An international research activity at the Central Library and Documentation Center of University of Tehran

A short interview with Dr. Cüneyd YILDIRIM

Please introduce yourself and explain about your research activity at UT?

I was a guest at University of Tehran from the 4^th to the 8^th of May in the context of my research project at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. The project under the supervision of the renowned Orientalist Prof. Georges Tamer is about an Arabic text attributed to the Greek Sage Plato (Aflāṭun) under the title Kitāb an-Nawāmīs. This text was very influential in the history of Islamic Philosophy. The great Ibn Sīnā knew it and referred to it in his treatise Fī Aqsām al-ʿUlūm al-ʿAqliyya. Furthermore, it is likely that it was a teaching material and a subject of debates in the circles of Mulla Ṣadrā and his school of Philosophy. It was written before 950 AC and it might be therefore emerged in the context of the Translation Movement from the 8^th to the 10^th century in which loads of Greek texts were translated into Arabic although there is probably no Greek original of the Kitāb an-Nawāmīs. It is more likely that it is a Muslim production.

A list of all the manuscripts of the Kitāb an-Nawāmīs can be found in the Catalogue of Iranian Manuscripts Fehrestegān (Fanḫā), Vol. 33, pp. 775-776. The goal of the project is to produce a critical edition, a German translation and a commentary of the text.

How do you like University of Tehran?

I am very thankful for the generous help and service that I experienced at the beautiful University of Tehran.