Gutas studied classical philology, religion, history, Arabic and Islamic studies at Yale University, where he received his doctorate in 1974. His main research interests are the classical Arabic and the intellectual tradition of the Middle Ages in the Islamic culture, especially Avicenna, and the Graeco-Arabica, which is the reception and the tradition of Greek works on medicine, science and philosophy in the Arab-Islamic world. In this field he is considered one of the leading experts. He is a co-editor in Yale's Project Theophrastus. He worked with Professor Gerhard Endress of Ruhr University Bochum in Germany to create the Greek and Arabic Lexicon. Gutas is a member of the advisory board of numerous journals, including the leading journal Arabic Sciences and Philosophy and co-editor and contributors to the revision of the Ueberweg, a comprehensive history of philosophy. In 2011 the book Islamic philosophy, science, culture, and religion : studies in honor of Dimitri Gutas was published by Brill Publishers with articles by friends, colleagues and students.
Publications
Monographs
Greek Wisdom Literature in Arabic Translation. A Study of the Graeco-Arabic Gnomologia.
Avicenna and the Aristotelian tradition. Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works.
Orientations of Avicenna's Philosophy: Essays on his Life, Method, Heritage,
Books edited
Theophrastus of Eresus. Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought and Influence. 2 volumes edited by WW Fortenbaugh, PM Huby, RW Sharples, and D. Gutas
Theophrastus, On First Principles. Greek text and Medieval Arabic translation, edited and translated, with Excursus on Graeco-Arabic Editorial Technique. Leiden 2010
: A Greek and Arabic Lexicon : Materials for a Dictionary of Medieval Translations from Greek into Arabic. Brill 1992 -
Aristotle Poetics / editio maior of the Greek text with historical introductions and philological commentaries by Leonardo Tarán and Dimitri Gutas. Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum; v. 338. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2012.
Articles
The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Twentieth Century. An Essay on the Historiography of Arabic Philosophy. In: British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 29 5-25
The Heritage of Avicenna: The Golden Age of Arabic Philosophy, 1000 - 1350. In: J. Janssen, D. De Smet : Avicenna and His Heritage, 81-97.
