Hunain ibn ishaq biography

HUNAYN IBN ISHAQ AL-‘IBADI

(200) Abu Zayd Hunayn Ibn Ishaq al-‘Ibadi, the celebrated physician, was the most eminent man of his time in the art of medicine.

He possessed a perfect acquaintance with the language of the Yunanis (Greeks), and it was by him that the work of Euclid was translated into Arabic.

Hunain ibn ishaq biography

Thabit Ibn Qurrah, (See no. 125) who came after him, cleared up the difficulties of this work and put it into better order This was also the case with the Almagest [Ptolemy’s well-known work on astronomy.] and the greater part of those books, composed in Greek by physicians and philosophers, which have been rendered into Arabic.

Hunayn was the most laborious of all those who were engaged in thus business of translating; some works (it is true) were executed by others. Were it not for this, persons unacquainted with Greek could have derived no benefit from such works, and it is certain that those which remain untranslated are useless except to him who unde