Anna Akasoy

Pletho's Nomoi - A Case of Polytheism in the Latebizantinian Era and its Reception in the Islamic World

Ein Beitrag zum Polytheismus in spätbyzantinischer Zeit und seiner Rezeptionìn der islamischen Welt

Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism

PDF download:

PDF icon 2002_15.pdf

During his stay in Italy as a member of the Greek delegation at the Council of Union in Ferrara/Florence in 1438/9 George Gemistos Pletho criticized the intellectuals of the Latin West heavily for their overestimation of Aristotle and their disregard of Plato. Meanwhile he blamed the Arabic commentators of the Aristotelian corpus Avicenna and Averroes for this misinterpretation, Islam is used as a positive example in Plethos historical writings. On the other hand Pletho s works were received in the Islamic world as well through the Arabic translation of his Nomoi done at the court of Mehmet II. This article offers a short overview of the different aspects of the relation between Pletho and Islam and the transliteration and translation of the Arabic translation of his Compendium Zoroastreorum.