The ethics of Yahya ibn Adi. An ethical debate between Jewish, Muslim and Christian thinkers in Baghdad of the early middle ages? (working title)

Baghdad of the 10^th century – a melting pot of cultures, religions and scientific scholarship, as well as the centre of governance of the Abbasid Caliphate and the Buyid rulers– seem to offer the intellectual platform for some influential philosophers to conceive elementary writings of moral philosophy. The contemporary thought in those days was reflected in a brisk culture of polemics between and within different religious groups. The reception of Hellenistic philosophy among others made up the methodical as well as the topical setting. Thereto pertaining the gnomological collections (moral quotes and anecdotes of the ancients), moral tractates attributed to Galen and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, which where translated from Greek and Syriac into Arabic as early as the 9^th and the beginning of the 10^th century. At least since the dissemination of these writings among the dependants of the Arabic speaking community, one can assume a debate in moral philosophy, which reached far beyond the various circles of scholarship. Read more