Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/245

 *sance, was born in 809 A. D. at Hira, where his father Isaac, a Christian Arab, conducted a pharmacy. The inhabitants of this town were known to be somewhat lacking in cultivation, and it was therefore not surprising that, when Honein went to Bagdad and presented himself to John, the son of Mesué, as one who wished to become his pupil, his request was promptly declined on the general ground that the people of Hira had not received sufficient education to warrant any one of their number in undertaking the study of medicine. This decision was of course a great disappointment to Honein, but it disturbed him only for a short time. Soon afterward he went to Greece where he worked hard to perfect himself in the knowledge of the Greek language. Then, after a residence of two years in that country, he returned to Bagdad, taking with him a considerable supply of Greek books. His next step was directed toward gaining a better knowledge of Arabic, and with this object in view he spent some time in Bassora, a town which was situated not far to the south of Bagdad, and which possessed good educational facilities. While residing there he devoted a certain portion of his time to the translation of Galen's treatise on anatomy; and he was accordingly prepared, upon his return to Bagdad, to submit to John, the son of Mesué, and to Gabriel, the son of Bakhtichou (who by that time was well advanced in years), a specimen of the work upon which he had been engaged. Both of these men were greatly pleased with the excellence of the translation, and encouraged Honein to go on with the work. El Mâmoun (the second son of Haroun Alraschid), who was the then reigning Caliph, engaged his services both as a translator of Greek writings (into Syriac as well as Arabic) and as a reviser of the translations which had been made by others, and he paid him most generously for these services. According to Le Clerc, the amount of literary work done by Honein was simply prodigious. He translated large portions of the treatises of Galen, Oribasius and Paulus Aegineta, as well as several of the works of Aristotle and of Plato, of the mathematicians and astronomers, and also of the philosophers; and