

Primary Sources

  • Arisṭūṭālīs. (1964–1965). al-Ṭabī‘a. Tarjamat Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn ma‘a shurūḥ Ibn al-Samḥ wa-Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī wa-Mattā ibn Yūnus wa-Abī l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib, 2 vols. (ed.: Badawī, ‘A.). Cairo: al-Dār al-qawmiyya li’l-ṭibā‘a wa’l-nashr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bājja, I. (1973). Sharḥ al-samā‘ al-ṭabī‘ī (ed.: Fakrī, M.). Beirut: Dār al-nahār lil-nashr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bājja, I. (1978). Shurūḥāt al-samā’ al-ṭabī‘ī (ed.: Ziyāda, M.). Beirut: Dār al-Kindī/Dār al-fikr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lettinck, P. (1994). Aristotle’s physics & its reception in the Arabic world. With an edition of the unpublished parts of Ibn Bājja’s Commentary on the Physics. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rushd, I. (1962a). Long commentary on Aristotle’s physics. Latin translation. In Aristotelis omnia quae extant Opera. Averrois Cordubensis in ea opera omnes qui ad haec usque tempora pervenere commentarii, vol. IV. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva G.m.b.H. (repr; or. ed. apud Junctas, Venetiis, 1562).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rushd, I. (1962b). Middle commentary on Aristotle’s Physics. Latin translation Books I–III. In Aristotelis omnia quae extant Opera. Averrois Cordubensis in ea opera omnes qui ad haec usque tempora pervenere commentarii, vol. IV. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva G.m.b.H. (repr; or. ed. apud Junctas, Venetiis, 1562).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rushd, I. (1987). Kitāb al-samā‘ al-ṭabī‘ī (Epitome in Physicorum libros) (ed.: Puig, J.). Madrid: Instituto Hispano-Arabe de Cultura.

    Google Scholar 

Translations

  • Averroes. (1987). Epítome de física, filosofía de la naturaleza, Traducción y estudio Puig J. Consejo Superior de Investigaciónes Científicas, Madrid: Instituto Hispano-Arabe de Cultura.

    Google Scholar 

  • Averroes. (1991). Questions in physics (ed. & trans.: Goldstein, H. T.). Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, S. (1977). Averroes on the principles of nature: the middle commentary on Aristotle’s Physics I, II. Thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge (English translation of Aristotle’s middle commentary and epitome of the Physics).

    Google Scholar 

Secondary Sources

  • Cerami, C. (2015). Génération et substance : Aristote et Averroès entre physique et métaphysique. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clagett, M. (1959). The science of mechanics in the middle ages. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Ancona, C. (2005). Le traduzioni di opere greche e la formazione del corpus filosofico arabo. In C. D’Ancona (Ed.), Storia della filosofia nell’Islam medievale, 2 vols. (vol. I, pp. 180–258). Torino: Einaudi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari, C. (2005) La scuola aristotelica di Bagdad. In C. D’Ancona (Ed.), Storia della filosofia nell’Islam medievale, 2 vols. (vol. I, pp. 352–379). Torino: Einaudi

    Google Scholar 

  • Geoffroy, M. (2005a). La formazione della cultura filosofica dell’Occidente musulmano. In C. D’Ancona (Ed.), Storia della filosofia nell’Islam medievale, 2 vols. (vol. II, pp. 671–722). Torino: Einaudi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geoffroy, M. (2005b) Averroè. In C. D’Ancona (Ed.), Storia della filosofia nell’Islam medievale, 2 vols. (vol. II, pp 723–782). Torino: Einaudi

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasner, R. (2009). Averroes’ physics. A turning point in medieval natural philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janos, D. (2015). “Active Nature” and oher striking features of Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus’s cosmology as reconstructed from his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics. In D. Janos (Ed.), Ideas in motion in Baghdad and beyond. Philosophical and theological exchanges between Christians and Muslims in the third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries (pp. 135–177). Leiden/Boston: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lettinck, P. (2015). Aristotle’s ‘physical’ works and the Arabic tradition. In A. Alwishah & J. Hayes (Eds.), Aristotle and the Arabic tradition (pp. 105–120). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, F. E. (1968). Aristoteles Arabus. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rashed, M. (2009). Thābit ibn Qurra, la Physique d’Aristote et le meilleur des mondes. In R. Rashed (Ed.), Thābit ibn Qurra: Science and philosophy in ninth-century Baghdad (pp. 675–714). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carmela Baffioni .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature B.V.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Baffioni, C. (2020). Aristotle, Arabic: Physics. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_53

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics