Yahya ibn Adi
Abū Zakarīyā’ Yaḥyá ibn ʿAdī known as Yahya ibn Adi was a Syriac Jacobite Christian philosopher, theologian and translator working in Arabic.Biography
Yahya ibn Adi was born in Tikrit to a family of Syriac Jacobite Christians in 893.
In Baghdad he studied philosophy and medicine under Abu Bishr Matta ibn Yunus, who had also taught Al-Farabi.
He translated numerous works of Greek philosophy into Arabic, mostly from existing versions in Syriac. These include: Plato's Laws; Aristotle's Sophistical Refutations and Topics ; and Theophrastus' Metaphysics.
He also composed a number of philosophical and theological treatises, the most significant being Tahdhib al-akhlaq and Maqala fi at-tawhid. He taught a number of Christian and Muslim students, including Ibn Miskawayh, Ibn al-Khammar and Ibn Zura. Ibn Zura made Arabic translations of Aristotle and other Greek writers from Syriac.
He died in 974 and is buried in the Syriac church of St Thomas in Baghdad.
