Untitled

'
4
148 )
V
NOTES ON THE FOURTH DISCOURSE
3.
Tkdbif. ibn Qurra of Harran.
T^tiabit ibn Qurra was the chief of another #roup of non-Muslin)
^cholars to whom Arabic science is deeplj indebted. These were the
so-called Sabeans ($dbty of Harran, a town so devoted to Greek (
culture that it was known a3 Hellenopolis. ,Ttae following were the most
notable members of the family :
Qurra
I
Thdbit I (d. Feb. 19, 901 A.D.)
c Ibrahim I Smart
(d.A.H. 331; A.D. 942-3)
Thdbit I r
i
(d.A.H. 363; A.D. 973-4)
(
'
Ibrdhin- II
Ishdq
Thabit ibn Qurra, to whom Qifti devotes a long notice (pp. v 15-122),
was a most prolific writer on logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,
medicine, etc. He* was born at Harran in A.H. 221 (A.D. 836) but spent
most of his life at Baghdad, where he enjoyed the favour of trie Caliph
al-Mu'tadid (A.D. 892-902). Qifti gives a very full and authoritative
list of his writings compiled by Abu 'Ali al-Muhassin 2 ibn Ibrahim ibn
Hilal as-Sabi, including some in Syriac on the Sabean religion and on
music which were never translated into Arabic. The almost miraculous
cure of the butcher related in Anecdote XXXIX of this book is by
Qifti (pp. 120-1) and Ibn Abi Usaybi'a (i, 216) ascribed to Thabit ibn
Qurra. The Dhakhira (^'Thesaurus") mentioned in the text was, according
to Qifti (p. 120), declared by Thabit's homonymous grandson to be
unauthentic, though a good book enjoying a wide circulation.
4. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyd ar-Rdzi.
1 This famous Persian physician, known to mediaeval Europe as
Bubikir, Abu-beter, Errasis, Rasis and Rhazes, was probably the greatest
3
of the so-called Arabian Medicine who ever lived and as a
,
practitioner
clinical observer far surpassed his later and more celebrated countryman
Avicenna, whose reputation rests more on his philosophical
than orf his
medical attainments, while the contrary holds good of ar-Razi. Indeed
Qifti says (p. 271) that though he devoted a good deal of attention to
Metaphysics he did not understand its ultimate aim, so that' his judgement
was disturbed, and he adopted untenable opinions and objectionable
doctrines. In Medicine, on the other hand, he wa_s inpomparable, and.
1 The true Sabeans of Chaldaea are the of the
Mughtasfla
Arabs, the so-called
writers. The heathens of
"Christians of St John the Baptist" of some European
Harran only adopted this name in the time of al-Ma'mun for a curious /eason fully
explained by Chwolson in his great work Ssabier und Ssabismus (vol. i, ch. vi,,
pp. 139-157).
2 This name, being unpointed, might equally .be read "Muhsin," buU Mirza
Muhammad, in the course of a long note, has pointed out to me that, though common
in later times, Muhsin was in early days a very rare name compared with Muhassin ;
*
statement which he amply substantiates.
3
Compare the enthusiastic but judicious estimate of his talents given by Neuburger
1 68 et seqq.).
,