THE GREEK LIBRARY OF THE MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHERS Steven Harvey The subject of the Greek philosophic and scientic library of the medieval Jewish philosophers might seem, at rst thought, to the scholar today not particularly interesting. To be sure, one must distinguish between the pre-Maimonidean period of Jewish philosophy when Jews studied philosophy in Arabic and the post-Maimonidean period when Jews studied philosophy in Hebrew and relatively few could read Arabic. But once this distinction is made, the situation seems pretty clear. For the pre-Maimonidean period – that is, for the ninth through the twelfth centuries – whether in the East in Iraq or the West in al- Andalus, the Greek library of the Jewish philosophers was essentially the same as that of the Muslims. Whatever texts the Muslims had were for the most part available to the Jewish thinkers as well. They both spoke the same language, and it is thus not at all surprising that philosophy emerged in medieval Judaism at the same moment in which it emerged in medieval Islam. 1 As for the post-Maimonidean period, that is, for the twelfth through the fteenth centuries, when philosophic activity was for the most part carried out in Hebrew, one need simply consult Steinschneider’s monumental Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters to know what was available in Hebrew translation and what not. 2 Indeed the current project to update and translate Steinschneider will only make it easier to check the availability of Greek philosophic and scientic texts in Hebrew translation in the Middle Ages. 3 1 See S. Harvey, « Islamic Philosophy and Jewish Philosophy », in P. Adamson – R. Taylor (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge 2005, esp. p. 349–54. 2 See M. Steinschneider, Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher, Kommissionverlag des Bibliographisches Bureaus, Berlin 1893 (repr. Akademische Druck- u. Verl.- Anst., Graz 1956); see also now, M. Zonta, La losoa antica nel Medioevo ebraico, Paideia, Brescia 1996. 3 On this project, see C. H. Manekin, « Steinschneider’s Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters, from reference work to digitalized database », Jewish Studies Quarterly 7 (2000), p. 141–59.