Arabic Περὶ Ἀλυπίας: Did al-Kindî and Râzî Read Galen?

Abstract : Arabic literature counts up several texts dealing with dispelling sorrow or avoiding grief. Before the discovery of Galen’s Peri Alupias, some of the editors or commentators of such Arabic treatises used to hypothesize that Galen’s treatise could be an influential model. This paper aims to offer a reappraisal of the question, focusing on two Arabic texts: On dispelling Sorrow of Al-Kindî and chapter 12 of Râzî’s Spiritual Medicine. Can we trace hints of Galen’s Peri alupias in their respective texts? The study investigates firstly the formal filiations we can draw between Galen and both Arabic authors and secondly it emphasizes the inheritance or the rejection of the Galenic technê alupias by al-Kindî and Râzî.