This international workshop brings together scholars from the fields of Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian studies to discuss the reception and translation of Aristotelian works and fragments. Particularly, it focuses on those works that are labelled as being produced by the Greek philosopher, but are rather Pseudo-Aristotelian or spurious. The workshop is organised as part of the ERC project FragArist (Funded by the European Union – Horizon EUROPE ERC-2021-STG Project n. 101041826). Therefore, it springs from the firm belief that Aristotelian fragments are crucial in understanding Aristotelian philosophy and its overarching impact on subsequent philosophical traditions, by shifting the focus from the philosopher’s best-known works to create a new understanding of Aristotle’s ideas. This approach needs to take into account the testimony provided by the West Asian reception of the philosopher’s works, encompassing Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian traditions. Such a broadening in the perspectives of investigation opens up the path for additional lines of enquiry, which are framed within the general aims of this workshop:

1– To identify whether fragments attributed to Aristotle hide any lost Greek work of the philosopher;
2– To reflect on why a work, a fragment, or a collection of sayings is attributed to Aristotle (instead of someone else);
3– To map the presence of Aristotelian fragments or excerpts in Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian literatures;
4– To map whether these fragments were translated on their own, or if they belonged to larger works and were translated alongside the rest of these texts;
5– To track possible differences in translation techniques employed to translate Aristotelian fragments vs. Aristotelian major works;
6– To sketch the role of commentaries as possible sources of pseudoaristotelica;
7– To highlight the reuse or repurposing of Aristotelian concepts within religious controversies and debates;
8– To paint Aristotle’s profile within different academic curricula.