Sergius of Reshaina and the Beginning of Syriac Philosophy

The modern European culture stands on the shoulders of the great predecessors of the past and ultimately goes back to the Classical Greek tradition. For if we try to define the foundations of modern philosophy, it would be Aristotle and Plato. If we try to describe the roots of modern medicine, it would be Hippocrates and Galen. The same stands for modern science, where Euclid and Ptolemy still maintain an honorable position. But how did the Greek science, medicine, and philosophy come to Europe, which during the Middle Ages has largely lost its connection to the Ancient Greek culture? That were translations from Arabic into Latin made in the 11th12th century Spain which brought Aristotle and Galen to the West. The Arabic translations, in turn, had been made during the 8th10th centuries to a great extent from Syriac translations of Greek texts. Thus, we have a chain of transmission, which involved different languages, religions, and historical periods and which started with Syrian Christians, who became the first to study, adopt and translate the Greek science, philosophy, and medicine, and thus to transmit it to later scholars. The present project focuses on the key-figure in the history of Syriac reception and transmission of Greek philosophy, Sergius of Reshaina (died in 536). He studied in Alexandria under Ammonius Hermeiou who made a great impact on the whole philosophical tradition of the sixth century. Later, Sergius moved to Syria, where he became a physician and where he started to translate Greek works into Syriac. The corpus of Sergius writings includes translations of the medical works of Hippocrates and Galen, logical treatises of Aristotle, ancient Greek works in astronomy and physics. Sergius composed a number of original scholarly and philosophical treatises, too, which influenced many generations of Syriac and Arabic scholars. Sergius belongs to the period of the Christianization of Greek philosophy and his writings serve as major witnesses to this process of the transition of philosophy from traditional late ancient schools to Christian educational institutions. The figure of Sergius turns out to be a connecting point between the ancient Greek philosophical tradition and the Oriental reception of the Greek science and philosophy in Syriac Christianity and later in the Arab world. The project aims at a systematic analysis of Sergius literary heritage. Its goals are, first, to define Sergius place in the reception of Alexandrian philosophical literature, and secondly, to assess his role in creating Syriac philosophical and scholarly terminology.

The project focused on Sergius of Reshaina (d. 536), a pivotal figure in Syriac philosophical tradition, delivering the first systematic analysis of his literary heritage and fundamentally revising our understanding of his role in shaping Syriac philosophical education from the 6th through 9th centuries. The project produced three major scholarly contributions. First, a critical edition of Sergius' monumental commentary on Aristotle's Categories-published open-access by De Gruyter in 2024-presents the complete Syriac text based on all extant manuscripts, with parallel English translation, introduction, and commentary. Second, a forthcoming volume, "Divisions and Definitions: Syriac School Manuals on Aristotle's Logic" (2026), will present seven schooltexts previously attributed to or associated with Sergius. My analysis demonstrates that while Sergius likely did not author these works, they depend directly on his Categories commentary, revealing its profound influence on Syriac pedagogy. Together, these editions provide historians access to new sources, illuminating how Christian schools in late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages received and transmitted Aristotle's logic. The third contribution, the SergiusNet database (https://sergius.sbg.ac.at/), offers full searchable texts of Sergius' Categories commentary and the treatise "Divisions of Porphyry", alongside a beta glossary of Syriac philosophical terminology drawn from approximately 70 texts (including all Sergius' treatises). This glossary, which will be fully integrated into the Simtho database (https://simtho.bethmardutho.org/), establishes essential infrastructure for future research. These materials reveal how the Alexandrian educational model, transmitted through Sergius, dominated the formative period of Syriac philosophy. For the first time, we can trace Sergius' extensive influence on both Syriac and Arabic philosophical traditions and on the transmission of classical Greek philosophy in medieval Christian schools. Beyond its immediate findings, the project established the new series "Philosophy and Sciences in the Christian Orient" with De Gruyter Brill (https://www.degruyterbrill.com/serial/psco-b/), creating a permanent venue for scholarship in this field. Thus, the project has closed a major gap in the history of philosophy while opening new avenues for future research.