Dating the Longer Theology of Aristotle: New Evidence and New Quotations

Abstract This article reexamines the problem of dating the Longer Theology of Aristotle on the basis of newly identified textual evidence. Drawing on the Judeo-Arabic manuscripts preserved in the Second Firkovich Collection of the National Library of Russia, together with medieval Arabic sources, it identifies previously unnoticed quotations from the Longer Theology in al-Tīfāšī’s Surūr al-nafs and demonstrates that the treatise was already in circulation by the 13th century. The article also establishes a terminus post quem by identifying a series of verbatim and near-verbatim parallels between the Longer Theology and Ibn Suwār’s Maqāla fī baqāʾ al-nafs al-nāṭiqa , arguing that the compiler of the pseudepigraph incorporated substantial portions of Ibn Suwār’s treatise into his own work. Finally, the absence of specifically Avicennian terminology and doctrines, together with the intellectual milieu shared by Ibn Suwār, al-Tawḥīdī, and Miskawayh, provides new evidence for dating the work. It is argued that the Longer Theology was most probably compiled within Miskawayh’s circle between the 970s and the 1030s.