ABSTRACT
West Syrian (Jacobite) scholar, theologian, and apologist. Yahyā ibn 'Adi was from Takrit on the Tigris River (in Iraq) but lived much of his life in Baghdad, where he achieved fame as a logician, philosopher, and translator. He is discussed in most of the major medieval handbooks of Arabic literature as a key figure for the transmission of Greek ideas into Arabic via Syriac, and as a major contributor to the development of Arabic culture. He drew heavily upon the Alexandrian philosophical tradition of John Philoponus and Aristotle. Yahya s translations into Arabic were based on careful editions of the Greek and Syriac texts, and thus he is credited with revolutionizing the process of textual transmission. The writings of Yahya ibn 'Adi, concerned with Christian theology, internal Christian disputes, and interreligious apologetics, are numerous. He attacked Nestorians, Melkites, and other sects. He wrote apologies for Christian ideas in light of Islamic concerns.
