Averroes' Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Rhetoric: An Arabic-English Translation

FAIN: FB-57946-15

Lahcen Ezzaher
University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, CO 80639-6900)

This project aims to make available to English-speaking scholars and students of rhetoric an Arabic-English translation of the Middle Commentary of Averroes on Aristotle's treatise on rhetoric. Averroes (1126-1198) is considered in the Arabic-Islamic philosophical tradition as well as in the Western philosophical tradition as the "Commentator" on the logical works of Aristotle. The English translation of this important commentary will significantly contribute to the history and theory of rhetoric, a discipline that has shaped the Western rhetorical tradition for over twenty-five hundred years. Once this project is completed, I plan to submit it to a university press to be considered for publication.

Media Coverage

Sheikh Hamad Award a global platform for peace: Winners (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Sanaullah Ataullah
Publication: The Peninsula Qatar
Date: 12/17/2024
Abstract: The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding consists of $2m prize in different categories. Lahcen Ezzaher won the second position in the category of translation from Arabic into English for translation of the book Talkhees Al Khatabah by Ibn Rushd.
URL: https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/17/12/2023/sheikh-hamad-award-a-global-platform-for-peace-winners

Associated Products

Averroes' middle commentary on Aristotle's Rhetoric : Arabic-English translation, with notes and introduction (Book)
Title: Averroes' middle commentary on Aristotle's Rhetoric : Arabic-English translation, with notes and introduction
Author: Averroës
Abstract: The first English-language translation of a crucial medieval Arabic commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric, with context on its contribution to intellectual history. Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (d. 1198 AD), known as Averroes in the West, wrote one of the most significant medieval Arabic commentaries on Aristotle’s famous treatise, Rhetoric. Averroes worked within a tradition that included the Muslim philosophers Al-Farabi (d. 950) and Avicenna (d. 1037), who together built an early canon introducing Aristotle’s writings to the academies of medieval Europe. Here, for the first time, Lahcen El Yazghi Ezzaher translates Averroes’ Middle Commentary into English, with analysis highlighting its shaping of philosophical thought. Ibn Rushd was born into a prominent family living in Córdoba and Seville during the reign of the Almoḥad dynasty in the Maghreb and al-Andalus. At court, he received support to write a body of rhetorical commentaries extending the work of his Arabic-Muslim predecessors, a critical step in fostering Aristotle’s influence on European scholasticism and Western education. Ezzaher’s meticulous translation of Averroes’ Middle Commentary reflects the depth and breadth of this engagement, incorporating a discussion of the Arabic-Muslim commentary tradition and Averroes’ contribution to it. His research illuminates the complexity of Averroes’ position, articulating the challenges Muslim scholars faced in making non-Muslim texts available to their community. Through his work, we see how people at different historical moments have adapted intellectual concepts to preserve rhetoric’s vitality and relevance in new contexts. Averroes’ Middle Commentary exemplifies the close connections between ancient Greece and medieval Muslim scholarship and the ways Muslim scholars navigated an appreciation for Aristotelian philosophy alongside a commitment to their cultural and religious systems.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://search.worldcat.org/title/1333079776
Primary URL Description: worldcat.org
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
Type: Translation
ISBN: 9780809338931
Translator: Lahcen E. Ezzaher
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Prizes

Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding
Date: 12/12/2023
Organization: Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding
Abstract: Translation from Arabic to English - Second place

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