AḤMAD B. AL-ṬAYYIB AL-SARAḪSĪ, RÉVISEUR DE L’ INTRODUCTION ARITHMÉTIQUE DE NICOMAQUE DE GÉRASE ET RÉDACTEUR DES RASĀ ᾿ IL IḪWĀN AL-ṢAFĀ ᾿

Abstract

Before Ṯābit b. Qurra s translation, there was a first Arabic version of Nicomachus’ Introduction to arithmetic . Full of mistakes, it was revised by an anonymous student of al-Kindī. Thanks to the part that Freudenthal and Levy have edited and translated, we are now able to identify this reviser as Aḥmad b. al-Ṭayyib al-Saraḫsī, who we also identified as the author of the Rasā᾿il Iḫwān al-Ṣafā᾿ . The comparison of the gloss written by this reviser with a new fragment of Saraḫsī on one part, and with the “ Epistles of the Brethren in Purity ” on the other, corroborate Saraḫsī’s authorship of the epistles. Furthermore, studying the misunderstandings on Nicomachus’ text in this kindianised version gives a new light on al-Kindī’s attempt to unify philosophy and on the specific ontology of the Brethren in Purity.