Abstract

This article examines Pseudo-Aristotle’s Risālat al-Tuffāḥa or Kitāb al-Tuffāḥa (Lat. Liber de Pomo, Eng. The Book of the Apple) in terms of its history, possible authorship, and manuscripts, presents an overview of its contents and includes a critical edition of its complete Arabic version, which has never been critically edited before. The edition is based on the manuscript closest to the original Arabic version of the treatise, and a comparison with a second complete manuscript was made. The present article argues that Risālat al-Tuffāḥa was first compiled in Arabic within al-Kindī’s circle, then appropriated by Bāṭinī-Ismāʿīlī and Hermetic traditions, and circulated in the literature of gnomologia and the books of ṭabaqāt. However, it was not an acceptable treatise according to Mashshāʾī philosophers due to their emphasis on scientificity and awareness of its pseudepigraphy. Moreover, the Hebrew-Latin tradition’s interest in the treatise is notable, as it was part of their broader effort to appropriate all of Aristotle’s works, thereby facilitating the acceptance of philosophy in Jewish and Christian societies. Consequently, Pseudo-Aristotle’s Risālat al-Tuffāḥa is a religious-philosophical work that facilitated the reconciliation of philosophy and religion and was circulated in the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian worlds for this very reason.