Ventriloquizing Islamic Neoplatonism through Presocratic Thinkers: the Use of Ancient Greek Authorities in the Arabic Plotinus and Pseudo-Ammonius

Abstract This article discusses how Plotinus’ use of the Presocratics in Enneads IV 8[6] has been creatively reworked in its Arabic translation-cum-adaptation known as the Plotiniana Arabica . While Plotinus interprets the archaic views of Heraclitus, Empedocles and Pythagoras through the prism of Platonic eschatology, the Arabic paraphrase boldly remolds the Greek source text in conformity with the teachings of the Qurʾān. Accordingly, the “Presocratic” eschatology of the Arabic Plotinus is further juxtaposed here with the related doxography of Pseudo-Ammonius, which likewise projects Islamized Neoplatonic teachings onto various Presocratic thinkers. The ingenious changes introduced into the Plotiniana Arabica and the artful fabrications of Pseudo-Ammonius not only reveal the original philosophy underlying these treatises, but also reflect their common ideological objectives.