Discourse On The Holy Trinity

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY
IN BYZANTINE ANTIOCH
Abdallah ibn al-Fal al-Anaki and his
Discourse on the Holy Trinity*
Introduction
After the Byzantine re-conquest of Antioch from the Muslims in 969 and
until its destruction by the Mamluk hordes in 1268, the city and the neighboring monasteries became an important intellectual center of Arab Orthodox Christianity1, where numerous Christian works especially those of
the Greek Church Fathers were translated from Greek into Arabic (as
well as, concurrently, into Georgian and Armenian) and where Arab Christian theologians composed original works in their native tongue2.
*
In this article we use the following abbreviations:

BDIC = R. CASPAR et al., Bibliographie du dialogue islamo-chrtien, sections on
Christian Arab literature: P. KHOURY R. CASPAR, pt. 1, section 12, in Islamochristiana,
1 (1975), p. 152-169; S.Kh. SAMIR, pt. 2, section 22, in Islamochristiana, 2 (1976),
p. 201-242; S.Kh. SAMIR, pt. 3, section 22.4, in Islamochristiana, 3 (1977), p. 257-284;
S.Kh. SAMIR, pt. 5, addenda et corrigenda, in Islamochristiana, 5 (1979), p. 300-311;
GCAL = G. GRAF, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, 5 vols., Vatican, 19441953; HMLM = J. NASRALLAH, Histoire du mouvement littraire dans lglise melchite
du Ve au XXe sicle, vol. II.2 and III.1, Louvain Paris, 1983-89; PG = J.-P. MIGNE (ed.),
Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca.
1
By Arab Orthodox we mean Arabic-speaking Byzantine-rite Orthodox Christians
(in Arabic: Rum Orthodox), traditionally called Melkites (today, however, the term Melkite is usually reserved for the Byzantine-rite Eastern Catholic church); cf. S. GRIFFITH,
The Church of Jerusalem and the Melkites: The Making of an Arab Orthodox Christian Identity in the World of Islam, 750-1050CE, in O. LIMOR G.G. STROUMSA (ed.),
Christians and Christianity in the Holy Land, Turnhout, 2006, p. 173-202.
2
HMLM, vol. III.1, especially, on translations, p. 196-220, 273-310, 387-391;
K. CIGGAAR M. METCALF (ed.), East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean:
I. Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality,
Leuven, 2006; V.V. KRIVOV, Araby khristiane v Antiokhii X-XI vv. [Arab Christians in
Antioch in the 10th-11th cc.], in Traditions and Heritage of the Christian East, Moscow,
1996, p. 247-255. Translation activity spread also to Muslim-controlled parts of Syria.
Thus, in Damascus, the Arab Orthodox translator Ibn Saquq (fl. 1010) is credited with a
complete Arabic version of the Dionysian corpus. See A. TREIGER, New Evidence on the
Arabic Versions of the Corpus Dionysiacum, in Le Muson, 118 (2005), p. 219-240; IDEM,
The Arabic Version of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagites Mystical Theology, Chapter 1,
in Le Muson, 120 (2007), p. 365-393. and now C. BONMARIAGE S. MOUREAU, Corpus
Dionysiacum Arabicum. tude, dition critique et traduction des Noms divins IV, 1-9.
Partie I, in Le Muson, 124.1-2 (2011), p. 181-227 and Partie II, in Le Muson, 124.3-4
(2011), p. 419-459.
Le Muson 124 (3-4), 371-417. doi: 10.2143/MUS.124.3.2141858 - Tous droits rservs.

Le Muson, 2011.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
Despite its obvious importance, this fact remains largely unknown to

scholars of Patristics, Byzantinists, and Arabists. In the case of Patristics,
this neglect is all the more unfortunate because several Patristic works
translated into Arabic in that time period are now lost in Greek and survive only in these Arabic translations. A striking example is furnished
by the fascinating, still unpublished ascetic text The Noetic Paradise
(al-Firdaws al-aqli), originally written in Greek, probably in Palestine,
in the seventh or eighth century3. The title of the treatise refers to the
angelic realm out of which the human mind (nous / aql) was expelled
after the Fall. The text embarks on a complex analysis of virtues and
vices, delineating the ways in which one ought to till the earth of
ones heart and remove the vices corrupting it, to have ones mind purified and readmitted to the noetic paradise4.
Byzantinists, too, could benefit from a closer examination of the Arabic
translations and original Christian works composed in Arabic in Byzantine Antioch as they provide indispensible information on the philosophical and theological climate in Byzantium, bilingualism, Church history
and politics, monasticism, and other related subjects. Furthermore, several works of Byzantine literature were translated into Arabic in that
period. Their Arabic translations are important, inter alia, for the manuscript readings that they represent: these translations are often earlier
than the earliest extant Greek manuscripts of these works and in several
cases contemporary or nearly contemporary with their authors. One noteworthy example is Nikon of the Black Mountains Pandektes, written in
Greek in the eleventh century and for the most part still unpublished. We
do not know for certain who translated it into Arabic, but it is likely that
this translation entitled Kitab al-awi al-kabir and also unpublished
was prepared in the region of Antioch5.
3
GCAL, vol. 1, p. 413-414, vol. 2, p. 397; D. GNZBURG et al., Les Manuscrits arabes
de lInstitut des Langues Orientales, St Petersburg, 1891 [repr. Amsterdam, 1971], p. XIV,
58-77; and the recent discussion in A. TREIGER, Umnyj raj: mistiko-asketicheskij traktat
v arabskom perevode [The Noetic Paradise: A Mystical and Ascetic Treatise Preserved in
Arabic], in Simvol, 58 (2010), p. 297-316. The text is variously attributed to Gregory of
Nyssa or John of Damascus, but could not have been authored by either of them.
4
The present writers are jointly editing an anthology of twelve Orthodox texts, translated from Arabic, The Orthodox Church in the Arab World (700-1700), which will
include a first English translation of excerpts from the Noetic Paradise (the Anthology is
to be published by Northern Illinois University Press). In the future, we are hoping to
publish a complete English translation and a critical edition of this important work.
5
A note in the Ethiopian version, entitled Maafa awi and made from the Arabic,
ascribes the original Arabic translation to a certain Gabriel ibn al-Biriq, who has been
identified with the Coptic Patriarch Gabriel II ibn Turayk (r. 1131-1145). This however is
uncertain, among other things because it is unlikely that the Coptic Patriarch knew Greek
well enough to translate such an extensive and complex work. It is more likely that he
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Arabists ought to be aware that the better known Graeco-Arabic translation movement of the Abbasid period, centered in Baghdad in the
eighth-tenth centuries, was not the only large-scale attempt to render
Greek writings into Arabic 6. The Antiochene translation movement of
Patristic works matched it in scope. Though unlike the Baghdad translation movement it did not, as far as we can tell, influence the Muslim
communities, which by that time had largely lost interest in Christian
lore, it was crucial to the subsequent development of Middle Eastern
Christianity. The Arabic versions of Greek Patristic texts produced in
Antioch and its environs (as well as in other translation centers, such as
the monastery of Mar Saba in Palestine) were later read, copied, and
cited extensively by Middle-Eastern Christians of all denominations,
especially the Copto-Arabic theologians of the thirteenth century. Some
of these Arabic translations, together with many original Copto-Arabic
works, were subsequently translated into Geez, thus influencing Christianity in Ethiopia7.
1. Abdallah ibn al-Fal: Life and Works
Life
The eleventh-century Arab Orthodox translator and theologian Abdallah ibn al-Fal is one of the most important contributors to the Antiochene Graeco-Arabic translation movement of Patristic works. Unforadapted an already existing Arabic translation, originating, as many others, from the
region of Antioch. On Patriarch Gabriel II see S.Kh. SAMIR, Ibn Tarik ou Ibn Turayk?, in
Le Muson, 101 (1988), p. 171-177; S.Kh. SAMIR, Remariage des prtres veufs? Lattitude
du patriarche copte Gabriel II Ibn Turayk (1131-1145), in Proche-Orient Chrtien, 44
(1994), p. 277-282; S.Y. LABIB, art. Gabriel II ibn Turayk, in Coptic Encyclopaedia,
vol. 4, p. 1127-1129.
6
On the Graeco-Arabic translation movement of the Abbasid period see D. GUTAS,
Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad
and Early Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries), London New York, 1998;
S. GRIFFITH, The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque, Princeton, 2008, p. 106-128.
7
M. KAMIL, Translations from Arabic in Ethiopic Literature, in Bulletin de la Socit
dArchologie Copte, 8 (1942), p. 61-71; A. VAN LANTSCHOOT, Abba Salama mtropolite
dthiopie (1348-1388) et son rle de traducteur, in Atti del Convegno Internazionale dei
Studi Etiopici, Rome, 1960, p. 397-401; L. RICCI, art. Ethiopian Christian Literature, in
Coptic Encyclopaedia, vol. 3, p. 975-979, esp. 976-977. Two examples of such translations into Geez can be given here: (1) Nikons Pandektes, translated from Arabic into
Ethiopic as Maafa awi (cf. n. 5 above); (2) Abdallah ibn al-Fals Arabic version of
Isaac of Nineveh (made from the Greek version produced earlier at Mar Saba) was translated into Ethiopic, apparently in the sixteenth century (a critical edition of the Ethiopic
translation has recently appeared: D. BERHANU, Das maafa Mar Yeshaq aus Ninive,
Hamburg, 1997).
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
tunately, little is known about his life. From his full name as given in the
manuscripts al-sammas Abdallah ibn al-Fal ibn Abdallah al-muran
al-Anaki Abu al-Fat we can deduce that he was a deacon (sammas)
from Antioch (al-Anaki) and a grandson of a bishop or metropolitan
(muran), whose name was also Abdallah8. We know also that he was
active around the year 1050. His Arabic translation of Basils Hexameron was completed in 1052, as evidenced by the manuscripts of this
work9. In the same year, he completed his Book of Joy of the Believer
(Kitab Bahjat al-mumin)10. His magnum opus The Book of Benefit
(Kitab al-Manfaa) was completed between 1043 and 105211.
Some of Abdallahs works and translations were commissioned by
various church officials and intellectuals: the Exposition of the Orthodox
Faith (Sar al-amana al-mustaqima) by John bishop of Manbij (Hierapolis or Mabbug in northern Syria), the translation of the Psalms by a
certain Abu Zakariya ibn Salama12, and the translation of Isaac of Nineveh (made from an earlier Greek version produced at Mar Saba in the
ninth century) by a certain Nikephoros (Nikufur) Abu al-Nar13 ibn
Burus al-Qubuqlis. It has not yet been noted that the last persons title
al-Qubuqlis means that he was a church official, a chamberlain
(kouboukleisios) of the patriarch (presumably the Patriarch of Antioch)14.
8
We take the nisba al-Anaki (from Antioch) to refer to Abdallah himself rather than to his
grandfather the bishop, since bishops of Antioch would normally be referred to as patriarchs.
9
J. NASRALLAH, Dossier arabe des uvres de saint Basile dans la littrature melchite,
in Proche-Orient Chrtien, 29 (1979), p. 17-43; P.J. FEDWICK, Basil of Caesaria: Christian, Humanist, Ascetic, Toronto, 1981, p. 485-492; P.J. FEDWICK, Bibliotheca Basiliana
Universalis: A Study of the Manuscript Tradition of the Works of Basil of Caesarea,
5 vols., Turnhout, 1993-2004, vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 168-171.
10
F. SEPMEIJER, The Book of Splendor of the Believer by Abdallah ibn al-Fal, in
Parole de lOrient, 16 (1990-91), p. 115-120.
11
It refers (in Ch. 65) to the Nestorian philosopher and theologian Abu l-Faraj ibn
al-ayyib, who died in 1043, as recently deceased (raimahu llah), and is itself referenced
in the Kitab Bahjat al-mumin, written in 1052.
12
New Haven, Beinecke Library, MS 349, fol. 181v gives instead two names:
Zakhariya and Yuanna ibn Salama.
13
Abu al-Nar is simply the Arabic equivalent of the Greek Nikephoros. Sinai ar. 351,
fol. 5v gives also the names of his two brothers: Abu l-asan Siman and Abu l-ayr Mia'il.
14
On kouboukleisios, an honorific title of a member of the patriarchs cubiculum,
bestowed by the emperor or the patriarch, see A. KAZHDAN, art. Kouboukleisios, in Oxford
Dictionary of Byzantium, vol. 2, New York, 1991, p. 1155; J. DARROUZS, Recherches sur
les offikia de lglise byzantine, Paris, 1970, p. 39-44. Oxford, MS Holkham gr. 6 was
written ca. 1050-1052 by a certain Theophylact, a kouboukleisios of the Patriarch of
Antioch; see J.H. JENKINS C. MANGO, A Synodicon of Antioch and Lacedaemonia, in
Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 15 (1961), p. 225-242, at p. 231 and Plate 8; Greek Manuscripts
in the Bodleian Library: An Exhibition Held in Connection with the 13th International
Congress of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, 1966, p. 19-20.
The term qubuqlis is attested in the Arabic version of Nikons Taktikon, Ch. 37, 33,
where it is corrupted into faqlis (in Vat. ar. 76); see C.-M. WALBINER M. NANOBASHVILI,
Nicons Treatise on the Conversion of the Georgians in Christian Arabic Literature and
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This would appear to indicate that Abdallahs translation work enjoyed

