Origins & Early Life

Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi (808–873; also Hunain or Hunein; Arabic: أبو زيد حنين بن إسحاق العبادي; ʾAbū Zayd Ḥunayn ibn ʾIsḥāq al-ʿIbādī; known in Latin as Johannitius) was an influential Iraqi Arab Nestorian Christian translator, scholar, physician, and scientist. During the apex of the Islamic Abbasid era, he worked with a group of translators, among whom were Abū 'Uthmān al-Dimashqi, Ibn Mūsā al-Nawbakhti, and Thābit ibn Qurra, to translate books of philosophy and classical Greek and Persian texts into Arabic and Syriac. Ḥunayn ibn Isḥaq was his era's most productive translator of Greek medical and scientific treatises. He studied Greek and became known as the "Sheikh of the Translators".

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He mastered four languages: Arabic, Syriac, Greek and Persian. Later translators widely followed Hunayn's method. He was originally from al-Hirah, previously the capital of the Lakhmid kingdom, but worked in Baghdad, the center of the Translation movement. His fame went far beyond the local community. In the Abbasid era, a new interest in extending the study of Greek science had arisen.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

At that time, there was a vast amount of untranslated ancient Greek literature pertaining to philosophy...

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