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THE GRECO-SYRIAC AND ARABIC SOURCES OF BARHEBRAEUS' MINERALOGY 26 1
science passed from the Greeks to the Arabs. Due to the progress of the sciences
under Islam, however, the rdes had been reversed by the time we reach the 13th
century.% Credit is due to Barhebraeus for having had the courage to acknowledge
this fact and having devoted his energy to transferring the knowledge now available
in Arabic and Persian into the language of his people. Barhebraeus was not, of
course, the first sy&c author to use Arabic sources - Bar Shako, whose name
has been mentioned above, is particularly important as a precursor of Barhebraeus
in this respect - but Barhebraeus stands quite alone in the scale on which he
ransacked Arabo-Persian sources .and is unique also in the way he then attempts
to create a new synthesis out of the materials taken from these sources and the
, materials found in older Syriac literature. Barhebraeus was undoubtedly conscious
of the fact that what he was attempting was something new and innovative and
this, no doubt, is what is on his mind when he mentions in his proem to Cand. his
fear that "someone coming across this work for the first time might judge it to be
something foreign to the priestly enclos~res".~~
Western scholars have been fond of comparing Barhebraeus to great names
in European literature, such as Thomas ~~uinas,~' Albertus ~ a ~ n uPico s , della ~ ~
Mirandola and Isidore of ~eville.'~ In the light of what we now know of his
endeavours to render into the language of his people the knowledge which was
available in his time in Arabic, along with what we have always known about his
mastery of Syriac prose, it is perhaps not so wide of the mark to compare him
also to the one who once laid the foundations of Latin as a vehicle of scientific
discourse by rendering into his lucid and fluent prose the knowledge which was
available to him in Greek. If Barhebraeus, a religious and political leader of his
people, had been asked how he could compose his works with such speed, he
might have answered as the augur and former consul had done to his friend:
"drmiypa$a sunt, minore labore fiunt; verba tantum adfero, quibus abundo (They
are mere transcripts, requiring less work. I just contribute the words, which I
% For Barhebraeus' own comment on the situation, see BH Chron. [Bedjan] 98.13- 18: 'There
arose among them [sc. the Arabs] philosophers, mathematicians and physicians who surpassed
the ancients in the subtlety of their intellect. Placing them not on another foundation but on
Greek basements, they perfected the buildings of the sciences, which were great on account of
their clear diction and their most studious investigations, so that we, from whom they received
knowledge through the translators - all of whom were Syrians - are now forced to ask them for
it"
97 Cand. pmem [BakoS] 25.1: hcotr u p a w dm
6bmsi A Ad rdv-
98 B d (1834) 486; cf. Koffler (1932) 26 n. 5; Khoury (1950) L2, 122; id. (1%5) 12; Kawerau
(1972) 63.
99 Renan (1852) 67; Baumstarlr, GSL 312.
100 Respectively. Leroy (1 957) 230. and id. (1 971) 250.