the support of the patriarchate, which is only to be expected. Unfortunately, nothing further is known about Abu al-Nar ibn Burus al-Qubuqlis or any of the other individuals who commissioned Abdallahs translations and theological works.
It is clear that Abdallah ibn al-Fal received a strong education in
both Greek and Arabic. In the Kitab al-Rawa he mentions having read
Gregory of Nazianzus funeral oration in praise of St Basil the Great, in
Greek15, with a certain Siman al-ymsyqn (?) ibn al-Sabnai (?)16. In
the marginal notes to the Kitab al-Rawa he makes several references to
works on Arabic grammar that he had studied17. Even more remarkable
is his claim to have studied the Ila al-Maniq of Ibn al-Sikkit (d. 857
or 858) with our teacher Abu al-Ala (sayina Abi l-Ala)18. Given
the rarity of this kunya, the Abu al-Ala he mentions can be identified,
with a high degree of certainty, with the famous blind poet Abu al-Ala
Its Possible Georgian Source, in Le Muson, 121 (2008), p. 437-461, at p. 456 Arabic /
p. 460 English translation.
15
It is noteworthy that there are two commentaries on this text written by scholars
roughly contemporary with Abdallah ibn al-Fal Basil the Lesser (10th century) and
Niketas of Herakleia (11th century) and that both commentaries were translated into
Georgian (by Eprem Mtsire in the 11th century and an anonymous translator of Gelati
theological school in the 12th century). See K. BEZARASHVILI, On an Unknown Definition
of Grammar in Byzantine and Georgian literary sources, in F.K. HAARER E. JEFFREYS
(ed.), Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, vol. 3, Aldershot Burlington, VT, 2006, p. 200.
16
Kitab al-Rawa, Ch. 43, Cairo, Franciscan Center of Christian Oriental Studies,
Muski, MS 116, p. 107-108 (the text needs to be emended to read: :
><

) . In another
manuscript (Vat. ar. 111, fol. 142r), the reading of the name seems to be slightly different:
Siman al-bmysqn (?) ibn al-Saniji (?). We have not been able to ascertain the identity
of this figure.
Nikolai Serikoff has suggested to us that the al-ymsyqn / al-bmysqn could be read as
al-Amasis (of Emesa) or al-Afasis (of Ephesus). The former is sometimes used as a nisba
in Arabic texts, e.g. D. LEBEDEV, Spisok Episkopov Pervago Vselenskago Sobora v 318
imen: K voprosu o ego proiskhozhdenii i znachenii dlia rekonstrukcii podlinnago spiska
nikejskikh otcov [A List of Bishops of the First Ecumenical Council, including 318 names],
in Mmoires de lAcadmie imperiale des Sciences de St Petersbourg, VIII ser., no. 13
(1916), p. 54, 92 n. 193 (we are grateful to N. Serikoff for this reference). A certain
Simeon of Ephesus, a disciple of St Simeon the New Theologian, is mentioned in the latters Vita authored by Nicetas Stethatos: ed. I. HAUSHERR, tr. P.G. HORN, in Orientalia
Christiana Analecta, 45 (1928), 33:14, p. 44. Since, however, virtually nothing is known
about this person, it is impossible to ascertain whether he could have been Abdallah ibn
al-Fals mentor.
17
This is the result of the unusual technique Abdallah ibn al-Fal employed in this
work: he deliberately used difficult grammatical constructions and vocabulary and then
provided his own commentary on them, referencing works on Arabic grammar.
18
Kitab al-Rawa, Ch. 36, Cairo, Franciscan Center of Christian Oriental Studies,
Muski, MS 116, p. 92.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
al-Maarri (d. 1058), who reportedly visited Antioch in his youth (in the
980s or 990s) 19. If Ibn al-Fal had studied with al-Maarri on that occasion, this would push his year of birth well back into the tenth century,
meaning that he remained active until a very old age. It is perhaps more
likely that Ibn al-Fal paid a visit to Maarrat al-Numan at a later date
to meet the celebrity poet20.
Additionally, it is at least possible that Abdallah ibn al-Fal had a
personal connection with the Baghdadi Nestorian philosopher and theologian Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-ayyib (d. 1043), who was himself a native
of Antioch21. In Chapter 65 of the Book of Benefit, on logic, Abdallah
refers to Ibn al-ayyib in somewhat warm terms saying, these are the
words of the say Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-ayyib, the priest and philosopher,
may God have mercy on him. Whether or not Abdallah ibn al-Fal
might have visited Baghdad is a matter of speculation, yet his intellectual
ties with the Baghdadi philosophical circles are undeniable, as clearly
evidenced in his works.
Seventeenth and eighteenth century Arab Orthodox authors, such as
the Patriarch of Antioch Makarios III ibn al-Zaim (patriarch 1647-1672)
and the historian Mikhail Breik (d. 1782), as well as numerous manuscripts from that time period, treat Abdallah as a saint, no doubt for his
19
P. SMOOR, art. al-Maarri, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, vol. V, p. 927935, at 927b-928a. Moreover, it is significant that al-Maarri himself refers to Ibn alSikkit and his Ila al-maniq in his letters see D.S. MARGOLIOUTH (ed.), The Letters of
Abu l-Ala of Maarrat al-Numan, Oxford, 1898, Letter 2, passim (the letter is addressed
to Abu l-Qasim al-Magribi, the well-known wazir and author of an abridgement of the
Ila al-maniq that al-Maarri praises as much surpassing Ibn al-Sikkits original work;
is it perhaps the abridgement rather than the original work that Ibn al-Fal studied with
al-Maarri?); Letter 36, p. 120: 6 (Arabic) / 139 (English tr.). On Abu l-Qasim al-Magribi
see P. SMOOR, art. Abu l-asim al-Maghribi, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition,
vol. V, p. 1211b-1212b.
20
If, as tentatively suggested in n. 19, Ibn al-Fal studied with al-Maarri Abu l-Qasim
al-Magribis abridgement of Ibn al-Sikkits work, praised by al-Maarri, rather that Ibn
al-Sikkits original composition, which al-Maarri did not like, it would prove that Ibn
al-Fal actually visited al-Maarri at a later date, as al-Maarri received this abridgement
shortly before the year 399/1008-09, and in any case long after his visit to Antioch. Ibn
al-Fal could have met al-Maarri either in Maarrat al-Numan (perhaps on his way to or
from Baghdad?), or even in Baghdad itself, during al-Maarris short stay there ca. 398400/1008-10. In any case, it is quite possible that someone among Ibn al-Fals family or
friends had a connection to al-Maarri, first established during the latters original visit to
Antioch in the 980s or 990s.
21
According to Ibn al-Adim. See L. CONRAD, Ibn Bulan in Bilad al-Sham: The
Career of a Travelling Christian Physician, in D. THOMAS (ed.), Syrian Christians under
Muslim Rule, Leiden, 2001, p. 131-157, at p. 143, 153. Incidentally, Ibn Bulans career,
admirably summarized and analyzed by Conrad, presents additional evidence to the strong
ties existing just a generation later between Baghdad, Aleppo, and Antioch. Curiously
enough, Ibn Bulan was both a student of Ibn al-ayyib and a friend of al-Maarri and was
reportedly present at the latters deathbed see P. SMOOR, art. al-Maarri, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. V, p. 930b.
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outstanding contribution to the life of the Church as translator and theologian22. The Patriarch Makarios includes Abdallah in his listing of the
saints lives, the Synaxarion23.
Works
The following is a provisional list of Abdallah ibn al-Fals Biblical
and Patristic translations and his original Arabic theological works. It is
provided here for conveniences sake and is not meant to replace the lists
of Georg Graf, Joseph Nasrallah, and Samir Khalil Samir, which also
offer an inventory of the extant manuscripts of each work (complemented
and updated by Alexander Treigers entry on Abdallah ibn al-Fal in the
third volume of Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History)24.
A. Translations
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Psalms25
Lectionaries from the Gospels, St Pauls Epistles, and the Prophets
John Chrysostom, Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on the
Gospel of Matthew, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Homilies
on First Corinthians, Commentary on the Hebrews, Commentary on
the Romans, Collection of 87 Homilies (entitled Mawai sarifa waalfa mutaara laifa li-Fam al-ahab), Exhortation to Penitence
Basil, Homilies on the Psalms and Hexameron
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Creation of Man, Liber in Hexameron
(entitled Fi ulqat al-insan wa-saraf maanihi), Commentary on the
Song of Songs
22
See e.g. Miail BREIK (BURAYK), al-aqaiq al-wafiya fi tari baarikat al-Kanisa
al-Anakiya, Beirut, 2006, p. 124-125.
23
HMLM, vol. III.1, p. 191-192, n. 1, which cites the relevant passages in the original Arabic. The recent edition of the Synaxarion M. ABRA M. JABBUR, al-Sinaksar
al-anaki li-l-bariyark Makariyus al-ali ibn al-Zaim, Jounieh, 2010, strangely does not
contain the passage.
24
GCAL, vol. 2, p. 52-64 (and Index, vol. 5, p. 2b); HMLM, III.1, p. 191-229 (with
references to earlier literature at p. 191, n. 1), also p. 387-388; J. NASRALLAH, Abdallah Ibn
al-Fadl (XIe sicle), in Proche-Orient Chrtien, 33 (1983), p. 143-159 [largely parallel to
HMLM]; S.Kh. SAMIR, BDIC, pt. 2, p. 210-214, No. 22.7, and a brief addendum, in BDIC,
pt. 5, p. 306, No. 22.7.7; A. TREIGER, art. Abdallah ibn al-Fal al-Anaki, in D. THOMAS
et al. (ed.), Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, vol. 3, Leiden, 2011,
p. 89-113. On the translations see also H. DAIBER, Graeco-Arabica Christiana: The Christian
Scholar Abd Allah ibn al-Fal (11th c. AD) as Transmitter of Greek Works, in D.C. REISMAN F. OPWIS (ed.), Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture and Religion: Studies in
Honor of Dimitri Gutas, Leiden, 2011 (forthcoming: not seen).
25
Abdallah ibn al-Fals Arabic translation of the Psalms (made from the Septuagint)
became by far the most influential in the Christian Arab world. See Val. V. POLOSIN et
al., The Arabic Psalter: A Supplement to the Facsimile Edition of Manuscript A187 The
Petersburg Arabic Illuminated Psalter, St Petersburg, 2005.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
6.
Maximus the Confessor, Disputation with Pyrrhus, Chapters on

Love, Capita theologica et oeconomica
7. Andrew of Crete, Encomium to St Nicholas
8. John of Damascus, Libellus de recta fide (entitled Dustur fi alamana al-mustaqima)
9. Isaac of Nineveh, 35 Homilies on Monastic Life (entitled Fi al-ayat
al-nuskiya) and Fi ruus al-marifa (seems to render the Greek
expression kephalaia gnostika)
10. Pseudo-Sophronius, Book of Proof on Establishing the [Correct]
Faith (Kitab al-Burhan fi tabit al-iman, a dogmatic treatise in 28
chapters dealing with the six ecumenical councils and various heresies; lost in Greek)
11. Pseudo-Maximus, Capita Theologica seu Loci Communes, translated as Book of the Garden (Kitab al-Rawa) 26
12. Pseudo-Caesarius, Centuries (embedded in the Book of Joy of the
Believer)
B. Independent Works27
Book of Benefit (Kitab al-Manfaa)28
Discourse on the Holy Trinity (Kalam fi al-alu al-muqaddas), also
known as the Small Book of Benefit (Kitab al-Manfaa al-agir)
or Theological Discourse (Kalam fi al-Lahut) edited and translated below
Book of Joy of the Believer (Kitab Bahjat al-mumin)
Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (Sar al-amana al-mustaqima)
The Creed in Brief (Amana mutaara)
Concise Questions and Answers about the Holy Gospel (al-Sualat
al-mutaara wa-l-ajwiba anha min al-Injil al-muqaddas)
Challenges and Responses on the Trinity and the [Hypostatic]
Union (Masail wa-ajwiba awl al-Tali wa-l-Ittiad)
Book of Lamps (Kitab al-Maabi)
Treatise Beneficial to the Soul (lit. Treatise Containing Ideas Beneficial to the Soul, Maqala tastamilu ala Maani nafia li-l-nafs)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
26
The Book of the Garden (Kitab al-Rawa), classified by Graf, Nasrallah, and Samir
as an original work, is in fact a translation of Capita Theologica seu Loci Communes,
which is now available in a critical edition by S. IHM, Ps.-Maximus Confessor: Erste
kritische Edition einer Redaktion des sacro-profanen Florilegiums Loci communes, Stuttgart, 2001. This fact seems to have been noticed only by M. VAN ESBROECK, Les sentences
morales des philosophes grecs dans les traditions orientales, in LEredit classica nelle
lingue orientali, Rome, 1986, p. 11-23. Ihm duly refers to van Esbroecks article but does
not take Kitab al-Rawa into account in her critical edition.
27
On Book of the Garden (Kitab al-Rawa) see n. 26 above.
28
The present authors are currently preparing a critical edition of this important work.
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10. Refutation of the Astrologers (Risala yaruddu fiha ala l-munajjimin)

