Dimitrie Cantemir, Salvation of the Sage and Ruin of the Sinful World

This is a thoroughly revised and expanded version of the first edition of the Arabic version of Dimitrie Cantemir’s The Divan or the Sage’s Dispute with the World (Ṣalāḥ al-ḥakīm wa-fasād al-ʿālam al-ḏamīm) (Iaşi, 1698), his first printed book, the earliest ethical treatise in Romanian literature and a testimony to his wide knowledge, reading, and proficiency in foreign languages. Completed in 1705 by Athanasius III Dabbās, Patriarch of the Antiochian Church (1684-1694, 1720-1724), the Arabic text is accompanied by the first translation into a modern language, English. Book III contains Cantemir’s version of the Latin work Stimuli virtutum, fraena peccatorum (Amsterdam, 1682) by the Unitarian Andzrej Wiszowaty (Andreas Wissovatius) of Raków (Poland), a chief representative of the Polish Brethren. Thus, in the space of twenty-three years Central-European Protestant ideas reached the Arab Christians of Ottoman Syria, by way of Greek and Arabic.

Ioana Feodorov, Ph. D. (1998), Institute for South-East European Studies, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, is a researcher of Christian Arabic literature connecting the Patriarchate of Antioch with Romanian lands, author of contributions on Arabic travelogues, Arabic manuscripts, Cantemir studies etc.
Yulia Petrova, Ph. D. (2007), A. Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Senior Lecturer at Kiev National Linguistic University, author of contributions on Arabic dialectology, sociolinguistics, lexicology, and textual criticism of Arabic Christian manuscripts.
Virgil Cândea, Ph. D. (1970), Professor of Religious Art and Theology of the Icon at the University of Bucharest, Vice-President of the Romanian Academy, a scholar of Dimitrie Cantemir’s life and works, a specialist in Romanian and East-European medieval studies, church art and early printing. Died in 2007.