Rüdiger Arnzen
Rüdiger Arnzen’s main areas of research are medieval and early modern Arabic and Persian philosophy and history of the sciences in the Islamic world. Trained in philosophy and Arabic and Persian languages and literatures at the University of Bochum, where he received a Ph.D. in Oriental Studies in 1994, he participated for many years in the longterm project to compile a Greek and Arabic Lexicon (GALex, organized and edited by Gerhard Endress in cooperation with Dimitri Gutas). During this activity he also developed a long-standing interest in Classical Arabic lexicography and linguistics, especially in the field of Graeco-Arabic philosophical and scientific terminology and translation techniques. He is currently at work on two monographs on medieval Arabic concepts of Metaphysics and on Platonic Forms (ṣuwar aflāṭūniyya) in Arabic philosophy.
Publications
Books
Aristoteles’ De Anima. Eine verlorene spätantike Paraphrase in arabischer & persischer Über¬lieferung. Arabischer Text nebst Kommentar, quellengeschichtlichen Studien & Glossaren. (Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus; 9) Leiden – New York : Brill, 1998.
Abū l-ʿAbbās an-Nayrīzīs Exzerpte aus (Ps.)Simplicius’ Kommentar zu den Definitionen, Postulaten und Axiomen in Euclids Elementa I. Eingeleitet, ediert und mit arabischen und lateinischen Glossaren versehen. Köln – Essen, 2002.
(Co-author of) A Greek and Arabic Lexicon (GALex). Materials for a dictionary of the mediaeval trans¬lations from Greek into Arabic. Vol. 1: أ to أي, ed. by Gerhard Endress and Dimitri Gutas, compiled by Rüdiger Arnzen, Gerhard Endress and Dimitri Gutas. Leiden: Brill, 2002. (Handbuch der Orientalistik: Abt. 1. Der Nahe und Mittlere Osten; Bd XI.)
(Ed.) Averrois Cordubensis commentum magnum super libro De celo et mundo Aristotelis. Ex recognitione Francis James Carmody (†) in lucem edidit Rüdiger Arnzen. Editioni praefatus est Gerhard Endress. 2 vols. (Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales. Bibliotheca 4.1.1, 4.1.2.) Leuven : Peeters, 2003.
(Ed., with J. Thielmann) Words, Texts and Concepts Cruising the Mediterranean Sea. Studies on the sources, contents and influences of Islamic civilization and Arabic philosophy and science dedicated to Gerhard Endress on his sixty-fifth birthday. Leuven – Paris – Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2004.
(Co-author of) A Greek and Arabic Lexicon (GALex). Materials for a dictionary of the mediaeval trans¬lations from Greek into Arabic. Fascicle 8: ب to بدل , ed. by Gerhard Endress and Dimitri Gutas. Leiden: Brill, 2007. (Handbuch der Orientalistik: Abt. 1. Der Nahe und Mittlere Osten; Bd XI.)
Averroes on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. An Annotated Translation of the So-called Epitome. (Scientia Graeco-Arabica; 5) Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010.
Articles
„Vergessene Pflichtlektüre: Al-Qabīsīs astrologische Lehrschrift im europäischen Mittel¬alter,“ Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 13 (1999-2000), pp. 93-128.
„Ausgewählte Literatur in >westlichen< Sprachen für das Studium der mittel¬alterlichen Philo¬sophie in arabischer und persischer Sprache,“ Bochumer Philoso¬phisches Jahrbuch für Antike und Mittelalter 7 (2002), pp. 125-78.
„Aristote, De Anima. Paraphrase arabe anonyme.“ In: R. Goulet (ed.), Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Supplément. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2003, pp. 359-65.
„Wie mißt man den göttlichen Kreis? Phantasievermögen, Raumvorstellung und geo¬metrischer Gegenstand in den mathematischen Theorien Proclus’, al-Fārābīs und Ibn al-Haythams.“ In Imagination – Fiktion – Kreation. Das kulturschaffende Ver¬mögen der Phantasie. Ed. by : Thomas Dewender, Thomas Welt. München - Leipzig: K.G. Saur, 2003, pp. 115-40.
„Mapping Philosophy and Science in Safawid Iran and Mughal India: The Case of Niżāmaddīn Ahmad Gīlānī and Ms. Khudā Bakhsh 2641.” Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 56 (1999-2003) [2004], pp. 107-60.
(Together with G. Guldentops, A. Speer, M. Trizio, D. Wirmer) “Philosophische Kom¬men¬tare im Mittelalter—Zugänge und Orientierungen. Zweiter Teil: III. Platonica – IV. Aristotelica,” Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 32 (2007), pp. 259-90.
“The Structure of Mullā Sadrā’s al-Ḥikma al-mutaʿāliya fī l-asfār al-ʿaqliyya al-arbaʿa and His Concepts of First Philosophy and Divine Science. An Essay,” Medioevo 32 (2007) [2008], pp. 199-240.
“On the Nature and Fate of Chapter V of Ibn Rushd’s Epitome of Aristotle’s Meta¬physics.” In Islamic Thought in the Middle Ages. Studies in Text, Transmission and Translation in Honour of Hans Daiber. Ed. by A. Akasoy and W. Raven. Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies, vol. 75. Leiden: Brill, 2008, pp. 43-58.
“Arabisches Mittelalter.” In Platon-Handbuch. Leben – Werk - Wirkung. Ed. by Christoph Horn, Jörn Müller, Joachim Söder. Stuttgart – Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2009, pp. 439-45.
“On the Contents, Sources and Composition of Two Arabic Pseudo-Platonica: Multaqaṭāt Aflāṭūn al-ilāhī and Fiqar ultuqiṭat wa-jumiʿat ʿan Aflāṭūn.” Oriens 37 (2009), pp. 7-52.
“Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ: The Seventh Epistle of the Propaedeutical Part on the Scientific Arts and What They Aim at. Translated by Rüdiger Arnzen.” In Bradley J. Cook (ed.), Classical Foundations of Islamic Education Thought. (Islamic Translation Series; 10) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010, pp. 20-37.
“Ibn Rushd on the Structure of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.” Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 21 (2010) (in print), pp. 375–410.