11. Treatise on the Triumph of the Cross (Maqala ala intiar al-alib
al-karim)
12. Introduction and Commentary on the Psalms (integrated with the
translation of the Psalms mentioned above, though sometimes transmitted separately)
C. Spurious Works
1.
2.
Atmospheric Phenomena (Tairat al-jaww)29

Glossary of Terms (Tafsir kalam mujam min al-arabiya)30
2. Abdallah ibn al-Fals Theology

In his important work on Arab Christian theology La Trinit divine
chez les thologiens arabes, Rachid Haddad divided Christian Arabic
literature into two periods, patristique arabe and scolastique arabe.
In his view, the first, patristic period lasted from the beginning of
Christian Arabic literature until around the year 900 and is characterized
by an incomplete assimilation of Greek philosophy. The latter, scholastic period was, according to Haddad, inaugurated by the Jacobite theologian and philosopher Yaya ibn Adi (d. 974) and is characterized by
the fuller integration of Greek philosophical concepts as well as elements
of Muslim thought into Christian theology31. Even though this periodization is somewhat problematic32, it may still be useful to characterize
Abdallah ibn al-Fals approach as scholastic, given the especially
29
This cannot be a work of Abdallah ibn al-Fal as it mentions cannons and gun
powder (St Petersburg, Oriental Institute, MS B1234, fol. 11b). The author is probably the
seventeenth-century Capuchin Father Bonaventure of Lude, active in Aleppo, to whom a
similar work is ascribed (GCAL, vol. 4, p. 196).
30
This text was probably written by a scribe. Incipit (St Petersburg, Oriental Institute,
MS B1225, fol. 95r): qala Abdallah ibn al-Fal aw unayn: ism al-quwa mustaqq fi
lisan al-yunani min al-qudra ay min al-iqtidar min al-fil. There follow couples of words
(the gloss written below the word which is being glossed): nibras siraj, awba nafs
assasa, etc., without any arrangement. It is clear that the ascription to Abdallah ibn
al-Fal is based on the initial quotation (ism al-quwa mustaqq ), regarding which the
scribe himself was unsure where it came from. He offered the names of Abdallah ibn
al-Fal and unayn, both famous translators and experts in the Greek language, merely
as a guess as two likely authors.
31
R. HADDAD, La Trinit divine chez les thologiens arabes, 750-1050, Paris, 1985,
p. 19-20 (= HADDAD, La Trinit divine).
32
Both patristic and scholastic elements are present in Christian Arabic literature
of all periods and are not easily disentangled and, moreover, some key Greek patristic
sources, used especially by the Melkites, could be easily characterized as scholastic.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
close relationship between Christian theology and Greek philosophy in

his thought.
For Ibn al-Fal like other Arabic-writing philosophers, Muslim or
Christian, who inherited the Greek philosophical tradition the study of
the sciences and philosophical reasoning lead to at least some degree of
authentic knowledge of God33. His method, therefore, relies heavily on
the sciences and on natural theology, as can be seen in his treatment of
even the most complex theological questions, such as his analyses of
God as a substance analogous in some ways to created substances (see
below)34. It would not be prudent, however, to approach Ibn al-Fals
writings as presenting a distinct, independent, and coherent philosophical
position. His approach can be better characterized as synthetic and eclectic. This is why in his attempt to demonstrate Orthodox Christian doctrines as he understood them, he does not hesitate to integrate and synthesize differing interpretations of specific dogmas. His writings thus
present a running commentary, drawn from various sources, on the theological ideas that were current among Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians in the Antioch of his time.
There is yet another sense in which Ibn al-Fal can be said to be representative of the second, scholastic period of Arab Christian theology: namely, in his manner of engagement with the Jacobite and Nestorian theologians of Iraq. Even as he polemicizes against their
Christological positions, he sees fit to borrow extensively from their
writings, while only rarely citing specific authors by name. The most
striking example of this is Ibn al-Fals use of the Treatise on the Unity
and Trinity of God attributed to Israel, the Nestorian Bishop of Kashkar
(d. 872), which we will discuss below. This stands in contrast with his
sparing use of quotations from the Greek Fathers, which in both the
Discourse on the Holy Trinity and in the Book of Benefit are limited to a
virtually ornamental function35. That is not of course at all to say that his
John of Damascus Dialectica and several of the Greek writings of Theodore Abu Qurra
exemplify this.
33
In one of his marginal notes in the Kitab al-Rawa, he states that one who has
studied the sciences has philosophized, and one who has philosophized has come to know
God to a certain extent Ch. 56, Cairo, Franciscan Center of Christian Oriental Studies,
Muski, MS 116, p. 136 / fol. 71r: wa-man qaraa al-ulum fa-qad tafalsafa wa-man tafalsafa fa-qad arafa Allah azza wa-jalla ba al-marifa.
34
By natural theology we mean the kind of theological approach that makes nonapophatic statements about God based on rational ideas about the structure of the physical
world (substance, accident, etc.).
35
On the other hand, his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith seems to be compiled
entirely from Greek Patristic sources. See R. WANNOUS, Abdallah ibn al-Fal, Exposition
of the Orthodox Faith, in Parole de lOrient, 32 (2007), p. 259-269. In the Book of Ben-
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theology is un-patristic. To the contrary, it draws on the problematique

developed in the Greek Patristic engagement with the Neoplatonic commentaries on Aristotles logical and philosophical works. Yet it adds
another layer to this engagement, as Ibn al-Fal strives to present Orthodox theology in the language of contemporary Arabic peripatetic philosophy, itself inspired by the same Neoplatonic commentary tradition.
In the Discourse on the Holy Trinity and the theological passages of
the Book of Benefit, Ibn al-Fal focuses on defending the doctrine of the
Trinity and the Melkite Christological position defining Christ as one
hypostasis in two natures. The key to both his Trinitarian theology and
his Christology is the interplay between the universal and the particular.
In keeping with the mainstream of Chalcedonian theological discourse
from at least the time of Leontius of Byzantium (sixth century), Ibn
al-Fal is concerned with showing which Trinitarian and Christological
terms refer to universals and which to particulars and with clarifying the
relationship between these two sets of terms. In practice, this amounts to
defining the relationship between the technical terms jawhar and qunum.
While the Arabic term jawhar is almost invariably used as the equivalent
of the Greek ousia (substance or essence), the term qunum (derived from
the Syriac qnoma, literally meaning self) cannot be treated as simply
a translation of the Greek hypostasis. Ibn al-Fal himself is aware of this
problem and addresses the question of how to define qunum in several
of his works36. Thus, in Chapter 9 of the Book of Benefit, he defines
qunum as a particular entity with a unique property that necessarily
belongs to it but not to its counterpart37. In the Challenges and
Responses, he states that qunum, which he correctly identifies as a Syriac
word, is the equivalent of the Greek hypostasis and the Arabic sa
(individual) and then provides four possible definitions for the word38.
The first is a substance with [unique] properties (awa) numerically
distinct from others of the same species39. The second, attributed to
the philosophers, is a combination of properties which does not need
efit, Ch. 34, Abdallah ibn al-Fal makes use of John of Damascus see Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 541, fol. 43r-v / p. 83-84.
36
Cf. B. HOLMBERG, Person in the Trinitarian Doctrine of Christian Arabic Apologetics and its Background in the Syriac Church Fathers, in Studia Patristica, 25 (1993),
p. 300-307.
37
Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 541, fol. 30r / p. 57: ayn a mutafarrid biaa lazima lahu laysat li-nairihi. For instance, the Father is a particular entity with a
unique property unbegotten that belongs to it but not to its counterparts: the Son and
the Holy Spirit.
38
Ibn al-Fal, Challenges and Responses, Challenge 4, Vat. ar. 111, fol. 67r-68v.
39
jawhar maa awa yanfail bi-l-adad mimma ahahu fi al-naw.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
another thing in order to subsist40. The third definition, qualified as the

opinion of the Fathers, is that which distinguishes each person from
others according to prosopon (wajh)41. The fourth, attributed to some
people is a quality with that which it qualifies that does not apply to
any other substance42. On the other hand, in Chapter 5 of the Discourse
on the Holy Trinity, he does not define qunum as simply the equivalent
of hypostasis. Rather, he states that its Greek equivalents can be hypostasis, person, property, and individual and explains that it is what is one
in number, composed of properties which cannot all exactly be gathered
together at any time in something else. Thus, although Ibn al-Fal recognizes a number of possible definitions for the term qunum, he basically
intends by it an indivisible, discrete thing distinguished from other discrete things. This understanding is further confirmed by his statement in
Chapter 34 of the Book of Benefit, that the Greek translation of qunum is
aumun (atomon)43.
In the Discourse on the Holy Trinity and in the Book of Benefit, the
problem of universals and particulars is addressed in three ways. The
first is found in Chapter 2 of the Discourse and, with more elaboration,
in Chapters 5 and 6 of the Book of Benefit. These chapters state that God
that is, Gods substance44 is one as a species [is one] (ka-naw)45.
Following arguments in Chapter 1 of the Book of Benefit and Chapter 2
of the Discourse on the Holy Trinity that God is a substance, Ibn al-Fal
goes on to deduce that the oneness of the divine substance is analogous
to the oneness of a species. This is done through a process of elimination. All substances must be either genera, or species, or individuals, yet
God cannot possibly be a genus because that would require Him to contain multiple species. Likewise, He cannot be an individual, because that
would require that there be other individuals like Him of the same species46. Thus He must be a species.
majma awa allai la yataj ila aar fi taqawwumihi.
al-fail kull waid min al-nas min al-aar bi-l-wajh.
42
ifa maa mawuf la tajurr jawharan aar.
43
Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 541, fol. 42v / p. 82.
44
As Chapter 9 of the Discourse shows, Ibn al-Fal is aware of the multiple Christian
usages of the word God. When he does not otherwise specify, however, he generally
intends it to mean the divine substance.
45
The statement that God is one as a species seems to be attributed to the Christians
by the ninth-century Jewish mutakallim Daud al-Muqamma, see his Isrun maqala, VIII
45-46, ed. and tr. S. STROUMSA, Dawud ibn Marwan al-Muqammis Twenty chapters,
Leiden New York, 1989, p. 172-175.
46
For Porphyry (Isagoge 4a:37), the five predicates, including genus and species are
necessarily predicated of many individuals. This is discussed in J. BARNES, Porphyry:
Introduction, Oxford, 2003, p. 102-104. This view was also held by the Cappadocian
40
41
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The tendency to understand (primary) substance as equivalent to the

