Averroes on Plato's "Republic" 9780801471650

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Averroes on Plato's Republic

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Averroes on Plato's Republic

TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY

Ralph Lerner

Cornell University Press ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 1974 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 1 4850. First published 1974 by Cornell University Press. Published in the United Kingdom by Cornell University Press Ltd., 2-4 Brook Street, London WI Y 1 AA. First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2005

(pbk.:alk. paper) (pbk.:alk. paper)

I SBN-13: 978-0-80 1 4-8 975 -4 I SBN- Io: 0-8014-8 975 -x

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Preface You have here something close to what Abii'l-Walid MUQammad Ibn AQmad Ibn Rushd (known to the Latins as Averroes) wrote toward the end of the twelfth century in Cordoba. Little more can be asserted with confidence and candor because it may be three centuries since anyone last saw a copy of the Arabic text. What has come down to us is a Hebrew translation of the Arabic, composed by Samuel ben Judah in the early fourteenth century in Provence and preserved in eight manuscripts in varying states of completeness. Based on that Hebrew translation, there have been one Hebrew summary (by Joseph Caspi in 1 33 I) and four translations-two in Latin (by Elia del Medigol in 1 49 1 and by Jacob Mantinus2 in 1 539) and two in English, of which this is the latest. Very much, then, turns on the capability and accuracy of the two translators who stand between you and the author. Samuel has already made his apologies (see Appendix I) ; it only remains for me to speak on my own behalf. This new English translation is presented in the belief that it marks an improvement in accuracy and intelligibility over the pioneering critical edition and translation of E. I. J. Rosentha1.3 1 "Expositio Comentatoris Averois in librum Politicorum Platonis," MS Siena, Biblioteca Comunale degli I ntronati, G VII 32, fols. . 1 58r- 1 88r. ( I have used enlargements from microfilm.) 2 "Averrois Cordubensis Paraphrasis in libros de Republica Platonis," in Aristotelis Opera cum Averrois Commentariis (Venetiia apud Junctas, 1 562 ; reprint ed., Frankfurt am Main : Minerva G . m . b . H 1 962), I I I , 334v-372V. 3 AverToes' Commentary on Plato's "Republic," University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, no. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1 956 ; reprinted with corrections, 1 966, 1 969) ; hereafter cited as Rosenthal. .,

vii

Preface

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Some of the differences in approach may be mentioned here : ( I ) Rosenthal establishes his Hebrew text by using as his point of departure an early sixteenth-century manuscript, MS B.4 The present translation is based in large measure on MS A5 (dated 1 457) , the oldest of the extant manuscripts and one containing a number of unique and superior readings. The strengths of this manuscript6 and its age entitle it to serve as the foundation of a critical text and of its translation. But as MS A is not without its defects, I have borrowed readings from other Hebrew manu­ scripts (as given in Rosenthal's apparatus criticus to his Hebrew text) wherever the interests of clarity of thought and good grammar are served. (2) Any translator, confronted with a text as obscure, difficult, and strange as this one, is sorely tempted to try to reconstruct a hypothetical Arabic original text and correct the Hebrew on the basis of a presumed misreading of the Arabic by the Hebrew translator. I have borne in mind the dangers in such a procedure, adopting it rarely and then only with re­ luctance and caution. Samuel was acutely aware of his short­ comings as a translator of philosophic Arabic ; but if his word is to be taken in this matter, he was tireless in his efforts to provide the reader with a translation that was faithful to Averroes and intelligible to one who knew Hebrew but no Arabic. Moreover, he saw what none of us has seen-Averroes' Arabic text. (3) Rosenthal understands Averroes' intention in this work as the "identification of the Ideal State with the Islamic, i.e. Shari(a State, and the conviction of the superiority of the religious law" (p. 299). This understanding informs his translation and his elaborate notes.7 The Introduction to the present translation " MS Munich, Bayrische Staatsbibliothek, Hebr. 308, fols. ] V-43V. 6 MS Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Conventi Soppressi ] 2, fols. 94r-129v. ( I have used enlargements from microfilm.) 6 See the review of Rosenthal by J . L. Teicher, Journal of Semitic Studies, 5 ( 1 960) : 1 76- ] 95, especially pp. 1 93 f. 7 See the review of Rosenthal by Shlomo Pines,