From Greek gnomologiae to dicta sapientum: sources in the chapter of Socrates of the Liber philosophorum

Abstract

The Mokhtâr al-Hikam wa-mahāsim al-kalim (The Choicest Maxims and Best Sayings), written in 1048-49 by Syrian-Egyptian physician Abu’l Wafa al-Mubassir ben Fatik, is a collection of aphorisms attributed to philosophers and sages of Antiquity. The Mokhtâr was translated into Latin from a Spanish version, viz, Bocados de oro. Probably, the Spanish and the Latin versions were orally and simultaneously translated. The Latin translation, known as Liber philosophorum moralium antiquorum, was paramount for the process of intercultural communication between the Iberian peninsula and the rest of Europe insofar as it was the translation that managed to surpass the Iberian borders, thus effectively starting its dissemination all over Europe. Al-Mubassir’s work and both the Spanish (the Bocados) and Latin (the Liber) alike showcase different sources of Greek and Latin origin, although significantly altered by religious monotheistic thought (standarized as Christian in the ensuing western translations). In order to illustrate this phenomenon, this article identifies and explores the sources —both Greek and Latin as well as sources contemporary to the author— that al-Mubassir deployed to write the chapter devoted to Socrates. The article points out the variants Greek and Latin sources underwent when they were incorporated into the text by al-Mubassir. These variants were spawned by al-Mubassir’s choice of contemporary sources —drawn from arabic, syriac and Christian texts— to complete the text.