Porphyrian most specific species (eidikotaton eidos) was already present in Patristic literature of the sixth and seventh centuries47. However,
the formulation of this equivalency as pertaining to the question of Gods
unity seems to be unique to Arabic sources. In fact, most of this passage
is not original to Ibn al-Fal. The portion of Chapter 5 of the Book of
Benefit where it is found is taken verbatim from the Treatise on the Unity
and Trinity of God attributed to Israel of Kashkar48. Although they are
not marked as such, it seems that the rest of Chapters 5 and 6 were added
by Ibn al-Fal himself. These additions take the form of objections and
responses. The first objection is that if God is one in species, He must
share a genus with other species. Ibn al-Fals response to this is that
God is not one in species (bi-l-naw), rather He is merely one as a species (ka-naw) is one. The second objection is that if God is a substance
as a species, then all substances as species are like Him. The response is
that God is unique precisely in His eternal existence as Trinity, unlike all
other species, which either exist in multitudes or increase and decrease
over time. Chapter 6 of the Book of Benefit raises two further objections
and responses that further reiterate that God cannot be one as an individual because He exists as three individuals and that He necessarily
possesses individuals because He is a universal substance.
The second way in which Ibn al-Fal distinguishes between substance
and qunum is found in Chapter 38 of the Book of Benefit, as part of a
refutation of the idea that God is pure Being (al-huwa al-ma)49. In
response to the objection that to say that God is pure Being means simply
that He is existent, Ibn al-Fal launches a four-part classification of all
existents, according to Aristotles Categories, into universal substance,
particular individual, particular accident, and general accident. As
God cannot be an accident (all accidents are dependent on substances
whereas God must be independent), He must be one of the two types of
substance, which are, in Aristotles terminology, secondary substance and
primary substance, respectively. Ibn al-Fal argues further that God must
be a universal, rather than a particular substance because God, being
prior in nature must be the type of substance that is itself prior in
Fathers and Maximus the Confessor: see M. TRNEN, Union and Distinction in the
Thought of St Maximus the Confessor, Oxford, 2007, p. 97 (= TRNEN, Union and Distinction).
47
TRNEN, Union and Distinction, p. 22-23.
48
B. HOLMBERG, A Treatise on the Unity and Trinity of God by Israel of Kashkar
(d. 872), (Lund Studies in African and Asian Religions, 3), Lund, 1989, p. 46-48.
49
This idea, meaning that God exists as pure being without attributes, is apparently
akin to, if not identical to the concept of anniya maa in the Arabic Neoplatonica.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
nature. Here he is following the Neoplatonic tradition that, contrary to

Aristotle himself, treats Aristotles secondary substances (i.e. species
and genera) as ontologically prior to the particulars subsumed under
them50. Thus, in this line of reasoning, God (that is, Gods essence) is, in
Aristotelian terms, a secondary substance predicated of three primary substances: the hypostases of the Trinity. This seems to be another case
where Ibn al-Fal interprets ideas left implicit in Patristic sources within
a framework defined by Neoplatonic Aristotelianism. While the Cappadocians and those who followed their Trinitarian thought did draw an analogy between the relationship of the divine substance to the hypostases on
the one hand and the relationship of universals to particulars on the
other51, they never explicitly called the divine substance a species52.
While the two discussions of universal and particular mentioned above
are related to the doctrine of the Trinity and are ultimately derived from
Patristic Trinitarian discourse, the third way in which Ibn al-Fal distinguishes between substance and qunum is based on the distinction between
logical and philosophical terms. This distinction can be found in
Chapter 5 of the Discourse on the Holy Trinity and Chapter 34 of the
Book of Benefit, where Ibn al-Fal refutes the Christological views of the
Jacobites and the Nestorians53. The distinction between logical and
philosophical terms apparently goes back to one of the Greek writings
of Theodore Abu Qurra54. Abu Qurra understood the difference between
these two kinds of terms to relate to predication: with philosophical terms,
a universal shares its name and definition with the individuals under it.
For example, the philosophical term animal shares its name and the
definition an animate, sentient substance with the terms man, lion,
cow, etc. With logical terms, however, a universal does not share its
name or definition with things subsumed under it. Thus, for example, the
50
On the problems that Neoplatonic commentators had with resolving the priority of
secondary substances, see Ch. EVANGELIOU, Aristotles Categories and Porphyry, Leiden,
1988, p. 60-66.
51
In fact, many modern commentators have understood hypostasis and substance
in the Cappadocians to be precisely primary and secondary substances. See for example
H.A. WOLFSON, The Philosophy of the Church Fathers, Cambridge, MA, 1970, p. 318-322;
G.L. PRESTIGE, God in Patristic Thought, London, 1956, p. 190-195; and more recently
N. JACOBS, On Not Three Gods Again: Can a Primary-Secondary Substance Reading
of Ousia and Hypostasis Avoid Tritheism?, in Modern Theology, 24.3 (2008), p. 331-358.
52
TRNEN, Union and Distinction, p. 25-26.
53
This distinction does not appear in Abdallah ibn al-Fals other theological treatise
directed against the Jacobites and the Nestorians: the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
(Sar al-amana al-mustaqima).
54
Opusculum II, in refutation of the Severians, PG, vol. 97, col. 1469-1492. For notes
on the authenticity of the text and problems with its printed edition, see J. LAMOREAUX,
Theodore Abu Qurrah, Provo, UT, 2005, p. XXVII-XXVIII (= LAMOREAUX, Theodore Abu
Qurrah).
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logical term genus does not share its name or definition with the term
most specific species, even though the latter is under it logically. It is
worth noting that Abu Qurra mentions substance as an example of both
a logical and a philosophical term, depending on whether it is seen as a
substance as such or simply the logical category substance. Using Abu
Qurras distinction, Ibn al-Fal, in Chapter 34 of the Book of Benefit,
explains that a logical term is a measure employed only in the mind
(miyar mursal fi l-wahm faqa), while a philosophical term is that
which indicates the essence of a thing (ma dalla ala ayn al-say)55.
This distinction comes into practical use when discussing the term
nature (physis / abia) and the Christological problems associated
with it. For both Severian Monophysites and Nestorians, nature is
understood as a particular rather than as a universal and so in both lines
of thought the number of natures and the number of hypostases must be
equal. In Chapter 34 of the Book of Benefit, Ibn al-Fal draws on Abu
Qurras opusculum to argue against this thinking, particularly against the
Severian Monophysite approach. This distinction between logical and
philosophical terms is specifically brought into play to refute the claim
of Severian Monophysites that the hypostatic union necessitates the synthetic union of human and divine natures as well. Ibn al-Fal argues that
because qunum is a logical term and nature a philosophical term, when
union is predicated of the qunum, it is not predicated of the natures.
Similarly, he uses the distinction between logical and philosophical
terms to refute the Jacobite argument that because Christ is one hypostasis (qunum) He is also one substance (jawhar). He does this by saying
that if qunum were equivalent to substance, it would be a supreme genus
(jins ajnas) and would therefore give its name and definition to what is
subsumed under it. However, since qunum is a logical term, it cannot do
this. Therefore, qunum cannot be equivalent to substance, and Christs
being one qunum does not necessitate His being one substance56.
3. Abdallah ibn al-Fals Discourse on the Holy Trinity
Title and Date of the Treatise
None of the manuscripts that we have examined provides the original
title of our treatise. In several manuscripts, an introductory note, evidently written by a copyist (see below), refers to the treatise as a Theological Discourse (kalam fi al-lahut), yet there is no certainty that this
55
Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 541, fol. 42v / p. 82.

Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 541, fol. 43r-v / p. 83-84. This argument is
presented as a citation from John of Damascus.
56
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
was the original title of the treatise. The same introductory note labels
the collection of Abdallah ibn al-Fals works that these manuscripts
contain with the designation Book of Benefit, no doubt naming the
entire collection after the title of its most important work (B1 in the listing above). Since, however, our treatise is copied first in this collection,
some manuscript catalogues misinterpret the title Book of Benefit as
referring to our treatise. Thus, they are compelled to refer to our treatise
as The Small Book of Benefit, to distinguish it from the original Book
of Benefit, a much more extensive work. This title, based on a misreading of a copyists introductory note, is therefore clearly erroneous.
To establish the original title of the treatise we must therefore turn to
the text itself. As it happens, at the very end of the treatise, Abdallah
gives the following statement: With this, let this chapter be over, which
is the end of the discourse on the Holy Trinity (al-kalam fi al-alu almuqaddas). Another relevant statement occurs in Chapter 13 of the
treatise: Since in the second chapter of this expos on the Holy Trinity
(al-muqtaab fi al-alu al-muqaddas) we have given a comprehensive
account indicating that God has substantivity, we shall refrain from
repeating it here. It stands to reason that the original title of this discourse was, therefore, Discourse on the Holy Trinity or Expos on the
Holy Trinity. In our edition, we have adopted the first variation of the
title as the simpler one. It certainly captures the subject matter of the
treatise much better than either the (way too general) Theological Discourse or the (certainly erroneous) Small Book of Benefit.
It is impossible to date the Discourse on the Holy Trinity with precision. However, since it cites the Book of Benefit, written after the year
1043, it is clear that the Discourse on the Holy Trinity was also written
after 1043, possibly around the year 1050 or slightly later.
Summary of the Treatise
The Discourse on the Holy Trinity is a brief account of Ibn al-Fals
thought relating to technical aspects of Trinitarian and Christological
dogma. Despite the authors extensive translation activities and the wide
range of authorities employed in his works, he very rarely explicitly
reveals his sources. In fact, explicit references to authorities in the Discourse are limited to St Gregory the Theologian (Ch. 1 and Ch. 7), the
pre-Socratic philosopher Xenophanes (Ch. 2), and Homer (Ch. 10), as
well as the anonymous one of the Fathers (Ch. 4) or the Holy
Fathers (Ch. 12). It is noteworthy that despite Ibn al-Fals often heavy
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reliance on other Arab Christian theologians both in the Discourse and

in the Book of Benefit, he rarely cites such sources by name57.
The Discourse on the Holy Trinity begins with a discussion of the
doctrine of God. The first chapter establishes, following Patristic precedent58, that the word God (be it Theos or Allah) is not an actual name,
as naming God would entail defining the undefinable divine substance,
but rather a description of the substance. This argument is then supported
by providing traditional etymologies for the word God, both in Arabic
and in Greek, which demonstrate that the words Allah and Theos originally come from descriptions of particular aspects of Gods activity.
Chapter 2, expanding on a passage from the first chapter of the Book
of Benefit, argues that God is a substance. Here Ibn al-Fals inclination
toward natural theology becomes evident. Considering God to be an
existent thing and dividing all existents into substances and accidents, he
determines that God is thus a substance because substances are logically
and ontologically prior to accidents. Likewise he determines that God is
a simple, uncompounded substance, because there is always something
prior to compound substances59.
Chapter 3, addressing the problem of Gods unity, is a paraphrase of
Chapter 5 of the Book of Benefit, itself copied verbatim from the Treatise
on the Unity and Trinity of God attributed to Israel of Kashkar. Dividing
all substances into genera, (most-specific) species, and individuals, Ibn
al-Fal determines that God is one as a species because He cannot logically be a genus or an individual. This idea is condensed from the Book
of Benefit, where it is fleshed out much more, as described above.
57
In the Book of Benefit, Ibn al-Fal is somewhat more prone to acknowledging his
Arabic-language sources, both Christian and Muslim. There, he cites, for instance, Ibn
al-ayyib as an authority in logic, al-Farabi as an authority on politics, and Abu Bakr alRazi as an authority on physiognomy.
58
See, for example, John of Damascus De Fide Orthodoxa, Book 1, Chapter 9.
59
Arab Christian theologians defended their view that God is a substance (jawhar)
also in polemical encounters with Muslims. This is evident for instance in Iliya bar Sennayas Kitab al-majalis, majlis 1, ed. and French tr. S.Kh. SAMIR, Entretien dlie de
Nisibe avec le vizir Ibn Ali al-Magribi, sur lunit et la trinit, in Islamochristiana, 5
(1979), p. 31-117, at p. 64-75. Muslims (including Muslim philosophers and theologians,
e.g. Avicenna and al-Juwayni) typically denied the applicability of the term jawhar to
God. On Avicenna see, for instance, M. LEGENHAUSEN, Ibn Sinas Arguments against
Gods Being a Substance, in Ch. KANZIAN M. LEGENHAUSEN (ed.), Substance and Attribute: Western and Islamic Traditions in Dialogue, Frankfurt, 2007, p. 117-143. al-Juwaynis chapter proving that God is not a substance is specifically directed against the Christians see his A Guide to Conclusive Proofs for the Principles of Belief / Kitab al-irsad
ila qawai al-adilla fi uul al-itiqad, tr. P.E. WALKER, Reading, UK, 2000, p. 28-30. It
seems reasonable to assume that this Muslim insistence on Gods not being a substance
developed originally as part of Muslim-Christian polemics.
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Chapter 4 seeks to prove that the God who is one as a species possesses exactly three individuals. This is done by positing that there cannot exist a single thing unless there also exists a pair60. Thus, God, being
both that single and that pair in His primordial unity, is three. This argument is a condensation and abridgement of a similar but much more
elaborate argument made in Chapter 7 of the Book of Benefit. In this
version, however, Ibn al-Fal points out that this Trinitarian scheme is
not used by all the Fathers, but that some of them, left unnamed, defined
the members of the Trinity in such ways as the wise, the good, and
the powerful, or the pre-eternal, the living, and the rational, or
even the intellect, that which intellects and the intellected. Such
Trinitarian schemes were extremely popular in Arab Christian apologetic
both before and after Ibn al-Fals time. The last, more unusual scheme,
that of the intellect, that which intellects and the intellected
makes it likely that Ibn al-Fal had Yaya ibn Adi (d. 974) or perhaps
his student Ibn Zura (d. 1008) in mind61.
Chapter 5, discussed above, explains the difference between qunum
and substance using Theodore Abu Qurras distinction between logical
and philosophical terms.
Chapter 6 explains how the three hypostases of the Trinity are distinguished from each other by their respective properties (i.e. fatherhood,
sonship, and procession) though they share the same substance.
Chapter 7 moves from questions of Trinitarian theology to questions
of Christology. The first part of the chapter establishes that Christ has
two natures, the one being creator and the other created. In the second
part he refutes the Jacobite belief in a single, synthetic nature on the
grounds that a single nature cannot be both creator and created. For that
reason, he argues that the union between humanity and divinity took
place at the level of hypostasis rather than at the level of nature. Finally,
he refutes the Nestorian belief in two natures and two hypostases on the
grounds that this formula would not sufficiently allow for a union
between the human and the divine in Christ.
60
The idea that God is a Trinity because three is the perfect number that comprises
the two kinds of number, odd and even, is already found in the Apology of al-Kindi:
Risalat Abdallah ibn Ismail al-Hasimi wa-risalat Abdalmasi ila l-Hasimi, London,
1880, p. 31 (English tr. in N.A. NEWMAN, Early Christian-Muslim Dialogue: A Collection
of Documents from the First Three Islamic Centuries, 632-900 A.D., Hatfield, PA, 1993,
p. 417).
61
See the chart of Arab Christian Trinitarian formulations in HADDAD, La Trinit
divine, p. 232-233. On the scheme the intellect, that which intellects and the intellected in Yaya ibn Adi see, e.g., A. PRIER (ed. and tr.), Petits traits apologtiques de
Yahya Ben Adi, Paris, 1920, p. 24-27.
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Chapter 8 addresses the issue of passibility in the person of Christ. In it,

