Abu Zayd Hunayn bin Ishaq al Ibadi, was the most famous medical scholar in the capital city of Baghdad. Hunayn enjoyed an excellent reputation with the people who came to him for treatment and in the Caliph's court. The Caliph approached Hunayn and offered to reward him generously if he would prepare for him a poison, which the Caliph would use to eliminate an enemy. Hunayn replied, "In my profession, I have o­nly learnt the action of drugs that is used to heal the human body. If the Caliph wishes me to prepare poison, he should kindly allow him time to go and learn about them."

The Caliph insisted that he wanted the poison right away, and started to compel him to prepare the potion immediately.  o­n seeing the Caliph's persistence, Hunayn became equally determined that he would not yield to his demands which would violate his professional code of ethics. He explained to the Caliph that a physician is sworn never to administer a medicine that would cause injury or death to those patients seeking treatment from him. It was his job to help people and not hurt them.

Al-Mutawakkil pretended to be outraged at his defiance. He ordered Hunayn to be thrown into the prison and threatened him with execution if he would not act in accordance with his demands. Hunayn declared, "I am willing to die, but in the end Allah will vindicate my position and innocence." Finally, al-Mutawakkil released him with the explanation that he had been testing his integrity and honesty. He promoted him and gave him generous rewards.

The renowned French medical historian Lucian Leclerc, who had studied the works of Hunayn called him the greatest scholar in the ninth century medicine. His exemplary life had helped establish an ethical code of conduct for the members of the medical profession.

Hunayn was born in the year 809 C.E to Ishaq, who was also a medical practitioner in Iraq. Recognizing the potential in his son, he sent him to the Abbasid capital for advanced education in the art of healing the sick and the injured. In Baghdad, Hunayn enrolled himself in the earliest known private medical school in the Muslim world under the tutorship of an eminent physician of those times, Yuhanna bin Masawayhl. Very soon, a misunderstanding developed between the pupil and his teacher and they parted ways.

Nevertheless, his enthusiasm and desire to gain knowledge of the healing art led him to the study the Greek books o­n medicine. After having mastered them, he decided to translate them into Arabic under the patronage of the court physician Jibra'il ibn Bakhtishu, and the sons of Ibn Musa bin Shakir. His talents were soon recognized and in the year 830 C.E, he was appointed by the Caliph Abdallah al-Ma'mun to head the Bayt al-Hikmah, a state-supported institution for the translation of classical writings and the promotion of useful knowledge. Hunayn continued his intellectual pursuits under different caliphs and philanthropists until the reign of Caliph al- Mutawakkil.

As a translator, Hunayn traveled to different countries in search of different manuscripts of the same work, and compared o­ne copy with the other to reconstruct the original text. o­nce that was done, he would proceed to translate it without being overly literal in his translations, and yet the works translated by him would be scholarly and precise. In the five decades of his active life, Hunayn and his translators rendered into Arabic all the books available in Greek o­n life sciences. Among the famous works that were translated by him was Hippocratic corpus, the writings of Aristotle, Dioscorides, and Galen, as well as the commentaries and revisions written by other Greek scholars o­n the subject.

Hunayn made significant additions and improved upon the existing Greek books of medicine. He modified medical theories and teaching procedures. Like his contemporary, al-Kindi, he coined numerous medical words that would become the part of the vocabulary of those who practiced the medical profession. He helped devise practical concepts and procedures for study of the life sciences. His book al-Masa'il fi al-Tibb (Introduction to the Healing Art) was the most dependable manual used by the examiners for issuing licenses for physicians practicing medicine. Subsequently, the book was commented upon, summarized, and interpreted by authors from the tenth to the fourteenth century. His book was widely studied in the west after it was translated to Latin.

Bibliographers credited Hunayn with twenty-nine titles and placed him foremost among the founders of Arabic life sciences. His ten treatises o­n anatomy, physiology, and ophthalmology influenced those who studied his works in the Muslim and Christian world for many centuries after him.

Hunayn continued to enjoy the patronage of Caliph al-Mutawakkil, until his death in Baghdad in the year 873 C.E.

Last update : 22-12-2002 19:14

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