AL-KINDĪ’S EPISTLE OF DEFINITIONS: THE RECEPTION OF THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN THE ARABIC LANGUAGE

Abstract

The expansion of the Arabic language to beyond its historical borders followed the Islamic territorial conquest.  The contact with the pockets of Hellenic culture revealed a terminological vacuum in the lexicon of those Bedouins from the Arabic Peninsula, as there was no technical vocabulary to express the notions already consecrated in the languages of the conquered cultures.  This situation was particularly true during the Great Translations period, when the Arabs, as heirs and keepers of the Greco-Roman civilization, render the classic works of Greek knowledge into the Arabic language. Al-Kind÷, the first Arab philosopher, was instrumental in making the philosophical tradition take root in Arabic soil.  His work “Epistle of Al-Kind÷ on the Definitions and Descriptions of Things”, was a landmark where he catalogues, describes and arranges a list of philosophical terms deriving from Greek, giving them a parallel meaning in the Arabic language. The aim of this article is to explore the “Epistle of the Definitions” as one of the first attempts to systematize and standardize the philosophical vocabulary in the Arab world, followed by a translation of some of the terms contemplated in his treatise.