he responds to the claim, presumably put forward by an unnamed Muslim
polemicist, that if the suffering of the crucifixion happened only to the
human nature, then it happened to something other than Christ. Ibn al-Fal
responds to this using the analogy of the human soul and body, so frequently
used in Patristic discussions of Christology, and points out that even if the
body of a man is killed and the soul is not (because it is immortal), the man
is still killed. He then also points out that one can refer to a part of something
to mean the whole, as with the literary device synecdoche.
Chapter 9 discusses how to apply the attribute fatherhood to God
and the proper meanings of the terms god and divinity. The attribute fatherhood is proper to the Father, the Creator, and not to the
divine nature as such because if that were the case, the Son and Spirit
would also necessarily be Father. Ibn al-Fal goes on to point out that
the term god can be used in a variety of senses: to denote the divine
substance, each individual hypostasis of the Trinity, or Christ. The third
part of the chapter is more obscure. It appears to distinguish two distinct
meanings of the term divinity (Ar. ilahiya, apparently translating Gk.
theotes). Because in Greek and Arabic the word divinity is a derived
noun taken from the word for god, it has two possible meanings: the
divine essence itself and the abstract concept of divinity.
Chapter 10 addresses the objection of a presumably Muslim interlocutor that if each of the divine hypostases is itself a substance, then this
would require that they are three different substances. Ibn al-Fal
responds that though each of the hypostases is a substance, they are the
same substance, drawing on the analogy of a single man who has three
separate professions.
Chapter 11 continues the discussion of why the existence of three
hypostases with distinct properties does not entail multiple substances.
This is achieved by first giving a fourfold division of properties62 and
determining that the peculiar properties of the hypostases of the Trinity
are of the type that are held by all members of a species, always, and
uniquely. Here it is clear that Ibn al-Fal understands the term species
in a loose way, as he means that each hypostasis uniquely has its own
peculiar property, which he goes on to explain distinguishes it from the
other two. Similar to the illustration in the previous chapter for why
multiple hypostases do not necessitate multiple substances, he illustrates
the possibility of multiple properties within the same substance with the
example of multiple properties existing within the same human.
62
Cf. Chapter 14 of the Dialectica of John of Damascus.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
Chapter 12 proves that hypostases (aqanim) are not properties

(awa). The contrary opinion that the hypostases are nothing but the
three hypostatic properties (begetting / being unbegotten, being begotten,
procession) was incriminated by Peter of Callinicum to Damian of
Alexandria63. Curiously, Chapter 9 of the Book of Benefit is entitled
Why the properties are called hypostases (li-ma summiyat al-awa
aqanim).
Chapter 13 seeks to prove that God has the attributes of life and reason. While not explicitly mentioned in the chapter, this is related to the
frequent tendency in Arabic Christian apologetic theology to equate the
Holy Spirit and the Son to the attributes of life and reason, respectively.
He does this by applying to God the divisions of Porphyrys tree, thus
determining that He is living, not dead and rational, not irrational.
Chapter 14 addresses the question of how the Trinity can be differentiated in its hypostases and undifferentiated in its essence. Answering a
question posed by a hypothetical interlocutor, Ibn al-Fal gives the
example of a dotted line: just as a dotted line is both an unbroken line
and a series of distinct dots, so too does the Trinity include distinction
within its unbroken unity.
Manuscripts and Principles of the Edition
Eleven manuscripts of this treatise are known to exist64.
Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 541 (year 1663), fol. 2b-6b [colophon on
fol. 2a]
Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 542 (19th c.), fol. 139a-150b [colophon on
fol. 138a-b]
Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 549 (year 1654), fol. 314a-324a / p. 625-645
[waqf notice on the margin of fol. 324a]
Beirut, College of the Three Hierarchs, MS 15 (19th c.), #165
Cairo, Franciscan Center of Christian Oriental Studies, Muski, MS 116 (year
1169h/1755, acquired in 1841 by the deacon Muail Darani), p. 172-225
63
A. GRILLMEIER Th. HAINTHALER, Christ in the Christian Tradition, vol. II/4, London, 1996, p. 78; B. LOURI, Istorija vizantijskoj filosofii: formativnyj period [A History
of Byzantine Philosophy: The Formative Period], St Petersburg, 2006, 5.5, p. 226-230
(= LOURI, Istorija).
64
P. SBATH, Al-Fihris, vol. 1, Cairo, 1938, p. 49, No. 377 refers to a twelfth manuscript, from the collection of M. Saud in Aleppo, but its whereabouts are currently
unknown.
65
According to J. NASRALLAH, Catalogue des manuscrits du Liban, vol. III, Beirut,
1961, p. 283 (= NASRALLAH, Catalogue), this is MS 415 (15); S.Kh. SAMIR, BDIC, pt. 2,
p. 211 gives the call number as MS 21.
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Damascus, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, MS 22966 (year 1851), p. 3-22

Denver, Denver Public Library, Lansing Collection, MS ar. 3 (year 7233/1725),
p. 274-28567
Joun, Dayr al-Mualli, MS 173 (18th c.), p. 307-314 / fol. 153v-157r
Moscow, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), MS 53
(year 1785), p. 166-185
St Petersburg, Oriental Institute, MS B1219 (year 1062h/1652, possibly an autograph of Paul of Aleppo), fol. 2v-15r68
Zala, Bibliothque Isa Iskandar al-Maluf, MS 1 (year 1799), p. 1-1269
During the preparation of this edition, we have consulted eight manuscripts, giving them the following sigla:
A
B
C
D
F
M
P
S
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
Beirut 541
Beirut 542
Beirut 549
Denver
Cairo
Moscow
Damascus
St Petersburg70.
Of these manuscripts, three are seventeenth century (A, C, and S),

three are eighteenth century (D, F, and M), and two are nineteenth century (B and P).
Significantly, all these manuscripts contain other works of Abdallah
ibn al-Fal, in the following order:
A: (1) Discourse on the Holy Trinity, (2) Concise Questions and Answers about
the Gospel, (3) Treatise Beneficial to the Soul, (4) Book of Benefit,
66
HMLM, III.1, p. 226 gives the call number as MS 1637.

On this manuscript see Ch.D. MATTHEWS, Manuscripts and a Mamluk Inscription
in the Lansing Collection in the Denver Public Library, in Journal of the American
Oriental Society, 60.3 (1940), p. 370-382, at p. 375.
68
This manuscript is presumed to be an autograph of Paul of Aleppo, the son and
attendant of the Patriarch of Antioch Makarios III ibn al-Zaim and an important ecclesiastical writer in his own right. This, however, is not entirely certain. It is possible that only
fol. 01v-03r were written by Paul of Aleppo; they contain his notes on the patriarchs of
Antioch, evidently a part of his History of the Patriarchs of Antioch (GCAL, vol. 3,
p. 112). The rest of the manuscript including Abdallah ibn al-Fals works is possibly
written in a different hand.
69
According to NASRALLAH, Catalogue, vol. IV, Beirut, 1970, p. 3-5, this is MS 1;
S.Kh. SAMIR, BDIC, pt. 2, p. 211 gives the call number as MS 1954.
70
We are grateful to Krisztina Szilgyi for copies of the Damascus and the Cairo
manuscripts, and to Georges Montillet for another copy of the Cairo manuscript. We
should also like to thank Dr. Nikolai Seleznyov for facilitating access to the Moscow
manuscript, which Samuel Noble has examined in situ; and Dr. Irina Popova, the director
of the Oriental Institute in St Petersburg for allowing Alexander Treiger access to the
Institutes precious collections.
67
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
(5) two pages extracted from the Book of the Garden, Chapters 70-71,
(6) Exposition of the Orthodox Faith71
B: (1) Discourse on the Holy Trinity, (2) Concise Questions and Answers about
the Gospel, (3) Treatise Beneficial to the Soul, (4) Book of Benefit72
C: [after a number of short treatises by other authors, including John of Damascus and Theodore Abu Qurra]: (1) Exposition of the Orthodox Faith,
(2) Testimonies (=an abbreviated version of the Book of Benefit, containing Chapters 32-34, 47, 49-63, 65-70), (3) Discourse on the Holy Trinity
D: identical to MS C
F: (1) Book of the Garden, (2) Discourse on the Holy Trinity, (3) Concise
Questions and Answers about the Gospel, (4) Book of Benefit
M: (1) Book of the Garden, (2) Discourse on the Holy Trinity, (3) Concise
Questions and Answers about the Gospel, (4) Treatise Beneficial to the
Soul, (5) Book of Benefit, (6) Exposition of the Orthodox Faith73
P: (1) Discourse on the Holy Trinity, (2) Concise Questions and Answers about
the Gospel, (3) Book of Benefit
S: (1) Discourse on the Holy Trinity, (2) Concise Questions and Answers about
the Gospel, (3) Treatise Beneficial to the Soul, (4) Book of Benefit74
In several manuscripts of the Discourse on the Holy Trinity, the following introductory note is preserved (cited here according to MS A)75:
71
According to Cheikhos catalogue, the manuscript also contains a glossary of terms
(= the Mujam sometimes erroneously attributed to Abdallah ibn al-Fal), a page of
extracts from poets, and a panegyric of Saint Nicolas (the second part of which is by Saint
Andrew of Crete), in Abdallah ibn al-Fals translation.
72
The manuscript is in two parts (each with separate pagination), which are bound in
the reverse order, so that the actual order of the treatises in the manuscript is Book of
Benefit, Discourse on the Holy Trinity, Concise Questions and Answers about the Gospel,
and Treatise Beneficial to the Soul. There is no doubt however that the original arrangement was exactly as in MS A.
The Book of Benefit is given in a very deficient and disorganized form. Ch. 24 is not
copied (only the title is copied, after that a blank page is left). Chs. 28-31 and 71-72 are
missing as in the rest of the manuscripts; and the end of the book is truncated and ends
in the middle of Ch. 74, in the same place as MS A. In addition, Chs. 58-60 are omitted
and copied at a later place in the manuscript, following the end of the book. Two additional sections are then copied, one from Ch. 65 (omitted in the text), the other containing
the entire Ch. 11, recopied again, for no obvious reason.
73
Following this, the manuscript also includes two items: (1) al-Makin Siman ibn
Kalil (Copt, d. after 1206), al-Adab al-ubaniya wa-l-amal al-ruaniya, al-mustaraja
min Kitab Rawat al-farid wa-salwat al-waid and (2) Glossary of Terms (Mujam),
falsely attributed to Abdallah ibn al-Fal. Significantly, both texts are copied with
Abdallah ibn al-Fals Book of the Garden in St Petersburg, Oriental Institute, MS
B1225. The latter text is also found at the end of MS A and in the Zala manuscript.
74
The manuscript is truncated at the end (it ends with the words al-salaa wa-l-diaya
in the middle of Ch. 73 of the Book of Benefit).
75
The note appears in at least six manuscripts of the Discourse on the Holy Trinity:
MSS A, B (in a garbled form), S, F, P, and in the manuscript from Dayr al-Mualli,
which we have not seen (a fragment of the note the phrase
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Translation
The Book of Benefit written by the wise sage and the exalted supreme
philosopher, Saint Abdallah ibn al-Fal the deacon, the grandson of the
metropolitan Abdallah, from Antioch, the translator of the divine books,
God give repose to his soul and accept his [prayers]76. He began [writing
this book] with several chapters, thirteen in number77, [containing] a theological discourse [i.e. the Discourse on the Holy Trinity]; then continued
with a section containing questions and answers, beginning with the
[words] How great is what Saint Basil said; then continued with a useful treatise, which [contains] answers on matters concerning which people often inquire; then, subsequently, began with the list of chapters of
the Book of Benefit, seventy five in number, which [book] is indeed beneficial in keeping with its name. Chapters 28 to 3378 are lacking [from
this book]. In addition, Chapter 75 is mentioned in the list of chapters but
does not appear [in the text]. It is clear that the books have been changed
and fragmented, and their original arrangement was better than the current one79.
is cited in R. HADDAD, Manuscrits du Couvent Saint-Sauveur (Sada), Beirut, 1972, vol. 1, p. 153).
76
Instead of , MS B has: .
77
It is unclear why the note says that the Theological Discourse (i.e. the Discourse
on the Holy Trinity edited below) contains thirteen chapters. In reality, the text contains
fourteen chapters in all the manuscripts.
78
In reality, until Ch. 31. The text resumes with Ch. 32.
79
All this section is garbled in MS B. After these words MS B adds:
. MS S omits the last two sentences: In addition was
better than the current one. The note in MS P ends with:
. In reality, the
original end of Ch. 74 and all of Ch. 75 are missing as well, except that the copyist of
MS P supplemented the text with additional materials, arbitrarily calling them Ch. 74 and
Ch. 75.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
It is likely that all the extant manuscripts of the Discourse on the Holy
Trinity descend from one and the same pre-seventeenth century hyparchetype (let us call it W)80. If this is the case, this would explain some
obvious mistakes and corruptions in the text, which are shared by all the
extant manuscripts. This would also explain why none of the extant manuscripts preserves the original title of the treatise the title would simply
have been lacking in W.
This has important repercussions for how one is to edit the treatise. If
all the extant manuscripts are derived from one single manuscript W,
possibly an early one (twelfth or thirteenth century like many of the Sinai
manuscripts of Abdallah ibn al-Fals other works and translations) but
possibly produced only a century earlier than mid-seventeenth century,
then what we, as editors, are reconstructing, is a single hyparchetype,
which might be quite remote from the authors autograph.
In order to go beyond W, and as close as possible to the author, we
therefore occasionally needed to resort to an emendation of the text. It
is only however when such emendations seemed fairly certain that we
ventured to correct the text (indicating the correction in the apparatus
and marking the place in the edition with an asterisk). In other, less
clear-cut cases, we left the text as it appears in the manuscripts (presumably reflecting the erroneous reading of the single hyparchetype
W), but discussed the possibilities of emending it in the footnotes to the
translation.
From the point of view of their readings, the manuscripts break down
into three distinct groups: (1) ABS, (2) CD, and (3) FMP. In most cases,
two groups (usually Groups 1 and 2 or Groups 1 and 3) represent the
obviously correct reading, while the remaining group represents a corruption of that reading. In some cases, only one group (typically Group 1)
has the correct reading while the two other groups have a common error.
MSS B and D were not particularly helpful. It is very likely, in fact, that
they are later (direct or indirect) copies of MSS A and C respectively.
MS B frequently makes idiosyncratic changes to the text, often of orthographic nature: for example, it always reads uqnum instead of the original (more archaic) qunum (=Syriac qnoma) attested in the rest of the
manuscripts.
In doubtful cases, we have always followed the readings of Group 1,
especially MS A, for in virtually every case where it was possible to
80
Though this is not entirely certain for the Discourse on the Holy Trinity, this is
beyond doubt in the case of the Book of Benefit, as we shall show in our forthcoming
critical edition of that work.
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395
ascertain, its readings are superior to those of the rest of manuscripts. We

