侯奈因·伊本·伊斯哈格Hunayn ibn Ishaq

侯奈因·伊本·伊斯哈格作为翻译家最为著名。他不是数学家，而是接受过医学训练，并对此学科做出了原创性贡献。然而，作为智慧宫在数学复兴最非凡时期之一的领军翻译家，他对当时数学家的影响足够重要，值得被纳入本档案。他的儿子伊斯哈格 ibn 伊斯哈格深受父亲影响，以将欧几里得的《几何原本》翻译成阿拉伯语而闻名。

伊斯哈格的父亲是伊斯哈格，一位来自希拉的药剂师。这个家族来自一个在伊斯兰教兴起之前属于叙利亚聂斯脱利派基督教会的群体，伊斯哈格从小被作为基督徒抚养。伊斯哈格年轻时便精通多种语言，尤其在巴士拉学习了阿拉伯语，还学习了叙利亚语。

为了继续他的教育，伊斯哈格前往巴格达，在当时最杰出的老师门下学习医学。然而，在与这位老师发生争执后，伊斯哈格离开了巴格达，可能在亚历山大港逗留期间，他成为了一名希腊语专家。伊斯哈格回到巴格达，并与曾发生争执的老师建立了联系。两人成为了坚定的朋友，并在医学课题上密切合作多年。

让我们回到伊斯哈格出生之前的一段时间，描述那些将导致一个非凡学术时期的事件。哈伦·拉希德于786年9月14日成为阿拔斯王朝的第五任哈里发。他将文化带入宫廷，并试图建立当时在阿拉伯世界尚未繁荣的智力学科。正是在拉希德统治期间，欧几里得的Elements的第一个阿拉伯语译本由al-Hajjaj完成。开始采取初步措施，使希腊知识得以在伊斯兰帝国传播，伊斯哈格在这一过程中发挥了重要作用。

拉希德有两个儿子，长子是al-Amin，幼子是al-Ma'mun。哈伦·拉希德于809年去世，即伊斯哈格出生后的第二年，他的两个儿子之间发生了武装冲突。Al-Ma'mun赢得了武装斗争，成为哈里发，并从巴格达统治帝国。他延续了父亲开创的对学术的赞助，并创立了一所名为智慧之家的学院，在那里翻译希腊哲学和科学著作。不应认为翻译这些希腊文本的阿拉伯人只是坐下来拿着一堆希腊手稿进行翻译。大部分困难发生在寻找要翻译的手稿上。为了找到亚里士多德等人著作的手稿，al-Ma'mun派遣了一队他最博学的学者前往费隆。据认为，伊斯哈格由于比巴格达的任何其他学者都更精通希腊语，也参加了这次远征。

作为伊斯哈格为寻找一份特定手稿所付出努力程度的一个例子，我们引用他对寻找一份医学手稿的描述（例如见1）：-

我认真寻找[这份手稿]，并为了寻找它而旅行于美索不达米亚、叙利亚、巴勒斯坦和埃及各地，直到我到达亚历山大，但除了在大马士革找到大约一半之外，我未能找到任何东西。

马蒙为智慧宫招募了最有才华的人，如花拉子米、肯迪以及上文提到的首位将欧几里得的Elements译为阿拉伯语的哈贾吉。他们在那里与伊斯哈格共事，后来又与塔比·伊本·库拉共事。伊斯哈格成为Muhammad Banu Musa的密友，尽管由于竞争，一些学者之间的关系并不好。

833年，马蒙去世，其弟穆塔西姆继位。智慧宫在历代哈里发的统治下继续繁荣。穆塔西姆于842年去世，瓦西格[1]继位：-

伊斯哈格很快成名，并参加学术会议，会上医生和哲学家在哈里发瓦西格面前讨论难题。

847年，穆塔瓦基勒继瓦西格成为哈里发，他任命伊斯哈格为宫廷首席医生，他担任此职直至去世。在这两位哈里发统治下，智慧宫内的学者之间出现了内部争论和竞争，伊斯哈格肯定卷入了这场竞争。竞争确实可能变得严重，有一次伊斯哈格的图书馆被没收，他本人被监禁。

