Coptica 15, 2016

Alexander among Medieval Copts

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which is centered on a story that one might call “Alexander and the Hermit Prince.” The story is not unknown; Victor Ghica edited the homily in 2001, 8 and the Alexander anecdote can be identified as one present in the Ādāb al- falāsifah (“The Sayings of the Philosophers,” normally but probably mistakenly attributed to Ḥunayn ibn Isḥaq) 9 and in the 11 th -century collection Mukhtār al-ḥikam wa-maḥāsin al-kalim (“The Choicest Maxims and Best Sayings”) of Mubashshir ibn Fātik. 10 Faustina Doufikar-Aerts in her magisterial survey Alexander Magnus Arabicus refers to the anecdote as that of “the old man and the bones,” although there is nothing to indicate that the hermit prince is “old” in the versions mentioned here. 11 The story in Ādāb al-falāsifah or Mukhtār al-ḥikam goes like this: Alexander was passing by a city that had once been ruled by seven kings, but found that they had all died. When he asked if there remained any heirs to the throne, he was informed that there was a single male heir who had gone out to live by himself among the tombs. Alexander met that heir, who explained that he was attempting—but without success—to distinguish between the bones of slaves and the bones of kings. Alexander tried to convince him to take up his throne again as Alexander’s honored vassal. The hermit prince responded that he had a great quest, which he described as: “life without death, youth without old age, wealth without poverty; happiness without unpleasantness; and health without illness.” 12 When Alexander responded that none of that was his to confer, the hermit prince concluded that he then had no reason to change his manner of life. Alexander departed, saying: “I have never seen a person wiser than this.” 13 9 Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, Ādāb al-falasifah, ikhtaṣarahu Muḥmmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī [ Sayings of the Philosophers, abridged by Muḥammad … al-Anṣārī ], ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī (al-Ṣaffāḥ, Kuwayt: Manshūrāt Maʿhad al-makhṭūṭāt al-ʿarabiyyah, 1985), here pp. 90-91. On this publication and the question of authorship, see Mohsen Zakeri, “ Ādāb al-falāsifa : The Persian Content of an Arabic Collection of Aphorisms,” Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 57 (2004): 173-90 (esp. pp. 186-87, where al-Anṣārī is identified as the author/compiler of the work rather than as the abridger of one by Ḥunayn). 10 Ed. ʿAbdurraḥmān Badawi, Los bocados de oro (Mujtār al-ḥikam) (Madrid: Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos, 1958), 243–44. The English translation of the title is that of Zakeri, “ Ādāb al-falāsifa ,” 175. 11 Doufikar-Aerts, Alexander Magnus Arabicus , see index, p. 411, under “Old man and the bones.” Doufikar-Aerts finds a version in which an old man has lived among the tombs for fifty years in ʿUmāra’s Qiṣṣat al-Iskandar , which she dates to the late 8 th or early 9 th century; Alexander Magnus Arabicus , p. 42 (for the anecdote) and pp. 35-36 (on ʿUmāra and his Qiṣṣat al-Iskandar ). 12 Ḥayāt lā mawta maʿahā, wa-shabāb lā harama baʿdahu, wa-ghinan lā faqra maʿahu, wa-surūr bi-ghayri makrūh, wa-ṣiḥḥah min ghayri suqm ; Ādāb al-falāsifah (ed. Badawī), 91, lines 1-2; Mukhtār al-ḥikam (ed. Badawī), 244, lines 1-2. 13 Mā raʾaytu aḥkam min hādhā ; Ādāb al-falāsifah (ed. Badawī), 91, line 3; Mukhtār al- ḥikam (ed. Badawī), 244, lines 3-4. 8 Victor Ghica, “Sermon arabe pour le troisième dimanche du Carême, attribué à Chenouté (ms. Par. ar. 4761),” Annales Islamologiques 35 (2001): 143-58.