have also followed MS A in cases of orthographic differences even if
that goes against the rules of Classical Arabic, thus adopting, for instance,
the reading itiad (MSS A, S, C, and D) as opposed to the Classical
Arabic ittiad (MSS B, F, M, and P). We have made no attempt to correct the non-standard readings, characteristic of Middle Arabic, that
show up sporadically in the manuscripts. We have also taken the liberty
to introduce some modern punctuation (including inverted commas to
mark quotations) for the sake of clarity. These signs are of course absent
in the manuscripts.
PO Box 213
Clermont, GA 30527, USA
samuel.j.noble@gmail.com
Department of Classics with Religious Studies
Dalhousie University
6135 University Avenue
PO Box 15000
Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
atreiger@dal.ca
Samuel NOBLE
Alexander TREIGER
Abstract The present contribution offers a critical edition (based on eight

manuscripts) and an annotated English translation of Abdallah ibn al-Fal
al-Anakis previously unpublished Christian Arabic theological text Discourse
on the Holy Trinity (Kalam fi l-alu al-muqaddas), also known as Theological
Discourse or (erroneously) The Little Book of Benefit. It stresses the significance
of Antioch during the period of Byzantine rule for the history of Christian literature in Arabic and provides a comprehensive survey of what is known about
Abdallah ibn al-Fals life and uvre. It also offers an analysis of Abdallah
ibn al-Fals Trinitarian and Christological views, thus demonstrating that in
addition to being a prolific translator of Greek Patristic and Biblical texts, he
also deserves to be studied more systematically as an important Christian philosophical theologian in his own right.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
EDITION AND TRANSLATION
> <

2 3
1
:
5 6

7 " " "
" 8

10 .

.
11
:
12
13 :
.14 15
16 .
9
S, followed by the Introductory Note (cited above), || A C FP
|| B || then
2
3
4
M || D
S add.
FMP || ABS CD
add.
5
6
7
C
CD add.
S || AB CD FMP
8
F || ABS CD MP
AB CD FP || omit. M
9
10
)(homoeoteleuton
AB FMP || omit. CD
A || B CD P
11
12
S || FM
D || AB C FMP
B CD || FM
13
14
S || A || P
C || ABS D FMP
|| A CD P
15
16
BS FM
M || ABS CD FP
CD FMP || ABS
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397
: 17
19
" " 18
.
:

20
21 22
23 24 25 26
27
.
28
.29 30
31 32

34
33
.
:
: 35

18
19
CD || ABS FMP
B || AS CD FMP
20
21
B || AS CD FMP
ABS C FMP || omit. D
|| ABS CD FP
22
23
24
M
AS || B CD FMP
B || AS CD FMP
25
26
B || AS CD FMP
B MP || AS CD F
|| AS C FMP
27
28
29
B
M || ABS CD FP
M || ABS CD FP
AS
30
31
B || CD FMP
B M || AS CD FP:
ABS
32
33
D || C FMP
M || ABS CD FP
|| CD
34
35
B || AS || FMP
ABS FMP || omit. CD
ABS
M || CD FP
17
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
398

36
37
38

39
40 41
.
42 43
44 45 46
48
47
49 50
51 52 53
54
.
: 55
56
57 58

59 60
61 62
37
38
AS CD FMP || omit. B
B || AS CD FMP
ABS C
39
40
D || FMP
|| ABS CD FM
P
ABS
CD
||
|| FP
41
42
43
M
S D || AB C FMP
ABS CD || omit. FMP
44
A C || BS D FMP
ABS B 46 AB 45 add. || S CD FMP
47
C || D FMP
D || ABS C FMP BS C 48 || A D FMP
49
50
51
CD || ABS FMP
B D || AS C FMP

52
CD || ABS FMP
|| AS CD FMP
53
54
55
B
B || AS FMP || CD
D || ABS C FMP
56
57
58
CD || ABS FMP
B || AS CD FMP
A add.
ABS C
59
60
D || FMP
D || ABS C FMP
|| BS CD FMP
61
62
A
BS || A CD FMP
B || AS CD FMP
36
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94833_Mus2011_3-4_006_Noble.indd 398
399
63 64
65
.
66

.
67 68
.
:
69 70 71
73
72
74

.
75
76
.
:
77 78
79 80 81
64
65
M || ABS CD FP
BS || A CD FMP
ABS
66
67
F || CD MP
D || ABS C FMP
AS CD FMP || omit.
68
69
70
B
FMP || ABS CD
B || AS CD FMP
71
72
B || AS CD FMP
M || ABS CD FP
|| B FMP
73
74
AS CD
A || BS CD || FMP
75
76
M || ABS CD FP
B || AS CD FMP
|| CD M
77
78
P || ABS F
D || ABS C FMP
D || ABS C
79
80
81
FMP
B || AS CD FMP
B || AS CD FMP
AS
B || CD FMP
63
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
400
82
84
83
85 .86
87 88
89
90 91 92
93 94 95
96

97
98 .
: 99
100
101
102

.
103

104
83
84
M || ABS CD FP
M || ABS CD FP
85
86
ABS CD FP || omit. M
B || AS CD FMP

87
) AS FP || omit. B CD M (homoeoteleuton
ABS CD FP || omit.
88
89
90
M
S || AB CD FMP
B || AS CD FMP
91
92
BS CD FMP || A
A C(superscript)D || omit. BS FMP
ABS
93
94
FMP || CD
CD || ABS FMP
) C(superscript add.
95
96
97
D
ABS CD FP || omit. M
add.
98
99
D
D || ABS C FMP
AB CD FMP || omit.
100
101
102
FMP || ABS CD
S
|| AS CD FMP
ABS
B
103
104
D || C FMP
M || ABS CD FP
|| ABS FMP
82
CD
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94833_Mus2011_3-4_006_Noble.indd 400
401
105
106

. 107 108 109
110 .
111 112
113 114
115 116 .
117 118 .
:
119
120
123
121 122
124
125 126

.
128
127 *
129

106
107
B || AS CD FMP
B || AS CD FMP
108
109
B FMP || AS CD
B || AS CD FMP
|| AS CD
110
111
B FMP
B || AS CD FMP
|| AS CD FMP
112
113
B
M || ABS CD FP
B || AS CD
114
115
FMP
CD FP || ABS M
|| ABS C FMP
116
117
D
D || ABS C FMP
|| ABS C FMP
118
119
120
D
B FMP || AS CD
D || ABS C FMP
121
122
FMP || ABS CD
|| A CD FMP
123
124
BS
AS CD || B FMP
|| A CD FMP
125
126
BS
B || AS CD FMP
|| ABS CD FP
127
128
129
M
S || AB CD FMP
codd. || emendation
ABS
CD || FMP
105
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
402
130 131
" "
132 133 " "

134 135
" 136
137
"
138 139
140 141 142
144 143
.
:
145

147
148 .
149
.
:150

146
131
132
D || ABS C FMP
133
134
B || AS CD FMP
A || BS FMP || CD
BS CD
135
136
A || FMP
D || ABS C FMP
AB || D F
137
138
S MP || C
D || C || ABS FMP
ABS C || D
139
140
FMP
P || AB FM || S CD
|| ABS C FMP
141
142
D
B || AS CD FMP
|| ABS C FMP
143
D
D all these are corrupt || S || AB C FMP
144
145
renderings of the Greek synekdokhe.
M add.
|| ABS C P
146
147
D || FM
FMP || ABS CD
ABS
148
149
FMP || CD
D || C || B || AS FMP
|| C
150
FM || ABS D P
S D || AB C FMP
130
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94833_Mus2011_3-4_006_Noble.indd 402
403
151 152 153

. 154
:155
156
:157
.
:
158 159
:
160 161
162
163 .
164 165
* 166 167 168 169
170
171 172 .
:

:

152
153
B || FMP || AS CD
B FMP || AS CD
ABS
154
155
FMP || CD
FMP || ABS CD
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<Discourse on the Holy Trinity>

