"
It was chiefly through the Nestorians that the Arabs became acquainted
with Greek medicine, and there were two famous families of translators,
the Bakhtishuas and the Mesues, both Syrians, and probably not
very thoroughly versed in either Greek or Arabic. But the prince of
translators, one of the finest figures of the century, was Honein, a
Christian Arab, born in 809, whose name was Latinized as Joannitius.
"The marvellous extent of his works, their excellence, their importance,
the trials he bore nobly at the beginning of his career, everything
about him arouses our interest and sympathy. If he did not actually
create the Oriental renaissance movement, certainly no one played in
it a more active, decided and fruitful part."(10) His industry was
colossal. He translated most of the works of Hippocrates and Galen,
Aristotle and many others. His famous "Introduction" or "Isagoge,"
a very popular book in the Middle Ages, is a translation of the
"Microtegni" of Galen, a small hand-book, of which a translation is
appended to Cholmeley's "John of Gaddesden."(11) The first printed
edition of it appeared in 1475 (see Chapter IV) at Padua.
(10) Leclerc: Histoire de la medecine arabe, Tome I, p.
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