808-873

Arab Scholar and Physician

Hunayn ibn Ishaq, known in the West as Johannitius, is important primarily for his work as a translator: it was through his efforts that numerous writings from ancient Greece, which he translated into Arabic, were preserved. In this he played a role similar to that of his Western counterpart Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187), who three centuries later translated many of Hunayn's works back into a European language, Latin. Unlike Gerard, however, Hunayn wrote original works; furthermore, because he came earlier, his importance as a preserver of ancient knowledge is perhaps even more significant.

Though he was an Arab, the fact that Hunayn's family subscribed to Nestorianism, an Eastern variety of Christianity, perhaps gave him a closer psychological connection to Europe than he might have had otherwise. He studied at Baghdad, cultural center of the Arabic world, and...