Chapter 6 Ibrāhīm ibn Yūḥannā and the Translation Projects of Byzantine Antioch
In: Patristic Literature in Arabic TranslationsPurchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
This article focuses on a particular translator with some prominence in early eleventh-century Antioch: Ibrāhīm, son of Yūḥannā, an imperial bureaucrat and scribe. A native of Antioch, Ibrāhīm survived the transition from the Muslim rule of the Ḥamdānids to the Byzantine resurgence in Syria, attaining great success within the imperial apparatus of the new rulers. He translated many patristic and medieval works from Greek into Arabic and was likely involved in the imperial project to translate the Constantinopolitan liturgy into Syriac for use in Antioch and its dependencies. We know little about his life apart from autobiographical statements in his one extant original composition, the Life of Christopher, but the available information gives us a rare glimpse into the life of a scholar from this border metropolis at the historical turning point of the tenth and eleventh centuries.