Hunayn ibn Ishaq

Hunayn ibn Ishaq (أبو زيد حنين بن إسحاق العبادي, ’Abū Zayd Ḥunayn ibn ’Isḥāq al-‘Ibādī; known in Latin as Johannitius (809-873) was a famous and influential Nestorian/Assyrian scholar, physician, and scientist, known for his work in translating scientific and medical works in Greek into Arabic. Although Arabic historical sources refer to him as an Arab , as well as some modern sources    , other modern sources refer to him as Assyrian.

Biography
Hunein was born in Al-Hira, near Kufa, 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. Hunein 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.