Anonymous (Kalam fi mahd al-khair) prop bardenhewer 2 · pattin prop 2 · bardenhewer page 61-63
كلّ انّيّة بحقّ امّا تكون اعلا من الدهر وقبله وامّا مع الدهر وامّا بعد الدهر وفوق الزمان وامّا الانّيّة التى قبل الدهر فهى العلّة الاولى لانّها علّة له وامّا الانّيّة التى مع الدهر فهى العقل لانّه الانّيّة الثانية وامّا الانّيّة التى بعد الدهر وفوق الزمان فهى النفس لانّها فى افق الدهر سفلا وفوق الزمان والدليل على انّ العلّة الاولى قبل الدهر بعينه فذلك انّ الانّيّة فيه مستفادة ونقول انّ كلّ دهر انّيّة وليس كلّ انّيّة دهرا فالانّيّة اكثر سَعَةً من الدهر والعلّة الاولى فوق الدهر لانّ الدهر معلول منها والعقل يجارى الدهر لانّه ممتدّ معه ولا يتغيّر ولا يستحيل والنفس لاصقة مع الدهر سفلا لانّها اسفل تأثيرا من العقل ومن فوق الزمان لانّها علّة الزمان
Every true being is either above eternity and before it, or with eternity, or after eternity and above time. As for the being which is before eternity, it is the first cause, because it is the cause of it. As for the being which is with eternity, it is intellect, because it is the second being. And as for the being which is after eternity and above time, it is soul, because it is in the horizon of eternity, below, and above time. The proof that the first cause is before eternity itself is that being in eternity is acquired. And we say that every eternity is being, but not every being is eternity; so being is wider in extent than eternity. And the first cause is above eternity, because eternity is caused by it. And intellect runs level with eternity, because it is extended along with it and does not change and does not alter. And soul is attached to eternity, below, because it is lower in effect than intellect, and it is above time, because it is the cause of time.
Apparatus
- [p.61] 1 لكنّها für لانها | 2 عن fehlt | 5-6 die Worte على ذلك الشىء من قوّتها فتلزمه fehlen | 11 تحقّ: die Punkte des tê sind jedoch von späterer Hand
- [p.62] 1 امّا für das zweite وامّا | 2 الانّيّة fehlt | 3 für das erste الانّيّة ursprünglich انيته, von späterer Hand corrigirt in الانّيّة (?) | die Worte وامّا الانّيّة fehlen im Texte; eine spätere Hand hat am Rande ergänzt وامّا الانّيّة
- [p.63] 1 والعلل | تجارى, die diakritischen Punkte sind jedoch von späterer Hand | لانّها ممتدّة ist von späterer Hand geändert in لانّه ممتدّ (wohl mit Rücksicht auf والعلل) | 2 für لانّها ursprünglich لانه, von späterer Hand corrigirt | اسفل ist zum Theil erst von späterer Hand, während das Ursprüngliche nicht mehr erkennbar ist | 6 الالاهىّ für الاهى | 8 فلانها für فانّها
Plate-verified: transcribed line by line from the page images of Bardenhewer 1882 (leaves n83-n104 of archive.org diepseudoaristo00bardgoog).
- Edition
- Bardenhewer, Freiburg, 1882 — Arabic text with Latin and German translation
- Scan
- archive.org
- OCR status
- proofed
- Translator
- Wroot Press draft
- Attribution
- Stated: Aristotle (in the wider doxographic tradition that also produced the Theology of Aristotle). Critical: Anonymous compiler, excerpting and paraphrasing Proclus's Elements of Theology. Bardenhewer's edition itself untangles the Kalam from any Aristotelian ascription, but the work circulated in the same Arabic doxographic environment as the (pseudo-)Aristotelian Theology and was read there as part of the Aristotelian corpus before Bardenhewer traced its propositions to Proclus.