I have recently read a late 9th c. Arabic translation of Aristotle’s De Interpretatione comparing it with the original Greek and was astounded at seeing how accurate it was apart from a few technical terms that have been taken literally in their Byzantine Greek meaning. So how could they achieve this with no LS Smyth or Kuhner to help? The translator, by the way was an ethnic Arab though fluent in the Greek of his time since he was a nestorian Christian. So could it be inferred based on this that the late 9 c. Greek was much closer to classical Greek as is usually supposed?
So could it be inferred based on this that the late 9 c. Greek was much closer to classical Greek [than] is usually supposed?
Constantinus - I would guess no, but that’s purely a guess, and not an educated one. If you can read the Arabic, maybe you can teach me/us something (what is your nationality, if you don’t mind my asking?). Here is part of the W1kipedia article on Ḥunayn ibn Isḥaq just to get the conversation started.
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥaq was the most productive translator of Greek medical and scientific treatises in his day. He studied Greek and became known among the Arabs as the “Sheikh of the translators”. He is the father of Arab translations. He mastered four languages: Arabic, Syriac, Greek and Persian. His translations did not require corrections; Hunayn’s method was widely followed by later translators. He was originally from al-Hira, the capital of a pre-Islamic cultured Arab kingdom, but he spent his working life in Baghdad, the center of the great ninth-century Greek-into-Arabic/Syriac translation movement. His fame went far beyond his own community.
Is it a PDF? If so, can you share it here? Or if you can recommend any good print editions of Arabic translations of Aristotle I’d like that even more 