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Revision as of 02:25, 3 February 2007 by Lanov (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Arabic: حنين بن إسحاق), or more formally Abu Zayd Hunayn Ibn Ishaq al Ibadi (809-873) was a famous and influential Nestorian scholar, physician, and scientist, known for his work in translating scientific and medical works in Greek into Arabic. Although Arabic historical sources like The Canon of Medicine for the Persian physician Ibn Sina, wafyat alayan for the Muslim historian Ibn Khallikan and Oyun al-Anba for the medieval Arabic historian Ibn Abi Osaybe'a refer to him as an Arab, as well as some modern sources, other modern sources refer to him as Assyrian.
Hunein was born in Hira, near Baghdad, the son of a Nestorian pharmacist. As a young man, Hunayn went to Baghdad where he enrolled in a medical school under the direction of Masawaiyh. Ishaq learned Greek and began privately to translate Greek medical texts into Arabic. In 830, he was put in charge of the Bayt al Hikmah (House of Wisdom), a college of scholars supported by the Abbasids for the purpose of translating Greek texts. He translated many treatises of Galen and the Galenic school into Syriac, and thirty-nine into Arabic; through his renderings some important works of Galen escaped destruction. Hunayn also translated Aristotle's Categories, Physics, and Magna Moralia; Plato’s Republic, Timaeus, and Laws; Hippocrates’ Aphorisms, Dioscorides’ Materia Medica, Ptolemy's quadri-partition, and the Old Testament from the Septuagint Greek.
In addition to his work of translation, he wrote treatises on general medicine and various specific topics, including a series of works on the eye which remained influential until the fifteenth century.
Later medieval sources knew him by the Latinized name, Joannitius. His son Ishaq ibn Hunayn helped him with his translations.
Hunayn and the Caliph
Hunayn is also famous for his ethics as a physician. Supposedly Caliph Al-Mutawakkil decided to test Hunayn by offering him a large sum to create a poison to use against an enemy; when Hunayn put him off, he offered him more money. Hunayn then lectured him that it was against his professional ethics to harm rather than heal. Al-Mutawakil had Hunayn imprisoned, and threatened to execute him for his defiance. When Hunayn still refused, Al-Mutawakil had him released from prison and richly rewarded for his ethical behavior and integrity.
References
- Ibn Sina. The Canon of Medicine. p. 1297. " حنين بن إسحاق هو أبو زيد حنين بن إسحاق العبادي والعباد بالفتح قبائل شتى من بطون العرب اجتمعوا على النصرانية بالحيرة" which can be translated as "Hunayn ibn Ishaq, His name is Abu Zayd Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi, from one of the Arab tribes that lived in Hira and embraced Christianity".
- Ibn Khallikan. Wafyat al-Ayan. . p. 64. Al-Waraq's edition.
- Ibn Abi Osaybe'a. Oyun al-Anba Fee Tabaqat al-Atteba. p. 168. Al-Waraq's edition.
- Lynn Thorndike. History of Magic and Experimental Science Vol. 4 Page 756. Kessinger Publishing. 1923. "...Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a Christian Arab who died in 873..."
- http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10288875&wwwflag=2&imagepos=12
- A brief introduction to Hunayn bin Ishaq
- O'Leary, De Lacy (1948) How Greek science passed to the Arabs Routledge and K. Paul, London;
External links
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