The Book of Causes

.

It is highly probable that the author had access to the Elements of Theology original Greek: στοιχείωσις (stoicheiosis); the foundational work by the Neoplatonist Proclus in an Arabic translation. The book itself seems to require this assumption. However, other evidence for the existence of an Arabic translation of the Elements of Theology cannot be produced. The note cited from Katip Çelebi original: Hadschi Chalfa; a famous 17th-century Ottoman scholar and bibliographer is not conclusive. The origin of this note 42. Whether the "Book of Theology," which Arabic bibliographers attribute to Proclus, is indeed the Elements of Theology must remain an open question 45. In any case, one cannot simply infer the existence of an Arabic text of the work itself from this mention of the title 46.

Under the prevailing circumstances, the investigation into the origin of our book must rely on identifying the earliest traces of the book itself. In Arabic literature, it is mentioned only very rarely. The biographical dictionary of Ibn Abi Usaybi'a a 13th-century Arab physician and historian of medicine 48. Ibn Sab'in's an Andalusian Sufi philosopher letter of response to Emperor Frederick II 49.

A more precise answer to the question of the book's origin is not possible for the time being 50. The author was a devout Muslim who may have lived in the ninth century, perhaps beyond the Euphrates 51.

The statements of Albert the Great original: Albert der Grosse; a major 13th-century Scholastic philosopher regarding the origin of our book, which will be discussed more thoroughly at a later opportunity 53. The assumption of Al-Farabi's original: Alfarabi authorship, first attested by Giles of Rome original: Aegidius von Rom 55. Other alleged authors 57.

The Arabic text along with a German paraphrase. p. 58—118.

---

The origin of the Latin translation. p. 121—151.

Neither Dominicus Gundisalvi nor John of Seville original: Johannes Avendehut (Johannes Hispalensis) translated our book into Latin 121. The statements of Albert the Great (On the causes and the process of the universe, Book II, Tract 1, Chapter 1) original Latin: De causis et processu uniuersitatis lib. II. tract. 1. c. 1 regarding the origin of the book 126. The "certain David the Jew" original Latin: Dauid Judaeus quidam, designated by Albert as the author rather than the translator, is an utterly unidentifiable personality whose claim to historical truth appears all the more doubtful since Albert's further statements are partly equally mysterious and partly demonstrably completely incorrect 128.

The translator of our book into Latin is instead Gerard of Cremona. The sources concerning him 135. His life 138. His activity as a translator 139. The Book of Aristotle on the Exposition of Pure Goodness original Latin: liber Aristotelis de expositione bonitatis purae translated by Gerard is our book 140. He translated it in Toledo 142, in the years 1167—1187 142, from the Arabic 145.