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. With Gods
help and good guidance we begin writing the Book of Benefit.
CHAPTER ONE: On the Derivation of the Term God (allah) and on
whether it is a Name or an Attribute.
The holy Fathers do not regard God (allah) as a name, because the
name indicates the essence of the thing named. [In this respect, a name]
is similar to a definition, but there is a difference between the two,
namely that the definition is applied to the thing defined as a proprium
[and hence by way of equivalence]. For example, we can say both
Every mortal rational animal is a human and Every human is a mortal rational animal. A name, on the other hand, is more general than a
definition, because we say Every barking animal with four legs is a
dog, yet not every dog is a barking animal with four legs, because
this name may be applied to the animal [dog] and to the star1 and to the
[kind of] philosopher designated by that name2. Since names are like this
[i.e. similar to definitions] and since Gods essence is beyond definitions
being applied to it, it follows that God cannot have a name. Therefore,
God is not a name, and thus, when we say God this is merely a
substantial attribute and not a name.
One of the blessed Fathers said that the first among Gods attributes
is the pre-eternal, then the good, and then subsequent [attributes],
such as the powerful, the generous, and the wise.
The term God in the Greek language [i.e. theos] has three possible
derivations. Either it is derived from the fact that He is in every place, or
that He is the cause of the existence of every existent, or from the word
burning, in the opinion of those who have understanding. Thus says
our father the great saint Gregory the Theologian3. In Arabic, on the
other hand, it is derived from one of two things: either from [the word]
madness (walah), because He causes madness in the souls during
tribulations which cause madness, that is, cause one to lose reason, or
from the expression the eye became confounded (alihati l-ayn, impf.
Apparently, the constellations Canis Maior and Canis Minor are meant.
I.e. the Cynics (called in Arabic, in a literal translation from the Greek: al-falasifa
al-kalbiyun).
3
Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 30, PG, vol. 36, col. 128A; Grgoire de Nazianze, Discours 27-31 (Discours thologiques, ed. P. GALLAY (Sources Chrtiennes, 250), Paris,
1978, p. 262-265.
2
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
talahu), [which is said when] it is perplexed4. This refers to the fact that
[Gods] command and His wonders cause perplexity, as we have examined extensively in our book entitled the Book of Benefit. Praise and
thanks be to God.
CHAPTER TWO: On that God is a Substance
God is the cause of the existence of every existent. Since He is the
cause of existence, He is, therefore, [Himself] an existent. Since He is an
existent, whatever is applicable to existents is applicable to Him. Thus
He must be either a substance or an accident, because every existent is
necessarily either a substance or an accident, and this is a true universal
premise. Now, substance is an entity which is subsistent in itself and
requires no support for its continuous [existence], while accident is that
which exists in a thing not as a part of it and which cannot subsist apart
from that in which it inheres5. Since the Creator is He who is described
with pre-eternity, beginninglessness, permanence, perpetuity, and origination [of other existents], and since substance is that which is active,
and accident is that which is acted upon, God is too exalted to be an
accident. Thus it follows that He is a substance. Substances are of two
kinds: simple and composite. It is impossible that the Creator be composite, because every composite thing has something which is simpler
than it, [i.e. that] from which it is composed. It follows, then, that He is
a simple substance6. Even though it is attributed to Him that He is a
substance, His essence has not been grasped, because it is beyond grasp.
Xenophanes the philosopher spoke well when he said that reason is
something made and posterior to the Maker, and the posterior thing can
never grasp that which is prior to it7.
CHAPTER THREE: On that God is One as a Species.
One is an equivocal term, said in several ways8: (1) one in genus,
like animal, for it is one concept predicated of multiple species such
4
E.W. LANE, Arabic-English Lexicon, Beirut, 1980, vol. 1, p. 82 gives the following
as one of the meanings of the verb aliha: He was, or became, confounded, or perplexed,
and unable to see his right course.
5
I.e. from its substrate.
6
The same argument is made in the Book of Benefit, Ch. 1, MS A, fol. 25b.
7
This saying originates in the Doxography of Pseudo-Ammonius: U. RUDOLPH, Die
Doxographie des Pseudo-Ammonios: Ein Beitrag zur neuplatonischen berlieferung im
Islam, Stuttgart, 1989, p. 36; it then reappears in SAHRASTANI, al-Milal wa-l-nial, ed.
Amir Ali MAHNA and Ali asan FAUR, Beirut, 1993/1414, vol. 2, p. 418; cf. A. ALTMANN S.M. STERN, Isaac Israeli: A Neoplatonic Philosopher of the Early Tenth Century, London, 1958, p. 71.
8
For the following argument cf. Book of Benefit, Ch. 5.
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as the human, the horse, and the donkey and other things to which the
concept of animal is applied, defined as a body possessed of a soul,
endowed with senses, and having volition. (2) The term one also
refers to that which is not multiple in species, such as human, for it
exists beneficially [?]9, and is not multiple insofar as it is a species,
though it is predicated of more than one individual, such as Bisr, Said,
and Bakr. (3) The expression one also refers to that which is one in
number, namely the individual10 which does not have parts and is not
divided the way quantities are divided for example, the one, the point,
the beginning of motion, and the moment, which is a point of time.
One also indicates other meanings which we have refrained from
mentioning here out of concern for brevity.
We Christians, who will be victorious on the Day of Judgment by the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of the Living God,
believe about God that He is one as a species. [This is] because since
He possesses one essence and a substance undifferentiated in itself
while genus possesses [multiple] species of different natures and different in essence, it is impossible that He be one as a genus. Since, [furthermore], He has no analogue and no partner while the discrete instance
has many analogues which resemble it in substance and correspond to
it in nature, it is impossible that He be one as an individual. Thus it follows that He is one as a species, without anything like Him, as we have
said11.
CHAPTER FOUR: On that God is One, Possessing Three Individuals.
In the preceding chapter, proof was offered that God is one as a species, rather than one as a genus or one as an individual. If He is one as a
species and [every] species possesses individuals, then God possesses
individuals, which are the hypostases (al-aqanim) and the properties (alawa). As for there being three [hypostases and properties], no less
and no more, it is for the following reason. As all those who oppose
Christianity insist, God is single. The single and the pair are together in
nature, for there cannot be a single without also a pair. Thus since God
is single, and the single and the pair are together in nature, God is a
single and a pair together. Since God is a single and a pair, and the single
and pair together are three, God is three. Since God is a single, and the
9
The word nafan (beneficially) seems out of context. The sense required here by
the argument seems to be uniquely.
10
The underlying Greek term seems to be atomon, which can also mean and in this
context definitely means a discrete instance of something, an atom.
11
Cf. Ibn al-Fals Challenges and Responses, Challenge 1, Vat. ar. 111, fol. 66r-v.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
pair is of the nature of the single, then God is a single and a pair of one
nature12.
One of the Fathers does not think this way, but rather thinks that God
possesses three individuals on account of the existence of three essential
attributes comprising all by which He is described. These are the wise,
the good, and the powerful 13. These [three] properties are also
referred to14 as the pre-eternal, the living, and the rational, and
there have been coined other appropriate terms. Fatherhood indicates
the pre-eternal; sonship indicates rationality; the Spirit indicates life.
Also, the Father is referred to15 as the intellect (al-aql), the Son as that
which intellects (al-aqil), and the Spirit as that which is intellected (almaqul)16.
CHAPTER FIVE: On the Difference between Qunum (hypostasis) and Substance
Qunum (hypostasis) is a Syriac term which the Syrians apply to a
single, unique thing, like Peter and Paul, and like Zayd and Amr. In the
Greek language, it has four names: qunum is hypostasis, person, property, and individual17. Its description18 is that it is what is one in number,
12
Cf. Ibn al-Fals Challenges and Responses, Challenge 2, Vat. ar. 111, fol. 66v-67r
(the argument there is ascribed to ba ahl al-ilm). For a modern discussion of the necessity of exactly three hypostases in God using similar terms, see V. LOSSKY, In the Image
and Likeness of God, Crestwood, NY, 1985, p. 84-85.
13
On these attributes (in the order goodness, wisdom, power) applied to the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit respectively by Yaya b Adi and other Christian
Arab theologians see HADDAD, La Trinit divine, p. 218ff. Haddad (p. 219, n. 197) traces
this scheme back to a phrase of John of Damascus, who states that the Divinity is perfect
and complete in goodness, in wisdom, and in power (PG, vol. 114, col. 801). The triad
goodness-wisdom-power appears earlier also in Maximus the Confessor, e.g. in his Centuries on Love, Century 1, No. 96; Century 2, No. 27 (English tr. in G.E.H. PALMER Ph.
SHERRARD K. WARE (tr.), The Philokalia, vol. 2, London Boston, 1990, p. 64, 69).
However, neither Maximus nor John of Damascus correlates between this triad and the
three Persons of the Trinity.
14
Here and below, Abdallah ibn al-Fal seems to invert the two complements of the
verb asara (saying bi-haihi l-awa ila instead of *ila haihi l-awa bi-). The
intended meaning is clearly that the same properties are also indicated by other terms.
15
Same phenomenon as above.
16
The idea is Yaya ibn Adis. See his Maqala fi tamil al-naara l-ibna bi-l-aqil
duna l-maqul wa-l-rua bi-l-maqul duna l-aqil (alternative title: Maqala yubatu fiha
waf al-ilah al-waid bi-l-tali wa-tamil al-ab wa-l-ibn wa-l-ru al-quddus bi-l-aql wal-aqil wa-l-maqul), ed. A. PRIER, Petits traits apologetiques de Yaya Ben Adi, Paris,
1920, p. 24-27 (with French translation). See also HADDAD, La Trinit divine, p. 222ff.
17
The underlying Greek terms here are hypostasis, prosopon, idion (or idioma), and
atomon, respectively.
18
In Aristotelian logic, there is a distinction between definition (add) and description
(rasm). Unlike the former, the latter does not designate the essence of the defined term.
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composed of properties which cannot all exactly be gathered together at

any time in something else. It has a number of [other] descriptions too,
but we have set aside mentioning them for the sake of brevity19.
Since we have mentioned qunum, its names, and its description, let
us follow this with the difference between it and substance20. We say that
the difference between these two [concepts] is that individual [i.e.
qunum] is a logical term while substance is a philosophical term21, and
that individual is indivisible while substance is divisible. These two differences should [be enough to] satisfy the soul.
CHAPTER SIX: On that the Hypostases are Different
We have previously stated what the hypostasis is, so let us mention the
differentiation between the properties. We say that the property of the
hypostasis of the Father is fatherhood, the property of the hypostasis of
the Son is sonship, and the property of the hypostasis of the Spirit is
procession. Each of these properties is different from the others, occupies
its [own] place, and is immutable. [However] the [hypostases] agree in
substance, because the substance of the Father is identical to the substance of the Son and identical also to the substance of the Spirit. Likewise, the substance of the Son is identical to the substance of the Spirit.
Let no one think that the differentiation in the properties necessitates a
differentiation in the substance. Indeed, we often characterize the substance by quantity, quality, relation, and other categories each of which
is not identical to the others. [Despite these characterizations, however,]
the substance remains identical. Furthermore, even if we believed that
each of the hypostases is a [separate] substance, it would not necessarily
follow that the meaning of [the term] substance is identical to the
meaning of hypostases or that the meaning of hypostases is identical to the meaning of substance just as, if one says that the human
being is an animal and that he is rational and that he is mortal, it does
not necessarily follow that the meaning of human is identical to the
meaning of animal or that it is identical to the meaning of rational
(the same goes for mortal), since the definition of human is different from the definition of each of these.
See e.g. Sh. ABED, Aristotelian Logic and the Arabic Language in Alfarabi, Albany, NY,
1991, p. 35-57.
19
Cf. Ibn al-Fals Challenges and Responses, Challenge 4, Vat. ar. 111, fol. 67v-68r.
20
Ousia is the underlying Greek term here.
21
In the Book of Benefit, Ch. 34 (MS A, fol. 42b), Abdallah ibn al-Fal argues similarly that qunum is a logical term, while abia is a philosophical term.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
CHAPTER SEVEN: On that Christ Our Lord is Two Natures and One
Hypostasis
Since Christ is perfect God and perfect man, He must be two natures,
because divinity is differentiated [within the genus nature]22 as a
nature which is creative and free from accepting accidents, while humanity [is differentiated as] a nature which is created and accepts accidents.
These are two matters which are contraries of each other with regard to
quality, not with regard to substance. It does not matter if you say two
substances or two natures, because nature and substance23 are one and
the same thing for the holy Fathers.
It is not proper to say that Christ is one nature, made out of two
natures, as the Jacobites claim, otherwise it will follow that change,
which is movement with regard to quality24, has been applied to the substance of divinity, and on top of that, that the creative nature has become
both creative and created and the created nature has become both created
and creative. A thing will, thus, have become an opposite of itself, which
is absurd and impossible. So if someone asks how we conceptualize the
union [of the divine and the human in Christ], we shall respond that the
union occurred in the hypostasis, not in the natures. Otherwise, absurd
consequences follow, as we have mentioned.
Nor is it proper to say that because [Christ] is two natures, He is [also]
two hypostases, as the Nestorians allege, for [if Christ is also two
hypostases], what is it that the union occurred in? In addition, it would
nullify what our great father Gregory the Theologian says in his Oration
on the Nativity: that God became man and man became God25. This is
convincing enough, but one has to know that the [hypostatic] union
occurred with the universal human [nature], not the particular26.
22
Probably the technical Aristotelian meaning of fal as specific differentia is intended
here.
23
In Greek: physis and ousia.

