The oldest Arabic translation of any Greek text is an eighth-century paraphrase of the first half of Aristotle’s Organon, known as the Manteq. This text has been ascribed to Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ, the Persian administrator, author, and translator. Although the source text of the Manteq has not survived, the ascription to Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ—who knew neither Greek nor Syriac—implies that it was written in Middle Persian. Modern scholars have often called the ascription to Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ into question. This article reassesses that debate and demonstrates that it has been motivated by scholarly skepticism towards the late antique Persian intellectual tradition as a conduit of Aristotelianism. Furthermore, this article argues that none of the available circumstantial evidence contradicts an Aristotelian tradition in Persian, but rather supports it.

任何希腊文字中最古老的阿拉伯语翻译是八世纪亚里士多德《Organon》上半部的释义，即Manteq。本书的文字归属于波斯语的管理员，作家和翻译埃本·莫卡法（Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ）。尽管Manteq的原始文本还没有幸存下来，埃本·莫卡法（Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ）的名字-他既不懂希腊语又不懂叙利亚语-暗示它是用中波斯语写的。现代学者经常对埃本·莫卡法（Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ）的归属提出质疑。本文重新评估了这场辩论，并表明它是受到学术怀疑论者的推动，并将其视为晚期的波斯知识分子传统，以此作为亚里士多德主义的传播渠道。此外，本文认为，现有的环境证据均未与波斯的亚里士多德传统相抵触，而是对其予以支持。