Ibn al-Muqaffa.'s Isagoge: An Edition of the Arabic Text with an English Translation

This article treats one of the first philosophical texts translated into Arabic, Porphyry's (d. 305 CE) Isagoge, which was translated by Ibn al-Muqaffa. (d. ca. 139/756). The Isagoge is part of a collection referred to in the Syriac tradition as "the four books,"also including three Aristotelian treatises on logic, Categories, On Interpretation, and Prior Analytics. This collection of texts was translated into Arabic before translating became an established profession in the Abbasid caliphate, causing difficulties to read and understand it properly. The texts were published by Danishpazhuh in 1978, leaving numerous errors and inaccuracies in the edition. After an introduction to the context and the content of the text, a new edition of the Isagoge is presented here alongside an English translation, followed by a comparison of technical terms used by Ibn al-Muqaffa. with those used by al-Dimashqi dating from the early fourth/tenth century.