9: Elia di Nisibi, Il libro per scacciare la preoccupazione (1)
9. Elia di Nisibi, «Kitāb Daf‘ al-Hamm». Il libro per scacciare la preoccupazione, 1° tomo, edizione critica a cura di Samir Khalil Samir, traduzione, note ed indici a cura di Anna Pagnini. Introduzione a cura di Paolo La Spisa, Davide Righi. 480p. €48,00.
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In Mesopotamia during the eleventh century a Muslim visir asked a Nestorian bishop to compose a book of spiritual instructions which would enable him to drive away the anguish of his soul. This guidebook, widely disseminated in the Medieval period and until now inaccessible to the non-Arabist, orginated from this simple request. The book, “On Driving Away Anguish from the Soul”, is a text of wisdom literature. Organized like a “virtue list” along with the corresponding vices, it is a cultured work but a surprisingly accessible one. It draws from the wisdom of the Greek philosophers, Persian emperors, Christian monks of the East, as well as from Muslim sages and Bedouin folk wisdom. This text is a precious testimony of the Medieval Arabic cultural environment both in the variety of its roots and the homogeneity of its language.
