David W Tschanz’s scientific contributions

Abu Zayd Hunayn bin Ishaq al Ibadi ranks as the finest medical and scientific mind of the early Abassid era. Born in 809 to an apothecary in Al Hirah, Hunayn went to Baghdad to study medicine as a young man. There he enrolled in the earliest known private medical school in Islam under the direction of Yuhanna bin Masawayh. Desiring greater access to the Classical World's knowledge of the healing arts, Hunayn intensified his study of Greek. After mastering the available Greek medical texts, Hunayn undertook a program of private translation of these works into Arabic. At the same time, the Abassid caliphs, in particular Al-Ma'mun, initiated a policy of rendering Greek clas-sics on science, engineering and medicine into Arabic in order to make them available to a wider audience. When word of Hunayn's personal efforts reached Al-Ma'mun in 830, the physician was placed in charge of the Bayt al Hikmah, the Abassid supported institu-tion for translation and the promotion and dissemina-tion of classical writings. Hunayn quickly established himself as a careful, reliable and scholarly translator. Traveling widely, Hunayn gathered a collection of the best preserved Greek manuscripts. Prior to undertaking translations, he would compare these manuscripts to one another to obtain the best reconstruction of the original text.