Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib[1][a] (died 1043), known by the nisba al-ʿIrāqī[1][b] and in medieval Latin as Abulpharagius Abdalla Benattibus,[3][c] was a prolific writer, priest and polymath of the Church of the East.
His biblical exegesis remains the most influential written in Arabic and he was an important commentator on Galen and Aristotle.
[8] According to Bar Hebraeus, he died in the month of first Tishrīn in the year 1355 of the Seleucid era, which corresponds to October 1043.
[10] Ibn al-Ṭayyib's exegesis belongs to the traditions of the school of Antioch, emphasising literal, moral and historical interpretation.
When he relies on Greek fathers like Theodore of Mopsuestia and John Chrysostom, he appears to be drawing from other compilations.
His theological magnum opus was Maqāla fī l-usūl al-dīniyya (Treatise on Religious Principles).
Al-Muʾtaman ibn al-ʿAssāl records that he wrote a fourteen-chapter systematic theology (possibly the Maqāla) and a treatise on christology, the Kitāb al-ittiḥād.
He also wrote a defence of theological rationalism in Qawl fī l-ʿilm wa-l-muʿjiza (Treatise on Science and Miracle).
Topics include betrothals, marriages, guardianship, taxes, debts, deeds and inheritance.
The importance of these topics lay in the fact that the Christian dhimma was permitted to judge these matters among themselves, but errors could lead to lawsuits taken to Islamic courts.
[1] In philosophy, Ibn al-Ṭayyib was an Aristotelian, albeit influenced heavily by the Neoplatonists Porphyry, Ammonius Hermiae, Olympiodorus the Younger, Simplicius of Cilicia, John Philoponus and Elias.
He is more systematic than his models, endeavouring to build an Aristotelian system exclusively from the texts of Aristotle.
Ibn al-Ṭayyib's commentary on the History of Animals survives only in a Hebrew translation, which was popular among the Jews of medieval Spain.
[7] He also wrote some ethical treatises,[7] including a commentary on the Arabic translation of the Tabula Cebetis of Ibn Miskawayh.
[1] He wrote commentaries called thimār on the sixteen collected volumes of Galen known as the Summaria Alexandrinorum, which formed the basis of the curriculum in the medical school of Alexandria.
[9][7] Risāla fī l-Quwā al-ṭabīʿīya, his commentary on Galen's On the Natural Forces, prompted a rebuttal by Ibn Sinā and the two works were often copied together.