ABSTRACT
Until recently Arabic material on Theophrastus has been neglected by classical scholars. In 1940 Otto Regenbogen in his article on Theophrastos could mention only the Arabic fragments of Theophrastus’ Meteorology. Theophrastus was known to the Arabs as a man of many accomplishments: a theoretician of music, a doxographer of Greek musical teachings, an author of gnomological sayings, and an authority in metaphysics, psychology, meteorology, botany, physics, and logic. The municipal library in the Turkish town Manisa owns an interesting Arabic manuscript with a treatise on ancient teachings concerning the influence of music. In the Arabic text Theophrastus appears to be a connecting link between the late philosophy of Aristotle and Stoic philosophy: he is combining the doctrine of the transcendent mover with the doctrine of the immanent cause. According to the Arabic tradition, Ibn Bakkus translated Theophrastus’ treatise on sensation.
