Alchemy in an Age of Disclosure: The Case of an Arabic Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatise and its Syriac Christian “Translator”Asiatische Studien / Études asiatiquesSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/YUWIX3E3/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.SalamRassiAlchemy in an Age of Disclosure: The Case of an Arabic Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatise and its Syriac Christian “Translator”http://syriaca.org/cbss/YUWIX3E3https://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/YUWIX3E3https://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/YUWIX3E3Asiatische Studien / Études asiatiques75:22021545-609This article examines a little-known and unstudied alchemical treatise, <i>The Epistle on Alchemy</i> (<i>al-Risāla fī l-ṣināʿa</i>) attributed to Aristotle, purportedly translated from Syriac into Arabic by the Nestorian bishop ʿAbdīshōʿ bar Brīkhā (d. 1318). In particular, I investigate the Epistle’s discourse on the concealment and revelation of alchemical knowledge. Like other occult sciences, alchemy was characterised by a marked concern for secrecy and frequently employed codes, or <i>Decknamen</i>, when discussing the “Noble Art.” Yet the author of the <i>Epistle </i>consciously avoids such conventions, choosing instead to disclose its mysteries in an open and <i>accessible </i>manner, while making clear that secrecy would otherwise be necessary were the reader deemed unworthy. By engaging with scholarship in Islamic and Jewish occult science and esotericism, I show that the author of the Epistle navigates the boundaries between concealment and disclosure by framing his treatise as a private exchange between two foundational figures of philosophy and kingship: Aristotle and Alexander the Great. Based on a study of the <i>Epistle</i>’s sources and genre, I consider it possible that the work was not a translation of any Syriac original but a composition by ʿAbdīshōʿ himself and a product of the Arabic-speaking, Islamicate environment in which he lived.
Rassi, Salam. “Alchemy in an Age of Disclosure: The Case of an Arabic Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatise and Its Syriac Christian ‘Translator.’” Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques 75:2 (2021): 545–609.
Salam Rassi, Alchemy in an Age of Disclosure: The Case of an Arabic Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatise and Its Syriac Christian ‘Translator,’Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques 75:2 (2021): 545–609.Abdisho of NisibisArab ChristiansAristotleGreek philosophyMuslim-Christian relationsNestoriansVII-XVIII CEXIV CEalchemyscience