Philoponus, or “Yaḥyā al-naḥwī”. An Overview

Thanks to the translation of his anti-eternalist works, in the Arabic-speaking world Philoponus was known as a Christian who championed the createdness of the cosmos. Also some of his commentaries on Aristotle were translated. Contemporary scholarship on Philoponus discusses the different and at times opposed attitudes that coexist in his huge literary output: indeed, he is both a commentator of Aristotle in a Neoplatonic vein and a harsh critic of the eternity and divinity of the heavens – in itself a pivot of Aristotelian-Neoplatonic cosmology. A prominent feature of the ‘Arabic Philoponus’ is that the anti-eternalist stance, far from being the expression of his genuine position, appears as a device to make an agreement with the ruling Christian faith. This article surveys the current state of research on Philoponus, on his life and works in the Arabic sources, on the works translated, and on their influence on Muslim thought.