This is the Aristotelian definition of change.
25
This phrase which is also quoted at the end of Chapter 34 of the Book of Benefit
does not occur in the Oration on the Nativity (Or. 38), but is quite common in Gregory
of Nazianzus. On Gregory of Nazianzus doctrine of deification (theosis), which Abdallah ibn al-Fal is here interpreting christologically, see: LOURI, Istorija, p. 75-77;
I. ALFEJEV, Zhizn i uchenie sviatitelia Grigorija Bogoslova [The Life and Teaching of
Saint Gregory the Theologian], Moscow, 32007, p. 445-460.
26
It is the Orthodox Christian teaching, at least from Maximus the Confessor on, that
in Christ, the Word is united to the general (universal) human nature, not the human
nature of a particular individual. The differences of opinion between the various Christian
groups on this matter are admirably summarized by the Muslim polemicist Abu Isa alWarraq at the very beginning of his discussion of the Hypostatic Union (al-ittiad): The
Nestorians and the majority of the Jacobites claim that the Son, the Word, united with a
24
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CHAPTER EIGHT: On that Passion Affects [Christs] Humanity but not

Divinity
[Our] adversary builds his argument in the following way, saying that
Christ is composed of two substances, divine and human, and that neither the divine substance alone nor the human substance alone is Christ.
So if the crucifixion only happened to the human [substance] and not the
divine [substance], then it happened to something other than Christ.
[Thus] it must have occurred to both substances, according to your claim,
O Christians, because you say that it was Christ who was crucified. Now,
if the crucifixion affected both substances, then this kind of accident was
attached to [Christs] divinity.
The response to this [is the following]: When we say that Christ was
crucified, it does not follow from this, even though Christ is composed
from two substances, that this sort of accident affects both substances,
since it is customary for one to say, I saw so-and-so when he only saw
a part of him. Also, a human being is composed of two substances, one
of which is simple and does not decay and the other composite and subject to decay; these are soul and body. When we say, a human being
was killed, the killing did not affect the soul, but only the body. Yet,
we do not say for this reason that something other than a human being
was killed, even though a human being is composed from both these
substances together, not from one of them without the other27. There are
many such cases when the whole is similarly described, because it is
present in one of its parts. Moreover, just as the whole may be described
in terms of its part and be indicated by it (as when Homer says, The
white-armed came, [arms being] only part of Hera, designating the
whole with a quality of one of [her] limbs)28, so also the part may be
described in terms of the whole. This is also attested in Homer, when he
temporal human being (bi-insan muda), being born of Mary, and the Melkites claim that
the Son united with the temporal human being (bi-l-insan al-muda). When they say a
human being the Nestorians and the majority of the Jacobites mean one human being and
one individual, because according to them the Son in fact united with a particular human
being, and not the universal. And when the Melkites say the human being they mean the
substance which is common to all human individuals. This is because, according to them,
the Son in fact united with the universal human, and not a particular (ittaada bi-l-insan
al-kulli, la al-juzi), in order to save everyone, as they claim D. THOMAS (ed. and tr.),
Early Muslim Polemic against Christianity: Abu Isa al-Warraqs Against the Incarnation, Cambridge, 2002, p. 86-87.
27
Theodore Abu Qurra makes the same argument see LAMOREAUX, Theodore Abu
Qurrah, p. 105-106.
28
The white-armed (leukolenos) is a standard Homeric epithet of Hera. Abdallah
ibn al-Fal translates leukolenos idiomatically as al-baya al-sawaid and transliterates
Heras name as ira.
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S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
says, the iron spear when only the spearhead is [made of] iron. Thus,
he has used the whole in place of the part, and this sort of figure of
speech is called synecdoche.
CHAPTER NINE: On that Fatherhood is among the Attributes of the Creator, who is indicated by the Term God, but is not among the [Concomitant] Attributes of being-divine29
Christians do not consider fatherhood as one of the attributes belonging to the Creator in virtue of His being divine, for if it were the case, it
would follow that the Son too is a father since He is divine, and likewise
the Spirit. Rather, [fatherhood belongs to the Creator] insofar as He
begets the Son and is His cause, as the sun begets rays without time and
the intellect begets thought. Even though the expression father takes
precedence over son in the manner of speech, this does not necessitate
that the Father took precedence over the Son in time.
The term God, in [Christian] usage, refers to a number of meanings: (1) to the One who is magnified and worshiped, (2) to the notion
of the substance shared by the three hypostases, (3-5) to each of these
[hypostases], for [Christians] say that the Father is divine and the Son is
divine and the Spirit is divine, and (6) to Christ, who comprises both the
notion of the Son [of God] and the notion of the human.
This expression, I mean the expression divine is derived from the
name God30, and every derived term involves two meanings, one of
which is the concept31 for whose sake the term is coined and the other is
the concept from whose name the term is coined. So the term God
involves two meanings, one of which is the concept which is referred to
by the expression God, namely the essence of the Creator, and the
other is the concept from whose name the term is derived, which is the
[concept of] being-divine.
29
Compare this with Ibn al-Fals quotation from an unnamed Christian theologian
(Yaya ibn Adi?), in Recension B of the Book of Joy of the Believer, Vat. ar. 164,
fol. 221r-v:
.
Cf. also al-Warraq, Against the Trinity, 98ff., in D. THOMAS (ed. and tr.), Anti-Christian
Polemic in Early Islam, Cambridge, 1992, p. 128-131.
30
The underlying Greek terms may be theotes and theos respectively, the former of
which is indeed grammatically derived from the latter. In this context, we translate ilah as
divine" (rather than a god"), to emphasize that in the preceding examples it occurs as
a predicate and never as a subject. The whole passage is, however, rather obscure.
31
Here and below the term at, which literally means essence, is best understood as
concept or notion, and is translated accordingly.
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CHAPTER TEN: On that the Hypostases are not Three Different Substances, even if each of them is a Substance and differs from the others
in Property
[Our] opponent builds his argument in the following way, saying:
You claim, O Christians, that each of the hypostases is a substance in
its own right, and that they are three. So either you must say that they
are three substances, just as you have said that [they are three] hypostases,
in which case you will be pluralizing them [also] in the mention of substance, or else you must avoid saying that [there are] three hypostases
and that each one is [a substance] in its own right."
The response [to this is the following]: If we say that each hypostasis
is a substance and that the hypostases are three and different, it does not
follow that the substance is three [in number] and different, just as, if
someone were to say that the astrologer is Bakr, and that the grammarian
is Bakr, and that the land-surveyor is Bakr, it would not follow that
Bakrs are three. This is sufficient for solving this objection, with Gods
help and good guidance.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: On that it is not the case that if the Hypostases differ
in Properties they should differ in Substance
Property is said in four ways. (1) The first of these is that which
occurs to a species, though not all of it32. (2) The second is that which is
found in an entire species, even if it is not [limited] to this species alone,
though it is not common to all existents. (3) The third is that which is
found in the entire species and only in it, though not always. (4) The
fourth is [that which is] found in the entire species, always, and only in
it. It is according to this fourth category that the properties are realized
in the hypostases. The property of the hypostasis of the Father is fatherhood, the property of the hypostasis of the Son is sonship, and the property of the hypostasis of the Spirit is procession, or, if you prefer [a
different term], emission. The Father, insofar as He is Father, is neither
the Son nor the Spirit, and the Son, insofar as He is Son, is neither the
Father nor the Spirit.
Even though the hypostases differ in property, it does not follow that
they should differ in substance, just as when one says that the meaning
of laughing is different from the meaning of having straight stature
and that the meaning of having straight stature is different from having wide fingernails, it does not follow that the human being referred
32
That is, it does not occur in all individuals of this species.
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416
S. NOBLE A. TREIGER
to by these properties should be different in substance. This is because

human nature is found in each of these attributes and it is one of the two
meanings understood in each of them33. Therefore these [properties]
agree in nature and agree with each other and only contradict [each
other] when they are understood as abstract attributes.
CHAPTER TWELVE: On that the Hypostases are not Properties
We Christians do not say that the hypostases are properties, since properties are constituents of the meanings of the hypostases. Thus we say that
the property of the Father is begetting, and the property of the Son is being
begotten, and the property of the Spirit is procession. If we referred to the
hypostases as though they were properties, then the Father would be [identical to] begetting, the Son to being begotten, and the Spirit to procession,
and this is what no rational person has ever considered possible, on account
of the absurd consequences to which this would lead. As for the statement
of the holy Fathers in some places that the [divine] substance has three
properties, instead of saying [that it has] three hypostases, they meant it as
a loose expression, not in the precise sense. Thats it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: On the Necessity of Gods having Life and Reason34
The Creator is eternally living by life and reasoning by reason, and life
and reason are eternal characteristics of His substance which render it
complete. Since in the second chapter of this expos on the Holy Trinity
we spoke comprehensively proving that God has substantivity, we will
refrain from repeating it here. So we say that since we found that substances are divided in two categories, living [substances] and dead [substances], and that dead [substances] do not have choice or discrimination,
while living [substances] do have those, we have established that [God] is
living. Then we see that some living [substances] are rational and others
are not rational. The rational among them are the angels and the humans,
while those which are not rational are the animals, the birds, and the beasts
of prey. We find [also] that it is the rational [substances] that are characterized by knowledge and wisdom, while those that are not rational are not
characterized by these [qualities]. The rational has therefore priority over
that which is not rational. [So] we have established that [God] is rational.
This is sufficient for this subject, and we are grateful to God.
33
One of the two meanings is the human nature implied by all these properties, and
the other, the specific quality of each property.
34
Cf. Book of Benefit, Chs. 39-40, 42-45.
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417
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: On that the Form [of logical Reasoning] does not
require on Account of the Fact that the Hypostases are the Substance
and the Substance is undifferentiated, while the Hypostases are differentiated that the differentiated be [the same as] undifferentiated
When numerically one and the same thing is characterized by two
[opposite]35 [attributes], it does not follow that either of these [attributes]
is characterized by the other. Evidence for this is that we describe the
line as being divisible and we describe it also as being indivisible, but it
does not follow from this that divisible is the same as indivisible, for the
meaning of the former is different from the meaning of the latter.
If someone said: [How is it] that a thing which is described as differentiated is the same as the one described as undifferentiated, yet the
meaning of differentiated is not described as being the [same as the]
meaning of undifferentiated?, we say that these two statements are not
contradictory, because it can be true36 that one and the same thing be
described by them both. This is because it is not impossible for one thing
to be different in one respect and not different in another respect. Just as
it is not impossible for the line to be divisible insofar as it is one-dimensional and indivisible insofar as it is the edge of the plane, so also it is
not impossible for the hypostases to be different insofar as one of them
is the begetter and another begotten and another proceeds and not different insofar as each of them is a substance. With this let this chapter be
complete, which is the end of the discourse on the Holy Trinity. May
God be praised and thanked. He is sufficient for us and He is the one on
whom we rely.
35
36
To judge from the following examples, this is what is implied.

Possibly the reading yadif, it can happen is preferable.
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CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

In this article we use the following abbreviations:

Le Muson 124 (3-4), 371-417. doi: 10.2143/MUS.124.3.2141858 - Tous droits rservs.

Despite its obvious importance, this fact remains largely unknown to

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

This would appear to indicate that Abdallahs translation work enjoyed

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

Maximus the Confessor, Disputation with Pyrrhus, Chapters on

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

10. Refutation of the Astrologers (Risala yaruddu fiha ala l-munajjimin)

Atmospheric Phenomena (Tairat al-jaww)29

2. Abdallah ibn al-Fals Theology

close relationship between Christian theology and Greek philosophy in

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

theology is un-patristic. To the contrary, it draws on the problematique

another thing in order to subsist40. The third definition, qualified as the

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

The tendency to understand (primary) substance as equivalent to the

nature. Here he is following the Neoplatonic tradition that, contrary to

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

Beirut, Bibliothque Orientale, MS 541, fol. 42v / p. 82.

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reliance on other Arab Christian theologians both in the Discourse and

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

Chapter 8 addresses the issue of passibility in the person of Christ. In it,

Cf. Chapter 14 of the Dialectica of John of Damascus.

Chapter 12 proves that hypostases (aqanim) are not properties

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

Damascus, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, MS 22966 (year 1851), p. 3-22

Of these manuscripts, three are seventeenth century (A, C, and S),

HMLM, III.1, p. 226 gives the call number as MS 1637.

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

CHRISTIAN ARABIC THEOLOGY

ascertain, its readings are superior to those of the rest of manuscripts. We

Abstract The present contribution offers a critical edition (based on eight

EDITION AND TRANSLATION

S, followed by the Introductory Note (cited above), || A C FP

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151 152 153

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D. Irrespec || M || ABS C FP200

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