Maronite, Melkite, or Jacobite? Investigating the Confessional Affiliation of ‘Abd al-MasIh ibn Na ima al-HimsI, the Arab Christian Translator of Plotinus

Abstract

Ibn Nā'ima al-Ḥimsī. Three scenarios are examined: that he was a Maronite, a Melkite, or a Jacobite. Given that we have, unfortunately, no primary sources that contextualize al-TRmsi within his Christian environment, any answer to this question must remain tentative. Nonetheless, it appears likely that al-Ḥimsī was a Chalcedonian (either a Maronite/monothelete or a Melldte/dyothelete) and not a Jacobite, and that he had some connection to Syrian or Palestinian Origenism. It is as part of this probable Origenist background that he became exposed to Greek Neoplatonism and gained access to a Greek manuscript of Plotinus. If he was a Melkite, it seems likely that he received his philosophical and theological education and was trained as a translator in one of the monasteries of Palestine - such as the monastery of Mar Saba, which was a cutting-edge multilingual translation centre at the time, or the monastery of Mar Khariton. If he was a Maronite, he must have had ties to the likely Origenist milieu of the monastery of Mar Maron in western Syria.