Hunayn ibn Ishaq

حنين بن إسحاق

Al-Wathiq's physician — his lecture on the thirty-two teeth earned a book commission, and his answers on air-altering factors became Kitab al-Masa'il al-Tabi'iyya 1.

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Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a physician and boon companion of the caliph al-Wathiq, as al-Mas'udi mentions. 2

In al-Wathiq's assembly

At an assembly in which physicians gathered, al-Wathiq asked him about the instruments of nourishment, and he detailed the thirty-two teeth, their kinds and their roots. Then al-Wathiq asked him for a book, and he composed it in three treatises. He asked him about the things that alter the air, and he listed the seasons of the year, the risings of the stars, the winds, the lands and the seas. In his questions he composed the book "Natural Questions". 2

Care from the Banu al-Munajjim

Ibn al-Nadim reports that the Banu Shakir al-Munajjim used to give him, together with Hubaysh ibn al-Hasan and Thabit ibn Qurra, about five hundred dinars a month for transcription and attendance. They sent him to the land of the Byzantines, and he brought them rare books. 3

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Participated in
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's translation circle

People and things also explored

Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom· Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's translation circle

Sources

  1. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p. 468-471
  2. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p.468-471
  3. al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim , p.340
  • Kashf al-Zunun an Asami al-Kutub wa'l-Funun — Hajji Khalifa (Furqan ed.)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Hunayn ibn Ishaq”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/hunayn-ibn-ishaq/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

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Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom

The House of Wisdom at Baghdad, the greatest library whose report survives from the first Abbasid age: al-Rashid laid its nucleus and al-Ma'mun enlarged and strengthened it. Al-Rashid put Yuhanna ibn Masawayh over the translation of the ancient medical books found in Byzantine lands with skilled scribes writing before him; Abu Sahl al-Fadl ibn Nawbakht rendered Persian wisdom-books into Arabic in its khizana, and Allan al-Shu'ubi copied for al-Rashid, al-Ma'mun and the Barmakids. Al-Ma'mun widened it, sending to the Byzantine emperor for the ancient sciences an embassy of al-Hajjaj ibn Matar, Ibn al-Bitriq and Salm the master of the House, and making Sahl ibn Harun keeper of its treasuries — though its precise organisation and site remain wrapped in obscurity.