伊斯哈格因其将许多希腊文本出色地翻译成阿拉伯语而重要。特别是他翻译了柏拉图和亚里士多德。这些译本在美索不达米亚、叙利亚和埃及广泛传播。

Hunayn ibn Ishaq is most famous as a translator. He was not a mathematician but trained in medicine and made his original contributions to the subject. However, as the leading translator in the House of Wisdom at one of the most remarkable periods of mathematical revival, his influence on the mathematicians of the time is of sufficient importance to merit his inclusion in this archive. His son Ishaq ibn Hunayn, strongly influenced by his father, is famed for his Arabic translation of Euclid's Elements.

Hunayn's father was Ishaq, a pharmacist from Hira. The family were from a group who had belonged to the Syrian Nestorian Christian Church before the rise of Islam, and Hunayn was brought up as a Christian. Hunayn became skilled in languages as a young man, in particular learning Arabic at Basra and also learning Syriac.

To continue his education Hunayn went to Baghdad to study medicine under the leading teacher of the time. However, after falling out with this teacher, Hunayn left Baghdad and, probably during a period in Alexandria, became an expert in the Greek language. Hunayn returned to Baghdad and established contact with the teacher with whom he had fallen out. The two became firm friends and were close collaborators on medical topics for many years.

Let us go back to a time before Hunayn was born and describe the events which would lead to a remarkeble period of scholarship. Harun al-Rashid became the fifth Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty on 14 September 786. He brought culture to his court and tried to establish the intellectual disciplines which at that time were not flourishing in the Arabic world. It was during al-Rashid's reign that the first Arabic translation of Euclid's Elements was made by al-Hajjaj. The first steps began to be taken which would allow Greek knowledge to spread through the Islamic empire, a process in which Hunayn was to play a major role.

Al-Rashid had two sons, the eldest was al-Amin while the younger was al-Ma'mun. Harun al-Rashid died in 809, the year after Hunayn's birth, and there was an armed conflict between his two sons. Al-Ma'mun won the armed struggle, became Caliph and ruled the empire from Baghdad. He continued the patronage of learning started by his father and founded an academy called the House of Wisdom where Greek philosophical and scientific works were translated. It should not be thought that the Arabs who were translating these Greek texts simply sat down with a pile of Greek manuscripts and translated them. Most of the difficulty occurred in searching for the manuscripts which were to be translated. In order to find manuscripts of the works of Aristotle and others, al-Ma'mun sent a team of his most learned men to Byzantium. It is thought that Hunayn, being more skilled in the Greek language than any of the other scholars in Baghdad, was on this expedition.

As an example of the lengths that Hunayn went in order to find a particular manuscript we quote his description of a search for a medical manuscript (see for example [1]):-

I sought for [the manuscript] earnestly and travelled in search of it in the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, until I reached Alexandria, but I was not able to find anything, except about half of it at Damascus.

Al-Ma'mun recruited the most talented men for the House of Wisdom such as al-Khwarizmi, al-Kindi and al-Hajjaj the first translator of Euclid's Elements into Arabic refered to above. There they worked with Hunayn and later also with Thabit ibn Qurra. Hunayn became a close friend of Muhammad Banu Musa although relations between some of the scholars was not good due to rivalry.

In 833 al-Ma'mun died and was succeeded by his brother al-Mu'tasim. The house of Wisdom continued to flourish under successive caliphs. Al-Mu'tasim died in 842 and was succeeded by al-Wathiq [1]:-

Hunayn soon became famous and participated in the scholarly meetings at which physicians and philosophers discussed dificult problems in the presence of Caliph al-Wathiq.

Caliph al-Wathiq was succeeded as Caliph in 847 by al-Mutawakkil who appointed Hunayn to the post of chief physician at his court, a position he held for the rest of his life. Under both these Caliphs internal arguments and rivalry arose between the scholars in the House of Wisdom and Hunayn was most certainly involved in this rivalry. The rivalry could certainly become serious and at one point Hunayn had his library confiscated and he was imprisoned.

Hunayn is important for the many excellent translations of Greek texts which he made into Arabic. In particular he translated Plato and Aristotle. These translations were spread widely through Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt.