Translatio studiorum is a Latin Locution, even a fixed Syntagme, used to characterize the displacement of the Greek letters (and particularly the Philosophie) of the Greek world towards the the Middle East syriaque, then Arab, following the closing of the philosophical schools Greek not-Christian women by the emperor Justinien in 529 after Jesus-Christ. One can translate into French this Latin phrase in transmission of the studies , even in transfer of the studies , or in displacement of the studies .

History

In 529, the Justinien emperor makes close the philosophical schools under the pretext which they exempt a teaching not-Christian. Fall under this decree, not only the schools of Athens (and particularly the Académie founded by Plato) around 380 av. J. - C., but also the schools spread in the Greek world, in particular the schools of Alexandria. The date is interesting, because it makes it possible to locate the transfer and the exile of a certain number of professors and Masters of philosophy towards the territories which do not fall under the jurisdiction from Justinien. Among these territory, the Syria, which will be controlled by the king Sassanide Chosroès (Kushraw) and its grandson, is shown particularly accessible. The Greeks go in particular to Antioche, Damas, Apamée, Alep and place themselves under the protection of this Persian dynasty, which will not hesitate to be combined to the Arabs.

The translatio by the translation

Apud Arab

The thing important to keep in mind, in addition to the historical context which sees the Greeks taking refuge in the Middle East under the protection of the last Persian dynasties, is that with the final one, the major texts of what seems a philosophical tradition already (Plato, Aristote), or scientist (Galien, etc), are translated in the local languages and in particular into Syriaque. It is on this account which one can include/understand that as from the years 650 the Arab conquerors will find a mass documentary impressive, that they will translate in their turn into Arabic.

The translatio studiorum thus seems this vast movement of transmission of part of the Greek manuscripts in the Latin world, via the circulation of the texts of Greece in Syria, of Syria to the Dar el-Maghrib, i.e. in the Occident. It seems thus at the same time a deposit and a filter in the movement of appropriation of the Greek culture in the Arab world; at the conclusion of this movement, in which one can identify the family of translators to which Ishaq Ben Hunain belongs, the Latin Occident will discover certain elements of Aristote, via the Spanish translators and the provençaux translators like Ibn Tibbon.

History of the texts

A tendency should not be exaggerated, which consists in believing that the Latin Occident was entirely ignorant Greek thought until XIIIe century, period which saw being born the great comments and the great synthesis from Christian Aristote thought by Thomas d' Aquin. Actually, the Greek texts circulated before even the Byzantine empire until the Latin Occident; there is to only refer to a Boèce or a Claudien Mamert among others, to see that the Greek theories and polemics did not await a late date to penetrate in the Roman empire declining (Boèce used the Catégories of Aristote to theorize the Christian Théologie trinitaire). But one must undoubtedly raise the fact that certain original texts appeared only tardily in Occident, whereas one had comments or syntheses, and other compilations on a rather old date.

Arises thus, in parallel and jointly with the question of the translatio studiorum the problem of the establishment of the sources that the philosophers of the Roman empire finishing, like Arab intellectuals, could have in their possession. Just as at one already old period arose the question of fidelity to the texts and the sources, fidelity which seems today to be the scientific mark of the true speech, nothing makes it possible to believe that the transmission of the Greek studies in the Arab world could be in a continuous way a faithful transmission. This is why, a certain number of questions could be solved only by one historical investigation and paleographic serious, supposing high level scientific qualities (such as for example the control of the various original languages by the student or the professor) and of their employment on papyrus.

Question of translatio studiorum , or if one prefers transmission of the studies , which finds its prototype in this movement of translation and transmission of Greece in the Latin Occident, makes very sensitive the fact that any philosophical teaching supposes a culture deepened in history and a control of the philosophical languages like the Greek and Latin (nothing to say modern languages).

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