The Textual tradition of the Arabic Plotinus. The Theology of Aristotle, its ru’us al-masa’il, and the Greek model of the Arabic Version

he critical edition of the Enneads counts as one of the milestones of contemporary philology, in itself and also in relation to the field of Arabic studies. The Arabic version (IXth Century) has been extensively taken into account in the edition of Plotinus' writings, in the form of an English translation facing the Greek text. Hence, a study of the textual relation between the Arabic Plotinus and its Greek source might seem supernumerary. However, the information provided by the Arabic version about the Greek manuscript that served as its model has not yet been appreciated in full. This paper aims at presenting some facts that can shed light on this Greek manuscript, obviously lost to us. Most facts about the Greek tradition of the Enneads revealed by the Arabic version are already known, even though their importance has not yet been acknowledged in scholarship. First and foremost, this is the case with the independence of the Greek model of the Arabic version from the archetype of the direct tradition. A second important fact that deserves attention is the presence in the Arabic version of a list of arguments, the so-called "Headings of questions" (ru'us al-masa'il). The first part of this paper is devoted to the independence of the textual tradition the Arabic translation stems from. Then, a tentative interpretation of the nature and origin of the "Headings of questions" is advanced: they are the partial translation of the full list (i.e. the kephalaia plus epicheiremata) of the complements added by Porphyry to his edition of Plotinus' writings. The identification of the Arabic "Headings" with the Porphyrian kephalaia, now lost, has already been advanced in scholarship; in this article, it is argued on the basis of a detailed analysis of the first five "Headings".